Chapter 12 Summary

Don Gerau De Spies, a new Spanish ambassador, arrives in London. He wants to restore England to Catholicism immediately and plots to have Mary, Queen of Scots, marry the Catholic Duke of Norfolk. He expects the English Catholics to rise and overthrow Queen Elizabeth. The Duke of Norfolk avoids involvement. The English Channel is swarming with pirates and ships that Elizabeth encourages because they obstruct Spanish communications through the Channel.

Four Spanish ships, carrying 85,000 pounds of gold in chests, take refuge from the pirates in English ports. Elizabeth seizes the gold and has the chests taken to the Tower. The Spanish head of the Netherlands imprisons the English merchants there and takes their goods. The English government seizes the property of the Spanish traders in England and arrests Ambassador de Spies. Mary writes de Spies, and the House of Commons gets the letter...