A Student's History of England Volume II Part 6

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Spanish Armada. Fight between the English and Spanish fleets off the Isle of Wight, July 25, 1588: from tapestry formerly in the House of Lords.]

5. =The Defeat of the Armada. 1588.=--When the Armada was sighted at the mouth of the Channel, the English commander was playing bowls with his captains on Plymouth Hoe. Drake refused to break off his amus.e.m.e.nt, saying that there was time to finish the game and to beat the Spaniards too. The wind was blowing strongly from the south-west, and he recommended Lord Howard to let the Spaniards pa.s.s, that the English fleet might follow them up with the wind behind it. When once they had gone by they were at the mercy of their English pursuers, who kept out of their way whenever the Spaniards turned in pursuit. The superiority of the English gunnery soon told, and, after losing ships in the voyage up the Channel, the Armada put into Calais. The English captains sent in fire-ships and drove the Spaniards out. Then came a fight off Gravelines--if fight it could be called--in which the helpless ma.s.s of the Armada was riddled with English shot. The wind rose into a storm, and pursuers and pursued were driven on past the coast of Flanders, where Parma's soldiers were blockaded by a Dutch fleet. Parma had hoped that the Armada when it came would set him free, and convoy him across to England. As he saw the tall ships of Spain hurrying past before the enemy and the storm, he learnt that the enterprise on which he had set his heart could never be carried out.

6. =The Destruction of the Armada. 1588.=--The Spanish fleet was driven northwards without hope of return, and narrowly escaped wreck on the flats of Holland. "There was never anything pleased me better," wrote Drake, as he followed hard, "than seeing the enemy flying with a southerly wind to the northwards.... With the grace of G.o.d, if we live, I doubt not, ere it be long, so to handle the matter with the Duke of Sidonia as he shall wish himself at St. Mary Port[19] amongst his orange trees." Before long even Drake had had enough. Elizabeth, having with her usual economy kept the ships short of powder, they were forced to come back. The Spaniards had been too roughly handled to return home by the way they came. Round the north of Scotland and the west of Ireland they went, strewing the coast with wrecks. About 120 of their ships had entered the Channel, but only 54 returned. "I sent you," said Philip to his admiral, "to fight against men, and not with the winds." Elizabeth, too, credited the storms with her success. She struck a medal with the inscription, "G.o.d blew with his wind and they were scattered."

The winds had done their part, but the victory was mainly due to the seamanship of English mariners and the skill of English shipwrights.

[Footnote 19: A place near Cadiz where the Duke's residence was.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sir Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) and his eldest son Walter, at the age of eight: from a picture, dated 1602, belonging to Sir J. F. Lennard, Bart.]

7. =Philip II. and France. 1588-1593.=--Philip's hopes of controlling France were before long baffled as completely as his hopes of controlling England. In =1588= Guise, the partisan of Spain, was murdered at Blois by the order of the king in his very presence. In =1589= Henry III. was murdered in revenge by a fanatic, and the Huguenot king of Navarre claimed the crown as Henry IV. The League declared that no Huguenot should reign in France. A struggle ensued, and twice when Henry seemed to be gaining the upper hand Philip sent Parma to aid the League. The feeling of the French people was against a Huguenot king, but it was also against Spanish interference. When in =1593= Henry IV. declared himself a Catholic, Paris cheerfully submitted to him, and its example was speedily followed by the rest of France. Elizabeth saw in Henry IV. a king whose position as a national sovereign resisting Spanish interference much resembled her own, and in =1589= and again in =1591= she sent him men and money. A close alliance against Spain sprang up between France and England.

8. =Maritime Enterprises. 1589-1596.=--It was chiefly at sea, however, that Englishmen revenged themselves for the attack of the Armada. In =1592= Drake and Sir John Norris sacked Corunna but failed to take Lisbon. Other less notable sailors plundered and destroyed in the West Indies. In =1595= Drake died at sea. In the same year Sir Walter Raleigh, who was alike distinguished as a courtier, a soldier, and a sailor, sailed up the Orinoco in search of wealth. In =1596= Raleigh, together with Lord Howard of Effingham and the young Earl of Ess.e.x, who was in high favour with the Queen, took and sacked Cadiz. Ess.e.x was generous and impetuous, but intensely vain, and the victory was followed by a squabble between the commanders as to their respective merits.

9. =Increasing Prosperity.=--It was not so much the victories as the energy which made the victories possible that diffused wealth and prosperity over England. Trade grew together with piracy and war.

Manufactures increased, and the manufacturers growing in numbers needed to be fed. Landed proprietors, in consequence, found it profitable to grow corn instead of turning their arable lands into pasture, as they had done at the beginning of the century. The complaints about inclosures (see pp. 368, 415) died away. The results of wealth appeared in the show and splendour of the court, where men decked themselves in gorgeous attire, but still more in the gradual rise of the general standard of comfort.

10. =Buildings.=--Even in Mary's days the good food of Englishmen had been the wonder of foreigners. "These English," said a Spaniard, "have their houses of sticks and dirt, but they fare commonly as well as the king." In Elizabeth's time the houses were improved.

Many windows, which had, except in the houses of the great, been guarded with horn or lattice, were now glazed, and even in the mansions of the n.o.bility large windows stood in striking contrast with the narrow openings of the buildings of the middle ages. Gla.s.s was welcome, because men no longer lived--as they had lived in the days when internal wars were frequent--in fortified castles, where, for the sake of defence, the openings were narrow and infrequent.

Elizabethan manor-houses, as they are now termed, sometimes built in the shape of the letter E, in honour, as is sometimes supposed, of the Queen's name, rose all over the country to take the place of the old castles. They had chimneys to carry off the smoke, which, in former days, had, in all but the largest houses, been allowed to escape through a hole in the roof. See pp. 466, 467, 469-471.

[Ill.u.s.tration: A mounted soldier at the end of the sixteenth century: from a broadside printed in 1596.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Wollaton Hall, Nottinghamshire; built by Thorpe for Sir Francis Willoughby about 1580-1588.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire; built by Elizabeth, Countess of Shrewsbury, about 1597.]

11. =Furniture.=--The furniture within the houses underwent a change as great as the houses themselves. When Elizabeth came to the throne people of the middle cla.s.s were content to lie on a straw pallet, with a log of wood, or at the best a bag of chaff, under their heads. It was a common saying that pillows were fit only for sick women. Before many years had pa.s.sed comfortable bedding had been introduced. Pewter platters and tin spoons replaced wooden ones.

Along with these improvements was noticed a universal chase after wealth, and farmers complained that landlords not only exacted higher rents, but themselves engaged in the sale of the produce of their lands.

12. =Growing Strength of the House of Commons.=--This increase of general prosperity could not but strengthen the House of Commons. It was mainly composed of country gentlemen, and it had been the policy of the Tudors to rely upon that cla.s.s as a counterpoise to the old n.o.bility. Many of the country gentlemen were employed as Justices of the Peace, and Elizabeth had gladly increased their powers. When, therefore, they came to fulfil their duties as members of Parliament, they were not mere talkers unacquainted with business, but practical men, who had been used to deal with their own local affairs before being called on to discuss the affairs of the country. Various causes made their opinions more important as the reign went on. In the first place, the national uprising against Spain drew with it a rapid increase of Protestantism in the younger generation, and, for this reason, the House of Commons, which, at the beginning of the reign, represented only a Protestant minority in the nation itself (see p. 428), at the end of the reign represented a Protestant majority, and gained strength in consequence. In the second place, Puritanism tended to develop independence of character, whilst the queen was not only unable to overawe the Puritan members of the House, but, unlike her father, had no means of keeping the more worldly-minded in submission by the distribution of abbey lands.

[Ill.u.s.tration: E-shaped house, Beaudesert, Staffordshire; built by Thomas, Lord Paget, about 1601.]

13. =Archbishop Whitgift and the Court of High Commission.

1583.=--The Jesuit attack in =1580= and =1581= strengthened the queen's resolution to put an end to the divisions which weakened the English Church, as she was still afraid lest Puritanism, if unchecked, might give offence to her more moderately-minded subjects and drive them into the arms of the Papacy. In =1583=, on Grindal's death, she appointed to the Archbishopric of Canterbury Whitgift, who had taken a leading part in opposing Cartwright (see p. 446).

Whitgift held that as questions about vestments and ceremonies were unimportant, the queen's pleasure in such matters ought to be the rule of the Church. He was, however, a strict disciplinarian, and he was as anxious as the queen to force into conformity those clergy who broke the unity of the Church for the sake of what he regarded as mere crotchets of their own, especially as some of them were violent a.s.sailants of the established order. In virtue of a clause in the Act of Supremacy, pa.s.sed in =1559=, the queen had in that year erected a Court of High Commission. Though many laymen were members of this court, they seldom attended its sittings, and it was practically managed by bishops and ecclesiastical lawyers. Its business was to enforce conformity on the clergy, and now under Whitgift it acted most energetically, sitting permanently, and driving from their livings and committing to prison clergymen who refused to conform.

14. =The House of Commons and Puritanism. 1584.=--The severity of the High Commission roused some of the Puritan clergy to attempt--in private meetings--to bring into existence something of the system of Presbyterianism, but the attempt was soon abandoned. Few amongst the Protestant laity had any liking for Presbyterianism, which they regarded as oppressive and intolerant, and it had no deep roots even amongst the Puritan clergy. If many members of the House of Commons were attracted to Puritanism, as opposed to Presbyterianism, it was partly because at the time of a national struggle against Rome, they preferred those amongst the clergy whose views were most antagonistic to those of Rome; but still more because they admired the Puritans as defenders of morality. Not only were the Church courts oppressive and meddlesome, but plain men were disgusted at a system in which ignorant and lazy ministers who conformed to the Prayer Book were left untouched, whilst able and energetic preachers who refused to adopt its ceremonies were silenced.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ingestre Hall, Staffordshire; built about 1601.]

15. =The Separatists.=--The desire for a higher standard of morality, which made so many support the Puritan demand for a further reformation of the Church, drove others to denounce the Church as apostate. Robert Browne, a clergyman, was the first to declare in favour of a system which was neither Episcopal nor Presbyterian. He held it to be the duty of all true Christians to separate themselves from the Church, and to form congregations apart, to which only those whose religion and morality were beyond question should be admitted. These separatists, as they called themselves, were known as Brownists in common speech. Unfortunately their zeal made them uncharitably contemptuous of those who were less zealous than themselves, and it was from amongst them that there came forth--beginning in =1588=--a series of virulent and libellous attacks on the bishops, known as the Marprelate Tracts, printed anonymously at a secret press. Browne and his followers advocated complete religious liberty--denying the right of the State to interfere with the conscience. The doctrine was too advanced for general acceptance, and the violence of the Marprelate Tracts gave offence even to the Puritans. Englishmen might differ as to what sort of church the national church should be, but almost all were as yet agreed that there ought to be one national church and not a number of disconnected sects. In =1593= an act of Parliament was pa.s.sed imposing punishment on those who attended conventicles or private religious a.s.semblies, and in the course of the year three of the leading separatists--Barrow, Greenwood, and Penry--were hanged, on charges of sedition.

16. =Whitgift and Hooker.=--The Church of England would certainly not have sustained itself against the Puritans unless it had found a champion of a higher order than Whitgift. Whitgift maintained its organisation, but he did no more. Cranmer, at the beginning of the Reformation, had declared the Bible as interpreted by the writers of the first six centuries to be the test of doctrine, but this a.s.sertion had been met during the greater part of Elizabeth's reign, on the one hand by the Catholics, who a.s.serted that the Church of the first six centuries differed much from the Church of England of their day, and on the other hand by the Puritans, who a.s.serted that the testimony of the first six centuries was irrelevant, and that the Bible alone was to be consulted. Whitgift had called both parties to obedience, on the ground that they ought to submit to the queen in indifferent matters. Hooker in the opening of his _Ecclesiastical Polity_ called the Puritans to peace. "This unhappy controversy," he declared, "about the received ceremonies and discipline of the Church of England, which hath so long time withdrawn so many of her ministers from their princ.i.p.al work and employed their studies in contentious oppositions, hath, by the unnatural growth and dangerous fruits thereof, made known to the world that it never received blessing from the Father of peace."

Hooker's teaching was distinguished by the importance which he a.s.signed to 'law,' as against the blind acceptance of Papal decisions on the one side and against the Puritan reverence for the letter of the scriptures on the other. The Puritans were wrong, as he taught, not because they disobeyed the queen, but because they did not recognise that G.o.d revealed Himself in the natural laws of the world as well as in the letter of Scripture. "Of law," he wrote, "there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of G.o.d, her voice the harmony of the world: all things in heaven and earth do her homage--the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power: both angels and men and creatures of what condition soever--though each in different sort and manner, yet all with universal consent--admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy." It was therefore unnecessary, according to Hooker's teaching, to defend certain usages on the ground of their sanction by tradition or by Papal authority, as it was unreasonable to attack them on the ground that they were not mentioned in Scripture. It was sufficient that they were fitting expressions of the feelings of reverence which had been implanted by G.o.d in human nature itself.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Coaches in the reign of Elizabeth: from _Archaeologia_.]

17. =Spenser, Shakspere, and Bacon.=--With the stately periods of Hooker English prose entered on a new stage. For the first time it sought to charm and to invigorate, as well as to inform the world.

In Spenser and Shakspere are to be discerned the same influences as those which made Hooker great. They, too, are filled with reverence for the reign of law. Spenser, in his _Faerie Queen_, set forth the greatness of man in following the laws which rule the moral world--the laws of purity and temperance and justice; whilst Shakspere, in the plays which he now began to pour forth, taught them to recognise the penalties which follow hard on him who disregards not only the moral but also the physical laws of the world in which he lives, and to appraise the worth of man by what he is and not by the dogmas which he accepts. That nothing might be wanting to point out the ways in which future generations were to walk, young Francis Bacon began to dream of a larger science than had hitherto been possible--a science based on a reverent inquiry into the laws of nature.

[Ill.u.s.tration: William Shakspere: from the bust on his tomb at Stratford-on-Avon.]

18. =Condition of the Catholics. 1588-1603.=--Bacon cared for many matters, and one of his earliest recommendations to Elizabeth had been to make a distinction between the Catholics who would take an oath to defend her against all enemies and those who would not. The patriotism with which many Catholics had taken her side when the Armada appeared ought to have procured the acceptance of this proposal. It is seldom, however, that either men or nations change their ways till long after the time when they ought to change them.

Spain and the Pope still threatened, and all Catholics were still treated as allies of Spain and the Pope, and the laws against them were made even more severe during the remainder of the reign.

19. =Irish Difficulties. 1583-1594.=--The dread of a renewal of a Spanish invasion was productive of even greater mischief in Ireland than in England. After the suppression of the Desmond insurrection, an attempt was made to colonise the desolate lands of Munster (see p. 453) with English. The attempt failed, chiefly because--though courtiers willingly accepted large grants of lands--English farmers refused to go to Ireland in sufficient numbers to till the soil. On the other hand, Irishmen enough reappeared to claim their old lands, to rob, and sometimes murder, the few settlers who came from England. The settlers retaliated by acts of violence. All over Ireland the soldiers, left without pay, spoiled and maltreated the unfortunate inhabitants. The Irish, exasperated by their cruelty, longed for someone to take up their cause, and in =1594= a rising in Ulster was headed by Hugh O'Neill, known in England as the Earl of Tyrone. How bitter the Irish feeling was against England is shown by the fact that the other Ulster chiefs, who usually quarrelled with one another, now placed themselves under O'Neill.

20. =O'Neill and the Earl of Ess.e.x. 1595-1600.=--In =1595= O'Neill applied to the king of Spain for help; but Spain was weaker now than in former years, and though Philip promised help, he died in =1598= without fulfilling his engagement, being succeeded by his son, Philip III. In the same year O'Neill utterly defeated an English army under Bagenal on the Blackwater. All Celtic Ireland rose in his support, and in =1599= Elizabeth sent her favourite, Ess.e.x, to conquer Ireland in good earnest, lest it should fall into the hands of the king of Spain. Ess.e.x, through mismanagement, failed entirely, and after a great part of his army had melted away he came back to England without leave. On his arrival, knowing Elizabeth's fondness for him, he hoped to surprise her into forgiveness of his disobedience, and rushed into Elizabeth's presence in his muddy and travel-stained clothes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Robert Devereux, second Earl of Ess.e.x, K.G.; 1567-1601: from a painting by Van Somer, dated 1599, belonging to the Earl of Ess.e.x.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Queen Elizabeth, 1558-1603: from a painting belonging to the University of Cambridge.]

21. =Ess.e.x's Imprisonment and Execution. 1599-1601.=--The queen, who was not accustomed to allow even her favourites to run away from their posts without permission, ordered him into confinement. In =1600=, indeed, she restored him to liberty, but forbade him to come to court. Ess.e.x could not brook the disgrace, especially as the queen made him suffer in his pocket for his misconduct. As she had little money to give away, Elizabeth was in the habit of rewarding her courtiers by grants of monopoly--that is to say, of the sole right of selling certain articles, thus enabling them to make a profit by asking a higher price than they could have got if they had been subjected to compet.i.tion. To Ess.e.x she had given a monopoly of sweet wines for a term of years, and now that the term was at an end she refused to renew the grant. Early in =1601= Ess.e.x--professing not to want to injure the queen, but merely to force her to change her ministers--rode at the head of a few followers into the City, calling on the citizens to rise in his favour. He was promptly arrested, and in the course of the enquiries made into his conduct it was discovered that when he was in Ireland he had entered into treasonable negotiations with James VI. At his trial, Bacon, who had been most kindly treated by Ess.e.x, shocked at the disclosure of these traitorous proceedings, turned against him, and, as a lawyer, argued strongly that he had been guilty. The Earl was convicted and executed.

22. =Mountjoy's Conquest of Ireland. 1600-1603.=--In =1600=, after Ess.e.x had deserted Ireland, Lord Mountjoy was sent to take his place. He completed the conquest systematically, building forts as places of retreat for his soldiers whenever they were attacked by overwhelming numbers, and from which he could send out flying columns to devastate the country after the enemy had retreated. In =1601= a Spanish fleet and a small Spanish army at last arrived to the help of the Irish, and seized Kinsale. The English forces hemmed them in, defeated the Irish army which came to their support, and compelled the Spaniards to withdraw. The horrid work of conquering Ireland by starvation was carried to the end. "No spectacle," wrote Mountjoy's English secretary, "was more frequent in the ditches of the towns, and especially in wasted countries, than to see mult.i.tudes of these poor people dead, with their mouths all coloured green by eating nettles, docks, and all things they could rend up above ground." In one place a band of women enticed little children to come among them, and murdered them for food. At last, in =1603=, O'Neill submitted. Ireland had been conquered by England as it had never been conquered before.

23. =Parliament and the Monopolies. 1601.=--The conquest of Ireland was expensive and in =1601= Elizabeth summoned Parliament to ask for supplies. The House of Commons voted the money cheerfully, but raised an outcry against the monopolies. Elizabeth knew when to give way, and she announced her intention of cancelling all monopolies which could be shown to be burdensome. "I have more cause to thank you all than you me," she said to the Commons when they waited on her to express their grat.i.tude; "for had I not received a knowledge from you, I might have fallen into the lap of an error, only for lack of true information. I have ever used to set the last judgment-day before mine eyes, and so to rule as I shall be judged to answer before a higher Judge--to whose judgment-seat I do appeal, that never thought was cherished in my heart that tended not to my people's good. Though you have had, and may have, many princes, more mighty and wise, sitting in this seat, yet you never had, or ever shall have, any that will be more careful and loving."

[Ill.u.s.tration: William Cecil, Lord Burghley, K.G., 1520-1598: from a painting in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.]

24. =The Last Days of Elizabeth. 1601-1603.=--These were the last words spoken by Elizabeth to her people. She had many faults, but she cared for England, and, more than any one else, she had made England united and prosperous. She had found it distracted, but by her moderation she had staved off civil war, till the country had rallied round the throne. No doubt those who worked most hard towards this great end were men like Burghley and Walsingham in the State, and men like Drake and Raleigh at sea; but it was Elizabeth who, being what she was, had given to each his opportunity. If either Edward VI. or Mary had been in her place, such men would have found no sphere in which their work could have been done, and, instead of telling of 'the s.p.a.cious times of great Elizabeth,' the historian would have had to narrate the progress of civil strife and of the mutual conflict of ever-narrowing creeds. The last days of the great queen were gloomy, as far as she was personally concerned.

Burghley, the wisest of her ministers, died in =1598=. In his last days he had urged the queen to bring to an end the war with Spain, which no longer served any useful purpose; and when Ess.e.x pleaded for its continuance, the aged statesman opened the Bible at the text, "b.l.o.o.d.y and deceitful men shall not live out half their days."

In =1603= Elizabeth herself died at the age of sixty-nine. According to law, the heir to the crown was William Seymour, who, being the son of the Earl of Hertford and Lady Catherine Grey, inherited the claims of the Suffolk line (see pp. 411, 435). There were, however, doubts about his legitimacy, as, though his parents had been married in due form, the ceremony had taken place in private, and it was believed by many that it had never taken place at all. Elizabeth had always refused to allow her heir to be designated; but as death approached she indicated her preference for James, as having claim to the inheritance by descent from her own eldest aunt, Margaret (see p. 411). "My seat," she said, "hath been the seat of kings, and I will have no rascal to succeed me." "And who," she added, "should that be but our cousin of Scotland?"

_Books recommended for further study of Part V._

BREWER, J. S. The Reign of Henry VIII. from his Accession to the Death of Wolsey.

DIXON, CANON R. W. History of the Church of England from the Abolition of the Roman Jurisdiction.

FROUDE, J. A. History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth. Vols, v.-xii.

MOTLEY, J. L. The Rise of the Dutch Republic.

------- The History of the United Netherlands.

MULLINGER, J. B. History of the University of Cambridge. Vol. ii.

STRYPE, J. Annals of the Reformation.

------- Life and Acts of Aylmer.

------- " " Grindal.