"The Armada campaign pitted Europe's mightiest military power against Christendom's most powerful navy in a battle for different ideals of civilisation. Both protagonists expected the clash to be decisive; neither, as it soon became apparent, knew how to fight a battle whose scale and character were beyond the experience of anyone in the two fleets. What ensued was not the heroic encounter of legend, but an inconclusive affair, redeemed - for England - by atrocious weather and poor Spanish understanding of the coastlines of western Scotland and Ireland."--BOOK JACKET.