Little Arthur's history of England

by Lady Maria Callcott

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.