27. The Spanish Armada. The King of Spain was bound to crush England at one mighty blow. In 1588 the Spanish Armada, as the great fleet was called, sailed for England. There were scores of war vessels manned by more than seven thousand sailors, carrying nearly twenty thousand soldiers. Almost every noble family in Spain sent one or more of its sons to fight against England.
When this mighty fleet reached the English Channel, Drake and other sea captains as daring as himself dashed at the Spanish ships, and by the help of a great storm that came up, succeeded in destroying almost the whole fleet. No such blow had ever before fallen upon the great and powerful Spanish nation.
From that time on her power grew less and less, while England's power on the sea grew greater and greater. Englishmen could now go to America without much thought of danger from Spaniards.
SIR WALTER RALEIGH, THE FRIEND OF ELIZABETH, PLANTS A COLONY IN AMERICA TO CHECK THE POWER OF SPAIN
Raleigh, student, soldier, seaman
28. Sir Walter Raleigh. Born (1552) near the sea, Raleigh fed his young imagination with stories of the wild doings of English seamen. He went to college at Oxford at the age of fourteen, and made a good name as a student.
In a few years young Raleigh went to France to take part in the religious wars of that unhappy country. At the time he returned home all England was rejoicing over Drake's first shipload of gold. When Queen Elizabeth sent an army to aid the people of Holland against the Spaniards, young Raleigh was only too glad to go.
