The Spanish
power was still attempting the subjugation of the Netherlands, and
it was the ambition of Philip II to bring England also under his own
sway and that of Rome.
Elizabeth had given aid to Philip's rebellious subjects in the
Netherlands, and Sir Francis Drake had committed many depredations
upon Spain and her colonies. For the purpose of avenging these acts,
as well as the death of Mary Stuart, and of overthrowing the
Reformation in Great Britain, Philip gathered up all his strength
and prepared to hurl a mighty naval force, the "Invincible Armada,"
against England.
Creasy's masterly survey of the European situation at this period
unfolds the Anglo-Spanish complications. His exhaustive account of
the Armada and its ill-fated enterprise makes clear everything
important in this famous passage of history.
On the afternoon of July 19, 1588, a group of English captains was
collected at the bowling green on the Hoe, at Plymouth, whose equals
have never before or since been brought together, even at that favorite
mustering-place of the heroes of the British navy. There was Sir Francis
Drake, the first English circumnavigator of the globe, the terror of
every Spanish coast in the Old World and the New; there was Sir John
Hawkins, the rough veteran of many a daring voyage on the African and
American seas and of many a desperate battle; there was Sir Martin
Frobisher, one of the earliest explorers of the Arctic seas in search of
the northwest passage.
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