to the ear than to the eye; for, in marked contrast to gruff foreign Mary and wheezy foreign Anne, she had a rich, clear, though rather too loud, English voice.  When the Court reined up and dismounted, Elizabeth became even more the centre of attraction.  Mary marched stiffly on.  Anne plodded after.  But as for Elizabeth—­perfect in dancing, riding, archery, and all the sports of chivalry—­’she trod the ling like a buck in spring, and she looked like a lance in rest.’

When Elizabeth succeeded Mary in the autumn of 1558 she had dire need of all she had learnt in her twenty-five years of adventurous life.  Fortunately for herself and, on the whole, most fortunately for both England and America, she had a remarkable power of inspiring devotion to the service of their queen and country in men of both the cool and ardent types; and this long after her personal charms had gone.  Government, religion, finance, defence, and foreign affairs were in a perilous state of flux, besides which they have never been more distractingly mixed up with one another.  Henry VII had saved money for twenty-five years.  His three successors had spent it lavishly for fifty.  Henry VIII had kept the Church Catholic in ritual while making it purely national in government.  The Lord Protector Somerset had made it as Protestant as possible under Edward VI.  Mary had done her best to bring it back to the Pope.  Home affairs were full of doubts and dangers, though the great mass of the people were ready to give their handsome young queen a fair chance and not a little favor.  Foreign affairs were worse.  France was still the hereditary enemy; and the loss of Calais under Mary had exasperated the whole English nation.  Scotland was a constant menace in the north.  Spain was gradually changing from friend to foe.  The Pope was disinclined to recognize Elizabeth at all.

To understand how difficult her position was we must remember what sort of constitution England had when the germ of the United States was forming.  The Roman Empire was one constituent whole from the emperor down.  The English-speaking peoples of to-day form constituent wholes from the electorate up.  In both cases all parts were and are in constant relation to the whole.  The case of Elizabethan England, however, was very different.  There was neither despotic unity from above nor democratic unity from below, but a mixed and fluctuating kind of government in which Crown, nobles, parliament, and people formed certain parts which had to be put together for each occasion.  The accepted general idea was that the sovereign, supreme as an individual, looked after the welfare of the country in peace and war so far as the Crown estates permitted; but that whenever the Crown resources would not suffice then the sovereign could call on nobles and people for whatever the common weal required. Noblesse oblige.  In return for the estates or monopolies which they had acquired the nobles and favored commoners were expected to