Anglo-Dutch Alliance

The Anglo-Dutch Alliance was a military alliance between two Protestant kingdoms, England and the Netherlands. Queen Elizabeth of England agreed to the Alliance in 1585 and sent an army under Robert Dudley to protect her new ally, involving England in the war Spain was waging to suppress Dutch rebels.

As a consequence, Spanish King Philip II dispatched the Spanish Armada to conquer England in 1588. The Armada defeated an English fleet under Admiral Charles Howard. This coincided with a chilling of relations between the allies, and Dutch forces did not prevent the Armada from rendezvousing with the Duke of Parma's army. The Armada escorted Parma across the English Channel. His forces landed in England and easily conquered it.