By August 1588 the English Exchequer was empty. Expenditure had risen from a pre-war average of £168,000 to £367,000 in 1587 and £420,000 in 1588. The war chest was exhausted and the parliamentary taxation inadequate. Subsidies to the Dutch alone were costing £313,000 a year. So it is not surprising that Elizabeth's first thought, when the initial sounds of rejoicing had died away in the autumn of 1588,was that now was the time to intercept the flota, which must be worth at least £2 million. It would take months before the battered remains of the Armada could be fit for service again, and in the meantime the Atlantic Guard would have been seriously weakened. However, although the queen's ships and the others which had served against the Spaniards had not been knocked to pieces, it would be many months before they could be ready for use again. Some of them had been at sea for five or six months, and all were in urgent need of careening and caulking. They also needed fumigating to get rid of the infections which had played such havoc with the crews at the end of the campaign. By the time that all this had been done, and the ships had actually got themselves to the Azores, the flota would long since have been safe in Lisbon or Cadiz. Yet to do nothing would have been to throw away the golden opportunity which had been created. By 1590 Philip would not only have had time to repair and refurbish the Armada survivors, he would also have been able to hire – or even build – replacements. Given the scale of Spanish resources, the window of opportunity was not large.

So on 20 September the Council met to decide what could be done with the resources which they could reasonably expect to be available. Their first thought was to destroy the remains of the Armada, then believed to be either at Lisbon or at Seville; the second was to take Lisbon (which was rather less realistic); and the third was to take the Azores (which was not realistic at all).