however had this compact been signed when the war was suddenly rekindled, in consequence of the assumption by the new French king, Francis II., of the arms and royal titles of England, in right, as was pretended, of his wife, the young Mary, queen of Scots. Elizabeth instantly resented this act of hostility by sending a body of 5000 troops to Scotland, to act there with the Duke of Chatelherault and the lords of the congregation, as the leaders of the Protestant party called themselves, against the government of the queen and her mother the Regent, Mary of Guise. The town of Leith soon yielded to this force; and the French king was speedily compelled both to renounce his wife's pretensions to the English throne and to withdraw his own troops from Scotland, by the treaty of Edinburgh, executed 7th July, 1560. The treaty however never was ratified either by Francis or his queen; and in consequence the relations between the three countries continued in an unsatisfactory state. Charles IX. succeeded his brother on the throne of France before the end of this year; and in a few months afterwards Mary of Scotland returned to her own country. Meanwhile, although the two countries continued at peace, Elizabeth's proceedings in regard to the church had wholly alienated Philip of Spain. The whole course of events and the position which she occupied had already in fact caused the English queen to be looked upon as the head of the Protestant interest throughout Europe as much as she was at home. When the dispute therefore between the Catholics and the Huguenots or reformed party in France came to a contest of arms, in 1562, the latter immediately applied for assistance to Elizabeth, who concluded a treaty with them, and sent them succour both in men and money. The war that followed produced no events of importance in so far as England was concerned, and was terminated by a treaty signed at Troyes, 11th April, 1564. A long period followed, during which England preserved in appearance the ordinary relations of peace both with France and Spain, though interferences repeatedly took place on each side that all but amounted to actual hostilities. The Protest

ants alike in Scotland, in France, and in the Netherlands (then subject to the dominion of Philip), regarded Elizabeth as firmly bound to their cause by her own interests'; and she on her part kept a watchful eye on the religious and political contentions of all these countries, with a view to the maintenance and support of the Protestant party, by every species of countenance and aid short of actually making war in their behalf. With the Protestant government in Scotland, which had deposed and imprisoned the queen, she was in open and intimate alliance; in favour of the French Huguenots she at one time negotiated or threatened, at another even went the length, scarcely with any concealment, of affording them pecuniary assistance; and when the people of the Netherlands at length rose in revolt against the oppressive government of Philip, although she refused the sovereignty of their country, which they offered to her, she lent them money, and in various other ways openly expressed her sympathy and good will. On the other hand, Philip—although he refrained from any declaration of war, and the usual intercourse, both commercial and political, long went on between the two countries without interruption-was incessant in his endeavours to undermine the throne of the English queen and the order of things at the head of which she stood, by instigating plots and commotions against her authority within her own dominions. He attempted to turn to account in this way the Catholic interest, which was still so powerful both in England and Ireland-the intrigues of the Scottish queen and her partisans materially contributing to the same end. Mary was not merely the head of the Catholic party in Scotland, but, as the descendant of the eldest daughter of Henry VII., had pretensions to the English crown which were of a very formidable kind. Although she was kept in confinement by the English government after her flight from the hands of her own subjects in 1568, the imprisonment of her person did not extinguish the hopes or put an end to the efforts of her adherents. Repeated rebellions in Ireland, in some instances openly aided by supplies from Spain-the attempt made by the Duke of

Alva in 1569, through the agency of Vitelli, to concert with the Catholic party the scheme of an invasion of England-the rising of the Catholics of the northern counties under the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland the same year-the plot of the Duke of Norfolk with Ridolfi in 1571, for which that unfortunate nobleman lost his head-the plots of Throgmorton and Creichton in 1584, and of Babington in 1586-to omit several minor attempts of the same kind-all testified the restless zeal with which the various enemies of the established order of things pursued their common end. Meanwhile, however, events were tending to a crisis which was to put an end to the outward show of friendship that had been so long kept up between parties that were not only fiercely hostile in their hearts, but had even been constantly working for each other's overthrow behind the thin screen of their professions and courtesies. The Queen of Scots was put to death in 1587, by an act of which it is easier to defend the state policy than either the justice or the legality. By this time also, although no actual declaration of war had yet proceeded either from England or Spain, the cause of the people of the Netherlands had been openly espoused by Elizabeth, whose general, the Earl of Leicester, was now at the head of the troops of the United Provinces, as the revolted states called themselves. An English fleet at the same time attacked and ravaged the Spanish settlements in the West Indies. At last, in the summer of 1588, the great Spanish fleet, arrogantly styled the Invincible Armada, sailed for the invasion of England, and was in the greater part_dashed to pieces on the coasts which it came to assail. From this time hostilities proceeded with more or less activity between the two countries during the remainder of the reign of Elizabeth. Meanwhile Henry III., and, after his assassination in 1589, the young King of Navarre, assuming the title of Henry IV., at the head of the Huguenots, had been maintaining a desperate contest in France with the Duke of Guise and the League. For some years Elizabeth and Philip remained only spectators of the struggle; but at length

they were both drawn to take a principal part in it. The French war, however, so far as Elizabeth was concerned, must be considered as only another appendage_to_the war with Spain; it was Philip chiefly, and not the League, that she opposed in France; just as in the Netherlands, and formerly in Scotland, it was not the cause of liberty against despotism, or of revolted subjects against their legitimate sovereign, that she supported, or even the cause of Protestantism against Catholicism, but her own cause against Philip, her own right to the English throne against his, or that of the competitor with whom he took part. Since the death of Mary of Scotland, Philip professed to consider himself as the rightful king of England, partly on the ground of his descent from John of Gaunt, partly in consequence of Mary having by her will bequeathed her pretensions to him should her son persist in remaining a heretic. Henry IV., having previously embraced Catholicism, made peace with Philip by the treaty of Vervins, concluded in May, 1598; and the death of Philip followed in September of the same year. But the war between England and Spain was nevertheless still kept up. In 1601 Philip III. sent a force to Ireland, which landed in that country and took the town of Kinsale; and the following year Elizabeth retaliated by fitting out a naval expedition against her adversary, which captured some rich prizes, and otherwise annoyed the Spaniard. Her forces also continued to act in conjunction with those of the Seven United Provinces both by sea and land.

Elizabeth died on the 24th of March, 1603, in the 70th year of her age and the 45th of her reign. In the very general account to which we have necessarily confined ourselves of the course of public transactions during the long period of the English annals with which her name is associated, we have omitted all reference to many subordinate particulars, which yet strongly illustrate both her personal conduct and character and the history of her government. One of the first requests addressed to her by the parliament after she came to the throne was that she would marry; but for reasons which were pro

bably various, though with regard to their precise nature we are rather left to speculation and conjecture than possessed of any satisfactory information, she persisted in remaining single to the end of her days. Yet she coqueted with many suitors almost to the last. In the beginning of her reign, among those who aspired to her hand, after she had rejected the offer of Philip of Spain, were Charles, Archduke of Austria (a younger son of the Emperor Ferdinand I.); James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, the head of the Protestant party in Scotland; Erick XIV., King of Sweden (whom she had refused in the reign of her sister Mary); and Adolphus, Duke of Holstein (uncle to Ferdinand II. of Denmark). "Nor were there wanting at home," adds Camden, some persons who fed themselves (as lovers used to do) with golden dreams of marrying their sovereign;" and he mentions particularly Sir William Pickering, a gentleman well born, of a narrow estate, but much esteemed for his learning, his handsome way of living, and the management of some embassies into France and Germany;" Henry, Earl of Arundel; and Robert Dudley (afterwards the famous Earl of Leicester), a younger son of the Duke of Northumberland, "restored by Queen Mary to his honour and estate; a person of youth and vigour, and of a fine shape and proportion, whose father and grandfather were not so much hated by the people, but he was as high in the favour of Queen Elizabeth, who out of her royal and princely clemency heaped honours upon him, and saved his life whose father would have destroyed hers." Leicester continued the royal favourite till his death in 1588; certainly, whatever may be thought of the worst imputations that have been thrown upon him, showing himself little deserving of the honours and grants that were lavished upon him by his partial sovereign, who, having appointed him commander-in-chief of the forces which she sent to the assistance of the Dutch, insisted upon maintaining him in that situation, notwithstanding the mischiefs produced by his incapacity and misconduct, and, at the perilous crisis of the Spanish invasion, was on the point of constituting him lieutenant