ny of foreigners and "the
satanic designs of an unlawful Queen." The French king hoped that a
rising would give the Queen work at home; but the revolt was easily
crushed, and the insult enabled Mary to override her counsellors'
reluctance and to declare war against France. The war opened with
triumphs both on land and at sea. The junction of the English fleet made
Philip master of the Channel. Eight thousand men, "all clad in their
green," were sent to Flanders under Lord Pembroke, and joined Philip's
forces in August in time to take part in the great victory of St.
Quentin. In October the little army returned home in triumph, but the
gleam of success vanished suddenly away. In the autumn of 1557 the
English ships were defeated in an attack on the Orkneys. In January 1558
the Duke of Guise flung himself with characteristic secrecy and energy
upon Calais and compelled it to surrender before succour could arrive.
"The chief jewel of the realm," as Mary herself called it, was suddenly
reft away; and the surrender of Guisnes, which soon followed, left
England without a foot of land on the Continent.

[Sidenote: Mary and Ireland.]

Bitterly as the blow was felt, the Council, though passionately pressed
by the Queen, could find neither money nor men for any attempt to
recover the town. The war indeed went steadily for Spain and her allies;
and Philip owed his victory at Gravelines in the summer of 1558 mainly
to the opportune arrival of ten English ships of war which opened fire
on the flank of the French army that lay open to the sea. But England
could not be brought to take further part in the contest. The levies
which were being raised mutinied and dispersed. The forced loan to
which Mary was driven to resort came in slowly. The treasury was drained
not only by the opening of the war with France but by the opening of a
fresh strife in Ireland. To the struggle of religion which had begun
there under the Protectorate the accession of Mary had put an end. The
shadowy form of the earlier Irish Protestantism melted quietly away.
There were in fact no Protestants in Ireland save the new bishops; and
when Bale had fled over sea from his diocese of Ossory and his
fellow-prelates had been deprived the Irish Church resumed its old
appearance. No attempt indeed was made to restore the monasteries; and
Mary exercised her supremacy, deposed or appointed bishops, and
repudiated Papal interference with her ecclesiastical acts as vigorou