Part 118 (1/2)

238. ENGLAND UNDER ELIZABETH, 1558-1603 A.D.

ELIZABETH

Queen Elizabeth, who reigned over England during the period of the Dutch revolt, came to the throne when about twenty-five years old. She was tall and commanding in presence and endowed with great physical vigor and endurance. After hunting all day or dancing all night she could still attend unremittingly to public business. Elizabeth had received an excellent education; she spoke Latin and several modern languages; knew a little Greek; and displayed some skill in music. To her father, Henry VIII, she doubtless owed her tactfulness and charm of manner, as well as her imperious will; she resembled her mother, Anne Boleyn, in her vanity and love of display. As a ruler Elizabeth was shrewd, far-sighted, a good judge of character, and willing to be guided by the able counselors who surrounded her. Above all, Elizabeth was an ardent patriot. She understood and loved her people, and they, in turn, felt a chivalrous devotion to the ”Virgin Queen,” to ”Good Queen Bess”.

PROTESTANTISM IN ENGLAND

The daughter of Anne Boleyn had been born under the ban of the pope, so that opposition to Rome was the natural course for her to pursue. Two acts of Parliament now separated England once more from the Papacy and gave the English Church practically the form and doctrines which it retains to-day.

The church was intended to include everyone in England, and hence all persons were required to attend religious exercises on Sundays and holy days. Refusal to do so exposed the offender to a fine.

[Ill.u.s.tration: ELIZABETH]

TREATMENT OF ROMAN CATHOLICS

The great body of the people soon conformed to the state church, but Roman Catholics could not conscientiously attend its services. The laws against them do not seem to have been strictly enforced at first, but in the later years of Elizabeth's reign real or suspected plots by Roman Catholics against her throne led to a policy of repression. Those who said or heard ma.s.s were heavily fined and imprisoned; those who brought papal bulls into England or converted Protestants to Roman Catholicism were executed as traitors. Several hundred priests, mostly Jesuits, suffered death, and many more languished in jail. This persecution, however necessary it may have seemed to Elizabeth and her advisers, is a blot on her reign.

PROTESTANTISM IN IRELAND

The Reformation made little progress in Ireland. Henry VIII, who had extended English sway over most of the island, suppressed the monasteries, demolished shrines, relics, and images, and placed English-speaking priests in charge of the churches. The Irish people, who remained loyal to Rome, regarded these measures as the tyrannical acts of a foreign government. During Elizabeth's reign there were several dangerous revolts, which her generals suppressed with great cruelty. The result was to widen the breach between England and Ireland. Henceforth to most Irishmen patriotism became identified with Roman Catholicism.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SILVER CROWN OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN]

ELIZABETH AND MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS

Many of the plots against Elizabeth centered about Mary Stuart, the ill- starred Queen of Scots. She was a granddaughter of Henry VII, and extreme Roman Catholics claimed that she had a better right to the English throne than Elizabeth, because the pope had declared the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn null and void. Mary, a fervent Roman Catholic, did not please her Scotch subjects, who had adopted Calvinistic doctrines. She also discredited herself by marrying the man who had murdered her former husband. An uprising of the Scottish n.o.bles compelled Mary to abdicate the throne in favor of her infant son [28] and to take refuge in England.

Elizabeth kept her rival in captivity for nearly twenty years. In 1586 A.D., the former queen was found guilty of conspiring against Elizabeth's life and was beheaded.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Map, WESTERN EUROPE IN THE TIME OF ELIZABETH]

[Ill.u.s.tration: LONDON BRIDGE IN THE TIME OF ELIZABETH The old structure was completed early in the thirteenth century. It measured 924 feet in length and had 20 narrow arches. Note the rows of houses and shops on the bridge, the chapel in the center and the gate above which the heads of traitors were exhibited on pikes. The present London Bridge was completed in 1831 A.D.]

ELIZABETH AND PHILIP II

Philip II, the king of Spain, also threatened Elizabeth's security. At the outset of her reign Philip had made her an offer of marriage, but she refused to give herself, or England, a Spanish master. As time went on, Philip turned into an open enemy of the Protestant queen and did his best to stir up sedition among her Roman Catholic subjects. It must be admitted that Philip could plead strong justification for his att.i.tude. Elizabeth allowed the English ”sea dogs” [29] to plunder Spanish colonies and seize Spanish vessels laden with the treasure of the New World. Moreover, she aided the rebellious Dutch, at first secretly and at length openly, in their struggle against Spain. Philip put up with these aggressions for many years, but finally came to the conclusion that he could never subdue the Netherlands or end the piracy and smuggling in Spanish America without first conquering England. The execution of Mary Stuart removed his last doubts, for Mary had left him her claims to the English throne. He at once made ready to invade England. Philip seems to have believed that as soon as a Spanish army landed in the island, the Roman Catholics would rally to his cause. But the Spanish king never had a chance to verify his belief; the decisive battle took place on the sea.

THE ”INVINCIBLE ARMADA,” 1588 A.D.

Philip had not completed his preparations before Sir Francis Drake sailed into Cadiz harbor and destroyed a vast amount of naval stores and s.h.i.+pping. This exploit, which Drake called ”singeing the king of Spain's beard,” delayed the expedition for a year. The ”Invincible Armada” [30]

set out at last in 1588 A.D. The Spanish vessels, though somewhat larger than those of the English, were inferior in number, speed, and gunnery to their adversaries, while the Spanish officers, mostly unused to the sea, were no match for men like Drake, Frobisher, and Raleigh, the best mariners of the age. The Armada suffered severely in a nine-days fight in the Channel, and many vessels which escaped the English guns met s.h.i.+pwreck off the Scotch and Irish coasts. Less than half of the Armada returned in safety to Spain.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SPANISH ARMADA IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

After an engraving by the Society of Antiquarians following a tapestry in the House of Lords.]

ENGLISH SEA-POWER

England in the later Middle Ages had been an important naval power, as her ability to carry on the Hundred Years' War in France amply proved. But in the sixteenth century she was greatly over-matched by Spain, especially after the annexation of Portugal added the naval forces of that country to the Spanish fleets. The defeat of the Armada not only did great harm to the navy and commerce of Spain; it also showed that a new people had arisen to claim the supremacy of the ocean. Henceforth the English began to build up what was to be a sea-power greater than any other known to history.

239. THE HUGUENOT WARS IN FRANCE

FRANCE UNDER FRANCIS I, 1515-1547 A.D.