The Danes landed at Wembury near Plymouth and were defeated by forces from Devon. A sea battle off the coast of Kent led by Athelstan (eldest son of Ethelwulf) defeated a Danish fleet of vessels and Ethelwulf defeated an army of Danes at the battle of Ockley who had arrived in the Thames and were attacking the south of the country. ¹

Philippe used Genoese troops to attack ports on the south coast of England including Southampton, Plymouth, Hastings and Rye. The attacks reached right around the coast as far as Bristol. ¹

King Richard II did not always agree with the council that was running England on his behalf and his uncle John of Gaunt was one his main opponants. The potential conflict between them came to an end when John set sail from Plymouth to take the Castilian throne. But his departure led to a greater conflict between the king and Thomas Woodstock, the Duke of Gloucester. ¹

Catherine of Aragon finally arrived at Plymouth in preparation for her marriage to Prince Arthur after several months of travelling.

In Plymouth harbour John Hawkins prepared his fleet of six ships, two supplied by Queen Elizabeth and four of his own for a voyage to the west coast of Africa. The two ships supplied by the Queen were the Jesus of Lubeck and the Minion. The Jesus had been purchased by King Henry VIII in 1545 from the Hanseatic League in Lubeck (Northern Germany) for the English Royal Navy and was 700 tons. It was at this point an old ship and showing signs of its age.

John Hawkins in command of the Jesus of Lubeck with the Minion and four smaller ships set sail from Plymouth. Their first destination was Tenerife. The fleet was scattered by a storm but managed to meet up as agreed at the island. Francis Drake was the captain of the Judith.

Drake, aboard the Judith, sailed into Plymouth harbour a few days before Hawkins aboard the Minion. When Hawkins left the Caribbean half of his crew, possibly 100 men, voted to be disembarked, rather than face certain starvation on the trip home. The rest of the crew had no provisons and when they limped into Plymouth harbour just over a dozen had survived. Although he had managed to return with enough gold and silver, rescued from the Jesus at the end of the Battle of San Juan de Ulua, to keep his backers happy, Hawkins' ill-fated third voyage had ended in the loss of hundreds of lives and with the loss of one the Queen's ships.

Francis Drake aboard the Pelican left Plymouth harbour with a small fleet of ships and headed west in search of the Spanish. This voyage would become his circumnavigation of the World.

The Golden Hind with Sir Francis Drake in command arrived at Plymouth. Drake asked if the Queen was still alive and learnt that plague had taken hold in the town. He sent a letter to the Queen and waited aboard the ship for a reply. ¹

Queen Elizabeth commissioned Drake and Hawkins to attack Spanish ships that might be planning an attack on England. The large fleet began to assemble in Plymouth but it was hard to keep such a number of ships secret and word was sent to Spain  ¹