What is 1588?
{{Year nav|1588}} {{Year in various calendars|1588}} {{Year article header|1588}} == Events == * [[May 12]] – Day of the Barricades in [[Paris]]. Duke [[Henry of Guise]] seizes the city, forcing King [[Henry III of France|Henry III]] to flee. * [[May 28]] – The [[Spanish Armada]], with 130 ships and 30,000 men, begins to set sail from [[Lisbon]] heading for the [[English Channel]] (it will take until [[May 30]] for all ships to leave port). * [[July]] – King Henry III of France capitulates to the Duke of Guise and returns to Paris. * [[July 31]] – First engagement between the English and Spanish fleets off [[Plymouth, Devon|Plymouth]]. The English have the better of it. * [[August 2]] – The English and Spanish fleets meet again off Dorset. (The English fleet is led by [[Lord Howard of Effingham]] and Sir [[Francis Drake]].) The English again have the better of it. * [[August 6]] – [[Battle of Gravelines]]: The [[Spanish Armada]] is defeated by an [[England|English]] naval force under command of Lord [[Charles Howard, 1st Earl of Nottingham|Charles Howard]] and Sir [[Francis Drake]] off the coast of [[Gravelines]], now in [[France]]. * [[August 7]] – The English and Spanish fleets again engage off the coast of Flanders. The English again are more successful. * [[August 8]] – [[August 9]] – The Spanish are unable to reach the coast of Flanders to meet up with the army of the [[Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza|Duke of Parma]]. Medina Sidonia decides to return to Spain. * [[August 12]] – The Spanish fleet sails past the Firth of Forth, and the English cease their pursuit. Much of the Spanish fleet is destroyed as it sails around Scotland and Ireland. * [[October 1]] - [[Abbas the Great]] of Persia takes power. * [[December 23]] – Henry III of France strikes his ultra-Catholic enemies, having the Duke of Guise and his brother, [[Cardinal Louis of Guise]], killed, and holding the [[Charles, Cardinal de Bourbon|Cardinal de Bourbon]] a prisoner. * [[Ahmad al-Mansur]], [[sultan]] of [[Morocco]], demands tha