It was the struggle with popery that moved and directed nearly the whole policy of the reign, foreign as well as domestic. When Elizabeth came to the throne she found the country at peace with Spain, the head of which kingdom had been her predecessor's husband, but at war with France, the great continental opponent of Spain and the Empire. Philip, with the view of preserving his English alliance, almost immediately after her accession offered himself to Elizabeth in marriage ; but, after deliberating on the proposal, she determined upon declining it, swayed by various considerations, and especially, as it would appear, by the feeling that, by consenting to marry her sister's husband on a dispensation from the pope, she would in a manner be affirming the lawfulness of her father's marriage with Catharine of Aragon, the widow of his brother Arthur, and condemning his subsequent marriage with her own mother, the sole validity of which rested on the alleged illegality of that previous connection. A general peace however, comprehending all the three powers and also Scotland, was established in April 1559, by the treaty of Cateau Cambresis. By this treaty it was agreed that Calais, which had been taken by France in the time of Queen Mary, and formed the only difficult subject of negotiation, should be restored to England in eight years, if no hostile act should he committed by Elizabeth within that period. Scarcely however had this compact been signed when the war was suddenly rekindled, in consequence of the assumption by the new French king, Francis II., of the arms and royal titles of England, in right, as was pretended, of his wife, the young Mary, queen of Scots. Elizabeth instantly resented this act of hostility by sending a body of 5000 troops to Scotland, to act there with the Duke of Chatelherault and the Lords of the Congregation, as the leaders of the Protestant party called themselves, against the government of the queen and her mother, the regent, Mary of Guise. The town of Leith soon yielded to this force; and the French king was speedily compelled both to renounce his wife's pretensions to the English throne and to withdraw his own troops from Scotland, by the treaty of Edinburgh, executed 7th of July 1560. The treaty however never was ratified either by Francis or his queen, and in consequence the relations between the three countries continued in an" unsatisfactory state. Charles IX. succeeded his brother on the throne of France before the end of this year, and in a few months afterwards Mary of Scotland returned to her own country.
Meanwhile, although the two countries continued at peace, Eliza beth's proceedings in regard to the church had wholly alienated Philip of Spain. The whole course of events, and the position which she occupied, had already in fact caused the English queen to be looked upon as the head of the Protestant interest throughout Europe as much as she was at home. When the dispute therefore between the Roman Catholics and the Huguenots, or reformed party, in France came to a contest of arms in 1562, the latter immediately applied for assistance to Elizabeth, who concluded a treaty with them, and sent them succour both in men and money. The war that followed produced no events of importance in so far as England was concerned, and was terminated by a treaty signed at Troyes, 11th of April 1564. A long period followed, during which England preserved in appearance the ordinary relations of peace both with France and Spain, though interferences repeatedly took place on each side that all but amounted to aotual hostilities. The Protestants alike in Scotland, in France, and in the Netherlands'(then subject to the dominion of Philip), regarded Elizabeth as firmly bound to their cause by her own interests; and she on her kepta watchful eye on the religious and political contentions of all these countries, with a view to the maintenance and support of the Protestant party, by every species of countenance and aid short of actually making war in their behalf. With the Protestant government in Scotlaud, which had deposed and imprisoned the queen, she was in open and intimate alliance ; in favour of the French Huguenots she at one time negotiated or threatened, at another even went the length, scarcely with any concealment, of affording them pecuniary assistance ; and when the people of the Netherlands at length rose in revolt against the oppressive government of Philip, although she refused the sovereignty of their country, which they offered to her, she lent them money, and in various other ways openly expressed her sympathy and goodwilL On the other hand, Philip, although he refrained from any declaration of war, and the usual intercourse both commercial and political long went on between the two countries without interruption, was incessant in his endeavours to undermine the throne of the Euglish queen, and the order of things at the head of which she stood, by instigating plots and commotions against her authority within her own domluions. lie attempted to turn to account in this way the Roman Catholic interest, which was still so powerful both in England and in Ireland—the intrigues of the Scottish queen and her partisans materially contributing to the same end.
The history of Mary Stewart and of the affairs of Scotland during her reign and that of her son must be reserved for a separate article.
But it is necessary to observe here, that Mary was not merely the head of the Roman Catholic, party in Scotland, but as the descendant of the eldest daughter of Henry VII., had pretensions to the Euglish crown which were of a very formidable kind. Although she was kept in confinement by the English government after her flight from the bands of her own subjects in 156S, the imprisonment of her person did not extinguish the hopes or put an end to the efforts of her adherents. Repeated rebellions in Ireland, in some instances openly aided by supplies from Spain—the attempt made by the Duke of Alva in 1569, through the agency of Vitelli, to concert with the Roman Catholic party the scheme of an invasion of England—the rising of the Roman Catholics of the northern counties under the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland the same year—the plot of the Duke of Norfolk with Ridolfi in 1571, for which that urger tunate nobleman lost his head—the pieta of Throgmorton and Creichtou in 1584, and of Babington in 15S6—to omit several miner attempts of the same kind—all testified the restless zeal with which the various enemies of the established order of things pursued their common end. Meanwhile however events were tending to a crisis was to put an end to the outward show of friendship that had been so long kept up between parties that were not only fiercely hostile in their hearts, but bad even been constantly working for each other's overthrow behind the thin screen of their professions and courtesies. The Queen of Scots was put to death in 15S7, by an act of which it is easier to defend the mato policy than either the justice or the legality. By this time also, although no Rana) declaration of
war bad yet proceeded either from England or Spain, the cause of the people of the Netherlands had been openly espoused by Elizabeth, whose general, the Earl of Leicester, was now at the head of the troop. of the United Provinces, as the revolted states called them selves. An English fleet at the same time attacked aud ravaged the Spanish settlements in the West Indies. At last, in the summer of 1588, the great Spanish fleet, arrogantly styled the Invincible Armada, sailed for the invasion of England, and, an is noticed below (see the end of this articlej, was in the greater part dashed to pieces on the coasts which it came to assail. From this time hostilities proceeded with more or less activity between the two countries during the remainder of the'reign of Elizabeth. Meanwhile Henri IIL, and after his assassination in 1589 the young King of Navarre, assuming the title of Henri IV., at the head of the Huguenots, had been maintain ing a desperate contest in France with the Duke of Guise and the League. For some years Elizabeth and Philip remained only spec tators of the struggle ; but at length they were both drawn to take a principal part in it. The French war however, in so far as Elizabeth was concerned, must be considered as only another appendage to the war with Spain; it was Philip chiefly, and not the League, that she opposed in France just as m the Netherlands, and formerly in Scotland, it was not the cause of liberty agaiust despotism, or of revolted subjects against their legitimate sovereign, that she sup ported, or even the cause of Protestantism against Roman Catholicism, but her own cause against Philip, her own right to the English throne against his, or that of the competitor with whom he took part. Since the death of Mary of Scotland, Philip professed to consider himself as the rightful king of England, partly on the ground of his descent from John of Gaunt, and partly in consequence of Mary having by her will bequeathed her pretensions to him should her eon persist in remaining a heretic. Henri IV., having previously embraced Catho licism, made peace with Philip by the treaty of Vervins, concluded in May 1598; and the death of Philip followed in September of the same year. But the war between England and Spain was nevertheless still kept up. In 1601 Philip Ill. sent a fares to Ireland, which landed in that country and took the town of Kinsale; and the following year Elizabeth retaliated by fitting out a naval expedition against her adversary, which captured some rich prizes, and otherwise annoyed the Spaniard. Her forces continued to act in conjunction those of the Seven United Provinces both by sea and laud. Elizabeth died on the 24th of March 1603, in the seveutieth year of her age and the forty-fifth of her reign. In the very general account to which we have necessarily confined ourselves of the course of public transactions during the long period of the English annals with which her name is associated, we have omitted all reference to many subordinate particulars, which yet strongly illustrate both her personal conduct and character abd the history of her government. One of the first requests addressed to her by the parliament after she came to the throne was that she would marry ; but for reasons which were probably various, though with regard to their precise nature we are rather left to speculation and conjecture than possessed of any satis factory information, she persisted in remaining single to the end of her days. Yet she coquetted with many suitors almost to the last. In the beginning of her reign, among those who aspired to la r hand, after she had rejected the offer of Philip of Spain, were Cha,les, arch duke of Austria (a younger son of the Emperor Ferdinand I.); James Hamilton, earl of Arran, the head of the Protestant party in Scotland ; Erick XIV., king of Sweden (whom she bad refused in the reign of her sister Mary) ; and Adolphus, duke of Holstein (uncle to Ferdinand 11. of Denmark). "Nor were there wanting at home," adds Camden, "some persons who fed themselves (as lovers use to do) with golden dreams of marrying their sovereign;" and lie mentions particularly Sir Williem Pickering, "a gentlemen well born, of a narrow estate, but much esteemed for his learning, his handsome way of living, and the management of some embassies into France and Germany ;" Henry, earl of Arundel; and Robert Dudley (afterwards the notorious earl of Leicester), a younger son of the Duke of Northumberland, "restored by Queen Mary to his honour and estate; a person of youth and vigour, aud of a hue shape and proportiou, whose father and grandfather were not so much hated by the people, but he was as high in the favour of Queen Elizabeth, who out of her royal and princely clemency heaped honours upou him, and saved his life whom father would have destroyed her's." • Leicester continued the royal favourite till his death in 1588, dis gracing by his profligacy the honours and grants that were lavished upon him by Elizabeth, who, having appointed him commander-in chief of the forces which she sent to the assistance of the Dutch, insisted upoo maintaining him in that situation, notwithstanding the mischiefs produced by his incapacity and misconduct, and, ut the perilous crisis of the Spanish invasion, was on the point of constituting him lieutenant-governor of England end Ireland. Camden says that the letterapateut were already drawn, when Burghley and Hatton interfered, and put a step to the matter. Of the foreign princes that have been inentioued, the archduke Charles persisted longest in his suit : a serious negociatiou took place on the subject of the match in 1567, but it came to nothing. In 1571 proposals were made by Catherine de' Medici for a marriage between Elizabeth and her sou Charles IX., and afterwards in succession with her two younger eons, Henry, duke of Aujou (afterwards Henri III.), and Francis, duke of Aleneon (afterwards Duke of Anjou). The last match was again strongly pressed some years after; and in 1581 the arrangement for it had been all but brought to a conclusion when, at the last moment, Elizabeth drew back, declining to sign the marriage articles, after she had taken up the pen for the purpose. Very soon after tho death of Leicester, the young Robert Devereux, earl of Essex, whose mother Leicester had married, was taken into the same favour that had been so long enjoyed by the deceased nobleman; and his tenure of the royal partiality lasted, with some intermissions, till he destroyed himself by his own hot-headedness and violence. He was executed for a fmotio attempt to excite an insurrection against the government in 1601. Elizabeth however never recovered from this shock; and she may leo said to have sealed her own sentence of death iu signing the death warrant of Essex.