ship after ship was driven ashore and wrecked on the wild and rocky coast of western Ireland.  On one strand, less than five miles long, over a thousand corpses were counted.  Those who escaped the waves met death by the hands of the inhabitants.  Of the magnificent fleet which had sailed so proudly from Spain only fifty-three vessels returned, and they were but half manned by exhausted crews stricken by pestilence and death.  Thus ended Philip II’s boasted attack on England.

When all danger was past, Elizabeth went to Tilbury, on the Thames below London, to review the troops collected there to defend the capital.  “I know,” said she, “that I have but the feeble body of a woman, but I have the heart of a king, and of a king of England too.”  Unhappily the niggardly Queen had half starved her brave sailors, and many of them came home only to die.  None the less Elizabeth went with solemn pomp to St. Paul’s Cathedral to offer thanks for the great victory, which was commemorated by a medal bearing this inscription:  “God blew with his winds, and they were scattered.”  The date of the defeat of the Armada, 1588, was a turning point in English history.  From that time England gradually rose, under the leadership of such illustrious commanders as Drake, Blake, and Nelson, until she became what she has ever since remained—­the greatest sea power in the world (SS459, 557).

402.  Insurrection in Ireland (1595).

A few years later a terrible rebellion broke out in Ireland.  From its partial conquest in the time of Henry II (S159), the condition of that island continued to be deplorable.  First, the chiefs of the native tribes fought constantly among themselves; next, the English attempted to force the Protestant religion upon a people who detested it; lastly, the greed and misgovernment of the rulers put a climax to these miseries.  Sir Walter Raleigh said, “The country was a commonwealth of common woe.”  What made this state of things still more dangerous was the fact that the Catholic rulers of Spain considered the Irish as their natural allies, and were plotting to send troops to that island in order to strike England a deadly side blow when she least expected it.

Elizabeth’s government began a war, the object of which was “not to subdue but to destroy.”  The extermination was so merciless that the Queen herself declared that if the work of destruction went on much longer, “she should have nothing left but ashes and corpses to rule over.”  Then, but not till then, the starving remnant of the Irish people submitted, and England gained a barren victory which has ever since carried with it its own curse.

403.  The First Poor Law (1601).

In Elizabeth’s reign the first effective English poor law was passed.  It required each parish to make provision for such paupers as were unable to work, while the able-bodied were compelled to labor for their own support.  This measure relieved much of the distress which had prevailed during the three previous reigns (S354), and forms the basis of the law in force at the present time (S607).