Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
sent the Spanish Armada of 130 ships in July 1588 to invade England. When it was
spotted off Cornwall, beacons were lit all the way to London to warn of the danger.
Enter one of England's greatest heroes—Sir Francis Drake—who was in Plymouth
(p. 393) when the alarm went up.
The English Navy followed the Armada, which was on its way to Spanish-owned
Netherlands to pick up troops. The Armada anchored at Gravelines, in France—the
nearest suitable port to the troops—and at nightfall Drake sent eight burning ships
into the middle of the wooden fleet. With the route to the English Channel blocked
by Drake's ships, the Spanish were forced to sail through storms around Scotland to
Ireland, where they stopped for supplies. But the Irish thought they were being
invaded and drove them off. Only about half the Armada returned to Spain.
It added to Drake's heroic reputation—and to Elizabeth's image as a strong,
unbeatable leader. Drake had already been knighted and lived comfortably at
Buck-
land Abbey
in Devon (p. 378), today owned by the National Trust, and made his
fortune by attacking and looting Spanish bullion ships on their way from South
America back to Europe.
Elizabeth's reign was also a time of major exploration, mainly to find a new route
to the East to break the Spanish hold on the lucrative spice trade. The attempted
colonization of Newfoundland, by Sir Martin Frobisher, and North Carolina, by Sir
Walter Raleigh, laid the foundation for the British Empire.
Elizabeth I died in 1603, aged a remarkable 69. Ironically, she was succeeded by
Mary Queen of Scots' son, who became James I of England and Wales while remain-
ing James VI of Scotland. Although he hadn't been much help to his mother when
she was alive, one of the first things he did was have the remains of Mary Queen of
Scots moved to
Westminster Abbey
(p. 103), to an exceptionally fine tomb, which
is still there today.
This was also a time of some of England's finest literature. Shakespeare (1564-
1616) was creating his vast body of work, with his plays being performed in London
at the Globe theatre, which opened on the south bank of the Thames in 1599. A
re-creation today sits just along the river (p. 163). Also at work was Ben Jonson
(1572-1637)—a playwright, poet, and actor, and a competitor to Shakespeare, best
known for his satirical plays such as
Volpone
.
The Stuarts (1603-88)
James I was the first of the Stuart kings, but although he effectively united the
crowns of England and Scotland, they still had separate governments and were not
politically united until 1707 (interestingly in May 2011 a Scottish National Party—
SNP— parliamentary majority election result means a Scottish independence refer-
endum in the next few years is possible). He was welcomed to England because
people did not want continued fighting over the crown, but he broke promises to be
lenient to Catholics and upset some Protestants by not introducing the more
extreme rules of Scottish Presbyterianism.
The Gunpowder Plot, in 1605, was the most dramatic consequence: Disaffected
Catholics plotted to blow up the House of Lords while James I was in it, neatly dis-
posing of him and the pro-Protestant nobility, clergy, and judges at the same time.
Guy Fawkes, a Catholic convert who had fought for the Spanish in the Netherlands,
was put in charge of the explosives. However, the plot was leaked, and Guy Fawkes
was discovered in the building's cellar. He was tortured until he betrayed his co-
conspirators, and was executed at the
Tower
(p. 112).
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