Why did the English fleet defeat the Spanish Armada?

The Spanish armada failed to invade England for several reasons.
1. King Philip II of Spain had unrealistic expectations of his invasion
force. He believed that God was on his side, and he planned to send his fleet
out in winter, and did not concern himself with the weather. He regarded English
sailors as being spineless, because, in an earlier encounter, English ships had
fled from a fight, but those ships had been supply vessels, which were not equipped to fight.
2. Drake's raid on Cadiz. Drake severely blockaded naval traffic up and down the Spanish coast,
which caused the invasion to be postponed from the winter of 1587 to 1588. Drake's raiding
activities had created a shortage of seasoned wood for barrels, which meant that food and water
went bad.
3. The Marquis of Santa Cruz was designated to be one of the key planners of the invasion, but he died
in the winter of 1587-8. The armada was thus left without one of its most skilled leaders.
4. The Duke of Medina Sidonia replaced Santa Cruz, but Medina Sidonia was not at all a skilled
admiral. He was selected largely because of his noble birth.
5. Many of the Spanish ships were obsolete. Spain had relied for too long on oar-powered
galleys, and, by the 1580s, powerful sailing galleons were able to carry guns where rowers
had sat, which gave galleons more firepower. At the time of the invasion, four out of five
of the Spanish ships were obsolete. The Spaniards found alternatives, but much of their naval
power had already been lost.
6. John Hawkins oversaw the rebuilding of the English fleet from 1578 to 1588. His designs meant that
ships were faster, more stable, more manoeuvrable, and carried more firepower.
7. The Spaniards lacked experienced gunners. An English gun crew was supervised by a gunnery
specialist. In the battle, the English fired two or three times faster than the Spaniards.
8. Inferior ammunition. The Spaniards had more ammunition than did the English, but it was of poor quality.
Spanish iron was not as good as that found in England, and - to speed up production - Spanish cannon
balls were cooled in water, which weakened their structure. The Spaniards even used stone ammunition,
but this often disintegrated when fired.
9. Inferior guns were used by the Spaniards. Better technology allowed the English to produce shorter
guns, but with no loss of range or power. Shorter guns could be pulled in and reloaded more quickly.
10. Bad weather. The ships of the armada were twice scattered by storms before they reached their
destination. Some ships were lost, others were damaged, and there were long delays while they regrouped.
11. Howard's use of the wind. Admiral Lord Howard led his ships around, and behind the armada, so that
the wind drove the Spaniards eastwards and then northwards, with no possibility of retreat down the
English Channel.

They were better.

Why? Pre-emptive strike on a hostile enemy trying to secure the Channel to allow an invasion force.

How? Superior cannon with longer range and the weather favoured the English who sent fire ships into the port at Calais.

The Spanish had an army in Holland. They needed a port in England to land that army. The Armada's task was not to mount a full invasion but to seize a port.

The prevailing winds were blowing down the Channel. The Spanish ships were hopeless at sailing upwind. Once they sailed past a potential port it was lost to them, and they had to target the next one. The English knew all this, and their tactics were to keep the Armada moving. To do this they used their smaller, more weatherly and more manoeuvrable ships to harass the Spanish. They also had local knowledge of wind and tidal streams which they used to their advantage. The fireship attack at Calais did not destroy a single ship, but it kept the Armada moving and broke up its formation.

The upshot of all this was that the Armada rolled down the Channel and was unable to land, so the army in Holland could not land and England was not invaded. The Armada could not sail back through the Channel so sailed around the north of Britain and was badly mauled by the weather.

The divine wind

Lousy tactics and even worse logistics.

the English ships were smaller, faster and more maneuverable, they could also tack closer to the wind than the Spanish ships could. The smaller cannons on them easily outranged the Spanish cannons. The English captains were smarter than the Spanish ones, and always kept the weather gauge (that's nautical terminology for staying upwind of your opponent, keeping the wind behind you and your opponent down wind of you) so they could attack at will and fight on their terms and not the Spaniards.

Because the Spanish threatened to invade England.

longer range cannons. And the weather was not good to the Spanish.

Indeed to stop it from escorting Spanish troops in the Netherlands in their invasion of England.

How did it beat the Spanish Armada? (Which is what I think you really want to ask) By a combination of not fighting close to the much bigger Spanish ships, but by having far better long-range gunnery. That combined with luck, as the old expression says in Latin "Flavit Deus, et dispersi sunt" - "God blew and they were scattered", meaning that the wind was favourable for a night-time attack by fire ships on the Spanish fleet as it was anchored off the Netherlands.

The Spanish ships cut their anchor cables and scattered, as pre-arranged for such an emergency, and headed for home around the north of Scotland. Winds and the Gulf Stream drove many Spanish onto British shores where they were wrecked.

It took 8 years for the Spaniards to assemble another fleet, which was then wrecked by the weather on the coast of north west Spain, near Coruna, before it got near to the British Isles.

Why---because the Spanish wished to invade England.

As for how---well, there are many fine, historically accurate explanations above, but I'll add a fanciful
one that's been around since the Armada.

There is a legend that John Dee, Queen Elizabeth's personal astrologer and conjurer raised a storm
against the Armada.

Don’t you mean how.

Home field advantage. They fought near British waters so the sailors knew the area better. There’s a study that says that in baseball, when a team has to play an away game in another time zone, they’re st a major disadvantage. Same with the Spanish Armada. They were tired and exhausted by the time they reached England.

Better strategy. The English used a hit and run tactic. The Spanish had more powerful cannons but they can only fire a few at a time. The English had less powerful cannons but they could fire off more. English also had faster ships so the hit and run worked effectively. They could get close, fire off some shots, retreat before the Spanish could fire. Repeat.

If you get a chance, play Sid Meier’s pirates, the original from the late 80s or early 90s. The English used ships like sloops where they can move faster and are more agile so they can avoid getting hit. But if they get hit, it’s over for the ship.

Better seamanship,and luck.

Try reading a history book - assuming you can actually read.

To stop Spain from invading England.

Why? Because it was there. HOW? - well, read about the ships and the strategies of their captains.

its another case of the UK not really "defeating" the enemy, cos the enemy never actually attacked the UK

It was more that the enemy failed to take advantage of the opportunities to win (they had several) cos of the incompetence of the commanders

they just continued sailing past to pick up its army in holland before attacking

All the british fleet did was harry them to prevent them stopping
(knowing that once they got to holland it would be far more difficult to sail against the prevailing winds to attack the UK)

And even after all the shots fired at the armada as it sailed past the UK, they failed to sink a single ship
In fact they had to go back to ports to get more cannon shot and gunpowder cos they were running out of both,

(couple of interesting things about the british fleet
The sailors were only paid when the got back to port and went ashore
but the crown had no money to pay them
So what did the crown do?
they kept the ships tied up in port and didnt let the sailors go ashore

FAR more sailors died from disease on the ships in port than were killed "fighting" the armada, and the crown didnt have to pay the dead ones

second thing
everybody has heard of the spanish armada in 1588 and the great "victory"
But I bet you aint heard of the british armada (commanded by francis drake) to attack the spanish in 1589?

this was an absolute disaster for the british

(who obviously kept quiet about it in their history books, preferring to push the glorious victory against the spanish armada into the minds of the population
The british government is very good at doing this and has done it many time
IF you have a military disaster- look around for anything that shows "heroism" and pump that in the press as hard as you can to keep the disaster on the back pages. Even better if you can hand out a few medals for that "heroism"

The "patriots" just love this cos they pronounce anybody pointing out the disaster in the face of the "heroism" as not being "patriotic")