Since the formation of the League, however, Guise had become Philip’s ally against the French king and the Huguenots. Mary Stuart’s mother was a Guise, and she herself had once been queen of France. His father had beaten Philip’s father at Metz. Guise, one of the most zealous advocates of the invasion, was a Frenchman. During the nineteen years of her captivity, Mary Queen of Scots inspired Catholic Europe to form endless plans for invading England but they all came to naught, because Philip, whose aid was regarded as essential, steadily refused to take part in an enterprise which promised only to serve the ends of the great rival power, France. Baffled in this suit, he began to entertain the idea of acquiring the country by force of arms, but halted long on his proverbial “ leaden foot ” before he deemed the time come to realize it. As Mary Tudor’s husband he had been titular king of England, and had afterwards sued for the hand of Elizabeth. He at first attempted it by the peaceful method of marriage. The acquisition of England had always been one of the principal aims of Philip II. An endeavor, therefore, to weave the authentic Spanish and English evidence 1 into an impartial description of an event so momentous will not seem superfluous. Will she be able to maintain this supre- macy against all possible combinations of her powerful rivals? Thoughtful Englishmen, endeavoring to answer this question by learning the lessons of the past, are to-day turning their attention to the beginning of their glorious naval history, to the great crisis of the sixteenth century, from which, thanks to her fleet, England emerged grandly victorious.įroude and Motley have described with great brilliancy the defeat of the Armada, but nobody has drawn a complete and accurate picture of the battles. Supremacy at sea is the only safeguard of her world empire. For England the subject has a very special significance. AN officer of the American navy has lately aroused widespread interest in the influence of sea power upon history.
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