to Drake (together with Christopher Carleill, Nichols, and Fenner). On 20 July 1588, the Spanish Armada set sail from Corunna in Galicia to escort the Army of Flanders, led by the Duke of Parma, to invade England. Sir Francis Walsingham sent a dispatch to Whitehall stating that the Armada had been sighted in the chops (entrance) of the Channel that day. When the two navies first engaged, Frobisher was in command of Triumph, the Royal Navy's largest ship, leading a consort of the ships Merchant Royal, Margaret and John, Centurion, Golden Lion and Mary Rose. Spanish Armada Following a council of war, Lord Howard, the Lord High Admiral of the Fleet, reorganized the English fleet into four squadrons. Frobisher was made commander of one of these and assigned Triumph, as well as Lord Sheffield's White Bear, Lord Thomas Howard's Golden Lion, and Sir Robert Southwell's Elizabeth Jonas, all heavily armed vessels. On the morning of 21 July 1588, Frobisher in Triumph, Drake in Revenge, and Hawkins in Victory attacked the seaward wing of the Spanish defensive formation, damaging San Juan de Portugal, the ship of the Armada's vice-admiral, Juan Martínez de Recalde, and forcing his rescue by galleasses from the Bizcayan squadron. Later that day Frobisher and Hawkins engaged Pedro de Valdez, commander of the Andalusian squadron, who did not yield his ship, Nuestra Señora del Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary) until Drake came to their assistance the next morning, much to his rival Frobisher's consternation. Three days later, the English fleet was reinforced by Lord Seymour's channel patrol of thirty-five or forty sail, and Frobisher assumed command of his newly formed squadron. Frobisher's squadron was close inshore at dawn on 25 July, the only one landwards of the Armada that morning; the sea was dead calm when he engaged the Duke of Medina Sidonia's flagship San Martín and gave her another pummeling like that of a few days past. However, a breeze rose from the southwest, allowing several Spanish galleons to move in and save their flagship. The other English ships withdrew in time, but Triumph was caught on the lee shore off Dunnose cape on the Isle of Wight, and more than thirty Armada ships bore down upon him. Frobisher used his boats to manoeuvre Triumph with good effect and managed to escape when the wind shifted again, allowing him the weather gage. Frobisher was knighted 26