soldiers on board, the English ships
were not like those of Spain, which were organized like a camp,
with the soldier element supreme and the sailors "slaves to the
rest."

_The Political Situation_

The steps taken to build up the navy in the decade or more preceding
the Armada were well justified by the political and religious strife
in western Europe and the dangers which on all sides threatened the
English realm. France, the Netherlands, and Scotland were torn by
religious warfare. In England the party with open or secret Catholic
sympathies was large, amounting to perhaps half the population,
the strength of whose loyalty to Elizabeth it was difficult to
gage. Since 1568 Elizabeth had held captive Mary Queen of Scots,
driven out of her own country by the Presbyterian hierarchy, and
a Catholic with hereditary claims to the English throne. Before
her death, Philip of Spain had conspired with her to assassinate
the heretic Elizabeth; after Mary's execution in 1587 he became
heir to her claims and entered the more willingly upon the task
of conquering England and restoring it to the faith. For years,
in fact, there had been a state of undeclared hostility between
England and Spain, and acts which, with sovereigns less cautious
and astute than both Elizabeth and Philip, would have meant war.
In 1585 Elizabeth formed an alliance with the Netherlands, and sent
her favorite, Leicester, there as governor-general, and Sir Philip
Sidney as Governor of Flushing, which with two other "cautionary
towns" she took as pledges of Dutch loyalty. The motives for this
action are well stated in a paper drawn up by the English Privy
Council in 1584, presenting a situation interesting in its analogy
to that which faced the United States when it entered the World
War:

"The conclusion of the whole was this: Although her Majesty should
thereby enter into the war presently, yet were she better to do
it now, while she may make the same out of her realm, having the
help of the people of Holland, and before the King of Spain shall
have consummated his conquest of those countries, whereby he shall
be so provoked by pride, solicited by the Pope, and tempted by the
Queen's own subjects, and shall be so strong by sea; and so free
from all other actions and quarrels--yea, shall be so formidable
to all the rest of Christendom, as that her Majesty shall no wise
be able, with her own power, nor with the aid of any other, neither
by land nor sea,