Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/926

* ELIZABETH. 804 ELIZABETH. abetli, who was a favorite with licr, was more often seen at Court : l)Ut for some unknown cause she incurred her father's displeasure, and was again sent to the country. Her father died wlien she was tliirtocTi years old. Durinfr the reifrn of her brother. Kdward VI., her life jiassed quietly and |)eaccfully. She was then remarkable for jrreat deniurcness, so that Kdward used to speak of her as his 'sweet sister Teni|)eranec.' Her Protestantism, and the court which was paid to her by the Protestant nobility, caused uneasi- ness to Mary and her council. At her sister's command she conformed to the Roman Catholic faith, but the insincerity of the conversion im- posed upon no one. On the pretext of having been concerned in Wyatt's rebellion, she was sent in 15.54 to the Tower. The warrant for her ex- ecution was at one time prepared, but her popu- larity :iaved her. as her sister's advisers feared an uprising if Elizabeth was put to death. Nevertheless for some time longer she was kept a prisoner at Woodstock. During tlie remainder of Mary's reign Elizabeth, though oc- casionally at Court, resided chietly at her resi- dence of Hatfield House, in Hertfordshire. When Mary died. November 17. 15;").'!, Elizabeth was twenty-live years of age. Her accession was welcomed alike by Catholics and by Protestants. fSlie then began, amid dangers and dilliculties. a reign which, contrary to the expectation of all, was of unexampled length and prosperity. It would be wrong not to attribute to her influence some effect in producing the great changes which, during the next forty-four years, took place in England: but so far as these changes were not produced in the natural course of the develop- ment of the nation's power, and so far as they hear the mark of an individual mind, they bear mudi more the impress of the bold yet cautious judgment and clear intellect of her great minis- ter. Cecil, than of Elizabeth. The essentially Protestant character of her policy Avas shown at the very beginning of her reign, and in conse- quence of this a Protestant majority was re- turned to her first Parliament. In loSO a new Act of Suprenuiey was passed. In 15G0 Eliza- beth concluded a treaty of alliance at Berwick with the Scotch Ileformers. who were joined by an English force. Tlie Thirty-nine .rlicles of the Church of England were published in 1303. The policy of Elizabeth's ministers, on the whole, was one of peace and economy. No war was undertaken in her reign for the sake of territorial conquest. To strengthen her own throne. Elizabeth assisted the Protestants in Scotland, in France, and in the Low Coun- tries: but she had few open wars. To main- tain her own security, and to prevent for- eign interference in English matters, was the mainspring of her foreign policy: and she lost no opportunity of weakening and finding occupation abroad for any foreign power that unduly threatened her authority. Her diplomacy was tortuous and swayed by innunerable changes of mind : but she usually attained her ends. Her parsimony was well known and sometimes dis- astrous. Had she given ample succor to the Dutch as the English nation vishe<l, the result of the war would have been much more advantageous to England. The inadequate provisions and am- munition of the English fleet would likely have led to bad results had the Spanish .Vmiada been placed in more competent hands. However, her parsimony was necessary while the nation was poor. The one gieat blunder of Elizabeth's policy was the treatment of Jlary. yueen of Scots, who, after her defeat by the Regent JIurray, at Lang- side, in lotiS, had sought refuge in England, only to become a captive in the hands of the English Queen. Daring neither to execute her ]iri^- oiier, as several of the ministers advised, nor to release her, in which case she would I)robably have gone to Spain or France, and by a foreign marriage have forfeited the sympathies of the Scotch and English Catholics. Elizabeth retained her a prisoner, and thus for years gave cause to conspiracy after consjiiracy among the English Catholics. For a rebellion incited to set Mari- fjee, the richest and most popular of the English nobles, Norfolk, was exe- cuted in 1.572. The plots then took on a graver aspect. The assassination of Elizabeth and the placing of Mary on her throne became their ob- ject. On the discovery of Babington's conspiracy for this purpose, the popular cry for Mary's death was irresistible, and was joined in l)y Cecil, Walsingham, and others of Elizabeth's ministers. With i-eluctancc and hesitation Eliz- beth consented: and ilary. after long years of confinement, was condemned and executed in 1.5S7. This led to new evils. The participation of the Catholic party in the plots was punished by persecution. Jlany sufl'ered under an act passed in 1585 making it treason for a Catholic priest to be in England, and felony to harbor one. These measures were the ultimate means of bringing ui)on England the most menacing foreign attack which she had suffered. Philii) of Spain had long meditated vengeance against England for her aid to the Dutch Protestants against .lva and her freebooting attacks on Spanish com- merce. To restore the Catholic faith and to avenge the death of a Catholic queen furnished reasons which were more than pretexts to Philip, who was filled with the desire to promote the Catholic faith. In 1,588, after years of prepara- tion, the 'Invincible Armada' sailed froni the T:igus. manned by 8000 sailors and carrying near- ly 20.000 soldiers. To aid them a land army of 100,000 men was to be transported from the Netherlands luuler the Duke of Parma. The news roused all England, and every man who could carry arms from eighteen years of age to sixty was enrolled in the forces. The Queen her- self rode at Tilbury, energetically encouraging the army. The English fleet under Howard and Drake, gathered on the southern coast, awaited the attack. Superior skill and courage gained the victory for the English: and what they had begun the force of the elements completed. The splenilid arniTida was broken and destroyed before it could join the land army, not a soldier of which ever left foreign ground: while not a seaman of the fleet, save those whom shipwrecks sent, ever set foot on English ground. The close of Elizabeth's reign was disturbed bv a formidable revolt in Ireland under the Earl of Tj-rone. The Queen's favorite. Essex, who was sent against him. showed himself ut- terly incompetent, but the Irish leader succumbed at last to the arms of Lord Mountjoy. Elizabeth died March 24, lfi03. at the age of nearly seventy years. Always parading her wish to live an unmarried life. Elizabeth coquetted with suitor after suitor. She was scarcely more than a child when her flirtations with the