ish history. His historical plays appealed then, as
they do now, to every heart. At his touch the dullest and driest
records of the past are transformed and glow with color, life,
movement, and meaning.[1] On the other hand, Francis Bacon, son of
Sir Nicholas Bacon, of Elizabeth's council, was giving a wholly
different direction to education. In his new system of philosophy,[2]
he taught men that in order to use the forces of nature they must
learn by observation and experiment to know nature herself; "for,"
said he, "knowledge is power."

[1] On the value of Shakespeare's Historical Plays, see S298, note 1;
S313, note 2; and S410.
[2] In his tract on "The Greatest Birth of Time," in 1582.

394. Mary Queen of Scots claims the Crown (1561).

For England it was also an age of great and constant peril.
Elizabeth's entire reign was undermined with plots against her life
and against the life of the Protestant faith. No sooner was one
conspiracy detected and suppressed than a new one sprang up. Perhaps
the most formidable of these was the effort which Mary Stuart, Queen
of Scots, made to supplant her English rival. Shortly after
Elizabeth's accession, Mary's husband, the King of France, died. She
returned to Scotland (1561) and there assumed the Scottish crown, at
the same time asserting her right to the English throne.[3]

[3] See Genealogical Table (p. 207). Mary's claim was based on the
fact that the Pope had never recognized Henry VIII's marriage to Anne
Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother, as lawful, while she, herself, as the
direct descendant of Henry's sister, Margaret, stood next in
succession.

395. Mary marries Darnley; his Murder.

A few years later Mary married Lord Darnley. He became jealous of
Rizzio, her private secretary, and, with the aid of accomplices,
seized him in her presence, dragged him into an antechamber, and there
stabbed him. The next year Darnley was murdered. It was believed
that Mary and the Earl of Bothwell, whom she soon married, were guilty
of the crime. The people rose and cast her into prison, and forced
her to abdicate in favor of her infant son, James VI, who eventually
became King of England and Scotland (1603).

396. Mary escapes to England (1568); plots against Elizabeth and
Protestantism.

Mary escaped and fled to England. Elizabeth, fearing she might pass
over to France and stir up war, confined her in Bolton Castle,
Yorkshire. During her imprisonment in another str