PC: The Defeat of the Armada as Spain Stalingrad

Basically, I would be interested to know how much you can realistically screw Spain during the reign of Philip II, starting with the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Lets make the Drake-Norris expedition succeed as much as realistic and Henri III of France survive is OTL assasination, therefore not giving the French League and the Spaniards that respite coming from the anti-royalists backlash coming from the accession to the french throne of a protestant and probably making for an early fall of Paris.

How much can you make Spain unlucky-inefficient in the ensuing years while boosting her opponents? Will it be possible to end Spain as the greatest power in Europe right then and now?
 
Not sure Henri surviving would really hurt Spain - at least the position in the Netherlands was seriously harmed by Parma faffing about in France with his army, rather than building on his earlier successes to bring the fight back into Holland.
 
They weren't fighting that kind of one shot campaign, this is a very very long struggle.

I know, I meant it as a more methaphorical turning point that would eventually led to Spain being ran into the ground. Basically, this particular round of the OTL Wars of Religions ended OTL with the Treaty of Vervins and the Peace with England, all of them Pretty much restored the statu quo ante bellum (with the possible exception of the Tudor victory in Ireland).

Basically, how badly defeated can you have Spain be at the end of that particular round.

Not sure Henri surviving would really hurt Spain - at least the position in the Netherlands was seriously harmed by Parma faffing about in France with his army, rather than building on his earlier successes to bring the fight back into Holland.

Consdering the royalists army was at Paris doors and seemed poised to take the city before the defections who happened at the death of Henri I'd assume Parma is gonna be even more distracted this time around considering the Catholic league is in more dire straits then in OTL.
 
Perhaps the Earl of Essex gets killed in a jousting accident so that Elizabeth I didn't have to deal with his ineptitude and her emotional attachment to him?
 

Deleted member 97083

There were 3 Spanish Armadas, the loss of the first one wasn't a huge loss in itself.

Maybe if all 3 of them were outright captured by the English, with most of the ships intact, leading to the English Armada being truly ridiculous and giant force that could invade Spain.
 
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