“The object (in history teaching) is to lead the student to ... take interest in history not as a mere narrative, but as a chain of causes and effects, still unwinding itself before our eyes and full of momentous consequences to himself and his descendants, an unremitting conflict between good and evil powers, of which every act done by any one of us, insignificant as we are, forms one of the incidents, a conflict in which even the smallest of us cannot escape from taking part, in which whoever does not help the right side is helping the wrong.” (Mill. Inaugural Address.)
SPECIMEN SYLLABUS OF ENGLISH HISTORY.
Foreign Policy of Elizabeth.
Introductory.—Keynote of the period; dynastic alliances. Power of House of Hapsburg built up on political marriages, even England threatened with absorption by the Hapsburgs, as a consequence of Mary Tudor’s marriage to Philip, and though Mary’s death made “a great rent in the Hapsburg net, in which England was enmeshed” (Seeley), yet Philip long struggled to re-establish the Hapsburg dominion in England, and this, according to the fashion of the time, by marriage. “Courtships of Queen Elizabeth” begin January, 1559; Philip offers his hand to Elizabeth: “The more I reflect on this business, the more clearly I see that all will turn on the husband which this woman will choose” (De Feria). Other suitors in Hapsburg interest, Philibert of Savoy, Archdukes Ferdinand and Charles—Elizabeth encourages Hapsburg suitors—could thus keep English Catholics in hand in spite of innovations, and get better terms from France in Treaty of Cateau Cambrésis, April, 1559, France believing her supported by Spain. But England’s safety from Hapsburgs largely due to her danger from Valois. The Valois had secured Scotland, and claimed England through marriage of Mary and Francis. For Philip to overthrow Elizabeth would mean to clear the way for Mary of Scots: it was not till he could come as Mary’s heir, that he openly made war on England.
Period I. The Scotch Period, 1558-1567.
(i.) 1558-1564, in which a Basis is laid for the Union of England and Scotland.
England and Scotland both under queens; both had to choose between a power based upon the wishes of the nation, and a power supported by foreign help. Elizabeth chose a national position: “took a course visibly full of danger, a course in which success was only possible by courage and heroic endurance, but in which success, if it came, might be splendid, and might raise the nation itself to greatness”. Mary, on the contrary, brought her subjects under a foreign yoke. Since Mary of Guise’s regency was a High Catholic rule, the Reformation in Scotland took the form of a national movement, and the national party turned towards England for help. “The first achievement of Elizabethan policy lay in this, that she called out a great Reformation party in England and Scotland at once, and thus laid the foundation of the union of England and Scotland.” Elizabeth’s self-justification in helping subjects against their sovereign: that she was maintaining national independence against a foreign power. Arran becomes Elizabeth’s suitor in Protestant interest. January, 1560—Treaty of Berwick—importance. Elizabeth “put herself at the head of the national religious movement in Scotland”; “in consideration of the attempt to annex Scotland to the French crown, she promised to aid the Scotch to drive out the foreign invaders”. Success of Elizabeth’s policy; French troops recalled. July—Treaty of Edinburgh ends the government of Scotland by the French; December—death of Francis II. severs the union of French and Scotch crowns. 1561—Return of Mary to Scotland; she refuses to ratify the Treaty of Edinburgh, and sets to work to build up an Anglo-Scotch party in the interest of the Counter-Reformation.
(ii.) 1565-1567, in which the Danger is of the Union of England and Scotland under Mary against Elizabeth.
1565—Marriage of Mary and Darnley—importance: Mary puts herself definitely at the head of the Catholic party in England. 1567—Murder of Darnley; marriage with Bothwell; Lochleven; battle of Langside; collapse of Counter-Reformation in Great Britain; prospect in James of a solution for England of both problems of succession and religion.
Period II. The French Period, 1567-1585.