Elizabeth died in 1603. Her reign had seen also the final suppression of
the Irish Catholics and their subjugation to the English crown. In the
year of her death came the "Flight of the Earls," the mournful
abandonment of Ireland by the last of the great lords who had fought for
and now despaired of her independence.[23]
[23] See _Downfall of Irish Liberty: "Flight of the Earls_," page
299.
The age of Elizabeth can scarcely, however, be said to cease at her
death. The English people had grown greater than their sovereign, and
upon them the influences of their Spanish victory continued. Shakespeare
is even more the Elizabethan age than Elizabeth, and his writings
continued until 1611. Drake had died in 1596; Raleigh lived till 1618.
Since Elizabeth was childless, she was succeeded on the throne by the
Scotch king James VI (James I of England), son of the Mary Stuart whose
claims had caused such trouble. James, removed from his mother's care,
had been educated by his subjects as a Protestant, so he was welcome to
England. The first step toward uniting the two halves of the island was
made when they thus came under a common sovereign. The same atmosphere
of plot and treachery which had surrounded Elizabeth reached also to her
successor. In 1605 was unearthed the "Gunpowder Plot," a scheme to blow
up James with all his chief ministers and subjects in the House of
Parliament.
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