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 In 1585, Elizabeth openly defied the hostility of Spain, by entering into a treaty with the revolted Low Countries, by which she bound herself to assist them with a considerable force, on condition of haying some ports in her hands for her security. She refused the offer, which was twice made, of the sovereignty of these provinces, but stipulated for the admission of her general into the council of the states. The person she chose for this high trust, was the Earl of Leicester, who did little honour to her choice. She at the same time sent a powerful armament against the Spanish settlement of the West Indies, under Sir Francis Drake. She likewise made a league of mutual defence with James, King of Scotland, whose friendship she courted, while she kept his mother imprisoned.

In 1586, a conspiracy was formed against the life of Elizabeth, the detection of which had very important consequences. Ballard, a Catholic priest, induced Anthony Babington, a Derbyshire gentleman of fortune, to undertake the queen's assassination. He was acting in the service of the Queen of Scots, but it is doubtful whether Mary was aware of the intended murder of Elizabeth. The plot was discovered, and letters of Mary found, which rendered her participation in it, to a certain extent, a matter of judicial proof. Fourteen of the principal conspirators were executed, and Mary was tried and condemned to death. Elizabeth, though consenting to her execution, practised all the artifice and dissimulation which belonged to her character, to avoid as much as possible the odium of putting to death a queen and a near kinswoman. She wept and lamented as though she had lost a dear friend; she stormed at her council, and inflicted on her secretary, Davison, who had sent off the warrant, a ruinous fine.

The next great event of this reign was the expedition sent against England, by the Spaniards. A large fleet, the Invincible Armada, as it was called, set sail in the summer of 1588, and presented a more formidable spectacle in the English Channel than had been witnessed for many centuries. Elizabeth exerted all her energy to infuse confidence in her subjects. She rode on horseback through the camp at Tilbury, with a cheerful and undaunted demeanour, and addressed the troops with the true spirit of a hero. Happily the English fleet, aided by the winds, conquered the invincible armada, before it reached the coast. Elizabeth also assisted Henry the Fourth of Navarre, to obtain possession of the throne of France.

In these enterprises by land and sea, the gallant Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, distinguished himself very much. On the death of Leicester, he had succeeded to his place in the estimation of the queen; and his splendid qualities and heroic valour seemed to justify her partiality. Her partiality, however, did not prevent her from asserting her own dignity; and once, when in the heat of debate he had turned his back upon her, she resented the affront by a sound box on the ear. She afterwards mollified his deeply-injured pride, and sent him over to Ireland as Lord-lieutenant. Through his mismanagement the expedition failed. Upon his unpermitted return to justify himself, she at first received him graciously; but after a few hours of reflection her conduct changed so toward him, that he became really ill. This roused the pity of the queen, who sent her physician to him with kind messages. After his recovery, he again lost her favour, and urged by his enemies and his own impetuous temper, Essex broke out in open