1525. Francis I. of France defeated and taken prisoner by the imperial army at Pavia. 1529. League of Smalcald formed by the Protestant princes of Germany. 1533. Henry VIII. renounces the Papal supremacy. 1533. Pizarro conquers Peru. 1556. Abdication of the Emperor Charles V. Philip II. becomes King of Spain, and Ferdinand I. Emperor of Germany. 1557.[sic] Elizabeth becomes Queen of England. 1557. The Spaniards defeat the French at the battle of St. Quentin. 1571. Don John of Austria at the head of the Spanish fleet, aided by the Venetian and the Papal squadrons, defeats the Turks at Lepanto. 1572. Massacre of the Protestants in France on St. Bartholomew's day. 1579. The Netherlands revolt against Spain. 1580. Philip II. conquers Portugal. CHAPTER X. -- THE DEFEAT OF THE SPANISH ARMADA, A.D. 1588. "In that memorable year, when the dark cloud gathered round our coasts, when Europe stood by in fearful suspense to behold what should be the result of that great cast in the game of human politics, what the craft of Rome, the power of Philip, the genius of Farnese, could achieve against the island-queen, with her Drakes and Cecils,--in that agony of the Protestant faith and English name."--HALLAM, CONST. HIST. vol. i. p. 220. On the afternoon of the 19th of July, A.D. 1588, a group of English captains was collected at the Bowling Green on the Hoe at Plymouth, whose equals have never before or since been brought together, even at that favourite mustering-place of the heroes of the British navy. There was Sir Francis Drake, the first English circumnavigator of the globe, the terror of every Spanish coast in the Old World and the New; there was Sir John Hawkins, the rough veteran of many a daring voyage on the African and American seas, and of many a desperate battle; there was Sir Martin Frobisher, one of the earliest explorers of the Arctic seas in search of that North-West Passage which is still the darling object of England's boldest mariners. There was the high-admiral of England, Lord Howard of Effingham, prodigal of all things in his country's cause, and who had recently had the noble daring to refuse to dismantle part of the fleet, though the Queen had sent him orders to do so, in consequence of an exaggerated report that the enemy had been driven back and shattered by a storm. Lord Howard (whom contemporary writers describe as being of a wise and noble courage, skilful in sea matters, wary and provident, and of great esteem among the sailors) resolved to risk his sovereign's anger, and to keep the ships afloat at his own charge, rather than that England should run the peril of losing their protection.