in the Netherlands; no Catholic power was prepared to strike at the island kingdom. Ten years of comparative peace followed; but in 1580 the Jesuit order began to operate in England and the quiet was at an end. Now came a series of plots looking toward the assassination of Elizabeth in the interest of the captive Mary Stuart. The outcome of these was the execution of the Scottish queen in 1587. The next year the storm that had threatened so long broke over the Channel; but when it had passed it was the cause of England's enemies that had been defeated. England was stronger than ever before.

REFERENCES

EARLY YEARS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. — Beesly, Queen Elizabeth, c. ii. ELIZABETH AND THE ENGLISH CHURCH. - Beard, Introduction to the English Historians, 295-306 (Dixon); Beesly, c. ii; Fletcher, Introductory History of England, I, ii, 150-154; Innes, History of England, 367-372; Ransome, Advanced History of England, 449-452; Tout, Advanced History of Great Britain, 370-375.

MARY STUART. Beesly, cc. iv, ix; Brown, Short History of Scotland, 325344; Creighton, Age of Elizabeth, 65-82; Cheyney, Short History of England, 340-345; Fletcher, I, ii, 154-164; Innes, 320-325; Lang, Short History of Scotland, 129–142; Maccunn, Mary Stuart; Oman, History of England, 326–330; Ransome, 454-458; Tout, 375-385.

THE JESUIT MISSION. - Beesly, c. vii; Creighton, 155-166; Innes, 337-340. THE ARMADA. Beesly, c. x; Creighton, 181-186; Cross, History of England, 394-396; Fletcher, I, ii, 179-186; Innes, 346-350; Oman 337-340; Ransome, 469-472; Tout, 397-400.

CHAPTER XIII

THE AGE OF ELIZABETH

263. Material Progress in the Sixteenth Century. The sixteenth century was an age of tremendous changes in the life and civilization of the English people. Most of these occurred during the life-time of Elizabeth. The queen was born while the Reformation movement was in its earliest stage; she lived through times of intense religious agitation and Changes of the reaction; but she finally saw her own ideas sucTudor period. cessfully realized. The religious change alone would suffice to make the period memorable, but it was only one of many. Old ways and ancient ideas were rapidly being discarded, and the England of Elizabeth's old age was not the England of her youth. The new forms of material and intellectual life were particularly evident during the last quarter of the century, which has therefore been called the "Elizabethan age."

The closer contact with southern and eastern Europe, which Henry VII had done so much to promote, naturally resulted in the growth of new wants and necessities among the people. The English began to crave more comforts and luxuries than they had earlier enjoyed. The increasing knowledge of how the world lived beyond the seas of Britain was also Elizabethan a potent factor. It is said that three changes in homes. the English home were peculiarly evident in the days of Elizabeth: the houses that were built were more comfortable; the bed rooms were better and more richly furnished; and the tableware showed marked improvement.1

In earlier times all the houses except the more pretentious ones were built with an open hearth in the middle of the prin

1 Cheyney, No. 191 (Erasmus); Gardiner, 464-468; Kendall, No. 67 (Harrison).

cipal room and around this hearth the family gathered in cold weather; here, too, the meals were cooked. The smoke found its way out through a lanthorn in the roof as in the AngloSaxon houses, and it was counted no annoyance to have it collect in the room. But in the queen's day men built fireplaces with chimneys, to the great disgust of their elders who

Furnishings.

ANN HATHAWAY'S COTTAGE, STRATFORD
From a photograph by W. H. Dudley.

missed their old discomforts. The windows, too, were being improved by the substitution of glass for horn and lattice. In the sleeping rooms pillows became more common and the straw pallets gave place to more comfortable bedding. Articles of pewter and tin took the place of the older wooden bowls and spoons on the table; in the wealthier households silver ware was also coming into use. Carpets, too, were now regarded with much more favor than earlier.

Considerable change is also seen in the matter of food and clothing. Earlier custom had called for four meals daily, but in Tudor times the number was reduced to two: "and each one (except here and there some young hungrie stomach that cannot fast till dinner-time) contenteth

Food and drink.

295

ENGLISH INTEREST IN THE NEW WORLD himself with dinner and supper only." The Venetian trade had brought to England the luxuries of the Orient, especially its silks and spices. From other southern lands came wine, of which the Englishman recognized fifty-six varieties. From the New World came tobacco and the potato. Sir Walter Raleigh tried to cultivate these on his Irish estate; the tobacco plant seems not to have flourished, but the experiment with the potato was apparently successful.

264. English Interest in the New World. These products and many others that came from the newly discovered lands in Africa and America together with the immense

Interest in

the Indies.

- riches that flowed regularly from the Indies into America and the treasuries of Spain stirred up a desire in the English heart to sail the unknown seas and trade on the new shores. But the power of Philip II stood in the way: Spain claimed a monopoly of American enterprises; and after Philip became king of Portugal (1580), all the wealth of the West and the East had to pass through his ports.

Spanish settlements in the

West Indies.

The Spaniards had lost no time in making good their claim to the New World: before his return to Spain in 1493, Columbus planted a settlement on the island of Haiti which he named Isabella in honor of the great queen of Castile. In 1509, the year of Henry VIII's accession to the English kingship, settlements were founded on the neighboring islands of Puerto Rico and Jamaica; two years later Cuba was settled. During the second decade of the century, while the European monarchs were struggling for bits of Italian soil and Thomas Wolsey was chiefly concerned about the balance of power in Europe, Spain extended her operations to the mainland about the Caribbean Sea, and in 1519 she began the conquest of Mexico. Two years earlier Martin Luther had risen in opposition to the papacy, and the atten- Mexico and tion of the Continent outside of Spain was soon Peru. given almost wholly to the Protestant movement in Germany. Ten years later, when Henry VIII was in the midst of his fight

1 Gardiner, 446-449.

with the papacy, the conquest of Peru was begun in earnest. Before Henry VIII's reign had closed, Spain had founded settlements in the Americas from northern Mexico to Valparaiso and Buenos Ayres. Trade on the American shores was forbidden

to all but Spanish merchants.

It was not to be expected that English seamen, who did not always respect the rights of English merchants, should make The English the Span

265. John Hawkins and Francis Drake. The pioneer among these dreaded English seamen was Sir John Hawkins, a ship captain from the Devon country, whose father had made several expeditions to Spanish Sir John America about 1530. Sir John also enjoys the Hawkins. doubtful distinction of being the first English slaver. His operations in Guinea and the West Indies extended through nearly the entire reign of Queen Elizabeth. Among others who imitated Hawkins in piracy were Richard Grenville

Devon sailors.

and Sir Walter Raleigh, both of whom were Devon men, but particularly Francis Drake, a kinsman of John Hawkins, and probably the boldest seaman of his time.