the act of Mary, enforcing clerical celibacy, was not repealed until the next reign.

Like the Romanists, the Puritans underwent considerable persecution in this reign, though not solely on account of their religion. Many of them were stanch supporters of the constitution, and spoke with great freedom on all encroachments upon it. This patriotic spirit often brought them into collision with the crown; and more than one over-zealous member of parliament suffered imprisonment in consequence.

One Stubbe, a Puritan lawyer, highly offended the queen by writing a pamphlet against her proposed marriage with the Duke of Anjou. He was sentenced in consequence to lose his right hand. When the punishment was inflicted, he took up his hat with the left, and exclaimed, "Long live queen Elizabeth!"

8. About this period our adventurous seamen began to establish that domination for England over the ocean, which she has ever since maintained. Numerous voyages of discovery were made; and English privateers returned from the New World laden with Spanish wealth.

Among others engaged in these daring expeditions were Sir John Hawkins, Martin Frobisher, Sir Francis Drake, and Sir Walter Raleigh, the founder of Virginia.

The importance of an efficient English fleet soon became apparent. In 1588 Philip of Spain, anxious to avenge the cause of Mary, to punish Elizabeth for assisting the revolted Netherlanders, and to uproot Protestantism, prepared an immense fleet, termed the Invincible Armada, for the invasion of England.

It consisted altogether of 130 vessels, and about 30,000 To co-operate with these, another army of 34,000 was stationed in the Netherlands, under the Prince of Parma.

men.

The limited resources of England would not admit of her fitting out such an armament as that of Spain; but her vessels were more manageable, and her sailors more skilful. The royal navy was increased from 36 vessels to 181, and manned with about 17,000 sailors. Lord Howard of Effingham was appointed admiral,

and under him served Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, and Raleigh. The land forces of the English numbered about 63,000, and were divided into three bodies. One was stationed along the south coast; another at Tilbury to defend London; and a third was reserved for guarding the queen's person.

Elizabeth excited the martial spirit of the nation by her own heroic conduct. She appeared on horseback in the camp at Tilbury, and encouraged her troops by the following heart-stirring speech: "Let tyrants fear: I have always so behaved myself that, under God, I have placed my chiefest strength in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects. And, therefore, I am come among you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, but being resolved, in the midst and heat of the battle, to live or die amongst you all: to lay down, for my God, and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honour and my blood, even in the dust. I know I have but the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England too; and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain, or any prince of Europe, should dare to invade the border of my realms: to which, rather than any dishonour should grow by me, I myself will take up arms: I myself will be your general, judge, and rewarder of every one of your virtues in the field."

The Armada sailed in July, 1588, under the command of the Marquis de Medina Sidonia, a nobleman utterly ignorant of naval affairs. Immediately on its appearance off the Lizard Point, Howard put to sea and saw it approaching in the form of a crescent about seven miles broad. A running fight was at once commenced, in which the English were uniformly successful. The height of the Spanish decks rendered their firing almost useless, the shot from their guns passing clear over the English fleet. On July 27th the Spaniards anchored off Calais, for the purpose of allowing the Prince of Parma, then at Bruges, to embark his troops. He refused to embark at Calais, and ordered the fleet to proceed to Dunkirk. Here the Armada was thrown into the wildest confusion by eight fire-ships, sent into the midst of it at midnight by the English admiral. Taking advantage of the

disorder thus occasioned, Howard commenced a general engagement and destroyed twelve ships. To save the remnant of his fleet, Sidonia resolved to abandon the enterprise and return to Spain by sailing round Scotland. Even this scheme was in a measure frustrated. A tempest off the Orkneys completed the ruin of the fleet; and only 53 disabled vessels ever reached Spanish harbours.

Elizabeth, on the completion of the victory, went in state to St. Paul's, and returned thanksgiving to God for His merciful interposition in the deliverance of her country. Mindful of her promises to the army and navy, she pensioned those soldiers and sailors who were disabled, and conferred honours on the chief commanders. The Dutch celebrated this defeat of their national enemies by striking medals commemorative of the event. The inscriptions on some of them were singularly appropriate, as Flavit Jehovah et dissipati sunt [Jehovah blew and they were scattered]; Venit, vidit, fugit [It came, it saw, it fled], &c. &c.

9. To retaliate, an expedition was fitted out against Lisbon, with the intention of wresting Portugal from Philip, and bestowing it on Don Antonio, a Portuguese prince; but the scheme was ill-planned, and, though it did great injury to the Spaniards, failed in its main object. About one-half of the adventurers perished by famine, fatigue, and the sword. An expedition, in 1596, headed by Essex and Howard, was more successful. Cadiz was taken; and the Spaniards suffered a loss estimated at 20,000,000 ducats.

Essex was at this time the queen's favourite. He was brave, handsome, and accomplished; but vain, headstrong, and presumptuous. Opposed to him at court was the Cecil party, which ultimately succeeded in procuring his disgrace.

10. The death of Lord Burleigh, the famous minister of Elizabeth, in 1598, was speedily followed by that of Philip of Spain. The war with that country, however, was not brought to a close; and Philip III. commenced his reign by assisting Hugh O'Neale, Earl of Tyrone, to throw off the English yoke. A victory, which

Tyrone gained over the English at Blackwater, greatly raised his reputation, and led him to assume the character of deliverer of his country. Essex, who was passionately fond of military glory, obtained at this juncture the lord-lieutenantship of Ireland. He took the field against the rebels; but his operations were ill-advised and unsuccessful. His rivals at court took advantage of his ill-success, and endeavoured to prejudice Elizabeth against him. Essex, hearing of this, immediately abandoned his post and returned to London. He obtained an interview with the queen, but his petulant behaviour prevented her from showing him that favour with which she was accustomed to regard him. He was tried by the privy council, on the charge of misconduct in Ireland, and, on being found guilty, was deprived of the earl-marshalship of England, and sentenced to be imprisoned at the queen's pleasure. Elizabeth's anger soon melted away, and the favourite might have been speedily restored to the royal favour, if the plots of his enemies had not driven him to despair. He threw off all appearance of respect, spoke slightingly of Elizabeth, and entered into correspondence with James VI. In 1601 he formed a plot for seizing on the queen and compelling her (1.) to remove his enemies, (2.) to assemble a parliament, and (3.) to settle a new plan of government. This conspiracy was discovered, and Essex, fearing that he might be seized, precipitated the insurrection. It proved utterly unsuccessful. He was taken prisoner, tried on the charge of high treason, found guilty, and executed, 1601.

11. Elizabeth did not long survive Essex. On the 24th of March, 1603, she died, in the seventieth year of her age.

On her deathbed she was pressed to name her successor. She replied that "she would have a king to succeed her, and who should that be but her nearest kinsman, the king of Scots?"

Few sovereigns have been so much belied as Elizabeth; but her character comes out unscathed after the

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closest examination. She was an able ruler, a warmhearted and accomplished woman, and a far-seeing politician. Cecil said of her, that she was a man, and in truth less than a woman.' not been so, she would never have retained her crown through a period of confusion such as has scarcely ever been paralleled in history.

Ridiculous stories have been circulated about Elizabeth by the Jesuits, all of which are fabrications, and are now generally discredited. She was extremely beautiful in her youth, a good musician, and an able scholar. She conversed freely in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Dutch, and was well versed in Greek and Latin. Few anecdotes are more characteristic of the nobility of her nature than one recorded by a contemporary. When she came to the crown, a knight of the realm, who had behaved insolently to her when Lady Elizabeth, fell upon his knees and besought her pardon, expecting to be sent to the Tower. She replied, mildly, "Do you not know that we are descended of the lion, whose nature is not to harm or prey upon the mouse, or any such small vermin? "

Contemporaries.-12. Scotland, Mary, James VI.; France, Henry II., Francis II., Charles IX., Henry III., Henry IV.; Spain, Philip II., Philip III.; Cecil, Bacon, Walsingham, and Knollys, statesmen; Shakspere and Marlowe, dramatists; Spenser, Sidney, and Drayton, poets; Holinshed and Stowe, historians; Parker and Hooker, divines.

GOVERNMENT, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, LITERATURE, &c.

Government.-1. During the early part of the Tudor period the sovereign was almost despotic. The old barons had been nearly exterminated by the wars of the Roses; and the new nobility were so entirely the creatures of the sovereign, that the Commons were left quite unsupported in their struggles with the crown.

Parliament lost its independence, and its members were made, either by corruption or intimidation, mere ciphers in the representation of the country. Boroughs were often created