Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/458

 338 General History of Europe IV. ENGLAND UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH 573. England under Elizabeth (isss-ieos). The long and disastrous civil war between Catholics and Protestants which desolated France in the sixteenth century had happily no counter- part in England. During her long reign Queen Elizabeth suc- ceeded not only in maintaining peace at home but in repelling the attacks which threatened her realm from without. A wealthy middle class was growing up in England who made their money in sheep raising, manufacture, and commerce. English trade was greatly extended, and the bold mariners of Elizabeth's time sailed about the whole globe, seeking new routes, capturing Spanish ships, plundering Spanish colonies, and sometimes engag- ing in the horrible traffic in negro slaves, which they seized in Africa and sold in the Americas. Houses were more comfortable than they had been, and those who could afford them wore very fine clothes. Wines were imported from the Continent, and tobacco was introduced, but coffee and tea were as yet unknown in England. Pewter plates and spoons began to replace the wooden ones, and chimneys and window glass rendered houses comfortable. Mattresses and pillows took the place of straw pallets and the wooden billets formerly used. People continued, however, to eat with knives or with their fingers, for forks did not come in until later. But while the sheep raising made a few rich, it impoverished many small farmers whose land fell into the hands of those who inclosed it for grazing tracts. The "inclosures" also included stretches of "commons," on which farmers and laborers had for- merly pastured their animals free of charge. The inclosures caused great hardship during the whole sixteenth century, and paupers and tramps so increased that laws had to be passed to provide for them. The poor law enacted at the close of Elizabeth's reign was in force down to the nineteenth century. Elizabeth's reign was celebrated for its great writers, like Shakespeare, Bacon, and Spenser. Poetry, the drama, and science all flourished ( 595, 596, 599).