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 escaped from prison and fled to England, demanding aid from her rival Elizabeth.

That clever lady pretended to pity Mary, but kept her safe, at first as a sort of guest, soon as a prisoner for nineteen dreary years. No wonder that Mary soon began to plot against Elizabeth's life, and to implore the aid of every Catholic power in Europe. The one insurrection of Elizabeth's reign, that of the North of England in 1569, was got up in order to put Mary on the throne. At last, in despair, Elizabeth's wisest councillors implored her to bring Mary to trial; and in 1587, the Scottish Queen was tried, condemned and beheaded in Fotheringay Castle.

This was an open challenge on the part of England to Catholic Europe. Mary had made a will in which she passed over her son, left Philip of Spain heir to both her crowns and implored him to avenge her. He was ready to do so, for he had long been tired of Elizabeth’s secret aid to his rebels, and exasperated at the failure of the plotters to kill the English Queen. So he prepared to send against us a great fleet, known to history as the ‘Spanish Armada’.

Now Henry VII and Henry VIII had been the real makers of the English navy, for they had been the first kings to build big ships which could sail anywhere and fight anybody. And Henry VIII had paid very special attention to guns and gunnery. He had also been the true father of English merchant shipping, and had encouraged his subjects to trade to distant parts of the world. All merchant-ships in those days carried guns, for they always had to be ready for a tussle with pirates. So, though the Spanish fleet was perhaps twice as numerous as the English Royal navy, the number of