s to be dismantled; Howard retained
them instead, at his own charges. On July 19, 1588, the Armada was
sighted off the Lizard, and for eighteen days the naval heroes were
grappling with that "invincible" fleet. Elizabeth herself visited the
camp at Tilbury, rode through the lines, wearing a corselet and a
farthingale of amazing dimensions, while a page bore her helmet, and
addressed her soldiers in stirring words.

The victory was celebrated by medals bearing the device of a fleet in
full sail, with the words _Venit, vidit, fugit_ ("it came, it saw, it
fled"), and of the dispersal by fireships with the words, _Dux femina
facti_ ("a woman led the movement").

_IV.--Elizabeth's Closing Years_

The defeat of the Armada was followed by an expedition to Lisbon, to
wrest Portugal from Spain; owing to inadequate equipment it failed,
after a promising beginning, the Portuguese lending no help. Essex
managed to escape from court and join the expedition, messengers
ordering him to return being too late. For this he was forgiven; but
when he secretly married the widow of Sidney, and daughter of
Walsingham, Elizabeth was furiously angry.

Not Essex, but Norris was sent to command a force dispatched to the aid
of Henry of Navarre, who was now fighting for the crown of France.
Essex, however, was subsequently sent, at Henry's own request. His
absence was utilised by Burleigh to secure the advancement of his own
astute son, Robert Cecil, who secured the royal favour by the ingenuity
of his flattery.

When Essex finally returned from France, he was received with the utmost
favour; but in the interval he had been transformed into an intriguing
politician. Parliament, which had not been called for four years, met in
1593, and there was an immediate collision with the Crown. Elizabeth's
tone was much more despotic than of old. Petitions for the settlement of
the succession were met by the arbitrary imprisonment of Wentworth and
other members.

Essex favoured the popular party, but had not the courage to head it; he
was moved not by patriotism, but by jealousy of the Cecil ascendancy.
The queen, when she had passed the age of sixty, was as determined as
ever to pose as a youthful beauty, and her courtiers had no reluctance
in assuming the tone of despairing lovers. No one played this part more
persistently than Raleigh, who, when relegated to the Tower for
marrying, proclaimed his misery, not at being separated from his bride,