Little Arthur's history of EnglandCallcott, Maria, Lady
History
Little Arthur's history of England
Callcott, Maria, Lady
Great Britain -- History -- Juvenile literature
Another great Admiral was Sir Martin Frobisher, who had been to the
furthest parts of North America, and first saw all the land about
Hudson’s Bay, and those countries to the south of that bay, where the
English not long afterwards built towns, and settled a great many
free states, that you will read a great deal about some day.
In many things, the next admiral I will tell you about was a greater
man than any of the rest. His name was Sir Walter Raleigh; he was
both a sailor and a soldier: sometimes he commanded a ship, and
sometimes he fought along with the army on shore.
The first time the queen took notice of him was one day that she was
walking in London, and came to a splashy place just as Sir Walter was
going by. As she was thinking how she could best step through the
mud, Sir Walter took off a nice new cloak that he had on, and spread
it on the dirt, so that the queen might walk over without wetting her
shoes. She was very much pleased, and desired him to go to see her at
her palace; and as she found that he was very clever and very brave,
she made him one of her chief admirals.
Queen Elizabeth used to behave to her brave admirals and generals,
and her wise counsellors, and even to her great merchants, like
a friend. She visited them in their houses, and talked to them
cheerfully of her affairs. She took notice of even the poorest
people, and she used to walk and ride about, so that all her subjects
knew her and loved her. And now I am going to tell you a part of her
history, which will show you how happy it was for her and for England
that the people did love their good queen.
The King of Spain had never loved Elizabeth; and he hated England,
because the people were Protestants: and I am sure you remember how
cruel he and his wife Queen Mary were to the English.
He made war against England, and thought that if he could land a
great army on the coast, he might conquer all the country and drive
away Elizabeth, and make the English all Papists again. He hoped this
would be easy, because he was the richest king in the world, and had
more ships and sailors and soldiers than any other. And he began to
build more ships and to collect more sailors and soldiers; and he
made so sure he should conquer England, that I have heard he even had
chains put on board the ships, to chain the English admirals when his
people should take them.
This fleet, that King Philip made ready to conquer England, was the
largest that any king had ever sent to sea, and he called it the
“Invincible Armada,”[3] because, he said, nobody could conquer it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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