This led to new evils. The participation of the Catholic party in the plots was punished by persecution. Meaty suffered under an act passed in 1585 making it treason for a Catholic priest to he in England. and felony to harbor one. These measures were the ultimate of hringing upon England the most menaeing foreign al tack which site had suffered. Philip of Spain had long meditated vengeance against England for her aid to the Dutch Protestants against Alva and her freebooting attacks on Spanish coot 'nerve. To restore the Catholic faith :11111 to avenge the death of a Catholic queen furnished reasons which were more than pretexts to Philip, who was tilled with the desire to promote the Catholic faith. In 1588, after years of prepara. Lion. the 'Invincible Armada sailed front the Tagus, manned by 8000 sailors and carrying near ly 20.000 soldiers. To aid them a land army of 100,1)00 men was to be transported from the Netherlands under the Duke of Parma. The news roused all and every man who could carry arms from eighteen years of age to sixty was enrolled in the force.. The Queen her self ride at Tilbury. energetivally encouraging the The English fleet under Howard and Drake. gathered on the southern coast, awaited the attack. Superior skill and courage gained the victory for the English: and what they had hogun the force of the elements completed. The splendid arm7ola was broken and destroyed before it could join the land army, not a soldier of which ever left foreign ground: while not a seaman of the fleet, save those whom shipwrecks sent, ever set foot on English ground.
The close of Elizabeth's reign was disturbed by a formidable revolt in Ireland under tho Earl of Tyrone. The Queen's favorite. Essex, who was sent against him, showed himself ut terly ineompetent. hut the Irish leader at last to the arms of Lord Mountjoy.
Elizabeth died March 24. 1603. at the age 11 f nearly seventy years. Always parading her wish to live an unmarried life, Elizabeth coquetted with suitor after suitor. She was searcely more than a child when her flirtations with the handsonw Lord Admiral S•3mour, the brother of the Protector Somerset. had passed the Inland:: of decorum. In Mary's reign Eliza beth was flattered by the attentions of her kinsman, the Earl of Courtenay, and she declined the hand of Philibert of Savoy, pressed on her by her sister's When Queen she refused with some hesitation the offer of Philip 11., who was desirous of perpetuating his influence over England, and site began a connection with the Earl of Leicester which seriously compromised her If we credit those sources of in formation which are found in the dispatches of the Bishop of Aquila, ambassador of Philip IL, in London, preserved in the archives of Simancas, not only was the moral character of Elizabeth sullied, but even the quality for which she has ever been most honored, her English patriotism, was mere affectation. These dispatches represent her as proposing to Spain to become a Catholic and to restore the Spanish ascendency in England, if Philip would support her on the throne as the wife of Leicester. That there is some basis of truth in this revelation can scarcely be denied; but. aside from the fact that the Bishop exag gerated. Elizabeth, who was often mendacious, was probably deceiving him. If she really in tended to marry Leicester she was prevented by the advice of her ministers, especially of Cecil. Among less distinguished suitors the Archduke Charles of Vienna and Prince Eric of Sweden urged their suit in vain. Petitions from Parlia ment to the Queen to marry produced only dig nified replies that she would attend to the mat ter when the time came. Catharine de' 31edici, Queen-mother of France, intrigued to marry her to one of her sons. Henry of Anjou, with whom she carried on an absurdly ardent courtship for a lady eighteen years his senior. Her last fa vorite was the Earl of Essex, unworthy but good looking, whom she had to execute for treason. Nevertheless she never let affairs of State be guided by these favorites, but relied on the wisdom of her ministers, chief of whom were William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and Sir Francis Walsingham. her Secretary of State.
Elizabeth's position gave much scope for the development of the unambible and ridiculous fea tures of her character. She was vain in dress, rather mannish in demeanor, and not character ized by fine feeling. hut in her reign the reck less waste of human life which marked the reigns of her predecessors was unknown. The cruel per sceutions of the Catholic seminary priests are in line with the spirit of the times. and are not to
be attributed to Elizabeth personally. By her attendants she was feared more than loved. The one quality which never failed her was personal courage; and when she chose. her demean(or was stately and royal. Religion was with her, as with a great proportion of the nation at that time, a matter more of policy and convenience than of feeling or principle. She preferred Protestantism because of early associations. and because it gave her the headship of the Church, freed her from foreign interference, and was more acceptable to her ministers and to the nation.
In the long reign of Elizabeth the true great ness of England began. Freed front the posses sion of those French provinces which rather harassed than enriched. with little domestic com motion. with no foreign wars. with an almost complete immunity from religious persecution, the nation turned to the arts of peace. An un equaled literature arose. The age that produced Spenser. Shakespeare, and Bacon could not be other titan famous. Under Frobisher and Drake maritime adventure began, and the foundations of the British navy were laid. Commerce, from being a small matter in the hands of a few for eign merchants, assumed great proportions. The Exchange of London was opened in Elizabeth's time, and in the charter which she granted to that company of merchants which afterwards took the name of the East India Company may he seen one of the small beginnings of the vast colonial British Empire. The social condition of the people also greatly improved in her reign. The crowds of vagabonds which the monastic in stitutions had fostered, and which had been in creased by the eviction of tenants on monastery lands, died out, or were absorbed in industrial employments. The last traces of bondage disap peared. Simultaneously with the growth of greater emnfort and intelligence in the people, Parliament began to assert with greater vigor its constitutional rights. The right of the Com mons to free speech, and to initiate all money bills, was steadily asserted, and the right of the Crown to grant monopolies or to issue proclama tions having the force of vigorously assailed. and the reign of Elizabeth may be said to mark the transition from medieval to modern England. There is abundant original material for a biog raphy of Elizabeth. Chief among the sources is the Calendar of State Papers of her reign, espe cially the ,tipanish Series. ed. by M. A. S. 11 (London, 1892-99) The Manuscripts at Hatfield House (Royal Historical AISS. Commission. 1s8A 95) are most useful; as are the Burghley Papers, ed. by S. Hayes ( London, 17 10) and W. Murdin (London. 1759) ; Sydney Papers, ed. by A. Collins (London. 1746) : Miscellaneous State Papers, ed. by Earl of II a rdwicke (London, 1778 ) ; and others. Several of the Camden Society Publica tions are also very useful: Letters of Elizabeth and James VI.. ed. by (IS-It)) : Maelign's Diary, ed. by Nichols (1848) ; and Wn/ singluon's Chronicle. Camden Miscellany (1847 ;5). The most important contemporary account of the reign is that by W. Cambden, History of Quern Elizabeth (1022), and a continuation by Godwin in Kennet's Complete history of England ( London, 1740 ) . Consult: Strype, .1 n nals of the Heformation (new ed., Oxford, 1824), a standard for eeelesiastical matters: and D'Ewes. Journals of All the ParliallIelliN of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, ed. by P. Bowes ( L011 (1011. I , which is indispensable, Among modern authorities the most detailed :lemma of the reign is 1w found in Fronde, History of England, vols. vii.-xii. (New York, 1870) ; Wright, Queen Elizabeth and Her TillleR ( L011(1011, 183S) , based on private letters of the reign: Creighton. Queen Elizabeth (London. 1899), a good popular life; but perhaps the best is A. dessup's excellent ar ticle in the Dictionary of National Biography.
Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of Enghind" (New York, 1S(17) contains a life of Elizabeth which is useful as a personal memoir, and Wie setter's La jeumRsc d'Elisahi Ift I5.;,3-55 (Paris, 1575, English translation by C. M. Young. 18791. deals with Elizabeth's youth. For the constitutional development of Elizabeth's reign eimsult: The works of Ilafinaf, i. eh. 5; Taylor, ii., bk. iv., eh. 5; Gneist ehs. pasm, ( full titles cited under GREAT BRITA ) For economnie development, Traill. Sociol Eng land. iii.. (As. 11, 12; and Cunningham, English Industry. ii., bk. vi.