Brighton's fishing fleet grew very rapidly during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (between 1558 and 1603). By 1580, it consisted of 80 boats, 400 fishermen and 10,000 fishing nets. Brighton's fishing fleet was the largest on the south coast of England.
This was a period when the problems between Catholics and Protestants got worse. When Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, King Philip II of Spain immediately offered to marry her to unite the kingdoms of England and Spain. Elizabeth II refused Philip's offer of marriage. In 1570, the pope excommunicated Queen Elizabeth I from the Catholic Church. In July 1588, Philip II's Spanish navy (the Armada) attempted to invade England. The Spanish boats were defeated both by English naval power and by the bad weather in the English Channel. Out of the 120 Spanish ships that left Lisbon in Portugal, only 60 arrived home so hundreds of Spanish sailors were killed. Spain had been a strong sea power up until this defeat. My Spanish girl friend has never forgiven my country for what it did during this period of history, for the colonial occupation of Gibraltar and most of all for the English weather. She will never agree to live in England. I am willing to live in Spain, but I don't dare offer marriage in case she follows Elizabeth I's precedent.
Meanwhile, her government is allowing the colonization of the Mediterranean coast of Spain by European multi-national property developers as a solution to problems of economics and unemployment.