annihilated for a time the now limited legitimate commerce of England.
Temporary peace with France,
soon followed by another war.
Demand for letters of marque.
Having broken off all political connection with
Spain, and having reserved only such commercial
and maritime intercourse as it was necessary to
maintain between the two countries, Elizabeth found
it desirable to make a hasty, though honourable,
peace with France, more especially as that country
had meditated the annexation of Scotland. But the
death of Francis II., king of France, husband of the
unfortunate Mary Queen of Scots, changed the face
of affairs, and the return of this princess to Scotland
created new and harassing complications. France
after his death was torn by civil and religious wars,
and Elizabeth finding it necessary for her own security
to support the Protestants in that country, a
war again ensued, which in this instance perhaps
more than in any other created immense excitement,
especially among the maritime population of England.
Religious sentiments, in the case of a misunderstanding
with Spain, blended with the love of pecuniary
gain, had raised, as in the war of the Crusades,
people to a state of speculative fury against their
hereditary enemies far more bitter and far stronger
than had ever happened before. And when it became
known that one Clarke, an English shipowner,
with only three vessels, had in a cruise of six weeks
captured and carried into Newhaven as prizes no
less than eighteen vessels, whose cargoes were valued
at 50,000l., applications to the Queen for letters of
marque poured in from all parts of the kingdom.
Number of the royal fleet, A.D. 1559. Such applications were granted with little discrimination, a conduct easily accounted for by the fact
