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suffered being Hooper (Bishop of Gloucester), Rogers, Taylor, Saunders, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, nearly 300 in all-the "bloody Bonner," Bishop of London, being the most zealous persecutor. The words of quaint old Latimer at the stake have become an heirloom to England: "Be of good courage, Master Ridley, we shall this day, by God's grace, light in England such a candle as I trust shall never be put out." Cranmer had, in a moment of weakness, been tempted to sign a recantation, but on coming to the stake he consigned the instrument of his subscription to the flames, saying, as he bathed it in the flames, "This hand hath offended, this unworthy right hand."

Previous to the Marian persecutions a popular insurrection, headed by Sir Thos. Wyatt, broke out against the queen's contemplated marriage with Philip II. of Spain. The project failed, Wyatt was executed with 400 others; as were Lady Jane Grey and Dudley also, on the charge of being implicated; and the Lady Elizabeth, for the same reason, was cast into the Tower.

Philip II. married Mary, eleven years older than himself, to gain power from England against France, and in the war with that country which was brought about, the French were defeated at the battle of St. Quentin, 1557; but the Duke of Guise surprised and captured in eight days, Calais, the last English footing in France. This loss led to great discontent in England, and Mary declared the name of Calais would be found, at her death, written on her heart; but the transaction was perhaps about the most fortunate of the reign, as it finally severed a connexion that had cost thousands of lives and countless treasure.

Mary died worn out and dispirited, of a lingering fever, A.D. 1558.

ELIZABETH. 1558-1603.

HENRY VII.

HENRY VIII. m. (1) Catheriue. (2) Anne Boleyn.

MARY. . 38 in 1553.

Margaret, queen of Scots, Mary, queen of France. ancestress of the Stuart branch. m. Charles randon. passed over fn the will of Henry VIII. duke of Suffolk.

ELIZABETH.

b. 20 in 1553.

JANE, æt. 17 in 1553.

m. lord Guildford Dudley. son of the duke of Northumberland.

Francis, æt 36 in 1553.

m. Henry Grey, marquis of Dorset and duke of Suffolk.

Catherine.

Eleanor,

countess

of Cumberland,

d. in 1547.

Mary. Margaret.

The reign of Elizabeth naturally divides itself into three periods; the first is that marked by the continuation of the Reformation; the second by the tragic history of Mary Queen of Scots; and the third by the defeat of the Invincible Armada and the security that followed.

The first acts of the reign were the restoration of Protestantism; ecclesiastical causes being handed over to a High Commission Court, and an Act of Uniformity being passed which led to the deprivation of nearly all the bishops of their sees.

In 1560 the French army was compelled to capitulate at Leith, and Mary Queen of Scots was forced to lay aside the arms and title of the English crown she had quartered on her shield, and assumed at her accession. Elizabeth also sent aid to the Huguenots (French Protestants).

Many plots were concocted by the Roman Catholics against Elizabeth, and these were repressed with great severity; she also treated with great rigour the Puritans, Nonconformists, or Dissenters who wished the services and ceremonies of the Church to be still further altered-the High Commission Court being made an instrument of tyranny against them-many of the Independents being even hanged at Tyburn as traitors; while several of the Anabaptists were burnt at the stake.

When Mary Queen of Scots returned to Scotland, 1561, after the death of her husband, 1560, she found the Scotch Protestants, led by John Knox, very bitter against her on account of her being a Roman Catholic. She married her cousin, Henry Darnley, in 1565 and gave him the title of King to the great indignation of Elizabeth who did not wish to ses her rival established in power. Darnley was a worthless profligate, and stabbed the Queen's secretary, David Rizzio, before her eyes, upon which she said: "I will dry my tears and study revenge." Shortly after, Darnley fell ill of small pox, and Mary nursed him in a house called the Kirk of Field, outside of Edinburgh, but one night the house was blown up and the king killed. Within a brief period she was willingly seized by her adviser, the Earl of Bothwell, to whom she was married, he having divorced his own wife for the occasion.

Upon this the Scots rose in rebellion, defeated Mary and Bothwell at Carberry Hill (near Edinburgh), sending the shameless queen to Lochleven castle. She soon, however, escaped to be again defeated at Langside (near Glasgow), 1568, when she fled to England. A court was opened by Elizabeth to try Mary on the charge of murdering Darnley, and the latter was confined in Tutbury (Staffordshire). Upon this the Catholics in England and Ireland flew to arms on her behalf; the Duke of Alva contemplated an invasion from the Netherlands for her rescue, which the Duke of Norfolk encouraged, and the Pope sent an excommunication into England, and in 1572 the massacre of St. Bartholomew took place in France by which 100,000 Protestants were murdered by the Roman Catholics.

In 1586 the Babington conspiracy was formed to murder Elizabeth, incite a revolt, and aid in a Spanish invasion. The plot was detected, the chief conspirators were executed, and Mary was tried on a charge of being implicated, and found guilty. Elizabeth signed her death warrant and the beautiful but frail Mary Queen of Scots was beheaded at Fothering

hay Castle, 1587, notwithstanding the threats and entreaties of her on, the King of Scotland, and of the King of France.

In 1585 Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was sent to aid the revolted Netherlands against the monstrous cruelties of Philip II. of Spain. On the other hand Philip was preparing his Invincible Armada, and at this juncture Drake returned from his expedition against the Spanish colonies in the New World, laden with plunder. Sir Philip Sydney, serving under Leicester, lost his life at the unsuccessful siege of Zutphen, 1586, dying like a noble christian soldier; but, on the other hand, Drake attacked the Spanish shores-cutting the enemy's ships out of their own ports of Lisbon and Cadiz.

When the Armada at length sailed it consisted of 130 very large ships, (galleons, galleys, and galeasses), with 20,000 soldiers, and a full complement of thumbscrews, whips, &c., to convert the natives here, the whole being under the Duke Medina Sidonia, of very blue blood and absolute ignorance of nautical affairs.

To meet the enemy three armies, amounting in all to 73,000 men, were raised in England; and 34 small ships, manned by 14,000 sailors, under Howard, Drake, Frobisher and Hawkins, harassed the unwieldy ships of the Spaniards up the channel. Arriving at Calais to take up the Duke of Parma and 30,000 men, the enemy found their land troops were blockaded by the Dutch ships;-and when fire-ships were sent by Howard, by night, the Spaniards cut their cables and ran,-losing several ships by fire, collision, and running aground. The Spaniards tried to regain Spain by sailing round the northern coast of Britain, but storms completed their destruction and only a miserable remnant returned, though Philip dramatically thanked God "it was no worse.

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A public thanksgiving in England was held by the Queen in person at St. Paul's; and the enemy's coasts were harassed in return.

In the former part of the reign Elizabeth was aided

by the wise counsels of Burleigh; in the latter the Earl of Essex was the favourite. He became lord lieutenant of Ireland in 1599 to put down the rebellion of Hugh O'Neale (Earl of Tyrone). Having offended the Queen by entering into negotiations with this rebel, Essex returned, against the Queen's orders, to regain favour, but meeting with a repulse he formed. a plot to seize the Queen to force her to dismiss his enemies, Cecil, Raleigh and Bacon; but he was cast into the Tower and beheaded.

The reign of Elizabeth was adorned by the writings of Spencer (Faery Queen), Hooker, Shakspeare, and Bacon.

HOUSE OF STUART.

JAMES I. 1603-1625.

In James VI. of Scotland (James I. of England) the kingdoms of Scotland and England were united, and this circumstance elicited an enthusiasm among his new subjects which was soon, however, destroyed by his conceit, awkward disgusting habits, and his ungainly person, and the favouritism which he showed to the Scots whom he brought with him into the Land of Promise as he called England.

His reign was very early disturbed by two plots, the Bye and Main plots, which were connected with each other, and the object of which was to seize the king and set up the Lady Arabella Stuart as queen. Sir Walter Raleigh was found guilty of being mixed up with the Main, and was cast into the Tower, where he wrote his "History of the World."

The Lady Arabella herself was kept in court favour till 1610, when she was thrown into the Tower for contracting a marriage distasteful to James, where she died 1615.

In 1604 the Conference of Hampton Court between the Puritans and the Established Church party was presided over by the King, but little came of the meeting.

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