evidentally decided to seek a more congenial site farther south. However, no colony was established, and on his way back to England his ship went down in a storm off the Azores.Gilbert’s half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, took up his work. Raleigh was a favorite of Queen Elizabeth. He sent a number of expeditions to explore the east coast of North America, a land he named Virginia after his unmarried sovereign. In 1585, he settled about a hundred men on Roanoke Island, but these settlers returned home the next year. In 1587, Raleigh sent another group to Roanoke. Unfortunately, the supply ships sent to the colony in 1588 failed to arrive; when help did get there in 1590, not a soul could be found.One reason for the delay in getting aid to the Roanoke colonists was the attack of the Spanish Armada on England in 1588. Angered by English raids on his shipping and by the assistance Elizabeth was giving to the rebels in the Netherlands, King Philip II had decided to invade England. His motives were religious as well as political and economical, for England was now seemingly committed to Protestantism. His great fleet of some 130 ships bore huge crosses on the sails as if on another crusade. The Armada carried 30,000 men and 2,400 guns, the largest naval ever assembled up to that time. However, the English fleet badly mauled this armada, and a series of storms completed this destruction. Thereafter, although the war continued and Spanish sea pwer remained formidable, Spain could no longer block English penetration of the New World.Elizabeth’s long reign were graced by a scintillating galaxy of poets and playwrights, of whom Shakespeare was only the best known. But these years - the 1580’s and 1590’s - also saw increasing political intrigue at court. Moreover, religious extremism, both Protestant and Catholic, emerged in the nation. These religious extremists found Elizabeth hard to live with, and young...
