Little Arthur's history of England

It is quite pleasant, my little friend, to have to write a chapter for you, where I can tell you of all things going well for England, that dear country where God allows us to live, which he has given us to love, and to do all we can for.

When first Elizabeth became queen, her counsellors and the Parliament, and the people, all asked her to marry, and promised to receive kindly anybody she should choose. And the King of Spain asked her to marry him, but she told him she would not marry him, because he had been her sister’s husband; and she did not believe the Pope had power to allow her to marry one who had been her sister’s husband. Then the old Queen of France, Catherine of Medicis, who had taught poor Mary Queen of Scots to be so foolish and cruel, wanted Queen Elizabeth to marry one of her sons. But Elizabeth did not like them any better than she did Philip, yet more than once she pretended she was going to marry one of them, for she wanted to be friends with France, and so make England strong and able to fight successfully against Spain. Then some of the great English lords wanted to marry her. But she knew that if she married one of them the others would be jealous, and, may be, would make a civil war in England; so she thanked the counsellors, and the Parliament, and the people, for their kindness, but said she would rather live single, as she had quite enough to do to govern the kingdom well, without being troubled with marrying. And she kept her word, and never married, and is always called the Maiden Queen.

I told you long ago, that the first great sea-fight in which the English beat the French was in the reign of Edward the Third. Since that time the English ships had been very much improved; instead of only one mast, the largest had three, and instead of stones for the sailors to throw at one another, there were large and small guns to fight with. Then the sailors were as much improved as the ships. Instead of only sailing along by the land, and only going to sea in good weather, they made long voyages.

You know, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth’s grandfather, I told you that some bold sailors had sailed as far as America. Now Queen Elizabeth, who knew very well that the kings of France and Spain wanted to make war upon England, and drive her away, and oppress the Protestants, thought, like wise King Alfred, that the best way to defend England was to have plenty of ships and good seamen, and brave admirals and captains to command them: and so meet her enemies on the sea, and keep them from ever landing in England.

I must tell you something about one or two of Queen Elizabeth’s great admirals.

Sir Francis Drake, the first man who ever sailed his ship round the whole world, was born in Devonshire, and went to sea at first with some other brave gentlemen, to carry on a war against some towns which the Spaniards had built in South America. This was very wrong, because private persons have no business to make war, and take towns, and make prisoners of the townspeople. Such things should only be done when there is a lawful war between two countries. Then, indeed, every man must do his duty, and fight as well as he can for his own country and king. If private gentlemen were to go and take towns belonging to other countries, now, they would be called PIRATES, and they would be hanged.

However, as Sir Francis Drake grew older, he left off making private war, became one of the queen’s best admirals, and you will read more about him near the end of this chapter.

When he made his grand voyage round the world, he sailed always from the East to the West. He first went round Cape Horn, at the very South end of South America, where he saw great islands of ice as high as a large hill, and penguins and albatrosses swimming about them. Then he sailed to the Spice Islands, where he saw cloves and nutmegs grow, and birds of Paradise flying about in the air, and peacocks in the fields, and monkeys skipping from tree to tree in the woods. Then he passed by the Cape of Good Hope, which is in the South part of Africa, where all the beautiful geraniums and heaths come from.

Queen Elizabeth spoke to him kindly when he set out, and when he came back, after being three years at sea, she went and dined with him on board his own ship, and saw all the beautiful and curious things he had brought home with him.

Another great Admiral was Sir Martin Frobisher, who had been to the furthest parts of North America, and first saw all the land about Hudson’s Bay, and those countries to the south of that bay, where the English not long afterwards built towns, and settled a great many free states, that you will read a great deal about some day.

In many things, the next admiral I will tell you about was a greater man than any of the rest. His name was Sir Walter Raleigh; he was both a sailor and a soldier: sometimes he commanded a ship, and sometimes he fought along with the army on shore.

The first time the queen took notice of him was one day that she was walking in London, and came to a splashy place just as Sir Walter was going by. As she was thinking how she could best step through the mud, Sir Walter took off a nice new cloak that he had on, and spread it on the dirt, so that the queen might walk over without wetting her shoes. She was very much pleased, and desired him to go to see her at her palace; and as she found that he was very clever and very brave, she made him one of her chief admirals.

Queen Elizabeth used to behave to her brave admirals and generals, and her wise counsellors, and even to her great merchants, like a friend. She visited them in their houses, and talked to them cheerfully of her affairs. She took notice of even the poorest people, and she used to walk and ride about, so that all her subjects knew her and loved her. And now I am going to tell you a part of her history, which will show you how happy it was for her and for England that the people did love their good queen.

The King of Spain had never loved Elizabeth; and he hated England, because the people were Protestants: and I am sure you remember how cruel he and his wife Queen Mary were to the English.

He made war against England, and thought that if he could land a great army on the coast, he might conquer all the country and drive away Elizabeth, and make the English all Papists again. He hoped this would be easy, because he was the richest king in the world, and had more ships and sailors and soldiers than any other. And he began to build more ships and to collect more sailors and soldiers; and he made so sure he should conquer England, that I have heard he even had chains put on board the ships, to chain the English admirals when his people should take them.

This fleet, that King Philip made ready to conquer England, was the largest that any king had ever sent to sea, and he called it the “Invincible Armada,”[3] because, he said, nobody could conquer it.

But Queen Elizabeth heard in time that Philip was making ready this great navy, to bring as great an army to attack England. She immediately told the Parliament and people of her danger. She rode out herself to see her soldiers and her ships, and she said she trusted herself entirely to her good people. The people soon showed her they might be trusted: they came willingly to be sailors and soldiers; and the great lords gave money to pay the soldiers; and many gentlemen built ships, and bought guns, and gave them to the queen. And she had soon a good fleet. It was not so large as King Philip’s indeed, and the ships were quite small compared with his; but the sailors belonging to it remembered that they were to fight for their own dear England, and for a queen whom they loved.

The chief admiral was Lord Howard of Effingham; under him were Lord Seymour, Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins, Sir Martin Frobisher, Sir Walter Raleigh, and several other lords and gentlemen.

The queen got herself ready to march to whatever place the Spaniards might land at. She had a good army a little way from London, at Tilbury Fort, and she went there on horseback, and spoke to the soldiers, to give them courage.

Oh, how anxious everybody in England was, when the news came that the great Armada was at sea, and sailing very near them! but it pleased God to save England. Soon after the Spanish fleet set sail a great storm arose, and many of the ships were so damaged that they could not come to England at all.

When the others did come, Queen Elizabeth’s fleet sailed out and followed them for a week up the English Channel, fighting and beating them all the way. At last, in the Straits of Dover, the English admirals sent fire ships into the middle of the Armada, and the Spaniards sailed away in a fright; and not one ship got to England to land Spanish soldiers. Twelve of them were taken or destroyed; and another storm, greater than the first, sank a great many and wrecked others, so that of all Philip’s great fleet and army, only one-third could get back to Spain; and they were so tired and so hurt that he never could get them together again to attack England.

Philip must have been very sorry that he began to make war against England, for the war lasted as long as he lived, and every year the English admirals used to take a good many of his ships; and one year Lord Essex, who was a great favorite of Queen Elizabeth’s, landed in Spain, and took Cadiz, one of Philip’s best towns, and burnt a great many ships that were in its harbour.