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 Spaniards found that their vessels were so large and clumsy that their shot passed over the English ships, which could sail away or around them at pleasure. In despair the Armada began to retreat, pursued by its active and vengeful enemies. To add to their misfortunes a great storm arose which carried the Spanish vessels past Parma’s army, and drove them far north. Rounding the Orkneys to return to Spain the vessels were dashed on the rocks, and the shores of the north of Scotland and Ireland were strewn with corpses. Some reached the shore alive only to be murdered by the savage inhabitants of the coast. Of all that great fleet only fifty-three vessels reached Spain. England was saved: the wind and the waves had fought her battles even more effectively than her sailors or soldiers. With the defeat of the Armada passed away the long dread of a great danger} and the nation’s joy and relief found expression in the glorious literature that followed.

9. Elizabethan Literature.—Not since Chaucer had England a great poet, until Edmund Spenser wrote in this reign the “Faerie Queen.” Other great writers followed: Sidney, Raleigh, Bacon, Hooker, and greatest of all, William Shakespeare, who born in 1564 began to write towards the close of this reign his wonderful plays and dramas. To these men, great in an age of great men, Elizabeth was a friend and counsellor. Such an era in literature the nation had not hitherto experienced, and it is doubtful if such another era has since come to the English people. The great events and the daring deeds and thoughts of the time seemed to demand a Spenser and a Shakespeare to give them voice. Nor must we forget the efforts made by Sir Walter Raleigh, at once courtier, author, soldier, and voyager, to colonize Virginia. Though the colony was a failure in his time, he brought back to Europe the potato as well as tobacco, both of which soon came into use. In this reign, too, voyages were undertaken to the northern seas and the East Indies, and Elizabeth gave in 1599 a charter to the Hast India Company, with the sole right of trading in that fabled land of untold riches.

10. Ireland under Elizabeth.—It is sad to turn away from this story of brave deeds and growing prosperity to England’s treatment of Ireland. Henry VIII. had tried to make Ireland acknowledge England’s laws and accept her religion, and by so doing had