Part 35 Outlines of Universal History

Part 35

REIGN OF HENRY IV.--When _Henry IV_. gained his throne, the country was in a most wretched condition. In the desolating wars, population had fallen off. Everywhere there were poverty and lawlessness. Yet war with _Spain_ was inevitable. In this war, _Henry_ was the victor; and the _Peace of Vervins_ restored the Spanish conquests, and the conquests made by Savoy, to France (1598). The idea of _Henry's_ foreign policy, which was that of weakening the power of Spain and of the house of Hapsburg, was afterwards taken up by a powerful statesman, _Richelieu_, and fully realized. In the _Edict of Nantes_ (1598), the king secured to the Huguenots the measure of religious liberty for which they had contended. Fortified cities were still left in their hands. Security was obtained by the Calvinists, but they became a defensive party with no prospect of further progress. Order and prosperity were restored to the kingdom. In all his measures, the king was largely guided by a most competent minister, _Sully_. But the useful reign of _Henry IV_. was cut short by the dagger of an a.s.sa.s.sin, _Ravaillac_ (1610). For fifteen years confusion prevailed in France, and a contest of factions, until _Richelieu_ took up the threads of policy which had fallen from _Henry's_ hand.

CHAPTER VII. THE THIRTY-YEARS' WAR, TO THE PEACE OP WESTPHALIA (1618-1648).

ORIGIN OF THE WAR.--In _Germany_, more than in any other country, the Reformation had sprung from the hearts of the people. Its progress would have been far greater had it not been r.e.t.a.r.ded by political obstacles, and by divisions among Protestants themselves. Germany, to be sure, was not disunited by the Reformation: it was disunited before. But now strong states existed on its borders,--_France_, even _Denmark_ and _Sweden_,--which might profit by its internal conflicts. The _Peace of Augsburg_, unsatisfactory as it was to both parties, availed to prevent open strife as long as _Ferdinand I_. (1556-1564) and _Maximilian II_. (1564-1576) held the imperial office. The latter, especially, favored toleration, and did not sympathize with the fanaticism of the Spanish branch of his family. He condemned the cruelties of _Alva_ and the ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew. With the accession of _Rudolph II._, a change took place. He had been brought up in Spain. The Catholic counter-reformation was now making its advance. The order of the _Jesuits _was putting forth great and successful exertions to win back lost ground. There were out-breakings of violence between the two religious parties. A Catholic procession was insulted in _Donauworth_, a free city of the empire. The city was put under the ban by the emperor; the Bavarian Duke marched against it, and incorporated it in his own territory (1607). On both sides, complaints were made of the infraction of the Peace of Augsburg. The Donauworth affair led to the formation of the _Evangelical Union_, a league into which, however, all the Protestant states did not enter. The _Catholic League_, under the Leadership of Maximilian of Bavaria, was firmly knit together and full of energy.

FIRST STAGE IN THE WAR (to 1629).

THE BOHEMIAN STRUGGLE.--The _Bohemians_ revolted against _Ferdinand II_. in 1618, when their religious liberties were violated, and shortly after (1619) refused to acknowledge him as their king. He was a narrow and fanatical, though not by nature a cruel, ruler. He gave himself up to the control of the Catholic League. The two branches of the _Hapsburg_ family--the _Austrian_ and _Spanish_--were now in full accord with each other. The Bohemians gave their crown to _Frederick V_., the Elector Palatine, the son-in-law of _James I_. of England. Bohemia was invaded by _Ferdinand_, aided by the League, and abandoned to fire and sword. The terrible scenes of the Hussite struggle were re-enacted. In the protracted wars that ensued, it was estimated that the Bohemian population was reduced from about four millions to between seven and eight hundred thousand! The _Palatinate_ was conquered and devastated. The electoral dignity was transferred to the _Duke of Bavaria_. At last, in 1625, _England_, _Holland_, and _Denmark_ intervened in behalf of the fugitive Elector Palatine. _Christian IV_. of Denmark was defeated, and the intervention failed. The power gained by Maximilian, the Bavarian Duke, made his interests separate, in important particulars, from those of _Ferdinand_. _Ferdinand_ was able to release himself from the virtual control of _Maximilian_ and the League, through _Wallenstein_, a general of extraordinary ability. He was a Bohemian n.o.ble, proud, ambitious, and wealthy. He raised an army, and made it support itself by pillage. The unspeakable miseries of Germany, in this prolonged struggle, were due largely to the composition of the armies, which were made up of hirelings of different nations, whose trade was war, and who were let loose on an unprotected population. Captured cities were given up to the unbridled pa.s.sions of a fierce and greedy soldiery. Germany, traversed for a whole generation by these organized bands of marauders, was in many places reduced almost to a desert.

EDICT OF RESt.i.tUTION.--Victory attended the arms of _Wallenstein_, and of _Tilly_, a brutal commander, the general of the League. The territory of the Dukes of _Mecklenburg_ was given to _Wallenstein_ as a reward (1629). He was anxious to conquer the German towns on the _Baltic_. _Stralsund_ offered a stubborn resistance, which he could not overcome. The League moved _Ferdinand_ to the adoption of the _Edict of Rest.i.tution_ (1629), which put far off the hope of peace. This edict enforced the parts of the _Peace of Augsburg_ which were odious to the Protestants, especially the _Ecclesiastical Reservation_ (p. 410), and abrogated the provisions of an opposite tenor. It was evident that the real aim was the entire extinction of Protestantism. The League, moreover, induced the emperor to remove _Wallenstein_, of whom they were jealous. The effect of these measures was to rouse the most lukewarm of the Protestant princes, including the electors of _Brandenburg_ and _Saxony_, to a sense of the common danger. It was plain that _Wallenstein_ was a sacrifice to the League, and to the ambition of _Maximilian_ of Bavaria.

SECOND STAGE IN THE WAR (1629-1632).

In the second act of this long drama, _Gustavus Adolphus_ of Sweden is the hero. His reign is marked by the rise of his country to the height of its power.

EVENTS IN SWEDEN: CAREER OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS.--_Gustavus Vasa_ made the mistake of undertaking to divide power among his four sons. There was a vein of eccentricity, amounting sometimes to insanity, in the family. _Eric XIV_. was hasty and jealous, imprisoned his brother _John_, and committed reckless crimes. In 1569 he was himself confined, and nine years after was secretly put to death. _John_ and another brother, _Charles_ of Sudermanland, now reigned together. _John_ was favorable to the Roman-Catholic Church, and offended his Protestant subjects by efforts at union and compromise. Moreover, he unwisely made concessions to the n.o.bles, and increased the burdens of the peasants. Finally, he wanted to make his son _Sigismund_ king of Poland, a country which, from its anarchical const.i.tution, was on the road to ruin. _Poland_ was a Catholic land; and, in order to get the crown, _Sigismund_ avowed himself a Catholic. _Charles_, a strict Lutheran, drew to his side all who were hostile to _John's_ spirit and policy. On the death of the latter (1592), Duke _Charles_ came into collision with _Sigismund_ and with the n.o.bles, whose power depended on his concessions; and he gained the victory over them (1598). In 1604 the Diet gave him the crown, which he wore for seven years. He had to contend against faction, and to withstand the attacks of _Denmark_ and of _Russia_. In the midst of these troubles he died, and was succeeded by his son _Gustavus Adolphus_, then less than eighteen years of age (1611-1632). He was a well-educated prince, early familiar with war, a devoted patriot, and, although tolerant in his temper, was a sincere Protestant, after the type of the old Saxon electors. For eighteen years after his accession, it had been his aim to control the _Baltic_. This had brought him into conflict with _Denmark_, _Poland_, and _Russia_. His interposition in the German war, a step which was full of peril to himself, was regarded by _Brandenburg_ and _Saxony_ with jealousy and repugnance. But when the savage troops of _Tilly_ (1631) sacked and burned _Magdeburg_, the neutral party was driven to side with _Sweden_. _Gustavus_ defeated _Tilly_, and the advance of his army in the South of Germany prostrated the power of the League. The princes regarded the Swedish king with suspicion: the cities regarded him with cordiality. Whether along with his sagacious and just intentions he connected his own elevation to the rank of King of Rome, and emperor, must be left uncertain. _Ferdinand_ was obliged to call back _Wallenstein_. The battle of _Lutzen_, in 1632, was a great defeat of _Wallenstein_, and a grand victory for the Swedes; but it cost them the life of their king.

FRANCE.--THE BOURBON KINGS.

HENRY IV, 1589-1610, (2), _m._ Mary, daughter of Francis, Grand Duke of Tuscany | +--LOUIS XIII, 1610-1643, _m._ | Anne, daughter of Philip III of Spain.

| | | | | +--Louis, Dauphin, _d._ 1711, _m._ Maria Anna, | | | daughter of Ferdinand Maria, Elector of Bavaria.

| | | | | | | +--Louis, Duke of Burgundy, _d._ 1712, _m._ | | | Mary Adelaide, daughter of Victor Amadeus II of Savoy.

| | | | | | | +--LOUIS XV, 1715-1774, _m._ | | | Mary, daughter of Stanislas Leczinsky, King of Poland.

| | | | | | | +--Louis, Count of Provence (LOUIS XVIII), | | | | 1814-1824.

| | | | | | | +--Louis Philippe (Egalite), executed 1793.

| | | | | (2), Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Lewis, Elector Palatine.

| | (1), Henrietta Maria.

| +--Philip, _m._ | +--Henrietta Maria _m._ Charles I of England.

THIRD STAGE IN THE WAR (1632-1648).

FRANCE AFTER HENRY IV.--After the death of _Gustavus_, in the new phase of the war, the influence of _Richelieu_, the great minister of France, becomes more and more dominant. Germany was in the end doomed to eat the bitter fruits of civil war, such as spring from foreign interference, even when it comes in the form of help. _Henry IV_. had died when he was on the point of directing the power of France, as of old, against the house of Hapsburg. The country now fell back for a series of years to a state akin to that under the kings who preceded him, although it was saved from a long civil war. _Louis XIII._ (1610-1643) was a child; and the queen, _Mary de Medici_, who was the regent, an Italian woman, with no earnest principles, deprived of the counsels of _Sully_, lavished the resources of the crown upon n.o.bles, who were greedy of place and pelf. At the a.s.sembly of the States-general in 1614, n.o.bles, clergy, and the third estate were loud in reciprocal accusations. The queen fell under the influence of the _Concinis_, an Italian waiting-maid and her husband, the latter of whom she made a marquis and a marshal of France. She leagued herself in various ways with _Spain_. As the king grew older, a party rallied about him, and the marshal was a.s.sa.s.sinated (1617). From that time _Louis_ was under the influence of a favorite, the Duke de Luynes, a native Frenchman, with whom the n.o.bles were in sympathy. The duke died in 1621. Then _Richelieu_, Bishop of Lucon (made a cardinal in 1622), a statesman of extraordinary genius, began his active career in politics, and after 1624 guided the policy of France, as a sort of Mayor of the Palace. _Louis XIII._ was not personally fond of him, but felt the need of him._ Richelieu's_ aim, as regards the government of France, was to consolidate the monarchy by bringing the aristocracy into subjection to the king. Under him began the process of centralization, the system of officers appointed and paid by the government, which was fully developed after the great revolution. He accomplished the overthrow of the _Huguenots_ as a political organization, a state within the state. In 1628 _Roch.e.l.le_, the last of their towns, fell into his hands. He was determined to make the civil authority supreme. He resisted interference with its rights on the part of the Church. The n.o.bles were reduced to obedience by the infliction of severe punishments. The common people were kept under. But the domestic government of _Richelieu_ made it possible for the selfish and ruinous policy of _Louis XIV._ to arise. The key of his foreign policy was hostility to _Austria_ and _Spain_, to both branches of the Hapsburgs. Before he took active measures against them, he had to procure quiet in France, and to provide himself with money and troops.

INTERVENTION OF RICHELIEU.--The pretext of _Richelieu_ for taking part in the German war was the alleged ambitious aim of the _Hapsburgs_ to destroy the independence of other nations. He helped _Gustavus_ with money; but the Swedish king would neither allow him to take territory, nor to dictate the method of prosecuting the contest. It was agreed that the Catholic religion as such should not be attacked. _Oxenstiern_, the Swedish chancelor, in the _Heilbronn Treaty_ (1633) adhered to the same policy.

DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN.--_Wallenstein_ had now become dangerous to the emperor. He negotiated with the Protestants, the Swedes, and the French, possibly to confront the emperor with the accomplished fact of peace and to claim as a reward the _Palatinate_ or the _Kingdom of Bohemia_. Deprived of his command and declared a traitor, he was a.s.sa.s.sinated by some of his officers (1634).

END OF THE WAR.--The imperial victory of _Nordlingen_ (1634) made the active a.s.sistance of France necessary. But it was not until the death of _Bernard_ of Weimar, the foremost general of the Germans (1639), that _Richelieu_ found himself at the goal of his efforts. The armies opposed to the emperor were now under the control of the French. The character of the war had changed. Protestant states were fighting on the imperial side: the old theological issues were largely forgotten. Yet the Court of Vienna still clung to the Edict of Rest.i.tution (p. 424) for eight long years, during which the confused, frightful warfare was kept up. At last the military reverses of the emperor, _Ferdinand III_. (1637-1657), who, unlike his father, was not indisposed to peace, wrung from him a consent to the necessary conditions.

EFFECTS OF THE WAR.--The barbarities of this long war are indescribable. The unarmed people were treated with brutal ferocity. The population of Germany is said to have diminished in thirty years from twenty to fifty per cent. The population of one city, Augsburg, fell from eighty to eighteen thousand. There were four hundred thousand people in _Wurtemberg_: in 1641 only forty-eight thousand were left. In fertile districts, the destruction of the crops had caused great numbers to perish by famine. It is only in recent years that the number of horned cattle in Germany has come to equal what it was in 1618. Cities, villages, castles, and dwellings innumerable, had been burned to the ground.

THE PEACE OF WESTPHALIA.--The Peace of Westphalia, concluded in 1648, was a great European settlement. It was agreed, that in _Germany_, whatever might be the faith of the prince, the religion of each state was to be Catholic or Protestant, according to its position in 1624, which was fixed upon as the "normal year." In the imperial administration, the two religions were to be substantially equal. Religious freedom and civil equality were extended to the Calvinists. The _empire_ was reduced to a shadow by giving to the _Diet_ the power to decide in all important matters, and by the permission given to its members to make alliances with one another and with foreign powers, with the futile proviso that no prejudice should come thereby to the empire or the emperor. The independence of _Holland_ and _Switzerland_ was acknowledged. _Sweden_ obtained the territory about the Baltic, in addition to other important places, and became a member of the German Diet. Among the acquisitions of _France_ were the three bishoprics, _Metz_, _Toul_, and _Verdun_, and the landgraviate of _Upper_ and _Lower Alsace_. Thus _France_ gained access to the Rhine. _Sweden_ and _France_, by becoming guarantors of the peace, obtained the right to interfere in the internal affairs of Germany.

CONSEQUENCES OF THE TREATY.--By this treaty, what was left of central authority in Germany was destroyed: the empire existed only in name; the mediaeval union of empire and papacy was at an end. Valuable German territories were given up to ambitious neighbors. _France_ had extended her bounds, and disciplined her troops. _Sweden_ had gained what _Gustavus_ had coveted, and, for the time, was a power of the first cla.s.s. _Spain_ and _Austria_ were both disabled, and reduced in rank.

CHAPTER VIII. SECOND STAGE OF THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND: TO THE DEATH OF ELIZABETH (1547-1603).

REIGN OF EDWARD VI. (1547-1553).--_Henry VIII_., with Parliament, had determined the order of succession, giving precedence to _Edward_, his son by _Jane Seymour_, over the two princesses, _Mary_, the daughter of _Catherine_, and _Elizabeth_, the daughter of _Anne Boleyn_. _Edward VI_., who was but ten years old at his accession, was weak in body, but was a most remarkable instance of intellectual precocity. The government now espoused the Protestant side. _Somerset_, the king's uncle, was at the head of the regency. The _Six Articles_ (p. 407) were repealed. Protestant theologians from the Continent were taken into the counsels of the English prelates, _Cranmer_ and _Ridley_. Under the leadership of _Cranmer_, the Book of Common Prayer was framed, and the _Articles_, or creed, composed. The clergy were allowed to marry. The Anglican Protestant Church was fully organized, but the progress in the Protestant direction was rather too rapid for the sense of the nation. _Somerset_, who was fertile in schemes and a good soldier, invaded Scotland in order to enforce the fulfilling of the treaty which had promised the young Princess _Mary_ of Scotland to _Edward_ in marriage. He defeated the Scots at _Pinkie_, near Edinburgh; but the project as to the marriage failed. _Mary_ was sent by the Scots to France, there to become the wife of _Francis II_. Land belonging to the Church was seized by _Somerset_ to make room for _Somerset House_. A Catholic rebellion in Cornwall and Devonshire, provoked by the Protector's course, was suppressed with difficulty. The opposition to him on various grounds, which was led by the _Duke of Northumberland_, finally brought the Protector to the scaffold. But _Northumberland_ proved to be less worthy to hold the protectorate than he, and labored to aggrandize his relatives. He was one of the n.o.bles who made use of Protestantism as a means of enriching themselves. He persuaded the young king, when he was near his end, to settle the crown, contrary to what Parliament had determined, on _Lady Jane Grey_, Northumberland's daughter-in-law, a descendant of _Henry's_ sister.

THE REIGN OF MARY.--Notwithstanding the Protector's selfish scheme, _Mary_ succeeded to the throne without serious difficulty.

_Northumberland_ was beheaded as a traitor. An insurrection under _Wyat_ was put down, and led to the execution of the unfortunate and innocent _Lady Jane Grey_. From her birth and all the circ.u.mstances of her life, _Mary_ was in cordial sympathy with the Church of Rome and with Spain. She proceeded as rapidly as her more prudent advisers, including her kinsman _Philip II._, would allow, to restore the Catholic system. The married clergy were excluded from their places, and the Prayer-Book was abolished. The point where Parliament showed most hesitation was in reference to the royal supremacy. The n.o.bles were afraid of losing their fields and houses, which had belonged to the Church. It was stipulated that the abbey lands, which were now held by the n.o.bles and gentry as well as by the crown, should not be given up. Personally, _Mary_ was inclined to any measure which obligation to the Catholic religion might dictate. Contrary to the general wish of her subjects, she married _Philip II_. Rigorous measures of repression were adopted against the Protestants. A large number of persons, eminent for talents and learning, were put to death on the charge of heresy. Among them were the three bishops, _Cranmer_, _Ridley_, and _Latimer_, who were burned at the stake at Oxford (1556). _Gardiner_, _Bonner_, and the rigid advocates of persecution, had full sway. These severe measures were not popular; and, although the queen was not in her natural temper cruel, they have given her the name of the "b.l.o.o.d.y Mary." Each party used coercion when it had the upper hand. A great number of the Protestant clergy fled to the Continent. _Mary_ sided with Spain against France, and, greatly to the disgust of the English, lost _Calais_ (1558). Pope _Paul IV._ was disposed to press upon England the extreme demands of the Catholic Reaction. He was, moreover, hostile to the Spanish-Austrian house. There was great fear respecting the confiscated Church property: her own share in it, the queen persuaded Parliament to allow her to surrender. Cardinal _Pole_, a moderate man, no longer guided her policy. He was deprived of the office of papal legate. General discontent prevailed in the kingdom. The queen herself was dispirited, and her life ended in anxiety and sorrow.

CHARACTER OF ELIZABETH (1558-1603).--The nation welcomed Elizabeth to the throne. Her will was as imperious as that of her father. Her character was not without marked faults and foibles. She was vain, unwisely parsimonious, petulant, and overbearing, and evinced that want of truthfulness which was too common among rulers and statesmen at that period. But she had regal virtues,--high courage, devotion to the public good, for which she had the strength to sacrifice personal inclinations, together with the wisdom to choose astute counselors and to adhere to them. Her t.i.tle to the throne was disputed. She had to contend against powerful and subtle adversaries. Her defense lay in the mutual jealousy of France and Spain, and in the determination of Englishmen not to be ruled by foreigners. Her reign was long and glorious.

HER RELIGIOUS POSITION.--In her doctrine, _Elizabeth_ was a moderate Lutheran, not bitterly averse to the Church of Rome, but, in accordance with the prevalent English feeling which _Henry VIII_. represented, clinging to the royal supremacy. The Protestant system, with the Prayer-Book, and the hierarchy dependent on the sovereign, was now restored.

PROTESTANTISM IN SCOTLAND.--In case _Elizabeth's_ claim to the crown were overthrown, the next heir would be _Mary, Queen of Scots_. Her grandmother was the eldest sister of Henry VIII. Her claim to the English crown was a standing menace to _Elizabeth_.

When _Mary's_ father, _James V_., died (1542), she was only a few days old. Her mother, _Mary of Guise_, became regent. The Reformation had then begun to gain adherents in Scotland. On the accession of _Elizabeth_, at a time when the religious wars in France were about to begin, the Scottish regent undertook repressive measures of increased rigor. The princ.i.p.al agent in turning Scotland to the Protestant side was _John Knox_, an intrepid preacher, honest, and rough in his ways, deeply imbued with the spirit of Calvinism, and free from every vestige of superst.i.tious deference for human potentates. He returned from the Continent in 1555. Many of the turbulent n.o.bles, partly from conviction and partly from covetousness, adopted the new opinions. More and more, however, _Knox_ gained a hold upon the common people. His preaching was effective: one of its natural consequences was an outburst of iconoclasm. Even _Philip II_. was willing to have the n.o.bles helped in the contest with the regent, Scotland being the ally of _France_. The queen-regent died in 1560. The Presbyterians now had full control, and Calvinistic Protestantism was legally established as the religion of the country.

THE QUEEN OF SCOTS.--Such was the situation when _Mary_, the young widow of _Francis II._, came back to Scotland to a.s.sume her crown. A zealous Catholic, she undertook to rule a turbulent people among whom the most austere type of Protestantism was the legal and cherished faith. She had personal charms which _Elizabeth_ lacked, but as a sovereign she was wanting in the public virtue which belonged to her rival. _Mary_ was quick-witted and full of energy; but she had been brought up in the court of _Catherine de Medici_, in an atmosphere of duplicity and lax morals. She had the vices of the _Stuarts_,--an extravagant idea of the sacred prerogatives of kings, a disregard of popular rights, a willingness to break engagements. Her levity, even if it had been kept within bounds, would have been offensive to her Calvinistic subjects. She had at heart the restoration of the Catholic system. In _Knox_ she found a vigilant and fearless antagonist, with so much support among the n.o.bles and the common people that her attempts at coercion, like her blandishments, proved powerless. Contrary to the wishes and plans of _Elizabeth_, she married _Darnley_, a Scottish n.o.bleman (1565), whom, not without reason, she soon learned to despise. Her half-brother _Murray_, a very able man, and the other Protestant n.o.bles, had been opposed to the match. She allowed herself an innocent, but unseemly, intimacy with an Italian musician, _Rizzio_. With the connivance of her husband, he was dragged out of her supper-room at Holyrood, and brutally murdered by _Ruthven_ and other conspirators. In 1567, the house in which Darnley was sleeping, close by Edinburgh, was blown up with gunpowder, and he was killed. Whether _Mary_ was privy to the murder, or not, is a point still in dispute. Certain it is that she gave her hand in marriage to _Bothwell_, the prime author of the crime. A revolt of her subjects followed. She was compelled to abdicate: _Murray_ was made regent, and her infant son, _James VI._, was crowned at Stirling (1567). Escaping from confinement at _Lochleven_, she was defeated at _Langside_, and obliged to fly to England for protection.

EXECUTION OF MARY.--Elizabeth had no liking for the new religious system in Scotland. She hated the necessity of aiding rebels against their sovereign. But there was no alternative. In 1569 the defeat of the Huguenots in France was followed by a Catholic rebellion in the North of England. Elizabeth was excommunicated by Pope _Pius V_. There was a determination to dethrone her, and to hand over her crown to Mary. The drift of events was towards a conflict of England with _Spain_. The Duke of _Norfolk_, a leader in conspiracy and rebellion, who acted in concert with _Philip_ and with _Mary_, was brought to the scaffold (1572). _Elizabeth_ secretly aided the revolted subjects of _Philip_ in the Netherlands, as _Philip_ encouraged the malcontents in England and Ireland. The Queen of Scots was the center of the hopes of the enemies of England and of _Elizabeth_. When her complicity in the conspiracy of _Babington_, which involved a Spanish invasion and the dethronement and death of Elizabeth, was proved, _Mary_, after having been a captive for nineteen years, was condemned to death, and executed (1587) at Fotheringay Castle.

THE SPANISH ARMADA.--In 1585 Elizabeth openly sent troops to the Netherlands under the command of her favorite, _Leicester_. The contest with Spain was kept up on the sea by bold English mariners, who captured the Spanish treasure-ships, and hara.s.sed the Spanish colonies. It was a period of maritime adventure, when men like _Frobisher_, _Hawkins_, and _Raleigh_ made themselves famous, and when _Sir Francis Drake_ sailed around the world. In the course of this voyage, Drake had seized from the Spanish vessels, and from the settlements on the coast of Peru and Chili, a vast amount of silver and gold. When it was known that _Philip_ was preparing to invade England, Drake sailed into the harbor of _Cadiz_, and destroyed the ships and stores there (1587). He burned every Spanish vessel that he could find. He boasted on his return that he had "singed the king of Spain's beard." _Philip_ made ready a mighty naval expedition, the "Invincible Armada," for the conquest of England. The fame of it resounded through Europe. A Spanish force in the Netherlands, under _Parma_, was to cooperate with it. In _England_, there were preparations to meet the attack. Catholics and Protestants were united for the defense of the kingdom. At _Tilbury_, Queen _Elizabeth_ reviewed her troops on horseback, saying to them in a spirited speech, "I know I have the body but of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and of a king of England too." The tempest, aiding the valor of the English seamen, dispersed the great fleet. No landing was effected, and the grand enterprise proved a complete failure. Only fifty-four out of the one hundred and fifty vessels succeeded in making their way back to Spain.

MONOPOLIES.--The queen knew how to yield to the people when she saw that they were determined upon a measure. This she did near the close of her reign, when the Commons called upon her to put an end to the monopolies which she had been in the habit of granting to individuals whom she specially liked.

THE EARL OF ESs.e.x.--The queen had her personal favorites. Among them, _Robert Dudley_, whom she made the Earl of Leicester, was the one of whom she was most fond. She esteemed him much above his merits.

Another of her favorites was the young _Earl of Ess.e.x_, who was vain and ambitious. He went in 1596 with _Lord Howard_ in an expedition which took and plundered _Cadiz_. Then he was sent to Ireland in command of an army. He failed, and came back to England without leave. He made a foolish attempt at insurrection, was tried for treason, and convicted; and Elizabeth reluctantly signed the warrant for his execution (1601).

CONQUEST OF IRELAND.--After the return of _Ess.e.x_ from Ireland, where he had done nothing well, _Lord Mountjoy_ was sent to conquer _Tyrone_, the _Desmonds_, and other Irish chiefs. It was a long and fierce contest. He succeeded in subduing the country; but the effect of his conquest was a terrible famine in the North, where the food had been destroyed. At the end of Elizabeth's reign, all Ireland was subject to England.

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