The siege of Coruña, also known as the defence of Corunna, was a series of military encounters between the English Armada and the defenders of the fishermen's city of Coruña in Galicia that lasted for two weeks in May 1589. The siege was the first interaction between the English Armada, a revenge English expedition within the Anglo-Spanish war, and the Spanish troops, and set the tone for the rest of the campaign. The siege ended in failure, and the English moved on to besiege Lisbon.
Background
The English Armada was considerably larger than the 137-ship-strong Spanish Armada. Drake commanded some 180 ships which was made up of six Royal galleons, 60 English armed merchantmen, 60 Dutch flyboats and about 20 pinnaces. It transported 23,375 soldiers. In addition to the troops, there were 4,000 sailors and 1,500 officers and gentlemen adventurers. Drake assigned his vessels to five squadrons, led respectively by himself in the Revenge, Sir John Norris in the Nonpareil, Norris's brother Edward in the Foresight, Thomas Fenner in the Dreadnought, and Roger Williams in the Swiftsure. Also sailing with them – against the Queen's express orders – was the Earl of Essex and the pretender to the Portuguese throne supported by England.
Drake and Norris had orders from Queen Elizabeth to first attack Santander, where most of the surviving galleons from the Spanish Armada were being kept, and destroy the Spanish fleet. He also had to placate the fleet's commanders and investors who wanted the first objective to be landing in Lisbon. Drake chose to ignore them, alleging unfavourable winds and too much risk of becoming embayed by the Spaniards in the Bay of Biscay. He headed in a different direction and attacked Coruña instead. His behavior suggests that his goal in taking this simple fishing town was either to establish a base of operations or to raid it for booty. The latter seems most plausible since this expedition was privately funded and Drake had investors to satisfy. He might have been gathering supplies for a long struggle in Santander.
When the expedition arrived, Coruña was a small fishing village with a healthy economy due to the frequency with which ships stopped in its harbor, but only about 4,000 permanent inhabitants. At that time the army was concentrated in Santander, where an attack was expected, and the rest of the region was almost defenceless. To face the English Armada the city counted two galleons; the Regazona 1,294 tons, (San Juan, with 50 cannons ), the small galleon San Bernardo with 21 cannons, which couldn't sail at the time, two galleys (Diana and Princesa with 20 cannons each), and two other smaller ships (San Bartolomé with 27 cannons and the urca Sansón with 18). Regarding infantry, a combination of militia, hidalgos and the few available soldiers summed up to 1200 men, much of them with questionable levels of military training, except for the seven companies of old tercios who happened to be resting in the city after their return from war. Of course, it also had the medieval city walls, built in the 13th century, and a couple of medieval fortifications built around the river at the same period. The Spanish soldiers were led by Juan Pacheco de Toledo, Marques de Cerralbo, the governor of Coruña, and garrison commander Álvaro Troncoso.
Landing
The English Armada arrived on 4 May. Initially, 8,000 soldiers disembarked in the beach of Santa María de Oza lead by Norris. Álvaro de Troncoso y Ulloa came out to meet him with the 150 tercio's arquebusiers he had available, to defend the beach. They spread out to give the impression of a much larger number and opened heavy fire on the 8,000 soldiers. Troncoso was familiar with the local geography, even if the arquebusiers were not, and under his command the Spaniards moved around quickly, effectively disconcerting the attackers and forcing them to retreat back towards the ships. This gave enough time for the lighthouse fire to be lighted as an alert for the entire region. Norris's men took various losses and many were wounded; the less experienced soldiers panicked under the initial disconcert. When the invaders realized how many enemies they were really facing, Norris ordered his men to surround the Spanish, who immediately retreated towards the little Fort of Malvecín, near the "wall of the fish market". Their ability to repel the first English attack was a huge morale boost for the retreating defenders.