It was the largest battle of the Anglo-Spanish War, the first of several invasion attempts in the course of the war, and one of the most famous episodes in English history.
Gravelines is now in France but in 1588 it was in Flanders, part of the Spanish Netherlands, close to the border with France.
Although the Gravelines engagement itself was largely an indecisive stalemate, it afforded the English defenders some breathing space as Medina Sidonia, unaware of the scarcity of English ammunition, soon directed the Armada northward, away from the Flemish coast, pursued by the bluffing English fleet with its empty shot lockers.
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