A well-known painting owned by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London,Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada, has long presumed to have been made in around 1588. By examining both internal and contextual evidence, however, this paper establishes that the work instead dates from during the reign of James I. It unpicks the multiple layers of events that are depicted simultaneously within the image, and suggests some of the diverse influences operating on the unidentified artist(s) and unknown patron. Finally, it examines the new purposes for which the work was to be appropriated in the mid-nineteenth century at the time of its presentation to the Apothecaries.