Drake’s raid galvanized Philip II to launch the Great Armada against England

Evidence

Whether or not Elizabeth had genuinely hoped that she could release Drake without starting a war, for Philip the raid was the last straw. Encouraged by his leading counsellors, Juan de Idiaquez and Cristóbal de Moura, he recognized that even though Parma had captured Antwerp, even though Leicester’s English army had achieved little to halt the Spanish tide in the Netherlands, Spain’s communications with both the Low Countries and the Americas depended upon defeating England. It had to be done, for God and Empire. From the different proposals submitted to him by Santa Cruz and Parma came the king’s great crusade against England. — John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake, 829

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake, 829
• XREF: connects to: Drake raids transformed privateering into an existential conflict between nations — John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake, 1; Queen Elizabeth knighted Drake using the French ambassador to defy Spain. — John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake, 631; Drake’s Caribbean expedition caused a collapse in Philip II’s credit and banking panic — John Sugden, Sir Francis Drake, 826