In 1588, the year following the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, Philip of Spain, urged on by an ambition to conquer the kingdom of England and re-establish the Romish religion, equipped an immense fleet, consisting of seventy-two galliasses and galleons, forty-seven second-class ships of war, and eleven pinnaces, to which he gave the name of the "Invincible Armada." The rumour of this invasion spread great alarm throughout the country; and the magistrates, gentry, and freeholders of Lancashire were summoned to meet Lord Strange at Preston, to consider what steps should be taken for the defence of their coast, on which, at Peel in Morecambe Bay, it was deemed probable the Spaniards would attempt a landing. So doubtful does Elizabeth appear to have been of the loyalty of her Lancashire subjects that Lord Strange was commanded to append to his summonses the words,—"Fayle not at your uttermost peril." Nor were these suspicions on the part of the queen without good reason, for the principal landed proprietors and gentry of the county were members of the Romish Church, and it was to be feared that they would be only lukewarm in repelling, if not, indeed, active in encouraging, an enemy whose professed object was the restoration of their religion. Baines, in reviewing the Reformation, says,—"In the county of Lancashire it was retrograde. The Catholics multiplied, priests were harboured, the book of common prayer and the service of the Church, established by law, were laid aside; many of the churches were shut up, and the cures unsupplied, unless by the ejected Catholics." Numerous crosses on the highways, as well as the names of several places, as Low-cross, High-cross, Norcross, etc., also testify to the Romish tendency of the inhabitants. Cardinal Allen, who had for many years been living on the continent at Douai and elsewhere[1] was suspected of having, in conjunction with Parsons, the Jesuit, instigated Philip to this invasion. The harbour of "Pille," (Peel) is described in the Lansdowne manuscripts as the "very best haven for landings with great shyppes in all the west coast of England, called St. George's Channel," and further in the same folio we read:—"What the Spanyerd means to do the Lord knows, for all the countrie being known to Doctor Allen, who was born harde by
- ↑ See "Allen of Rossall," in Chapter vi.
