By good fortune the armada evaded Nelson and arrived safely off Malta.
In the overthrow of the Spanish Armada they had already received a great defeat; with the Peace of Westphalia the Catholic advance was baffled.
The defeat of the armada was the beginning and not the end cif the war; and there were moments between 1588 and 1603 when England was more seriously alarmed than in 1588.
But Philip's whole thoughts and energies were already directed to the preparation of an Invincible Armada for the conquest of England, and Parma was ordered to collect an enormous flotilla of transports and to keep his army concentrated and trained for the projected invasion of the island realm of Queen Elizabeth.
The failure of the archduke John to arrive in time at Wagram (5th of July), the lack of support accorded by the Spaniards to Wellesley before and after the battle of Talavera (28th of July), and the slowness with which the British government sent forth its great armada against Flushing and Antwerp, a fortnight after Austria sued for an armistice from Napoleon, enabled that superb organizer to emerge victorious from a most precarious situation.
