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.
Date November 1592 Location Bay 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-warship squadron, as part of the Brittany Campaign 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 of 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 long and intense fighting, the Spaniards were victorious in battle, and three more English ships 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 Admiral Wilkenson, was defeated by Zubiaur's naval forces off the coasts of Blaye, a town besieged by land and sea by Protestant forces in the context of the French Wars of Religion.^[5][6]