1567, a number of puritans were committed to prison ; but in the House of Commons the strength of the party enabled them successfully to oppose the violent stretches of the royal prerogative. Religious enthusiasm cured the base servility of parliament. At the same time, however, the court of the star-chamber became a protestant inquisition, and the greatest harshness, even to imprisonment for life, was shown towards the unfortunate puritan ministers and their congregations.

2. The events connected with the romantic history of Mary, queen of Scots, had considerable connexion with the history of England during the reign of Elizabeth, but they had still greater influence on the destinies of Scotland, and it will be better to postpone an account of them till we have a chapter applicable to that kingdom. In 1569, a rebellion of the northern counties of England took place, avowedly with the design of liberating Mary when she was a captive in England. For the same object, the Babington conspiracy, discovered in 1586, was concocted. These events will have to be again spoken of, in an account of the strange adventures of the Queen of Scots.

While the career of this unfortunate princess was approaching its tragical end, the nation were indulging in that taste for discovery and adventure which characterized the sixteenth century, and which proved the forerunner of a great revolution in the arts and sciences, in state policy, in international relations, and in manners and customs. England did not remain an idle spectator of the maritime enterprises of the Spaniards, Portuguese, and Hollanders. The first expeditions of the foreign seamen were made solely for profit, and in their prosecution every law of justice and humanity was trampled under foot. These daring voyagers committed the most frightful excesses, and though we may extol their courage, we cannot but detest their avarice and cruelty, and the long catalogue of crimes with which they deluged the New World.

Sir Francis Drake, one of the captains who, under the command of Sir John Hawkins, had ravaged the coast of Africa, was commissioned to cruise in the Indian Seas. He seized and plundered more than a hundred merchant vessels, pillaged the city of Nombre de Dios, and captured a

convoy of mules laden with gold and silver. A portion of the money obtained in this expedition was expended on fitting out a fleet for the exploration of the Pacific. Drake set sail with five small ships, whose collective crews amounted to no more than 160 men. With these he crossed the Atlantic, passed through the Straits of Magellan, and devastated all the Peruvian shore, then stretching across the Pacific, he doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and, after an absence of three years, returned to Plymouth with one ship only, but which contained treasures to the amount of £800,000. Thus to Drake belongs the glory of having been the first English commander who circumnavigated the globe. Elizabeth was so pleased with the results of Drake's expedition, that she dined on board of his ship at Dartmouth, and conferred on him the honours of knighthood.

France and Spain had always cast a longing eye on Ireland, which had never been tranquil since the conquest; but now religious differences were a still more fertile source of distraction. At one time the native Irish devastated the English pale with fire and sword; and at another they were the victims of an exterminating war. After the murder of Shane O'Neil, his lands in Ulster were vested in the English crown, and the colonists who were sent 1568. over to occupy them had to maintain their holdings by the sword. The inhabitants naturally looked to the popish powers of the continent for support, and Gregory XIII. A. D. sent them 600 disciplined soldiers with 3000 stand 1579. of arms. The capture and death of the Earl of Desmond in 1583 was followed by a period of tranquillity and peace.

A. D.

3. THE ARMADA.-A formidable armament had long been preparing in the Spanish harbours to avenge the unhappy Mary and to crush the protestant religion in England; but before the fleet was ready for sea, Drake with a strong squadron burned a number of Spanish vessels in sight of Cadiz and Lisbon, intercepted the treasure-ships that were returning from America, and arrived in England with an immense booty. At the same time Walsingham, by an able financial operation, deprived Philip II. of the resources he was in the habit of drawing from the bankers of Genoa.

These circumstances delayed the union and the sailing of the invincible fleet, for such was the title conferred beforehand on the formidable armament that threatened England with destruction. Elizabeth took every measure calculated to secure her kingdom: a hundred thousand men were raised, and stationed at those points where a landing was likely to be attempted. She appeared on horseback in the midst of the troops encamped round Tilbury Fort, exhorting the soldiers to defend their country and their religion. "I am come amongst you," she said, "resolved in the midst and heat of the battle to live or die amongst you all -to lay down for my God, for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know that I have the body of a weak and feeble woman; but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England too." By this language, and her heroic behaviour, she inspired her subjects with courage. She had only thirty-four ships of war, of a much smaller size than those of Spain; but the nobility and the principal towns disputed the honour of furnishing others, and she soon had a numerous fleet at her disposal. The main body assembled at Plymouth under the orders of Lord Howard of Effingham, among whose inferior officers were Drake, Winter, Hawkins, and Frobisher. The Scots, headed by their king, armed in defence of the two kingdoms, and formed an association by which they bound themselves to maintain their religion and government against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Such was the origin of the famous covenant (1588) which eventually proved so fatal to Charles I.

The invincible armada consisted of 130 ships of various sizes, and carried an army of 20,000 men, besides 8000 sailors and 2400 guns, with provisions for six months. It was decided in the Spanish councils that the expedition should proceed to the straits of Dover, where it should effect a junction with the Duke of Parma, who had assembled in the neighbourhood of Dunkirk an army of nearly 40,000 men with a sufficient number of transports. The combined armament was then to sail up the Thames, take London by surprise or assault, and, with the help of the discontented Roman catholics, place England under the dominion of Philip.

Just as the fleet was on the point of sailing, it was detained by the death of the Admiral Santa Cruz, and of the Duke of Paliano, the vice-admiral. The loss of these two experienced officers, the consequent delay, and particularly the choice of the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who had no experience as a seaman, were no favourable auguries for the success of the enterprise. On the 20th of May 1588, the armada sailed from Lisbon: the next day it encountered a violent storm, which sank some of the smaller vessels, and compelled the others to sail to Corunna to repair the damage they had sustained. It again put to sea, and entered the Channel at the end of July. Instead of taking advantage of a southerly wind to fall upon the English fleet lying before Plymouth, the Duke of Medina, strictly following his instructions, continued his course towards Flanders, where the Dutch had blockaded Dunkirk and Nieuport. The English ships, which were lighter and manned by more skilful sailors, followed the Spaniards, hovered on their flanks and rear, and attacked every vessel that was separated from the main body. Five combats in succession ended to the advantage of the combined English and Dutch fleets, and Medina was unable to effect a junction with the Prince of Parma. He was even meditating a return to Spain, when another tempest arose; and while the English took shelter in their ports, the Spanish fleet was dispersed by the winds, and wrecked on the coasts of Denmark, Norway, Scotland, and even Ireland. More than eighty vessels were thus lost, and the shattered relics of the formidable armament with difficulty reached the port of Santander in the Bay of Biscay about the end of September. When Philip was informed of this terrible catastrophe, he pretended to be unmoved, and observed coldly: "God's will be done! I sent my fleet to fight against England, and not against the elements." But the misfortune was greater than he was willing to believe. The destruction of the armada, which had been equipped at an enormous expense, and whose loss cost Philip ten thousand of his best troops and the greater part of his marine, inflicted a mortal blow on Spain. From that time, her power insensibly declined, and she ceased to be an object of alarm to the nations of Europe.

4. Emboldened by the destruction of the Spanish armada, the English in the following year began to think of revenge, and parliament besought the queen to punish the insult which had been offered by Philip, and carry the war into his dominions. An armament of 200 sail was accordingly collected at Plymouth, and took on board a refugee named Don Antonio, a claimant of the crown of Portugal, which had been seized by Philip. The expedition was placed under the command of Norris and Drake, who sailed directly to the harbour of Corunna and captured several ships, but were repulsed from the town with the loss of many valuable lives. The fleet then sailed to the mouth of the Tagus, and the troops marched without opposition to Lisbon. But not a voice was raised for Don Antonio, and the English were at length compelled by want and sickness to abandon the enterprise. Of 21,000 men engaged in this disastrous expedition, one-half had perished: yet an attempt was made to conceal the loss, and to magnify the defeat into another triumph over the power of Spain.

After these events, Elizabeth reigned in comparative tranquillity. Since the death of Mary Stuart, the English catholics concealed their discontent, and seemed to acknowledge their cause as hopeless. James VI. of Scotland was prevented by the factions in his own country from disturbing England, and his policy lay in maintaining a good understanding between the two kingdoms. In these favourable circumstances, Elizabeth sent assistance to the protestants of France and Holland. When in 1593 Henry IV. announced his intention of conforming to the ancient worship, she appeared inclined to quarrel with this prince, and bitterly reproached him for his change of creed; but she was gradually reconciled, and did not eventually desert her old ally.

In 1594, a discovery was made of two conspiracies by the Spaniards against the life of the queen. She retaliated by new exertions in favour of the Dutch and of the King of France, by ravaging the Spanish colonies, and by an expedition against Spain itself. In 1596, she equipped a fleet of 150 ships, under the command of Lord Effingham, who sailed to Cadiz, and having defeated a Spanish fleet