Battle of the Bay of Biscay (1592)

Battle of the Bay of Biscay (1592)
Part of the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604)

Photography of the Bay of Biscay by Tom Bayly.
DateNovember 1592
LocationBay of Biscay, Atlantic Ocean
Result Spanish victory[1][2]
Belligerents
 England  Spain
Commanders and leaders
Unknown Pedro de Zubiaur
Strength
6 warships[2]
40 merchant ships[3]		 5 flyboats[2]
Casualties and losses
Flagship boarded and burned[2][3]
Several ships damaged
3 ships captured[3][4]		 1 flyboat damaged[4]

The Battle of the Bay of Biscay of 1592 was a naval engagement that took place in waters of the Bay of Biscay, in November 1592, between a Spanish naval force of 5 flyboats commanded by Captain Don Pedro de Zubiaur and an English convoy of 40 ships, supported by a 6-warships squadron, during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) and the French Wars of Religion.[1][2] The Spanish force led by Captain Zubiaur, despite being outnumbered, engaged the English ships, achieving a resounding success.[3] The English flagship was boarded and burned, causing great confusion among the English convoy.[3][4] Shortly after, another English force composed by six warships (sent by Queen Elizabeth I of England to Bordeaux to support the French Protestants), arrived at the battle, and tried to defend the convoy.[2] After a long an intense fighting, the Spaniards were victorious in battle, and three English ships more were captured, besides several ships seriously damaged.[2][3][4]

The next year, on 18 April, in the same waters, another English naval force, commanded by Peter Houghton, was defeated by Zubiaur's naval forces off the coasts of Blaye, town besieged by land and sea by Protestant forces in the context of the French Wars of Religion.[5][6]

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