WI: Francis Drake's raid on Cadiz not carried out?

in 1587 Sir Francis Drake led a small English squadron in a preemptive strike on the Spanish Fleet at Cadiz. The raid was hugely successful and delayed the Spanish Armada for over a year, as well as destroying most of the supplies that were going to be used and causing the Armada to be under-supplied when it sailed. ITOL Elizabeth ordered Drake not to attack but the ship carrying this belated order could not catch up with Drake's ships. What if it had and Drake had never attacked Cadiz?
 
The Armada was ultimately destroyed by the weather, which determined that it would be in port off England long enough to be attacked in harbor. What was the original plan's date? It wouldn't be terribly hard to determine what the weather would have been like....
 
The OP says 'delayed by a year,' which isn't exactly descriptive, but even so I think its safe to assume the Armada isn't destroyed by a storm.

I feel like this is the POD for one of Turtledove's novels, or something similar.
 
Top