ABSTRACT
In truth, England entered the conflict without being in the least ready for it, Hawkins' navy always excepted. Not for 150 years had the country fought a major war, and things had changed beyond recognition since the days of Joan of Arc. England's economy was not organised for war; she had neither an efficient armed force nor experienced leaders; dangers threatened in too many places at once. All that England had were numbers of eager, brave, foolhardy men willing to fight, as well as many willing to plunder, and more reluctant conscripts whom war occasionally turned into good soldiers; she had a queen and council, inexperienced indeed in such matters, but willing and-as the event proved -well able to learn; and she had the advantage of a fierce protestant spirit among her best men which drove them into the breach at Cadiz, across the oceans, and into the bloody skirmishes round Ostend and Brest with more passion than mere discipline or the desire for booty would ever account for. As it is, those sixteen years nearly turned the English into a military people-militant they had always been. When Elizabeth died the treasury might indeed be empty, but she had an army and a navy which, despite many failures and too few decisive successes, could look back upon performances which by the standards of the time were creditable. As for the queen, she never ceased to think the war a calamity or to hope for its cessation; and of course she was right.
