Elizabeth stood excommunicated of the Pope.

There was hardly a month in which intelligence was not sent by English agents out of the Netherlands and France, that assassins, hired by Philip, were making their way to England to attempt the life of the Queen.

The Netherlanders were rebels to the Spanish monarch, and they stood, one and all, under death-sentence by Rome.

The alliance was inevitable and wholesome.

Elizabeth was, however, consistently opposed to the acceptance of a new sovereignty.