Elizabeth I's orders versus her commanders' choices

The extract cautions against accepting commanders' complaints about Elizabethan strategy at face value. For the 1589 expedition, Elizabeth ordered Drake and Sir John Norris to attack surviving Spanish ships at San Sebastian and Santander, but they pursued different targets while the treasure fleet returned safely. Her complaint that they sought profit rather than service shifts some responsibility from the strategist to the executors. The passage also credits her with supporting seafaring capacity, issuing a contraband list, and defending the right to stop enemy-bound goods in neutral ships. Together those measures present economic blockade as part of a wider maritime strategy even though England never forced Spain to concede.