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 THE ERA OF THE COUNTER-REFORMATION 269 a clear conscience they robbed the Spaniards on the Spanish Main, and captured their treasure-ships on the high seas. Francis Drake sailed round the world, and brought home untold treasure. The King of Spain demanded that the ' pirate ' should be surrendered to him for justice, and the Queen of England replied by knighting him. Philip, and Philip's agents, responded by being in the thick of every plot for the assassination of Elizabeth and the liberation of Mary Stuart. At last matters reached the point at which Eliza- The Armada, beth entered into open alliance with the Dutch j 15 88. and, when she had done so, executed Mary Stuart herself as an accomplice in the Babington conspiracy for the English queen's assassination. Then Philip prepared for a mighty invasion of England; in 1588 he despatched the great Armada, which was first shattered by the English fleet, and then annihilated by storms. From that hour English fleets decisively ruled the seas. Philip reigned for ten years after the destruction of the Armada. He constructed three more Armadas, but all to no purpose. The English and Dutch had learnt the p^p^ vital principle, forgotten for centuries, that a Schemes fighting ship should be a weapon of war and not break down - merely a floating barrack for soldiers; consequently, Spanish ships could never hold their own against English or Dutch ships. In the Netherlands William's son, Maurice of Nassau, proved himself a worthy rival of Parma in the art of war, while that great commander was perpetually hampered by his master's distrust, his lack of supplies, wrong-headed instructions, and finally by being twice called upon at a critical moment to turn his arms into France. When Parma died the prospects of a Spanish victory vanished, though the struggle was still main- tained for several years. The war was brought to an end in 1609 with what practically amounted to an acknowledgment of the independence of the United Provinces, those which Parma had retained being known for a century to come as the Spanish Netherlands. There were those in England who would have had Elizabeth devote herself to the utter overthrow of Spain, the ruin of her