ABSTRACT
Patriotism was one o f many issues which contributed to the English Revolution - as it did to the French and Russian Revolutions. From the time o f the Reformation - Henry V III’s Declaration o f Independence, as an American historian called it - Protestantism and patriotism were closely linked. English Prot estants saw themselves as a beleaguered garrison in a world in which all the great powers - the Empire, Spain and France - were Catholic.1 England was the most important Protestant monarchy in Europe, but her strength bore no relation to that o f these great powers. Under the Catholic Mary it looked as though England was to be absorbed within the Spanish Empire. One consequence was that Calais - the last surviving remnant o f what had been a large continental empire - was lost to France. It was in fact good riddance, but it was a severe blow to English pride at the time, and it was blamed on the Spanish connection. Elizabeth’s succession was a triumph for patriotism as well as for Protestan tism. In 1588 the Spanish Armada came to conquer England, but ‘God blew with his winds and they were scattered’ while in the 1 590s Spanish armies landed in Ireland to cooperate with Catholic revolt there. England’s independence was still precarious.
