Introductory material
Reading edition
English Catholics versus Scottish—Santa Cruz’s proposal to conquer England—Enlisting the Pope—Intrigues in Rome—Mary Stuart and Philip—Drake’s raid on Galicia—Elizabeth assumes the protectorate of the Netherlands—War at last inevitable—The preliminaries of the Armada—The Babington plot—Philip’s consent—His distrust—Discovery—Elizabeth’s fears of war—Her approaches to Spain—Santa Cruz’s fresh proposals to invade England—His great plan—The Scottish Catholics try again to share the attack upon England—Failure of Huntly’s scheme—Guise not allowed by Philip to interfere—Mendoza in favour of the Scottish plan—Philip’s claims to the English crown—The peace negotiations—Drake’s dash upon Cadiz—Parma and the Armada—Death of Santa Cruz—Medina Sidonia—The Armada—The failure and its causes—The end of the struggle to win England