While Elizabeth was engaged in plotting the destruc tion of her rival, she was carrying on a treaty of mar riage with the young Duke of Anjou ; and, after long struggling between ambition and inclination, she was on the point of yielding to the latter, and of subject ing herself and her people to a foreign and a Catholic prince, when all her favourite attendants and ministers united in deprecating so imprudent an alliance. A let ter, particularly written to her on the subject by the celebrated Sir Philip Sydney, and distinguished by un usual elegance of expression, as well as force of rea soning, is understood to have roused her to reflection ; and, after spending several nights in restless anxiety, she finally determined against the match, and dismissed her lover, with proper apologies for her breach of en gagement.
While Philip of Spain had been actively intriguing with the malecontents in England and Ireland in the cause of the Queen of Scots and of the Catholics, Eliza beth had been rendering powerful aid to the insurgents against his authority in the Low Countries. In retalia tion for this interference, he sent, under the name of the pope, a body of 700 Spaniards and Italians into Ireland, where the inhabitants, discontented with the English go vernment, were ready to join any invader; but by the ac tive measures of the Earl of Ormond, they were soon re duced to the necessity of surrendering at discretion. The queen of England, on the other hand, countenanced the predatory attacks of Sir Francis Drake upon the Spanish settlements in South America; and, by those mutual ag gravations, the two nations were at length brought to an open rupture. Elizabeth, in the view of an approaching war with so powerful an antagonist, concluded a league of mutual defence with the king of Scotland ; and hear ing that Philip was secretly preparing an immense fleet for the invasion of her kingdom, she resolved to strike the first blow, and to brave his boasted naval force in his own harbours. Sir Francis Drake was immediately despatched with a strong squadron, which the London merchants had assisted to equip, in the hopes of sharing the plunder ; and, sailing direct to Cadiz, he destroyed about a hundred vessels laden with ammunition and stores. By this short expedition, the intended invasion of England was retarded a whole twelvemonth ; and the English seamen were taught to despise those unwieldy vessels of the enemy, which were threatening to spread terror along their coasts. The preparations of Philip, who meditated nothing short of the entire conquest of England, were carried on with redoubled vigour ; and the Spaniards, confident of success, had already denomi nated their navy the Invincible ?irmada. Elizabeth, on her part, exerted her utmost prudence and vigour to re sist the danger with which she was threatened; and em ployed all the resources which her domestic situation, or her foreign alliances, could afford. By all the Pro testants of Europe, the entarprize was considered as de cisive of their fate; and those who could give no assis tance, contemplated, with anxious interest, the approach ing struggle. The people of England, animated by the spirited example of their sovereign, manifested the most determined resolution to defend their religion and their liberties; and even the Catholic subjects, treated by the queen with generous moderation, forgetting for the pre sent all party concerns, united with one heart in defence of the common cause. The armada at length set sail
from Lisbon, and entered the Channel in the form of a crescent, which extended its two extremities to the dis tance of seven miles; but, completely baffled in its first attempts by the skill and courage of the English navy, gradually weakened by their daring and repeated at tacks, and finally overtaken by a dreadful storm when passing the Orkneys, this mighty armament was so ut terly discomfited, that not one half of its ships returned to Spain, and nothing but want of ammunition in the English fleet saved it from total destruction : (See the article ARMADA) This defeat of the armada inspired the English nation with a kind of enthusiastic passion for enterprizes against Spain ; and scarcely a single year was suffered to elapse without some successful attack being directed against the dominions of Philip. In 596, particularly, a powerful expedition was fitted out against Cadiz, which defeated the Spanish fleet in the hay, took the city by storm, and destroyed in the har bour a fleet of merchant ships of immense value. It was in this reign, and by these enterprizes, that the English navy began to acquire that irresistible superio rity which it has never ceased to maintain, and that many of its most able and adventurous commanders %%ere produced. In this reign, also, notwithstanding the imperious character of the sovereign, the spirit of liberty, following the progress of reformation in reli gion, presumed to show itself in the proceedings of the English parliament. Elizabeth, indeed, was sufficiently tenacious of all her prerogatives, and frequently exerci sed them with a degree of despotism unequalled by many of her prefleeeccorc. She repeatedly discharged the House of Commons from discussing, without her permission, any matters relating either to the church or the state ; defined their liberty of speech to extend no farther than aye or no; and, without hesitation, com mitted to the Tower every member who presumed to press any topic contrary to her wishes. But amidst the tamest submissions and most fulsome flatteries from successive parliaments, a few resolute individuals, (who have generally been branded with the contemptuous name of Puritans, while they deserve to be revered as the Fathers of British freedom,) persisted, without dis may, in assailing public grievances, and asserting par liamentary privileges, whenever they could procure the smallest support ; and so far at length did their spi rit and numbers increase, that, in the last parliament which Elizabeth assembled, she found it necessary, while she held the most absolute tone in her messages, to abandon, in a great measure, the oppressive system of monopolies, which she was accustomed to grant as rewards to her courtiers, and which the Commons had brought in a bill to abolish.