city by assault. An immense booty fell into the hands of the victors, and it was estimated that the total loss sustained by the Spaniards on this occasion amounted to 20,000,000 of ducats.

5. IRISH REBELLION.-In the following year, Henry IV. signed the treaty of Vervins with Philip II., by which he recovered possession of Calais and the other places he had lost during the war. Several of Elizabeth's ministers advised her to imitate the French monarch's example; but as she was interested in defending the new republic of the Seven Provinces, and had little fear of the power of Spain, she preferred an honourable war to the advantages of a peace that might have proved ruinous to Holland. Philip took his revenge by exciting the catholics of Ireland to insurrection. The leader of the rebels was Hugh O'Neal, earl of Tyrone, under whose guidance the Irish waged a desultory war among their woods, hills, and marshes, before venturing to meet the English in the open field. Sir John Norris was unable to make any impression upon them, and died of grief and vexation. Sir Henry Bagnall was defeated in a pitched battle at Blackwater, where he lost 1500 men, his artillery, ammunition, and life. After this success Tyrone was proclaimed the saviour of his country, and the natives crowded around his standard, in the hope of being able to expel the English. The Earl of Essex was sent against them with an army of 20,000 men; but being impeded in his operations by the machinations of his enemies at home, he left his command without authority, and was in consequence deprived of his offices, and condemned to be imprisoned during the queen's pleasure, He was shortly afterwards set at liberty; but, blinded by resentment, he endeavoured to revenge himself upon the authors of his disgrace by rising in open rebellion. All his plans, however, failed, and he lost his head upon the scaffold (1601). Mountjoy, the successor to Essex, had a difficult task to perform: a Spanish auxiliary force had landed at Kinsale, and inspired fresh courage into the insurgents. But the lord deputy acted with vigour and decision. He blockaded the Spaniards, defeated an attempt of the Earl of Tyrone to raise the siege, and finally compelled the foreign garrison to capitulate. This failure and a terrible famine brought the rebels to extremities, and Tyrone, in 1602, surrendered on a promise that his life should be spared. Although Mountjoy had thus successfully terminated the contest in Ireland, Elizabeth re

mained a prey to the deepest affliction. After the death of Essex, to whom she is said to have been tenderly attached, she became gloomy and thoughtful, and fond of solitude. Fatigued with the grandeur of her station, disgusted with life, and yet afraid of death, she expired on the 24th March 1603, in the seventieth year of her age and the forty-fifth of her reign.

6. Elizabeth was one of the greatest monarchs that ever sat on the English throne. Under her reign, which was internally both peaceful and brilliant, the people were contented, the parliament docile, the puritans kept within bounds, order restored in the finances, the debts of the two preceding reigns paid off without increasing the taxes, and the prosperity of the kingdom secured by good government. Agriculture flourished, and the condition of the serfs was meliorated by A.D. wise laws. Opportunities were given of redeeming 1574. themselves from their state of bondage; and, without infringing on the rights of property, steps were taken for accomplishing their total emancipation by measures at once gradual and mild. The poor-law in some degree corrected the inequality of fortunes, and guaranteed public tranquillity. It was used for the purpose of giving subsistence to the ablebodied only in return for labour, and was not subjected to the abuses which afterwards made it a boon on idleness and improvidence.

TRADE AND COMMERCE. Before Elizabeth's reign, when the English monarchs needed money, they were accustomed to apply to the merchants of Antwerp, who exacted enormous interest. A noble hearted and patriotic merchant of London, Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange, established an English company for lending money to the government. The loans were punctually repaid; Elizabeth's credit was established in the kingdom, and she shook off the state of dependence in which her predecessors had been held by foreigners. A multitude of Flemish workmen, who fled from the tyranny of Spain, found a refuge in England, by whose means its woollen manufactures rapidly increased, and what was formerly imported from Flanders was now made at home. At the same time the foreign commerce was greatly extended. The risk incurred in transporting merchandise from one country to another was less formidable, owing to the ingenious invention of insurance. The communications with Russia, opened up in the preceding reign, became easier and more

frequent after 1569. The Czar Ivan Basilovitz granted the English an exclusive privilege of trading with his states. They established factories at Kolmogorod, Novgorod, Vologda, and Moscow, and extended their commerce by the Caspian Sea as far as Persia and Bokhara. In 1583, English merchants founded establishments in Turkey, where England had hitherto been considered a province of France. The merchants of the Hanse Towns had formed a company that had gradually usurped the commerce of the British islands to such a degree that in 1552 it exported 44,000 pieces of cloth, while the merchants of England had not sent abroad more than eleven hundred. Elizabeth put an end to this monopoly, and restored to her subjects that commerce of which these foreign: ers had deprived them. The English also now learned to build in their own harbours those trading vessels which they had hitherto bought from the merchants of Lubeck, Hamburg, Genoa, and Venice; and so considerable was the increase of the national marine under this great sovereign, that she fairly earned the title of Queen of the Northern Seas. Discoveries also were attempted in distant parts of the world. Hawkins visited the Guinea coast in 1562, and America in 1564; Frobisher made three voyages in search of the still undiscovered north-west passage; Drake and Cavendish cirA.D. cumnavigated the globe; Davis discovered the great 1586. straits which bear his name; in 1578, Gilbert endeavoured to settle a colony in Newfoundland; and Raleigh to establish another in Virginia. These were unsuccessful efforts, but are of value to the historian as attesting the emulation of the people in every kind of useful enterprise.

7. In 1600, Elizabeth gave the first letters patent to the East India Company. The use of coaches was introduced into England about 1580 by the Earl of Arundel; and about the same year, the establishment of posts first received a regular form.

LITERATURE.-During the early part of the sixteenth century, English literature was in its infancy, and could boast A. D. of only two distinguished poets, Sir Thomas Wyatt, 1503-1542. who wrote sonnets in imitation of Petrarch, but who was more successful in satire, and the young and unfortunate Surrey. These two individuals were of great service to the English language, by softening its asperity, and adapting it to an elegant and polished style; but it did not attain perfection until the following reign. Under Elizabeth flour

A. D 1554-1586.

ished Sir Philip Sidney, author of the Arcadia, the } most accomplished gentleman of the age, not less skilled in languages and science than in military affairs, and A. D. who died at an early age on the field of battle;— 1552-1618. Raleigh, a man of strong and lively imagination, of ardent and universal genius, a politician and historian, poet and seaman, as intrepid before the axe of the executioner as in the perils of war;-Dorset, whom state cares could not estrange from the society of the muses, and who in 1561 procured the representation of Gorboduc, one of the first dramas in verse that had ever been given on the English stage;Daniel, distinguished as the author of a poem on 1562-1619.} the Wars of the Two Roses, but particularly as an historian ;-Southwell, whose poems are at once noble and elegant;-John Davies, whose poem on the Immortality of the Soul served as a model for Pope's Essay on Man;-Drayton, a fertile, though now half-forgotten writer on elegiac, historical, and religious subjects; Spenser, whose poem of the Fairy Queen 1553-1598. places him at the head of our epic writers;-and above all, the "myriad-minded," the "honey-tongued Shakspeare, with Gascoigne and Marlowe, his predecessors by a few years, and Beaumont and Fletcher, Jonson and Massinger, his rivals and contemporaries.

A. D. 1560-1595.

A. D. 1563-1631.

A. D.

}

In this manner does the reign of the "good Queen Bess" throw a lustre on the page of British history, and so long as our annals survive, it will be indicated as the starting point of all our greatness in commerce, politics, and literature.

EXERCISES.

1. What was the conduct of Elizabeth to the religious parties at the commencement of her reign? What laws were repealed and what revived? How was Protestantism definitely established? What was the nature of the claim of Mary, queen of Scots to the English throne? Give an account of the Puritans? How did Elizabeth attempt to check their zeal?

2. What was the object of the rebellion in the northern counties? What pursuit characterized the sixteenth century? How did England partake in it? Describe the feats of Sir Francis Drake? What was the state of Ireland at this period?

3. What was the object with which the Spanish armada was fitted out? What measures did Elizabeth take? How was she aided by the country? Who were the principal officers in the English force? What accidents operated in their favour and against the Spaniards? Describe the fate of the armada.

4. What expedition was attempted after the defeat of the armada? What did it accomplish? What was the state of the country when the warlike operations were at an end? What states received succour from the British government ?

5. What aspect did the dispute with Spain assume? What occurred in Ireland? What was the fate of Essex? Describe the conduct of Mountjoy. When and under what circumstances did Queen Elizabeth die?

6. What was the general character of her reign? Mention some of its beneficial acts. What did Sir Thomas Gresham become celebrated for? What progress did trade and commerce make? What voyages and discoveries were made?

7. What were the literary performances of Wyatt and Surrey? Who was Sir Philip Sidney? Mention some of the principal literary ornaments of this reign, with the names of their works. Who was at their head?

CHAPTER XXI.

SCOTLAND FROM THE ACCESSION OF MARY TO THE UNION of THE CROWNS, A. D. 1542—1603.

The Regency-Martyrdom of Wishart-Battle of Pinkey-The Queen dowager-The Reformation-Mary's Return to Scotland-Darnley-Riz. zio-Bothwell-Mary seeks Refuge in England-Northern Insurrection -Assassination of Earl Murray-Execution of Queen Mary-James VI. -The Gowry Conspiracy.

1. THE REGENCY.-Mary, queen of Scots, was just a week old when her reign commenced, and she was nominally a queen. It naturally happened that the office of governor would fall to the person who had most influence and power in the country. Mary of Guise, the mother of the queen, struggled for the possession of it, and she was aided by the celebrated Cardinal Beaton, the chief champion of the Roman-catholics. The Earl of Arran, the nearest male relation of the infant queen, also claimed the right of being governor of the kingdom, and was successful.

With the view of uniting Great Britain under one crown, Henry, on the news of his nephew's death, determined to marry his son Edward to the infant Mary. Many of the Scotch nobles, among the foremost of whom were the Earls of Angus, Cassillis, and Glencairn, readily seconded his views, even to the sacrifice of the national independence. Arran, the heir-presumptive to the throne, not only succeeded in depriving Cardinal Beaton of the regency, but actually shut him up in Blackness Castle. The clergy, feeling convinced that by his talent and energy alone could their ruin be warded off, closed their churches, and refused to administer the sacraments or bury the dead.