lieutenants of Hampshire, in the month of June, when the Spanish fleet had actually sailed, requesting them to summon the gentlemen of the county, and to make known to them the Spanish preparations. They were reminded by the Queen's letter that all was at stake: "Wherein every man's particular state in the highest degree would be touched in respect of country, liberty, wives, children, lands, lives, and (which was especially to be regarded,) the profession of the true and sincere religion of Christ, and to lay before them the infinite and unspeakable miseries that would fall out upon any such accident and change, which miseries were evidently seen by the fruits of that hard and cruel government holden where such change happened *.” Other letters of similar import were addressed to the nobility: and to enable the Queen to meet the emergency, a sum of money was borrowed from the city of London†. In the present difficulty the Queen sent to James the Scottish sovereign. The Papists hoped to find an ally in James. His mother had been put to death by Elizabeth during the previous year: and it was expected that he would readily embrace such an opportunity of avenging her death. James, however, was sufficiently alive to his own interest to see that if Philip possessed himself of England, he would * STRYPE's Annals, vol. iii., part ii., p. 13-533. The whole letter may be seen in Strype. + Ibid., 14, 15, not hesitate to seize upon Scotland. He resolved, therefore, to act in conjunction with Elizabeth. He told Sir Robert Sydney, "that he expected no other favour than what Polyphemus promised Ulysses, that after the rest were devoured he should be swallowed last*." The Spanish hopes with respect to James were altogether frustrated; for he knew that his own crown and the Protestant religion in Scotland would have been placed in jeopardy by the success of King Philip in England. The Romanists in England were another source of some anxiety to the Queen and her ministers. It was supposed by some of the council, that they would join with the Spaniards, on their landing, and that it would be prudent to pursue such a course of policy as to prevent them from carrying their designs into effect. It was said that the Spaniards abroad were less to be feared than the Papists at home, and that the former would not attempt the invasion, if they were not assured of support from the latter. Severity, * Dr. Lingard, as usual, endeavours to give a different version of James's conduct. He says that James hesitated: "That the addition of a Spanish army, and of Spanish treasure, would have aroused him from his inactivity, and have made him the avenger of the death of his mother." There is no authority for the assertion of Dr. Lingard. James understood Philip's intentions, and his desire to succeed Elizabeth and to retain his own crown, which he knew he should not retain, if the Spaniard should accomplish his object, was stronger than his desire to avenge his mother's death. The truth is, Dr. Lingard has in this instance substituted his own mere assertions for historical facts.-LINGARd, v., 493. therefore, was recommended; and the example of Henry VIII. was adduced, who, when the Emperor and the French monarch were instigated by the Pope to invade England, ordered the execution of several noblemen, who were merely suspected of favouring the enemy*. Elizabeth was never inclined to cruelty; nor did she believe that such a course was consistent with sound policy. She followed, therefore, the dictates of prudence, and merely committed some of the priests to Wisbeach Castle, where they were detained with scarcely any inconvenience to themselves, while she actually confided in and trusted some of the Romanist nobility. It is probable, that the Spaniards entertained very exalted expectations respecting the aid to be derived from the English Romanists; but they forgot that their nation was anything but popular with any class of Englishmen, except the fugitive priests, who were entirely in the interest of the Jesuits. The Queen's confidence was not misplaced; for even the Romanists, with the exception of those in the Jesuit interest, were by no means disposed to submit to Spain, nor to see their country subjugated to foreignerst. The Pope and King Philip, indeed, imagined that every Papist would turn against the Queen as soon as the Armada appeared on the English coast; and had Elizabeth adopted severe measures, many would undoubtedly have joined in an insurrection. CARLTON'S Thankful Remembrance, 136. + ECHARD, vol. i., p. 869. The writer of the Letter to Mendoza probably gives a true description of the feelings of some of the Romanists. He states that some of them were in doubt whether they were acting right in expecting aid from the continent, and whether the Pope's method was the right way of reformation; whether the Pope could take the temporal sword and put it into the hand of King Philip to use it against Queen Elizabeth. The writer also states, that the publication of the books, which have already been mentioned, respecting the forces of Spain, before the armada was ready to sail, did infinite mischief to the cause, by stirring up the people to oppose the invasion. He complains also of the republication and renewal of the Bull of Pius V., and of Allen's Admonition, which, he says, staggered many of the Romanists themselves. Then it is intimated, that it was expected in England that those who came in the armada as volunteers, came in expectation of possessing the lands of the English nobles. All these causes combined, according to the writer of this letter, to place the Queen upon her guard, and led her to put the country into a state of complete defence*. There were at that time two parties among the English Romanists, even among the priests. 1st, those who acted with the fugitives on the continent, and who were Jesuits: 2nd, the secular priests, as they were termed, who were averse to the views * Letter to Mendoza, p. 3, 4, 5. Edition 1746. and proceedings of the other party. On several occasions these parties actually opposed each other publicly. Some years after the defeat of the armada, a very important work was published by the secular priests, with Watson, who was bishop of Lincoln under Queen Mary, at their head, in which many of the proceedings of Elizabeth are justified, though condemned at the time by the Jesuits,-and in the present day by all Popish historians, and in which also the Jesuits, and those who acted with them, are censured in the most unmeasured terms. One passage on the Spanish invasion is so much to the purpose, that I shall make "But now we come to the no apology for quoting it. year 1588, and to that most bloody attempt, not only against her Majesty and our common enemies, but against ourselves, all Catholics: nay, against this flourishing kingdom, and our own native country. The memory of which attempt will be (as we trust) an everlasting monument of Jesuitical treason and cruelty. For it is apparent in a treatise penned by the advice of Father Parsons altogether (as we do verily think) that the King of Spain was especially moved and drawn to that intended mischief against us by the long and daily solicitations of the Jesuits, and other English Catholics beyond the seas, affected and altogether given to Jesuitism. And whereas it is well known that the Duke of Medina Sidonia had given it out directly, that if once he might land in England, both Catholics and heretics that came in his way should |