Henry's time. But Charles had stayed their hand. Now that the ruler of
England was an open heretic, who appeared to reject the accepted forms
of Catholic belief as well as the Papal forms of Roman discipline, the
hour had come to strike. War would have followed in ordinary times. But
the Reformation had produced a cross-division among the subjects of all
the Great Powers. If Charles went to war with a Protestant Lord
Protector of England then some of his own subjects in the Netherlands
would probably revolt. France had her Huguenots; England her
ultra-Papists; Scotland some of both kinds. Every country had an unknown
number of enemies at home and friends abroad. All feared war.

Somerset neglected the navy. But the seafaring men among the
Protestants, as among those Catholics who were anti-Roman, took to
privateering more than ever. Nor was exploration forgotten. A group of
merchant-adventurers sent Sir Hugh Willoughby to find the Northeast
Passage to Cathay. Willoughby's three ships were towed down the Thames
by oarsmen dressed in sky-blue jackets. As they passed the palace at
Greenwich they dipped their colors in salute. But the poor young king
was too weak to come to the window. Willoughby met his death in Lapland.
But Chancellor, his second-in-command, got through to the White Sea,
pushed on overland to Moscow, and returned safe in 1554, when Queen Mary
was on the throne. Next year, strange to say, the charter of the new
Muscovy Company was granted by Philip of Armada fame, now joint
sovereign of England with his newly married wife, soon to be known as
'Bloody Mary.' One of the directors of the company was Lord Howard of
Effingham, father of Drake's Lord Admiral, while the governor was our
old friend Sebastian Cabot, now in his eightieth year. Philip was Crown
Prince of the Spanish Empire, and his father, Charles V, was very
anxious that he should please the stubborn English; for if he could only
become both King of England and Emperor of Germany he would rule the