upbraided the minister
who had advised it, and throwing Davidson, her secretary, into the
Tower, fined him 10,000 pounds, the payment of which reduced him to
beggary.

Not satisfied with this, Elizabeth even had the effrontery to write a
letter of condolence to Mary's son, James VI, declaring that his
mother had been beheaded by mistake! Yet facts prove that Elizabeth
had not only determined to put Mary to death, but that she had urged
those who held Mary prisoner to kill her privately.[2]

[2] See "Elizabeth" in the "National Dictionary of (British)
Biography."

398. The Spanish Armada.

Mary was hardly under ground when a new and greater danger threatened
the country. At her death, the Scottish Queen, disgusted with her
mean-spirited son James,[3] bequeathed her dominions, including her
claim to the English throne, to Philip II of Spain (S370). He was
then the most powerful sovereign in Europe, ruling over a territory
equal to that of the Roman Empire in its greatest extent.

[3] James had deserted his mother and accepted a pension from
Elizabeth.

Philip II, with the encouragement of the Pope, and with the further
help of the promise of a very large sum of money from him, resolved to
invade England, conquer it, annex it to his possessions, and restore
the religion of Rome. To accomplish this, he began fitting out the
"Invisible Armada," an immense fleet of warships, intended to carry
twenty thousand soldiers, and to receive on its way reenforcements of
thirty thousand more from the Spanish army in the Netherlands.

399. Drake's Expedition; Sailing of the Armada (1588).

Sir Francis Drake (S392) determined to check Philip's preparations.
He heard that the enemy's fleet was gathered at Cadiz. He sailed
there, and in spite of all opposition effectually "singed the Spanish
King's beard," as he said, by burning and otherwise destroying more
than a hundred ships.

This so crippled the expedition that it had to be given up for that
year, but the next summer a vast armament set sail. Motley[1] says it
consisted of ten squadrons, of more than one hundred and thirty ships,
carrying upwards of three thousand cannon.

[1] Motley's "United Netherlands," II, 465; compare Froude's
"England," XII, 466, and Laughton's "Armada" (State Papers),
pp. xl-lvii.

The impending peril thoroughly roused England. Both Catholics and
Protestants rose to defend their country and their Queen.

400. The Battle, 1588.

The En