Mary Queen of Scots

Okay boys. I am checking to see who has read the website this week. First of all, make sure you watch the videos I have linked up over here on the right.

The lesson this week is on Mary, Queen of Scots.

I am going to tell you all about her and then we will end the class with a BANG!!!

But what I want you to do is to look on Google and find out how many times Mary Queen of Scots was married and what were their names?

And if you really want to impress me, tell me...how did Mary Queen of Scots die?

Francis Drake, Patriot or Pirate? Or Both?

During Queen Elizabeth's reign, England rose to become a great naval power. And one of the most important men to make this happen was Sir Francis Drake.

He was born in humble circumstances in 1540 and started as a cabin boy. Because of his sheer determination and hard work, he rose to the highest rank in the English navy.

In 1567, he was on a slave trading voyage in the West Indies. They were driven off course by a bad storm, and had to seek shelter in the harbor of San Juan de Ulua, a Spanish port on the coast of Mexico. At first they were received with kindness, but were afterward attacked by bigger ships, and only escaped with two vessels. After this act of treachery (evil plotting), Drake decided that he would take every opportunity in the future to rob and plunder the Spanish to pay them back for this betrayal.

After 1570, Drake made many voyages to the New World to spy on the Spanish and steal as much stuff from them as possible. In Panama, he planned on capturing an entire Spanish town where they were shipping gold and silver from Peru, and take it for England. But he got wounded badly, and they had to give up the plan.

But from then on, he would sail up and down the coast, seizing a large number of ships and taking the Spanish wealth, both in money and goods. He even decided to hike across the isthmus of Panama and from a tree on a hill, he was able to see both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Drake returned to England in 1573 with many riches. He bought three new ships and set out to sail around the world. He followed the same path that Magellan, the Portuguese navigator had taken 70 years before. When they got around Cape Good Horn in South America, he lost several ships and some turned back. But Drake kept going with his single ship, the Marigold. On the western side to North America, he plunder lots of Spanish settlements, with the permission and blessing of Elizabeth I. Frances Drake stopped to make repairs at a place called Drakes Point (named after him) in the San Francisco Bay area. Then he set sail across the Pacific Ocean.

It took Drake exactly 2 years and ten months to sail around the world. There was a big banquet on his ship and Queen Elizabeth was one of his guests. This is where Drake became a knight with the title 'Sir'. The Marigold couldn't sail anymore, but it was made into a monument that lasted 100 years until it was too rotted. But they saved a piece of the wood and made it into a chair for King Charles II, who afterward gave it to the University of Oxford, where it can still be seen today!

A few years later, Sir Francis Drake would help to save England. King Phillip of Spain was planning to invade England (remember Mary Queen of Scots?) and had a large fleet of ships in a harbor in Cadiz. Drake sailed quickly to Cadiz and sent a fire ship into the harbor, destroying nearly 100 ships and was able to escape unharmed. This delayed the Spanish invasion 1 year.

But the Spanish still collected over 130 vessels and more than 50,000 men, which was called the 'Invincible Armada'. They planned to attack the English in three different places. They thought the English would be so bewildered that they would just surrender.

But the English were ready. Troops were collected in case the Spanish landed on English soil. The queen gave a rousing speech to encourage her people. Merchants offered their ships for the fight, the rich donated money, the poor volunteered to fight. The English didn't have half the soldiers that the Spanish had, but they were tough. Sir Francis Drake was one of the commanders, along with Howard, Frobisher, and Hawkins. In Late July 1588, the coast of England was lit with warning beacons telling the news of the Spanish invasion. They were coming.

The English vessels were light and could maneuver easily. The Spanish had large, clunky ships. The English sailed with skill and could fire their guns with precision. The Spanish guns would sail over head. The fighting went on for a week! Finally the Spanish fleet went back to the harbor in France and the English couldn't attack. So once again, they sent 8 fire ships into the harbor. It didn't destroy any ships but it scared the Spanish and they sailed out to sea again. The English attacked and many ships were disabled and 4,000 Spaniards were killed in one day's fighting.

The Spanish wanted to sail home, but were blocked by the English fleet. They decided to sail around Scotland, but bad weather pushed most of the ships onto jagged rocks and the Spanish Armada was annihilated, like completely destroyed. Only 54 vessels made it home and 10,000 men survived.

England was victorious.

But Sir Francis Drake was not done sailing. He took another trip to the West Indies to try to capture a Spanish town on the Panama isthmus. But he caught a fever and died on board his ship on January 28, 1596.

Sir Francis' body was buried at sea. Lord Macaulay wrote these lines in reference to his burial:

“The waves became his winding sheet:

The waters were his tomb.

But for his fame-the mighty sea

Has not sufficient room.”

He left no children, but his nephew was made a baronet in the reign of James II. England will always remember with gratitude the services Sir Francis rendered in the days of her struggle to become 'mistress of the sea.'

-from Famous Men of Modern Times by John H. Haaren & A.B. Poland, 2008 Memoria Press

John Cabot

1492 was a remarkable year in the history of the world. And that was because three little ships made a remarkable and daring journey to a land never seen before by much of the world. The Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria thankfully landed on an island in the Caribbean on October 12 after a harrowing (scary and slightly dangerous) trip across the great unknown, the Atlantic Ocean. Their fearless leader, Christopher Columbus had done what he said he was going to do...find the Indies by sailing west instead of east.

But what did they really find? A whole new world, a big mass of land that was smack dab in the way of China and the riches of the indies: spices and more spices. Can you imagine how bad that European food must have tasted if they were willing to risk everything to find a quicker way to the Indies and cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, cloves.

Well, they didn't just go because of spices, but it was a BIG part of it. They wanted to find gold, and they wanted to save the world from hell by bringing Christianity to people, whether they wanted it or not.

King Ferdinand V and Queen Isabella of Spain provided Columbus with the boats and supplies and so they quickly benefited from the riches they found in this new world. Spain was becoming very rich and powerful. Portugal also sent out explorers like Vasco de Gama, Cabral, and Magellan. Portugal and Spain were raking in the riches.

So, what about England? After all, they were an island nation and should be cashing in on all of this new discovery.

In 1496, King Henry VII issued letters to allow John Cabot to sail in eastern, western, and northern seas that had not been explored by the Spanish and Portuguese. Cabot was not even English. He was born in 1451 as Giovanni Caboto. He was from Italy, just like Christopher Columbus. At first he went to Spain and Portugal to get them to give him ships to explore this new world. He thought that Asia could be reached easily and quickly by sailing more to the north.

 

But Spain and Portugal didn't want to help him because they felt they already had enough explorers out there. They didn't need anymore.

Guess who had to pay the most for spices? England. They were the farthest away from the traditional spice route to India. They wanted to get the spices themselves and of course, riches.

On his second try, Cabot set sail in May, 1497. He had one small ship, the Matthew, with a crew of about 18 men. He sailed the same route the Vikings had used hundreds of years before.

Eventually, he did find land, but no spices. He came back over a year later in August 1497 with glowing reports of what he had found. He provided the first mapped details of the North American coast.

King Henry called Cabot's discovery “new-found-land”. It would eventually become known as Newfoundland, part of present-day Canada. Cabot became famous. Everyone thought he had found Asia.

He sailed again in May 1498 with five ships. The weather was bad and one ship sailed back while four continued on. They were never heard from again.

Though Cabot didn't know it, he had discovered North America for the Europeans. His discovery would become more valuable than a ship's hull filled with treasure. It allowed England to claim North America.

Elizabeth I, Queen of England

Now that Elizabeth was queen of England, she had a lot of hard challenges in front of her. England in 1559 was weak and unstable. The treasury did not have much money. Powerful countries like Spain and France were a threat. And then a lot of people had been killed because of religion.

Remember, Henry VIII, Elizabeth's father had broken away from the Catholic church and made his own church in which he was in charge. He called it the Church of England. Now that she was Queen Elizabeth, she was also the head of the Church of England. She had to make sure that everyone was a member of the Church of England so that they would be loyal to her. But, unlike her sister Mary, she said she did not want to make “windows into men's souls”. As long as the people were loyal to her, she would not force anyone to do anything.

Queen Elizabeth had a bad temper and a strong will. But she was very careful and not willing to make quick, sudden decisions on big things.

But the big question was marriage. Queen Elizabeth was a woman so naturally she had to get married. Who would it be? Monarchs did not marry for love, but for power. The match had to be right for England so that it could be strengthened and not weakened. Elizabeth was very clever. She had many offers of marriage and she stalled for years and years, waiting to make a decision. Everyone wanted her to get married so that she could have children and secure a successor for the future of England. But Elizabeth only pretended to be interested in marriage.

By pretending, Elizabeth was able to protect her country from powerful European nations that could harm a weakened England. There was no way she would ever marry someone who had invaded her country! It was a smart strategy...and it worked.

To the north of England was Scotland. Unlike today, back in Elizabethan times, Scotland was an independent country and England was always trying to invade it and take it over. The Scottish wanted help to keep the English out, so they looked to France for aid. Soon after Elizabeth was crowned queen, Scotland got a new queen as well, Mary Stuart. She was known as Mary, Queen of Scots. Mary and Elizabeth were related. They were cousins!

Mary was related to Henry VIII and had a claim to the English throne. And Mary Stuart was a Catholic. Many Catholics wanted Mary to be the queen for that very reason. She thought she should be queen of England as well. But Mary was not very popular in Scotland. She angered the people by marrying someone they did not like. The Scottish rebelled and Mary fled Scotland on horseback in the middle of the night. She ended up in England and asked Queen Elizabeth for protection.

Elizabeth didn't like Mary, but she agreed to help another queen-a queen who was her cousin. Mary lived in England for the next 19 years. But Elizabeth kept guards on her so that she wouldn't start a rebellion against Elizabeth. And boy, was she right. Mary was trying to stir up a rebellion so that she could take the throne from Elizabeth. Spies were able to find proof because Mary had been sneaking letters out of her castle in beer barrels.

Elizabeth was furious! The rebels' leader was put to death. But what would Elizabeth do about Mary? Mary was put on trial and found guilty of treason. Elizabeth only had to sign the death warrant, but she hesitated for days. She didn't particularly like Mary Stuart, but she didn't want to kill a queen.

In the end, Elizabeth signed the warrant, and Mary, Queen of Scots was executed. This did not go over well in Spain. They already didn't like the English because they had broken away from the Catholic church and were big rivals with Spain. King Philip (the guy who was married to Bloody Mary and then wanted to marry Elizabeth) needed some kind of excuse to invade England, and with the execution of a fellow Catholic, Mary Stuart, it was the excuse he needed. He sent a huge fleet of ships, called an Armada, to invade England in 1588.

 

The Spanish had a powerful navy because of their many successes in exploration, thanks to men like Christopher Columbus, De Soto, and such. It did not look good for England. They did not have nearly as many ships. The sea battle lasted for days. But luck was with the English. First, they burned some of the enemy ships. Then a great storm came through the English Channel. Spanish ships crashed against the rocks and were destroyed.

 

It was a great moment for England. The storm was seen as a blessing from God. Elizabeth had shown that she, a woman, could fight a war as well as any king. The English navy had proven itself by defeating the powerful Armada. In the coming years, England would rule the seas with its great navy.

It was a turning point in the history of the world.