ted with her by
blood, and then her sister Queen of equal rights with herself--all of
them for traitorous attempts against her government and person. She
said she would gladly have saved Essex, but she was forced to let the
laws of England take their course.

Essex is to be compared with his contemporary Biron in so far as they
both rebelled against sovereigns with whom they had stood in the
closest relations. In both it was mainly injured self-esteem which
goaded them on. As Biron had a portion of the lower French nobility
for him, so Essex had the soldiers by profession and the officers of
the army to a great extent on his side: they both appealed once more
to religious antipathies. But above all they thought of again making
room for the old independence of the warlike nobles: they both
succumbed to the authority of the firmly-rooted power of the state.

At that time there were fresh negociations going on for a peace
between Spain and England; but they could as little now as before
agree on the great subjects in dispute, the question of the
Netherlands, and the interests of commerce, which at the same time
involved points of religion. And the Spaniards broke off negotiations
all the more readily, as exaggerated rumours of Essex's conspiracy
resounded everywhere, making a revolt in England appear possible. They
then instantly thought of a landing in an English harbour, and this
the Catholics promised to support with considerable bodies of horse
and foot. In Ireland, where the refusal of the concessions held out to
them by Essex revived the national enmities, the Spaniards really
effected a landing: under Don Juan d'Aguilar they occupied Kinsale:
and hoped not merely to become masters of Ireland but to cross from
thence to their friends' assistance in England.

Hence Queen Elizabeth, who perceived the connexion of these
hostilities, now reverted to the necessity of carrying on the war
again on a larger scale. Her view was chiefly directed to a new
enterprise against Portugal: its separation from Castile she held to
be the greatest European success that was possible: but she hoped to
bring about a change in Italy as well: there Venice was to attack the
nearest Spanish territories. When she called the Venetians to
aid--among other things she wished also to obtain a loan from the
government--she put them in mind how much her resistance to the
Spanish monarchy had benefited the European commonwealth: hence it was
that S