Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

in intrigue. The way to carry out his design, as it
appeared to the French king, was to pour his
soldiers into his wife's hereditary kingdom of
Scotland, and then descend on England from the
north and dethrone Elizabeth. The scheme was
proceeding with every promise of success, when
the progress of the Reformation in Scotland, and
the consequent expulsion of the French from that
country, completely deranged all the plans of the
court of France, and converted that very country, in
which the Papists trusted as the instrument of
Elizabeth's overthrow, into her firmest support and
security. So marvelously was the path of Elizabeth
smoothed, and her throne preserved.
We have briefly traced the measures Elizabeth
adopted for the Reformation of her kingdom on her
accession, and the prosperity and power of England
at the close of the first decade of her reign. Not a
year passed, after she unloosed her neck from the
yoke of Rome, that did not see a marked advance
in England's greatness. While the Popish Powers
around her were consuming their strength in
internal conflicts or in foreign wars, which all had
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