The Handy Military History Answer Book. Samuel Willard Crompton
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best to bring her subjects back to Roman Catholicism. They threw her out, and she crossed the border to England and asked Elizabeth, who was her first cousin once removed, for help. Not only did Elizabeth deny her assistance, but she had Mary locked up in a castle and kept her away from all observers, friendly and otherwise. Elizabeth was correct in that Mary represented a political danger, but her treatment was cruel.
When did Elizabeth, and England, first become involved in the Caribbean?
England had watched with open envy as Portugal and Spain established maritime empires in the early sixteenth century. According to a papal decree, the eastern hemisphere belonged to Portugal and the western to Spain. England, France, and Holland disagreed, and all three nations wanted their part of the colonization game. England did not race to enter the business of actual colonization; she, rather, sought to despoil Spain.
In the 1560s, Elizabeth licensed a handful of privateers with authority to prey on Spanish commerce. John Hawkins and Francis Drake, cousins, led the way. They found it much easier to attack the Spanish overseas possessions than to establish new ones of their own. Philip II was outraged by these attacks, but Elizabeth was a master at giving calm, misleading answers to the Spanish ambassador.
How close did Philip II come to conquering the Dutch Netherlands?
The southern part of the Netherlands—that which we now call Belgium—was under Spanish control by 1570, and Philip continued to press to win back the northern Netherlands. His armies, led by the Duke of Parma, were the best organized of the time, and the Spaniards slowly conquered one Dutch fortress and town after another. The closer they came to success, however, the more that the Dutch resisted, and when William the Silent was assassinated in 1578, it only fueled the flames of Dutch anger.
When did Elizabeth send Francis Drake on his most famous voyage?
Drake, who was the most ambitious and ruthless of the queen’s privateers, asked permission to attack Spain’s South American settlements, which were rumored to be extremely wealthy. Elizabeth took her time, hemmed and hawed, but she finally gave Drake his commission, and he sailed—with five ships—in 1577.
Drake told almost no one all of his plans, but his captains thought him too ambitious just the same. He faced a minor revolt in Patagonia—the same place where Magellan had faced one—and he sentenced one of his captains to death. Moving further south, Drake found his way through the Strait of Magellan: he was the first non-Spaniard or Portuguese to do so. Coming out into the Pacific, Drake moved his way up the coast of Chile and Peru, attacking Spanish settlements and ships. Virtually every Spanish place was caught unawares because no hostile ships had ever sailed these waters.
What was Drake’s biggest coup?
He found and captured an enormous Spanish treasure galleon that sailed from Manila in the Philippines to Acapulco every year. The loot from that one ship more than equaled everything else Drake acquired on his epic voyage. Drake put in on the North American coast, likely just north of modern-day San Francisco. After some encounters with the local population, he sailed again, this time right across the Pacific.
After obtaining much spice in the Malaccan Islands, Drake sailed for home. He was more fortunate than Ferdinand Magellan, who had died along the way. On his arrival in Plymouth, England, Drake found himself the toast of the town and then the nation. In 1581, Queen Elizabeth visited his flagship—which he had renamed the Golden Hind—and knighted him on the quarterdeck. This public approval suggested that Elizabeth was ready to duel with Philip II. He, however, had already stolen a march on her.
Sir Francis Drake was a privateer whom Queen Elizabeth I employed to lead attacks against Spanish ships, looting their cargos and sending the money back to England.
How did Spain come to possess Portugal?
In 1578, King Sebastian I of Portugal (ruled 1557–1578) was killed while leading his army against the Moors in North Africa. Philip II had a blood relationship to the Portuguese monarchy, and he pressed his claim, first in legal documents and then by sending his army across the border. The Spaniards conquered mainland Portugal rather easily, but the Portuguese islands, the Azores especially, held out for two or three years. During that time, Philip II increased the size of the Spanish navy, both by adding the Portuguese ships to his fleet and by employing new methods of bombardment.
Philip II felt ready to attempt what he called the Enterprise of England. Elizabeth I and her subjects felt ready to contest any landing. What was needed was a spark to ignite the contest, which came in the form of the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.
Why was Philip II so preoccupied with the Mediterranean Sea?
Philip was so occupied as to feel beleaguered. He faced the Dutch Revolt to his northeast, the English freebooters to the west, and he faced the Ottoman Turks to the east. His father, Emperor Charles V, had been the great standard bearer against the Turks, and that task now fell to Philip.
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