In May, 1588, a Spanish fleet of one hundred and thirty ships sailed from the harbor of Lisbon for the English coast. Some of these ships were the largest that had yet been built; they carried eight thousand sailors, and twenty thousand Spanish troops. The pope had blessed the expedition and offered the sovereignty of England as the conqueror's prize. The Catholics throughout Europe were so confident of success {105} that they named the armament "The Invincible Armada." So vast was the number of ships that, as they sailed along in the form of an inverted V (thus ^), or in the form of a vast flock of wild geese, the distance from one extremity of the fleet to the other was more than seven miles. But they were destined to realize that "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform; He plants His footsteps in the sea, And rides upon the storm." Scarcely had the fleet entered the English channel when a storm arose which lasted more than a week. The wind blew a perfect gale from the south-west, so that it was impossible for them to return if they had so desired. The line of battle could no longer be kept up. They drifted helplessly and in disorder up the straits of Dover. When nearly opposite Calais, the English loaded several vessels with gunpowder, set them on fire and sent them into the Spanish fleet. The explosions caused terrible havoc. The Spanish admiral no longer thought of victory, but only of escape. But his disasters were not yet ended. Many of his vessels were wrecked on the shores of Norway and Scotland. In returning around the north coast of Ireland a second storm was experienced with almost equal loss. Only a few shattered vessels of this mighty armament returned to Spain to bring intelligence of the calamities that had overwhelmed the rest. The defeat of the Armada was regarded even then as the work of Providence. The Spanish king, when he heard the news, exclaimed, "I did not expect to fight the elements!" Thus was the triumph of the Protestant cause secured, the lovers of freedom throughout Europe were encouraged, and the power of Spain forever paralysed in the affairs of Europe. Henceforth the commerce and prosperity of Spain declined. King Philip, who had planned the Armada, died in 1598, and bequeathed a vast debt to his nation whose resources were already exhausted, notwithstanding her rich mines of gold and silver in the new world. In 1589, the next year after the destruction of the Armada, Henry IV,, the first Protestant king of France, {106} ascended the throne, and by the Edict of Nantes secured to the Protestants the free exercise of their religion.