William Allen (cardinal) - Spanish Armada

Spanish Armada

Allen was then once more in Rome, having been summoned by the pope after a dangerous illness two years before. He never left the city of Rome again, but he kept in constant correspondence and communication with his old countrymen back in England. It had been due to his influence that the Society of Jesus, to which he was greatly attached, undertook to join in the work of the English mission; and now Allen and Father Parsons became joint leaders of the "Spanish Party" amongst the Roman Catholics in England and in Ireland.

At the advice and recommendation of King Philip, Allen was created a Cardinal in 1587, and he was prepared to return to England immediately, should the invasion prove successful. Amongst the adherents to the scheme, however, Allen and Parsons were both equally at fault. The vast majority of the small remaining Roman Catholic faithful in the Kingdom of England remained loyal to their own Queen against Spain and King Philip, and the defeat of the Spanish Armada, in 1588, was to them an event that gave cause to rejoice, no less than their fellow countrymen who were instead Protestants of the Church of England.

Allen outlived the defeat of the Armada by some six years. To the end of his life, he reportedly remained fully convinced that soon the People of England and their Sovereign would became Roman Catholics once again. Upon his elevation, Allen wrote to the College at Rheims, that he owed his Cardinal's hat (also) to Parsons. One of his first acts was to order the publication, under his own name and authority, two works for the purpose of inciting Roman Catholics in England to rise up against Elizabeth: The Declaration of the Sentence of Sixtus V, a broadside, and a book, An Admonition to the nobility and people of England (Antwerp, 1588). After the failure of the Armada, Philip, in order to rid himself of the burden of the financial costs of supporting Allen as Cardinal, nominated him to become also the Archbishop of Mechelen. The nomination to the Pope, however, had never received the Pope's confirmation.