Effect of Mary's arrival on the English. ing. Elizabeth refused to see her, but ordered the charges against her to be investigated before a conference at York. Mary's presence roused the hopes of the English Catholics. The Duke of Norfolk thought to marry her, but was put in the Tower for his presumption. The same year, 1569, the Catholics of the north of England, under the Earls of Revolt of the Northumberland and Westmoreland, broke into revolt, north. had mass sung in Durham Cathedral, and marched on Tutbury, where Mary had been placed. Mary was hurried at once to Coventry, and the rebellion was a failure. The leaders escaped, but the government savagely wreaked their vengeance on the masses, (and men were hanged at every market cross and village green from Wetherby to Newcastle.) Mary was then kept in confinement. Religious Meanwhile Elizabeth and Parker had persevered in their plan of making all people worship alike. They found resistance from both extremes. Catholics who refused to attend intolerance. church were fined. Priests who celebrated mass were searched for, tortured, put to death, or imprisoned. On the other hand, the dislike to Elizabeth's Church settlement grew among the clergy, and in 1564 many of the London clergy, who included some of the ablest men of the time, refused to obey the Act of Uniformity, and left the Church. They received a great deal of sympathy, and were specially patronized by Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. favourites. Leicester was a great favourite of Elizabeth. Throughout her reign Elizabeth had about her men of two stamps. There were Elizabeth's the statesmen, such as Cecil, Lord Burleigh, with Sir Nicholas Bacon and Sir Francis Walsingham, to whom she listened for their wisdom, and who addressed themselves to her mind. There were also Lord Leicester, Sir Christopher Hatton, and others who flattered her vanity and appealed to her heart. Many thought that Elizabeth would some day marry Leicester, and she sometimes allowed him and men like him to have too much influence. Meanwhile the Catholics were beginning to be convinced that they had nothing to hope from Elizabeth, and in 1570 Pope Pius V. issued Elizabeth ex- a buli excommunicating her, and releasing all her communicated. subjects from their allegiance. This made it needful for Elizabeth to look about for allies, and in 1571 she seriously thought of marrying Henry of Anjou, brother of the French king; but the negotiations came to nothing. A year later the Catholic party in France massacred their chief opponents on Massacre of St. St. Bartholomew's Day, and it seemed likely that a Bartholomew. Catholic league might be formed against her; but fortunately Philip was occupied by the revolt of the Netherlands, so this danger passed away. Plots to place The Papal Bull encouraged the supporters of Queen Mary, and plots were made on her behalf which were a constant source of terror to Elizabeth. Happily the government spies gave excellent information of what went on; but Parliament was very anxious, and would gladly have attainted Mary had Elizabeth been willing to allow it. One of these plots was managed by an Italian named Ridolfi; the Duke of Norfolk had a share in it, and was executed in consequence in 1572. throne. The great fear was lest France or Spain should take advantage of the situation to invade England, while Mary's friends raised an insurrection at home; and so needful did it seem to Negotiations keep peace either with France or Spain, that in 1581 for a marriage Elizabeth, though now forty-eight, made a pretence of intending to marry Francis, Duke of Anjou, a brother of her former suitor, who had become King of France. The negotiations served to gain time, but came to nothing. with the Duke of Anjou. It was clear, however, to all parties that the state of suspense which Elizabeth had contrived to maintain since her accession could not be much longer protracted. Mary's friends Unsettled state were as active as ever. Numbers of young Catholic of the country. priests, trained in hostility to Elizabeth, were pouring into the country. Conspiracies against the queen's life were numerous, and it was found that Throgmorton, the leader of one of these, who was taken and executed, had been acting with the knowledge of the Spanish ambassador. In the New World, fighting between the English and Spaniards had been going on for years. The Spaniards wished to exclude all other nations from a share either in their discoveries or their trade, and to this Englishmen would not submit. Expeditions were fitted out to visit America, and these plundered Spanish towns, and captured Spanish treasure-ships at every opportunity. In 1579, The English in the New World. Francis Drake, of Devonshire, sailed through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific Ocean, plundered Valparaiso and other Spanish towns along the coast of South America, and, having laden his ships with gold and silver, sailed home by the Cape of Good Hope, being the first Englishman who sailed round the world. Another terror of the Spaniards was Sir John Hawkins, who again and again attacked the Spanish settlements in the West Indies; he was the first to capture negroes in Africa, and to sell them as slaves to the Spaniards to work in the mines and plantations. Other Englishmen strove hard to rival the Spaniards by finding a short route to China and India round the north of America. This was called the North-West Passage, and the names of Frobisher's and Davies' Straits still commemorate the discoveries of two of Elizabeth's sailors. Colonization of America. Even more important were the attempts of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and his half-brother, the great Sir Walter Raleigh, to found an English colony on the shores of North America. North Gilbert's first expedition was made in 1578, but proved a failure. In 1583, he and Raleigh organized a joint expedition which took possession of Newfoundland, but Gilbert himself was shipwrecked and drowned, and the survivors returned home. Raleigh, however, who, more than any other Englishman, saw the importance of founding a colonial empire, persevered; and in 1584 and 1585 two other expeditions were sent, which made a settlement at the mouth of the Chesapeake river. The colony was called Virginia, in compliment to the queen. In 1586, however, the colonists returned home, and though Raleigh sent out many expeditions between 1587 and 1602, he did not succeed in forming a permanent settlement during Elizabeth's reign. The antagonism of Philip and Elizabeth in Europe, and the rivalry between the English and Spaniards in America, were making war inevitable, and both Cecil and Leicester would have been glad to see the queen plunge into it at once. Elizabeth, however, had the greatest dislike to take any irrevocable step; but in 1585 she went so far as to make a treaty with the revolted Netherlanders, and to send Leicester to their assistance. In 1586, the Netherlanders made Leicester their chief officer, under the title of Stadt War inevitable. Treaty with the Netherlands. holder; but he did not distinguish himself, and during the siege of Zutphen one of the most brilliant Englishmen of the day, Sir Philip Sidney, was killed. Scots. War was now certain between England and Spain, and the existence of Mary, Queen of Scots, became a still greater danger to Elizabeth. It was believed that she was plotting Execution of against the queen's life, and in 1584 an association Mary, Queen of was formed, with the sanction of Parliament, to protect Elizabeth from assassination, and at the same time a strict watch was set over Mary. When the government had determined to act against Mary, they were not very scrupulous in the honesty of their dealings. A trap was laid to entangle her in a treasonable correspondence, and in 1586 proof was obtained that she was privy to a plot for Elizabeth's assassination which had been made by a young gentleman named Babington. Mary was tried by a special commission, and found guilty. Elizabeth was long in signing the warrant for her death, and even when she had done so, intended to delay its execution; but the council had it carried into effect, and in February, 1587, Mary was executed. The news of her death was received by the nation as a relief. The Armada. In dying, however, Mary left her claim to the crown to the Infanta of Spain, Philip's daughter, who was in a remote degree a descendant of John of Gaunt. Philip at once determined to enforce her rights by an invasion of England. For this end he prepared a gigantic fleet, named by the Spaniards the Armada. His preparations were not allowed to go on without interruption. In 1587, Sir Francis Drake led an English fleet against the great port of Cadiz, and destroyed a large part of Philip's stores and transport. The next year, 1588, all was ready, and the Armada set sail. Philip's orders were to sail up the English Channel through the Straits of Dover, and then to land at one of the Netherland ports in order to take on board the Duke of Parma, with his well-trained army. The whole body was then to attempt the invasion of England. On the English side vigorous preparations had been made for their reception. A considerable army was ready to defend London. The militia of every county was ready Preparations for war. to march at a moment's notice as soon as the beacon glare sent from hill to hill the news of the landing. The chief reliance was placed on the fleet, commanded by Lord Howard of Effingham, who was a Roman Catholic, and also a relation of the queen through Anne Boleyn. With him were Drake, Frobisher, Hawkins, and all the great seamen of the day. Unfortunately, Elizabeth's turn for economy had cut down the stores of powder and victuals to the lowest point; but the sailors waited with brave though anxious hearts the issue of the combat. Manner of the English attack. When the huge fleet hove in sight, the English did not attempt to stop its progress. They let it pass, and then, quickly pursuing, they hung upon its rear and attacked every ship that lagged behind. The wind was up Channel, so the light English vessels were able to catch the Spanish hulks when they chose; and if they drew off, the Spaniards could not pursue against the wind. In this way the fight raged along the Channel, the English carefully taking the powder out of each ship they captured in order to supply their wants. At last the Straits of Dover were reached, and the Spaniards took refuge in and near Calais harbour, and waited for events. But the English could not afford to wait; both ammunition and provisions were running short; so, to force the Spaniards on, they sent fire-ships among them, and compelled them to cut their moorings. Destruction of fleet. Then came the crisis; if the Spaniards could make the Netherland shore, they had still no cause to despair. But the wind helped the English, who contrived to get between the the Spanish Spaniards and their friendly port, and to drive them into the North Sea. Once there, return against the wind was impossible. Norway and Denmark were unfriendly. A storm rose, and nothing remained but to make the best of their way round the rocky coast of Scotland and Ireland, and so return home. The English fleet did little more against them; but the winds blew, and the waves rose; storm after storm drove the Spanish vessels on the cruel rocks; and of that noble armament, which might have changed the history of the world, a few shattered ships alone reached Spain. The defeat of the Spanish Armada, the most glorious event in the reign of Elizabeth, completely changed the posivictory on the tion of England. During the remainder of the reign England had little to fear from Spain. Her soldiers Effect of the country. |