The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW： Epochs #285 ｜ Elizabeth I - Part 2

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Epochs. If you remember last time we were talking about Queen Elizabeth

00:00:26.000 the first good queen Bess so we shall continue the story straight from there if you remember last

00:00:31.140 time we'd got up to the point where Elizabeth had been the queen for a few years and we started

00:00:37.480 talking about the saga of Mary Queen of Scots Mary Stuart who was Elizabeth's cousin and that 0.54

00:00:45.580 she'd played her hand really quite poorly in Scotland she was Catholic for a start and Scotland

00:00:51.260 was not half protestant half catholic but there was strong factions on both sides so when she

00:00:57.520 went to scotland she was able to she wasn't immediately sort of expelled or thrown out or

00:01:02.900 thrown in prison or murdered for being catholic there was a strong catholic faction around her

00:01:08.660 but she didn't play her cards very well she married henry lord darnley remember and he was a bad man

00:01:14.880 so she shacked up with an even worse man, Bothwell, who murdered Henry Lord Darnley

00:01:20.720 and then she married Bothwell and then the Protestants overthrew them

00:01:25.140 and she, Mary Queen of Scots, fled for her life to England and thus into the hands of Elizabeth.

00:01:34.180 And Elizabeth, well, Elizabeth could have chose to deal with it in a few different ways.

00:01:38.320 I suppose it was possible, it wasn't outside the realms of physics,

00:01:41.280 that Queen Elizabeth could accept her into her court and you know the idea that you keep your

00:01:47.140 enemies close because they were enemies they were enemies politically and religiously Mary Queen of 0.94

00:01:54.120 Scots had tried to undermine Elizabeth in a number of different ways and she tried to undermine Mary

00:01:58.580 Queen of Scots for years so they were definitely enemies so there's a number of ways Elizabeth

00:02:04.240 could have played this she could have brought her close brought her into the inner sanctum she could

00:02:09.920 have brought her to London and put her in the tower she could have done that but what Elizabeth

00:02:15.160 did kind of typical for Elizabeth was sort of vacillated and sort of did one thing nor the other

00:02:21.620 so let's pick up the story as before I'll be reading from Professor Sir Charles Oman an early

00:02:26.940 20th century Oxford historian and Sir Winston Churchill writing in the 1950s in his history of

00:02:32.540 the English-speaking peoples okay let's let Oman pick up the story just from when Mary Queen of

00:02:38.920 scots had allowed herself to be taken by the english in in northern england just as she'd

00:02:44.040 fled for her life from scotland oman wrote this quote elizabeth's most dangerous enemy had thus

00:02:51.460 fallen into her hands but the position was not much simplified by the fact it had to be decided

00:02:57.960 whether the royal refugee mary queen of scots should be allowed to proceed to france as she

00:03:03.560 herself wished, or handed over to the Scots, which may well have meant an execution, as the Regent

00:03:09.380 Murray demanded, or kept in custody in England, as Elizabeth's self-interest seemed to require.

00:03:16.500 To let her to go to France would be generous, but dangerous. Once arrived there, she would conspire

00:03:22.760 with her cousins, the powerful family of Guise, against the peace of England. To send her back

00:03:28.020 to scotland would have some favor of legality about it but would be equivalent to pronouncing

00:03:34.140 her death sentence and from this elizabeth shrank to keep her captive in england seemed harsh and 1.00

00:03:40.800 even treacherous for what right had one sovereign princess to imprison another the politic elizabeth 1.00

00:03:47.900 resolved to take a cautious middle course she protested to the queen of scots that she was 0.99

00:03:53.560 willing to restore her to the throne of Scotland if she found that the accusations which her

00:03:59.300 subjects made against her were untrue. Well, they weren't really. She had asked Bothwell to murder

00:04:06.300 Henry Lord Darnley. That is true. This was, Oman writes, practically putting her guest upon her

00:04:13.780 trial for the murder of Darnley, for when the Regent and the Scots Lords were informed of the

00:04:18.960 decision, they came forward to accuse their exiled mistress. They laid before Elizabeth's commission

00:04:25.100 of inquiry the famous casket letters, a series of documents which had passed between Mary and

00:04:31.500 Bothwell. If genuine, and it seemed almost certain that they were, they proved the guilt and

00:04:36.780 infatuation of the Queen of Scots up to the hilt. Mary protested that they were forgeries, and her

00:04:43.020 followers down to this day have believed her, but she refused to stand any trial. Classic King

00:04:48.620 Charles the first stroke Saddam Hussein defense you can't try me I am above being tried I am a

00:04:56.660 monarch I'm some sort of absolute ruler there's there's no court in the land that could try me

00:05:01.860 that's what Mary Queen of Scots said she refused to stand trial declared that she a crowned queen

00:05:07.880 and no subject of England would never plead before English judges and demanded leave to quit the

00:05:13.720 realm satisfied with the effect on english and scottish public opinion which the casket letters 0.99

00:05:19.340 had produced elizabeth now took the decisive step of consigning mary to close custody house arrest 0.52

00:05:25.960 prison jail although not a nasty horrible jail cell with straw on the floor and bread and water 0.99

00:05:34.120 only should just be kept in a stately home somewhere but not allowed to leave expressly 0.55

00:05:39.720 not allowed to leave close custody thus practically treating her as a criminal though no decision had

00:05:45.780 been given against her and all of this is in january 1569 for nearly 20 years the unfortunate 0.95

00:05:53.300 queen of scots was doomed to spend a weary life moving about from one manor castle to another 1.00

00:05:59.900 under the care of guardians who were little better than jailers but she soon began to revenge herself

00:06:06.320 As long as she lived, she was undoubtedly Elizabeth's heiress, i.e. next in line to the throne, if Elizabeth didn't have any children.

00:06:14.840 That's actually not up for debate.

00:06:17.760 She was undoubtedly Elizabeth's heiress if hereditary riot counted for anything. 0.86

00:06:22.320 Using this fact as her weapon, she began to intrigue with English malcontents, Catholics largely. 0.93

00:06:28.500 she offered her hand to the Duke of Norfolk an ambitious young man who was dazzled by the 0.67

00:06:34.300 prospect of succeeding to Elizabeth's throne she stirred up the Catholic lords of the north

00:06:39.440 by promising to restore the old faith if they would overthrow her cousin but Elizabeth's ministers

00:06:45.300 were wary and suspicious Norfolk's designs were discovered and he was cast into the tower

00:06:51.120 the news of his imprisonment led to the immediate outbreak of the northern Romanists Catholics

00:06:57.460 Thomas Percy, Earl of Northumberland

00:06:59.960 And Charles Neville, Earl of Westmoreland

00:07:01.940 Raised their retainers

00:07:03.640 And made a dash on Touchbury

00:07:05.640 Where Mary was confined

00:07:07.200 Intending to rescue her and proclaim her as Queen

00:07:10.440 So, a full rebellion

00:07:12.180 An attempt at one

00:07:13.500 It's like the sort of thing that went on

00:07:16.540 During the Wars of the Roses

00:07:17.780 With Edward IV

00:07:19.840 And Henry VI, etc

00:07:22.000 But we're in a slightly different age now 0.76

00:07:25.120 In fact, well, Oman says this

00:07:26.900 But the days of the Wars of the Roses were past.

00:07:30.300 The retainers of the northern lords could do nothing against the royal power.

00:07:34.740 And the quote, rising of the north quote, as the plot was called,

00:07:38.120 came to an ignominious end.

00:07:40.180 The two earls failed to seize the person of the Queen of Scots

00:07:42.980 and were easily driven away.

00:07:45.100 Fled the one to Scotland, the other to Spain,

00:07:47.700 and gave Elizabeth a little further trouble.

00:07:50.300 This was the last insurrection of the old feudal type

00:07:53.140 in the pages of English history.

00:07:54.980 and that took place between October and November 1569.

00:07:58.640 Elizabeth showed herself more merciful than might have been expected to the plotters.

00:08:03.600 Norfolk was released after a short captivity.

00:08:06.160 The Queen of Scots suffered no further aggravation of her imprisonment.

00:08:10.960 For this she gave her cousin small thanks

00:08:13.180 and without delay recommenced plotting to secure her liberty.

00:08:17.420 That's gratitude for you.

00:08:18.960 Elizabeth was no Henry VIII or even Bloody Mary 0.99

00:08:21.600 in terms of bloodthirstiness. 0.99

00:08:24.980 By rights, really, in the 16th century, she could have, perhaps should have, had everyone executed.

00:08:31.780 But that wasn't really what she was like.

00:08:34.500 She was inclined towards clemency.

00:08:36.660 Not always, not always, by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly more so than her father.

00:08:42.720 Henry VIII would have certainly had everyone executed here.

00:08:46.320 But she doesn't.

00:08:46.840 It seems that Elizabeth, we'll get into this a bit later, but it seems Elizabeth particularly, really badly, 0.99

00:08:53.660 didn't want to execute Mary Queen of Scots some say and I think maybe they're right that she saw

00:09:00.060 herself in Mary Queen of Scots in all sorts of ways this woman who considered herself a queen

00:09:05.820 and who was trying to get by in the world full of ruthless and dangerous men and you know there's

00:09:14.020 the idea of royal blood that you don't kill kings and emperors whatever you do you don't kill them

00:09:19.240 Of course, it's not a hard and fast rule we've already had in English history.

00:09:24.080 Many kings get themselves imprisoned and then murdered. 0.93

00:09:28.940 But Elizabeth didn't want to do that. 0.98

00:09:31.500 You know, she felt that if Mary Queen of Scots was to be executed, 1.00

00:09:35.800 there was nothing to stop her from being executed.

00:09:38.620 Should she, Elizabeth, find herself in a similar situation?

00:09:41.340 What if the French or the Spanish invaded England and she found herself in captivity?

00:09:46.320 there would be no argument to be made for clemency towards her if the emperor of Spain or the king

00:09:53.600 of France decided they might want to execute her Elizabeth in such a scenario anyway Elizabeth just

00:09:58.840 really didn't want to execute Mary Queen of Scots but but as you can see here Mary Queen of Scots 0.92

00:10:04.600 just kept burning through any good any goodwill Elizabeth might have had to her she just kept

00:10:11.140 being a pain a thorn in the side just kept plotting plotting and plotting and plotting

00:10:16.020 or seemingly would not stop and I'll continue saying this meanwhile the aspect of affairs on

00:10:21.800 the continent was beginning to engage more and more of Elizabeth's attention by this time civil 0.97

00:10:27.180 wars were alight both in France and in the Netherlands Spanish Netherlands the French

00:10:32.800 Protestants or Huguenots as they were called had taken arms to secure themselves toleration

00:10:38.620 as early as 1562 the Protestants of the Netherlands after long suffering under the

00:10:44.360 grinding tyranny of philip of spain and of the inquisition had been driven to revolt in 1568

00:10:50.420 in both countries the insurgents appealed for help to elizabeth they implored the queen to save them

00:10:56.500 from the triumph of potpourri save them from catholic persecution and pointed out that if

00:11:02.340 they themselves failed the victorious romanists would inevitably turn against england the only

00:11:07.760 power in western europe which denied the pope's supremacy they might have added that the queen of

00:11:13.460 scots was closely allied with the geese's the heads of the catholic party in france and that

00:11:18.640 she was also intriguing for the aid of philip of spain so again mary queen of scots just not

00:11:24.420 stopping never never stopping she's seemingly hell-bent on trying to get free and or raise

00:11:32.020 a catholic army now what can elizabeth do in the face of such a personage we've said it before

00:11:39.180 haven't we've said it a number of times even in recent episodes of epochs there becomes a point

00:11:43.240 where somebody is just too much trouble while they live they will always be a lightning rod

00:11:50.240 around which a faction or a party can coalesce while that whilst there's breath in their body

00:11:56.040 even if they're quiet even if mary queen of scots had decided to remain completely quiet and not 1.00

00:12:02.380 plotted or intrigued in any way she would still have been a massive problem but but she was

00:12:08.000 plotting and intriguing endlessly oman goes on in her dealings with the continental protestants

00:12:14.420 elizabeth showed herself at her worst vacillation and selfishness marked her actions from first to 0.62

00:12:21.660 last she felt that the civil wars kept france and spain from being dangerous to her you know

00:12:26.920 if whilst my enemies are divided and fighting among themselves that's good i'll take that

00:12:32.740 is Elizabeth's calculation.

00:12:34.960 She knew also that if they ended in the suppression of the rebels,

00:12:39.160 England would be in grave danger.

00:12:41.240 But she hated rebellion.

00:12:43.000 She could not understand religious enthusiasm,

00:12:45.260 and she detested the violent Calvinism, 0.61

00:12:48.280 Protestantism,

00:12:49.760 the violent Calvinism which both the Huguenots and the Netherlanders professed.

00:12:55.000 All wars, too, she knew, were expensive and their issues doubtful.

00:12:59.440 hence it came that she displayed a reluctance to commit herself to one side or the other which

00:13:05.220 involved her in much double dealing and even treachery there's a price to even holding the

00:13:11.720 middle ground often actually a very big price it's not always as easy as it seems not to pick a side

00:13:18.240 she refused to declare war either on philip of spain or on charles of france and many of her

00:13:24.000 advisors were telling her to in no uncertain terms for for years but she refused to but she several

00:13:31.600 times sent the huguenots help both secretly and openly and she allowed the netherland protestants

00:13:37.640 to take shelter in england and recruit themselves in her ports she made no effort to prevent

00:13:43.440 hundreds of english volunteers passing the channel to aid the insurgents for if the queen had doubts

00:13:50.080 as to taking her side the people had none they sympathized heartily with the Huguenots and the

00:13:55.680 Netherlanders and did all that private persons could do to bring them succor help yet Elizabeth

00:14:02.060 refused to assume the position of the champion of Protestantism even when the inducement to do so

00:14:08.720 became more pressing in 1570 Pope Pius V formally excommunicated her and declared her deposed and

00:14:16.740 her kingdom transferred to her cousin mary so the pope was prepared to take a side of course he was

00:14:23.340 and he went the full nine yards at that point an excommunication saying that she's no monarch

00:14:29.480 and that really mary queen of scots mary stewart her cousin was the legit queen of england i mean

00:14:37.200 you can imagine how that goes down in elizabeth's court or with elizabeth herself or with the

00:14:42.340 average English person who was leaning further towards Protestantism than Orthodox Catholicism.

00:14:48.880 They're not going to like it, are they? This declaration turned all the more violent and

00:14:53.160 fanatical Romanists into potential traitors. If they believed in their Pope's decision,

00:14:58.600 they were bound to regard Elizabeth as a bastard and a usurper, and to look upon Mary as the true 0.99

00:15:04.200 Queen. Most of the English Catholics steadily refused to take up this position and remained 0.98

00:15:09.400 loyal in spite of the many vexations to which their religion exposed them but a violent minority

00:15:15.600 of english catholics accepted the papal decree and spent their time in scheming to depose or

00:15:22.520 even to murder their sovereign the knowledge of their designs made elizabeth doubly cautious and

00:15:28.580 wary but did not drive her into a crusade against catholicism i mean it's a fair point isn't it

00:15:34.320 Elizabeth, at that point, could have gone a bit crazy, could have gone a bit berserk,

00:15:39.460 could have decided, right, okay, you're going to excommunicate me and dethrone me in absentia.

00:15:45.680 Right, well, okay, well, it's kind of all-out war.

00:15:48.220 Many other monarchs would and did react that way.

00:15:51.740 Oh, okay, it's like that, is it?

00:15:53.820 Rome, the Pope, it's like that, is it?

00:15:56.000 Okay, well, there's no Catholicism allowed whatsoever, then, in my realm anymore, in my kingdom,

00:16:02.060 wherever it might be.

00:16:02.880 It might be Germany, wherever. 1.00

00:16:04.320 switzerland um okay well no more catholics if we find any catholics will burn them if we find a 0.86

00:16:10.220 catholic priest preaching the latin mass then that's a death sentence but elizabeth didn't do 1.00

00:16:16.640 that she didn't as again you know as we said before she's not as bloodthirsty as her father 0.99

00:16:23.080 or her older sister she's trying to balance things oman says her parliament however passed bills

00:16:30.340 making the introduction of papal bulls into the realm

00:16:33.320 whatever the pope says a papal decree is a papal bull

00:16:36.520 the parliament made the introduction of papal bulls into the realm

00:16:39.240 as also the perversion of members of the church of england to romanism

00:16:43.680 higher treason but no attempt was made to save the continental protestants

00:16:48.660 from their oppressors or to put england at the head of a league against the pope

00:16:53.320 i.e there will be no war she's not going to sort of start leading an english army

00:16:58.740 onto the continent or sending an English army onto the continent to try and you know infest Rome

00:17:05.520 and take out the Pope nothing like that nothing remotely like that you might say well that's 0.92

00:17:11.520 far-fetched bow that would never happen anyway well it did it did in the age of Luther a German

00:17:15.900 army did exactly that or Spanish army with lots of German um sorry a French army but with lots

00:17:22.500 of german mercenaries they had done exactly that march on rome burn down rome and put the pope

00:17:29.540 under house arrest indefinitely that had already happened but elizabeth was not going to do

00:17:34.280 anything like that well she wasn't in a position to apart from anything else but anyway she wasn't

00:17:38.280 inclined to do anything like that oman continues saying meanwhile the ball of deposition bore its

00:17:44.440 first fruits in a new conspiracy of the english romanists catholics generally known as the

00:17:51.080 Rodolfi plot from the name of an Italian banker who served as the go-between of the English

00:17:57.160 malcontents and the King of Spain. The Duke of Norfolk, ungrateful for his pardon two years

00:18:02.100 before, took the lead in the conspiracy undertaking to seize or even to murder Elizabeth and then to

00:18:09.520 marry the Queen of Scots. So a grand plan, make himself king basically. Philip of Spain promised

00:18:16.440 norfolk's agent rodolphe that the duke should have the aid of spanish troops the moment that

00:18:22.500 he took arms but the plan came to cecil's ears some of norfolk's papers fell into the minister's

00:18:28.820 power and he was able to lay his hands on all concerned in the plot so william cecil remember

00:18:34.960 that's elizabeth's right hand man her first minister there was no such thing as a prime

00:18:39.660 minister but if there was such a thing he would almost certainly be it he was the right hand of

00:18:45.180 the queen and you know spire master as well it's all things rolled into one if there was an

00:18:51.240 intelligence service he would have been head of that as well okay he learns of it Cecil learns

00:18:56.640 of it Norfolk lost his head as he well deserved and it was expected that the queen of Scots would

00:19:03.240 share his fate but though the nation and the parliament clamored for Mary's blood Elizabeth 0.81

00:19:08.200 refused to touch her as she was left unharmed in her captivity nor did the queen declare war

00:19:14.740 on spain though there was the clearest proof that philip had been implicated in the plot her only

00:19:20.220 wish seems to have been to put off the crisis as long as possible at this stage all the met nearly

00:19:26.500 all the men around elizabeth are saying well it is just war with spain now but there's clear clear

00:19:32.960 evidence that that spain was trying to overthrow you that's war we just are in a de facto state

00:19:41.760 of war and Elizabeth was like no no we're not no until it actually happens I am not going to be the 0.93

00:19:48.540 one to kick it off she wanted as as peace for as long as she possibly could because apart from

00:19:55.720 anything else Spain was a lot richer than Britain and had a bigger navy much bigger navy was it

00:20:04.260 better well that's something else that we'll get to but it was bigger and they had more resources

00:20:09.080 I had a bigger army much bigger army more veteran army they were just a bigger power a more powerful

00:20:16.380 power so it's not just it's not pure cowardice far from it it's not cowardice Elizabeth was

00:20:22.640 suffering from it was prudence you don't suffer from prudence do you so it was it was really the

00:20:28.260 prudent thing to do and in hindsight most historians look back at this sort of moment in

00:20:32.520 time these few years and say no it was probably the right thing it's almost certainly the right

00:20:37.140 thing the warmongers the hawks around elizabeth were probably a bit quick a bit too gung-ho she

00:20:44.060 did the right thing probably and one goes on if her own danger could not tempt elizabeth to interfere

00:20:50.620 in continental affairs it is not likely that anything else would make her take up the sword

00:20:55.560 not even the fearful massacre of saint bartholomew provoked her to take up arms against the catholics

00:21:01.500 by the way i've got uh on the um episode epox episode all about catherine de medici i talk all

00:21:08.060 about the saint bartholomew's day massacre in france and so if you're interested you can go

00:21:13.260 back and listen to that one if you like but so not even that prompted elizabeth to take up arms which

00:21:18.940 was catholics murdering protestants in france well oman describes some saint bartholomew he said

00:21:25.280 which was on that one night the weak king of france egged on by his wicked mother and brother

00:21:30.640 perhaps, ordered the slaughter of 8,000 Protestants who had come up to Paris relying on his goodwill

00:21:38.060 and promised patronage and that took place in 1572. Elizabeth stormed at the treacherous French 0.77

00:21:44.580 court but made no attempt to aid the surviving Huguenots in their gallant struggle against their

00:21:49.880 persecutors. So great was her determination to keep the peace that she even offered to mediate

00:21:56.200 between philip of spain and the revolted provinces of the low countries uh holland the netherlands

00:22:02.060 though it is fair to add that she perhaps designedly proposed conditions to them which

00:22:08.040 it was unlikely that either would accept it was fortunate for england that both the huguenots in

00:22:13.280 france and the dutch in the north displayed a far greater power of resistance than might have been

00:22:19.080 expected the former held their own and even forced king charles to come to terms and grant them

00:22:24.760 toleration. The latter, though reduced to great straits, persevered to the end under their wise

00:22:31.980 leader, William, Prince of Orange, and beat back the terrible Duke of Alvar, King Philip's best

00:22:37.620 general, from the walls of Alkmaar when their fortunes seemed at the lowest, and that was in

00:22:43.300 1573. Next year, they forced Alvar's successor, Requisens, to retire from Holland after the gallant

00:22:51.080 defense and relief of lyden and that was in october 1574 elizabeth therefore escaped the

00:22:58.300 danger that the triumph of the king of spain and the catholic party in france would have brought

00:23:03.040 upon her though her safety came from no merit of her own says oman it was not till 10 years more

00:23:09.160 had passed that she was finally forced to draw the sword and fight for her life and crown meanwhile

00:23:14.920 it cannot be denied that her cautious and selfish policy did much for the material prosperity of

00:23:20.360 England, i.e. war is bad for business. It's expensive. In 20 years of peace, the one country

00:23:26.380 of Western Europe which enjoyed quiet and good government was bound to profit at the expense of

00:23:31.340 its unfortunate neighbours. England became a land of refuge to all the continental Protestants. 0.76

00:23:36.980 To her shores, the artisans of France transferred their industries and the merchants of Antwerp

00:23:42.720 their hoarded wealth. The new settlers were kindly received as men persecuted in behalf of the true

00:23:49.580 faith and became good citizens of their adopted country. But most of all did the maritime trade

00:23:55.660 of England prosper. Her seamen got the advantage that comes to the neutral flag in times of war

00:24:01.640 and began to take into their hands the commerce that had once been the staple of the Hanseatic

00:24:07.500 towns, the French ocean ports and the cities of the much vexed low countries. English ships had

00:24:14.780 seldom been seen in earlier days beyond Hamburg or Lisbon, but now they began to push into the

00:24:20.820 Baltic, to follow the Mediterranean as far as Turkey, and even to navigate the wild Arctic

00:24:26.140 Ocean as far as the ports of northern Russia. Yeah, there was even some communication with

00:24:30.260 the court of Ivan the Terrible, of all things. But the attention of the English seamen was

00:24:35.600 directed most of all to the West, whither the reports of the vast wealth of America drew

00:24:41.240 adventurous spirits as with a magnet the gold which the spaniards had plundered from the ancient

00:24:46.300 empires of mexico and peru dazzled the eyes of all men and the english seamen hoped to find some

00:24:52.840 similar hold on every barren shore from newfoundland to patagonia but the spaniards arrogated to 0.89

00:24:59.500 themselves the sole right to america and its trade basing their claim on a preposterous grant

00:25:05.100 made them by alexander the sixth the notorious borgia pope if you want some more detail about

00:25:11.400 that i've got a long form content on epochs you may have already listened to it if you've listened

00:25:16.720 to all the epochs um about magellan and his circumnavigation of the globe in the earlier

00:25:23.420 episodes of that multi multi-part series um we talk all i talk all about that where the pope

00:25:30.480 had granted the spanish and the portuguese between them but mainly the spanish complete

00:25:35.640 and utter monopoly over all trade with the americas the new world both north and south

00:25:42.240 and as i said in in in those episodes well that was nonsense do you think the french and the

00:25:50.140 english and anyone else is just going to have that forever well because the pope gave catholic

00:25:56.560 countries a complete monopoly on half the world and but we're protestant we don't even even if

00:26:03.740 that wasn't completely unfair we're protestant so we don't care what the pope decreed we don't

00:26:08.800 recognize the pope no no no i don't care that that's what you've decided amongst yourselves

00:26:14.340 we've got ships there's nothing in the laws of physics stopping us from sailing across the

00:26:18.300 atlantic thank you thank you anything else so we did oman goes on said they the spanish they

00:26:24.840 treated all adventurers who pushed into the western waters not only as intruders but as pirates so john

00:26:31.620 hawkins the pioneer of english trade to america was always coming into collision with them and

00:26:37.500 this is between roughly 1562 and 1564 i talk all about it as well in the series i've got on history

00:26:43.800 bro all about the other channel i've got called history bro there's no paywall there um where i

00:26:48.920 talk all about drake sir francis drake hawkins and drake were a double act for a while hawkins is

00:26:53.960 just before the generation before Sir Francis Drake who is going to pop up in this story very

00:26:58.820 shortly Hawkins and Drake yes whenever English ships dared to cross the Atlantic if some Spanish 0.77

00:27:05.520 or Portuguese ships ever found them I mean it was on it was on like Donkey Kong the Spanish would

00:27:10.320 try to take you out as Omar just said there they considered you an intruder and a pirate and an

00:27:15.920 enemy and a criminal it was their ocean it was their land the Spanish main so it's quite a

00:27:22.580 dangerous thing if you got caught if spanish or portuguese ships found anyone else's ships not

00:27:27.480 just english french dutch on them on in the seas that they considered theirs and theirs alone

00:27:32.940 granted to them by god and the pope well they were within their rights to take you out take you down

00:27:39.080 so it was war sort of a cold war something like a cold war or not all that cold but you know an

00:27:45.240 undeclared war low burn but there it was omar continues saying this that most famous sea captain

00:27:52.040 Sir Francis Drake a cousin of Hawkins spent most of his time in bickering in a somewhat

00:27:58.080 piratical manner with the Spanish authorities beyond the ocean and by bickering we do mean

00:28:03.540 like fighting not just bickering like children arguing with words like bickering is fighting

00:28:09.620 killing sometimes even torturing capturing and torturing this second voyage to the west was a

00:28:16.100 great landmark in English naval history starting in 1577 with the secret connivance of Elizabeth

00:28:21.940 he, Sir Francis Drake, sailed round Cape Horn

00:28:25.800 the bottom of South America

00:28:27.380 the very bottom

00:28:28.580 he didn't go through the Straits of Magellan

00:28:31.120 because Magellan was a long time ago before this

00:28:33.840 well, a couple of generations before this

00:28:35.580 he sailed all the way round the bottom of South America, Cape Horn

00:28:38.560 and up the coasts of Chile and Peru

00:28:40.940 capturing numerous Spanish ships

00:28:42.940 and often sacking a wealthy port 0.62

00:28:45.280 his greatest achievement was the seizing of the Great Lima Galleon

00:28:50.000 which was taking home to king philip the annual installment of american treasure a sum of no less

00:28:56.300 than half a million pounds which needless to say in the 16th century is a gigantic sum of money

00:29:04.380 truly truly gigantic i mean a few years worth of the entire nation's income after making this

00:29:12.660 splendid booty drake reached england by crossing the pacific and indian oceans no mean feat the

00:29:19.060 first Englishman ever to do such a thing and rounded the Cape of Good Hope that's the bottom 0.54

00:29:24.080 of Africa thus making the first circumnavigation of the globe which an Englishman had accomplished

00:29:30.680 in fact he's the first captain to do it because Magellan if you've watched the Magellan thing or

00:29:36.160 you just know the story of Magellan Magellan himself died in Southeast Asia in the Spice

00:29:42.400 islands so some of Magellan's ships circumnavigated the globe but but Magellan himself didn't so

00:29:51.360 there's like I think 18 or 19 men of Magellan's expedition a few hundred left and about 19 returned

00:29:58.580 alive they were the first men to circumnavigate the globe fair enough they were the first men

00:30:02.720 but the first captain to do it and survive was Sir Francis Drake okay while Drake was gathering

00:30:09.780 treasure in South America, other seamen pushed northward, endeavouring to find the fabled

00:30:15.200 Northwest Passage, a navigable route which was supposed to exist round the northern shore of

00:30:20.800 North America. There, Frobisher discovered Labrador and Hudson's Bay. He brought back

00:30:26.220 little profit from his adventures in the frozen Arctic seas. While the emissaries of England were

00:30:31.980 invading the Spanish waters, England herself was suffering from another kind of invasion

00:30:37.100 at the hands of the friends of the king of spain since the bull the papal bull of 1570 0.81

00:30:43.200 elizabeth was considered fair game by every fanatical romanist on the continent

00:30:47.900 accordingly they began to land in england many secret missionaries of the old faith

00:30:53.660 generally exiled englishmen trained abroad in the english quote-unquote english colleges

00:30:59.640 at rem and due where the banished catholics mustered strongest it was their aim not only

00:31:06.640 to keep wavering romanists in their faith but to organize them in a secret conspiracy against the 0.90

00:31:11.780 queen they talked that all was permissible in dealing with heretics their disciples were to 0.95

00:31:18.220 feign loyalty and even conformity with the english church but were to be ready to keep up but were to 0.68

00:31:24.360 be ready to take up arms whenever the signal was given from the continent these jesuits and seminary 0.68

00:31:30.480 priests constituted a very serious danger but they did not escape the eyes of walsingham and

00:31:36.420 burley elizabeth's watchful ministers i said earlier if cecil was head of an intelligence

00:31:42.380 service well his underlings his right hand men were the likes of walsingham and burley they were

00:31:49.840 spires spy masters puppeteers there was and there was sort of a secret war going on of shadows and

00:31:57.140 mirrors and espionage and murder and all that sort of thing walsingham and burley were deep in it

00:32:05.500 up to their necks but they were loyal to elizabeth on elizabeth's side her faction the

00:32:11.760 goodies should we say oman says their plans were discovered the exiled english catholics who were

00:32:18.720 trying to assassinate elizabeth their plans were discovered and several were caught and hung yet

00:32:25.400 the conspiracies went on and were soon to take shape in overt action its first working was seen

00:32:32.400 in throgmorton's plot a widely spread scheme for an attack on england by all the catholic powers

00:32:39.140 combined and that was in 1583 the duke of guise prepared an army in france the king of spain

00:32:45.580 another in the netherlands which were to not unite for an invasion meanwhile the english romanists

00:32:51.200 were to rise in favor of the queen of scots and welcome the foreign armies throgmorton is a man

00:32:57.520 and a few more fanatics undertook to make the whole plan easier by assassinating the queen

00:33:03.420 but Walsingham's spires got scent of the matter. Throgmorton was caught and executed and Elizabeth

00:33:09.840 convinced at last that dallying with Spain was no longer possible dismissed King Philip's

00:33:14.740 ambassadors and prepared for open war and that was in 1584. The struggle which had so long been

00:33:20.760 fought out by intrigue and unauthorized buccaneering was now to be settled by honest

00:33:26.820 hard fighting it proved perilous enough but far less formidable than the cautious queen had feared

00:33:32.960 elizabeth was at last forced to lend open aid to the protestants of the continent and 7 000 men

00:33:39.280 under her favorite the earl of leicester sailed for holland to aid the dutch against king philip

00:33:45.080 they won no great battles but their presence was invaluable to the netherlanders who had begun to

00:33:51.300 despair when their great leader william of orange had been assassinated by a fanatic hired by

00:33:56.640 spanish gold leicester was an incapable general but his men fought well and learned to despise

00:34:02.560 the spaniards even a defeat which they suffered at zupfen encouraged them for 500 english there

00:34:09.800 made head against the whole spanish army and retired without great harm though they lost

00:34:14.740 sir philip sydney the most popular and accomplished young gentleman in england well known as the

00:34:20.660 author of a curious pastoral romance called the arcadia and that was in 1586 by the way if anyone

00:34:27.540 doesn't know what this is all leading up to is the the armada the story of the spanish armada

00:34:32.160 which famously is in 1588 that's why i keep mentioning the years here 1588 is the big year

00:34:38.940 so you can see all the events that are leading up to it year after year after year becoming more and

00:34:42.940 more a big war with spain becoming more and more inevitable okay so english and spanish troops

00:34:49.400 actually fighting each other albeit in holland the netherlands the low countries uh in 1586

00:34:57.700 oman goes on saying far more important than the fighting in the netherlands were the maritime

00:35:02.440 exploits of the english seamen the moment that they were let loose upon the spaniards they

00:35:07.780 asserted a clear supremacy at sea drake took and sacked vigo a great port of northern spain

00:35:14.380 and then crossing the atlantic captured the chief cities of the west indies and the spanish main

00:35:20.340 saint iago carthagena and saint domingo that again was in 1586 so elizabeth sort of unleashes drake

00:35:28.140 all the men around elizabeth are saying look we are at war with spain now whether you like it or

00:35:32.880 not it's sort of happening they haven't actually sent a big army or an armada yet but they will do 0.98

00:35:38.020 it's sort of inevitable now we are fighting them and so we should declare war let's do a pre-emptive

00:35:44.140 strike even let's unleash our navy for what it's worth and she's like no no no no is there any other 0.54

00:35:50.220 sort of cautious or vacillating thing i can do well you could unleash somebody like drake and

00:35:56.240 just say that he's not doing it on your orders you can say well he's a privateer he's a buccaneer

00:36:02.140 he's not he's not the royal navy so francis drake isn't the royal navy okay he's an englishman

00:36:07.900 doing it for for england but he hasn't actually got explicit orders from me and it isn't formally

00:36:15.080 the royal navy so again it's a cold war that isn't very cold but it's not formally declared

00:36:22.580 well that's what she does you know drake sacking ports on in spain and the new world

00:36:28.760 everyone goes on saying meanwhile mary queen of scots was playing her last stake from her prison

00:36:35.440 she made over to king philip her rights to the throne of england and besought him to dispatch

00:36:41.060 his armies to rescue her but she also gave her approval to one more assassination plot

00:36:46.500 hatched by the english catholics to assassinate elizabeth that is instigated by a jesuit priest

00:36:52.700 named ballard anthony babington a gentleman of derbyshire and a handful of his friends

00:36:58.560 agreed to murder elizabeth in her own palace but there were spires of the lynx-eyed walsingham

00:37:05.080 among the conspirators and when the queen of scots and the would-be murderers were just prepared to

00:37:10.440 strike hands were laid upon them babington and his friends were executed but this was not enough to

00:37:16.180 appease the cry for blood which arose from the whole nation when the conspiracy was divulged

00:37:21.080 urged on by her ministers elizabeth at last allowed the queen of scots to be put on trial for this

00:37:27.580 the fourth attempt to strike down her cousin mary was tried by a commission of peers and clearly

00:37:33.960 convicted not only of encouraging a catholic rising and a spanish invasion but of having

00:37:39.180 approved babington's murderous plan she was found guilty on october the 25th 1586 and the parliament

00:37:46.180 which met soon after besought the queen to have her beheaded without delay again she was banged

00:37:52.260 to rights walsingham cecil and walsingham's spires had really done a number on her and duped her in

00:38:00.100 basically into writing letters that completely it was a complete slam dunk of her guilt and they

00:38:06.240 were letters that just went straight into their hands so mary queen of scouts was definitely

00:38:11.080 100 completely guilty of trying to get elizabeth murdered but oman says elizabeth still hesitated

00:38:18.580 she hated mary by now truly hated her but her higher ideas of royal prerogative made her shrink

00:38:25.980 from slaying a sovereign princess and she still dreaded the explosion of wrath which she knew must

00:38:32.160 follow all over catholic europe the young king of scotland might resent his mother's execution

00:38:37.960 that is james the sixth of scotland might always despise that well he would do wouldn't he and the

00:38:44.800 guises in france would never pardon their cousin's death she lingered for more than three months

00:38:50.840 before she would issue mary's death warrant but at last she gave the fatal signature her ministers

00:38:56.520 at once caused the warrant to be carried out without allowing their mistress time to repent 0.90

00:39:01.640 the queen of scots was executed at her prison at fotheringay castle she died with great dignity

00:39:08.360 and courage asserting on the scaffold that she was a martyr for her religion not a criminal many both

00:39:14.780 in her own day and since have believed her words but it is impossible to read her story through

00:39:20.500 from start to last and then conclude that she was only the victim of circumstances and the prey of

00:39:26.280 unscrupulous enemies though much sinned against she was far more the worker of her own undoing

00:39:32.580 and that was on the 8th of february 1587 mary queen of scots finally had her head separated 0.99

00:39:39.060 from her body mayor elizabeth elizabeth never really got over that she beat herself up about

00:39:44.320 that badly for the rest of her life really she didn't really didn't want to do it in fact some

00:39:50.960 stories say that after she signed the death warrant she very quickly like later that same day or that

00:39:57.360 evening changed her mind said no no no bring back the men that i've sent off with that execution

00:40:02.660 order bring them back i've changed my mind i've changed my mind and the men around her were like

00:40:06.580 sorry they're on really fast horses with half a day's lead on us sorry yeah so there's no mobile

00:40:14.560 phones or anything we can't get word faster than a sprinting horse sorry she's dead it's going to

00:40:21.800 happen there's nothing you can do to stop it and Elizabeth yeah as I say beat herself up about that

00:40:26.900 but again in 16th century terms there wasn't much else she could do as Oman says there Mary Queen of

00:40:34.880 scots mary stuart sort of brought herself to that scaffold in many many ways she may well have got 0.81

00:40:41.100 executed anyway but she would not stop plotting so in terms of pure power she kind of had to go 0.98

00:40:48.400 omar says quote elizabeth expressed great wrath against her ministers for hurrying on the 0.86

00:40:53.540 execution she fined and imprisoned davison the secretary of state who had sent off mary's death

00:40:59.940 warrant and pretended that she had not wished to pardon her perhaps her anger was real but no one

00:41:06.220 save the unfortunate davidson took it very seriously the people felt nothing but satisfaction

00:41:11.120 and relief and rejoiced that there was no longer a catholic heiress to trouble the realm the king

00:41:16.540 of scots contented himself with a formal protest and the guises in france were too busy in their

00:41:22.400 own civil wars with king henry iii and the huguenots to think of assailing england only philip of spain

00:41:29.520 who accepted in sober earnest the legacy of her rights which mary had left him took up the task

00:41:35.980 of revenge and he had already so many causes to hate elizabeth that he did not need this additional

00:41:41.720 provocation to spur him on to attack her he had already begun to prepare a great naval expedition

00:41:48.020 against england all through the spring and summer of 1587 the ports of spain portugal naples and

00:41:55.160 sicily all under habsburg spanish control were busy in manning and equipping every warship that

00:42:01.480 the king could get together the duke of palma the spanish viceroy in the netherlands was also

00:42:07.020 directed to draw off every man that he could spare from the dutch war and to be ready to lead them

00:42:12.240 across the channel the moment that the king's fleet should have secured the straits of dover

00:42:17.340 end quote so king philip of spain has decided right enough is enough the english have attacked

00:42:23.360 spain literally our ports in spain in cadiz and things um they've attacked the new world they've 0.68

00:42:29.360 stolen treasure ships as they were crossing the atlantic that drake that dastardly drake they've 0.98

00:42:35.560 they've helped out our enemies in the netherlands including with armies um and now they've executed 0.98

00:42:41.080 mary queen of scots um okay i'm going i am the emperor of spain i am now going to put together 0.71

00:42:48.620 a massive army, a massive navy, and I'm going to invade England, that's what he wanted to do,

00:42:54.320 that's what he was trying to do, that's what the Spanish Armada was, he was going to sail 0.89

00:42:58.800 up the Thames, take control of the English Channel, sail a giant armada up the Thames into the middle

00:43:06.660 of London, disembark a whole Spanish army in the middle of London, and take the capital city, 0.84

00:43:12.900 hopefully imprisoning capturing and imprisoning Elizabeth herself but even if not taking London 0.53

00:43:20.120 invading England fully that's what he's trying to do that's what the Spanish Armada was an attempt

00:43:26.420 to do we hope you enjoyed that video and if you did please head over to lotusseaters.com

00:43:31.740 for the full unabridged video

00:43:42.900 Thank you.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - October 18, 2026

PREVIEW： Epochs #285 ｜ Elizabeth I - Part 2

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