Drake and Norris, Grenville, Howard, and the earls of Essex and Cumberland.

The war in the Netherlands still continued; and the king of Navarre, a protestant, ascending the throne of France by the title of Henry IV., a great part of the nobility immediately deserted him, and the king of Spain entertained views either of dismembering the French monarchy, or of annexing the whole to his own dominions. In this emergency, Henry addressed himself to Elizabeth, who sent him aid both in men and money; and the English auxiliaries acquired a great reputation in several enterprises, and revived in France the fame of their ancient valour.

The war did great injury to Spain; but it was attended with considerable expense to England; and the queen summoned a parliament in order to obtain a supply. However, it is evident that Elizabeth either thought her authority so established as to need no concessions in return, or she rated her prerogative above money. When sir Edward Coke, the speaker, made to her the then three usual requests of freedom from arrests, access to her person, and liberty of speech, she declared that she would not impeach the freedom of their persons, nor refuse them access to her, provided it were upon urgent occasions, and when she was at leisure from other important affairs; but that they were not to speak every one what he listeth, and that the privilege of speech extended no farther than a liberty of ay or no. Henry IV. renounced the protestant religion, and was received by the prelates of his party into the catholic church; and Elizabeth assisted that monarch to break the league which had been formed against him, and which, after his conversion to popery, gradually dissolved.

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Though the queen made war against Philip in France and the Low Countries, yet the severest blows which he received from England, proceeded from naval enterprises. James Lancaster, with three ships and a pinnace, took thirty-nine Spanish ships, sacked Fernambouc on the coast of Brazil, and brought home a great quan- 1594 tity of treasure. Sir Walter Raleigh was less successful in an expedition to Guiana, a country which he undertook to explore at his own expense. Sir Francis Drake engaged in an enterprise against Panama; and the Spaniards obliged the English to return without effecting

any thing; and Drake, from the vexation of this disappointment, was seized with a distemper, of which he died.

This unsuccessful enterprise in America determined the English to attack the Spanish dominions in Europe. A powerful fleet of one hundred and seventy vessels, carrying upwards of seven thousand soldiers, besides Dutch auxiliaries, set sail from Plymouth; and after a fruitless attempt to land at St. Sebastian, on the western side of Cadiz, resolved to attack the ships and galleys in the bay. This attempt was deemed rash; but the earl of Essex strenuously recommended the enterprise. Effingham, the commander in chief, appointed sir Walter Raleigh, and lord Thomas Howard, to lead the van; but Essex, contrary to the injunctions of the admiral, pressed forward into the thickest of the fight; and landing his men at the fort of Puntal, he immediately marched to Cadiz, which the impetuous valour of the English soon carried, sword in hand. The generosity of Essex, not inferior to his valour, induced him to stop the slaughter. The English obtained immense plunder; but they missed a much greater, by the Spanish admiral setting fire to the ships, in order to prevent their falling into the hands of the enemy. It was computed that the loss which the Spaniards sustained by this enterprise amounted to twenty millions of ducats.

The king of France concluded a peace with Spain; and the queen knew that she could finish the war on equitable terms with Philip. Burleigh advised her to embrace pacific measures; but Essex, whose passion for glory rendered him desirous that the war should continue, urged that her majesty had no reason to fear the issue of the contest, and that it would be dishonourable in her tc desert the Hollanders, till their affairs were placed in greater security. The advice of Essex was more agreeable to Elizabeth; and the favourite seemed daily to acquire an ascendant over the minister. Had he, indeed, been endued with caution and temper, he might soon have engrossed the entire confidence of his mistress; but his lofty spirit could ill submit to implicit deference; and in a dispute with the queen, he was so heated by the argument, and so entirely forgetful of the rules both of civility and duty, that he turned his back upon her in a contemptuous manner. Elizabeth, naturally prone to anger, instantly gave him a box on the ear, adding a passionate ex

pression suitable to his impertinence. Instead of recol lecting himself, and making the submission due to her sex and station, Essex clapped his hand on his sword, swore that he would not bear such usage, were it from Henry the Eighth himself, and immediately withdrew from court.

The queen's partiality, however, soon reinstated him in his former favour; and the death of Burleigh, equally regretted by his sovereign and the people, seemed to ensure him the confidence of Elizabeth.

Soon after the death of this wise and faithful minister, Philip the Second expired at Madrid. This haughty prince, desirous of an accommodation with his revolted subjects in the Netherlands, had transferred to his daughter, married to the archduke Albert, the title to the Low Countries; but the States considered this deed only as the change of a name; and the secret opposition of France, as well as the avowed efforts of England, continued to operate against the progress of Albert, as they had done. against that of Philip.

The authority of the English in the affairs of Ireland nad hitherto been little more than nominal. Instead of inviting the Irish to adopt the more civilized customs of their conquerors, they even refused to communicate to them the privilege of their laws, and every where marked them out as aliens and enemies; and the treatment which they experienced rendered them such, and made them daily became more untractable and more dangerous. Insurrections and rebellions had been frequent in Ireland; and Elizabeth tried several expedients for reducing that country to greater order and submission; but these expedients were unsuccessful, and Ireland became formidable to the English.

Hugh O'Neale, who had been raised by the queen to the dignity of earl of Tyrone, embraced the resolution of raising an open rebellion, and entered into a correspondence with Spain, whence he procured a supply of arms and ammunition. A victory obtained over sir Henry Bagnal, who had advanced to relieve a fort besieged by the rebels, raised the reputation of Tyrone, who assumed the character of the deliverer of his country. The English council were now sensible that the rebel- 1599 lion of Ireland should be opposed by vigorous measures; and the queen appointed Essex governor of tha

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