at Getaria, in northern Spain. A French naval force commanded by Henri de Sourdis attacked and destroyed a Spanish squadron under Lope de Hoces, who survived but was killed at the Battle of the Downs in 1639. The French fleet was being used to support the siege of Fuenterrabía, a vital Spanish port. By early August, the blockade meant the town was close to starvation. To provide time for a relief force to reach the defenders, de Hoces was ordered to draw their ships away; despite the almost total destruction of his force, the siege was lifted in September 1638. Although ultimately Getaria had little strategic impact, it was the first significant victory for the newly formed French Navy; Cardinal Richelieu viewed it as vindication of the decision taken in 1624 to invest large sums in its expansion. Background Prior to the outbreak of the Franco-Spanish War in 1635, Spain was already engaged in the Eighty Years War with the Dutch Republic, as well as supporting Emperor Ferdinand II in the Thirty Years War. Although it was the predominant European superpower with much greater resources than France, fighting in multiple theatres relied on long and vulnerable lines of communication. The most important was the Spanish Road, an overland route funnelling troops and supplies from Spanish possessions in Italy to their armies in Flanders. This was crucial since Dutch naval superiority made it difficult to send these by sea. However, by 1638 the French and their allies were threatening to sever the Road at key points in Milan, the Grisons and Breisach in Alsace (see Map). In June, Cardinal Richelieu increased the pressure by sending an army under Condé over the Pyrenees to besiege Fuenterrabía, supported by elements of the newly created Flotte du Ponant, or Atlantic squadron, commanded by Henri de Sourdis. At the same time, the Dutch prepared to attack the ports of Dunkirk and Ostend in the Spanish Netherlands, whose loss would close the sea lanes between Spain and the Army of Flanders. This would make it impossible to continue the war. Spanish chief minister, Gaspar de Guzmán, Count-Duke of Olivares, responded by doubling the size of the Dunkirk squadron, with a smaller force under Lope de Hoces based in A Coruña. Despite a Dutch blockade, the Spanish transported 6,000 reinforcements to Flanders and prevented an attack on either Dunkirk or Ostend. However, by early August Fuenterrabía had