January 2, 2026 • 17 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in the introductory episode of our series tracing America’s rich history and cultural foundations, Wilfred M. McClay, a professor at Hillsdale College and author of the acclaimed book Land of Hope, shares the surprising story of how America’s beginnings were shaped by religious conflict, political power, and sheer chance. From a group of defiant Catholics to a violent Atlantic storm and the iron will of a powerful English queen, McClay explains how a handful of unlikely forces helped determine the course of American history, and how the nation we know today might have turned out very differently.
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next the first episode of our series about Us.
That is the story of America. Here to tell it
is Hillsdale College professor Bill McLay, author of the fantastic
(00:32):
book Land of Hope. Take it away, Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
In the beginning, America was an idea, even before it
was actually a place. This idea that the West was
a special direction, a place toward which adventurous souls were drawn.
It was the idea of the West as a land
of plenty, a place of wonder, a place of renewal.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
This goes back to the Greeks.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So the West had this sort of magical appeal even before.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
We knew what was there. And America in a sense
comes into being with that legend, that story.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So we have to begin with that idea that over
rides and undergirds a lot of the merely material.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Explanations for what America is. It's a land of hope.
From the very beginning. It's a land of hope.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I think a great place to begin thinking about early
American history is with a quotation that I love, and
that is from the architectural historian and critic Louis Mumford.
He said, the settlement of America had its origins in
the unsettlement of Europe. So to start with, we ought
(01:55):
to know what was being unsettled. I think you go
back to a time when there was king's crowned by clergymen,
the Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, the era of
the great cathedrals, and of this great unity. All of
that started to come down bit by bit due to
(02:18):
a number of forces, the rising influence of nationalism, of
national identity, of commerce, the culture of cities built up
around the emerging commerce.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
And ecclesiastical conflicts.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Of course, the big one we all know is begins
fifteen seventeen in Germany with Martin Luther. You know, a
lot of people want to typecast Luther as a revolutionary,
this mad guy bend On splitting the Catholic Church.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Absolutely not. He did not want that envision that.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
He thought that, you know, his ninety five theses, which
were his criticisms, that very far reaching criticisms of the
church were necessary for the Church's purification.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
You can be critical of the Church in.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
A way that bespeaks love, love and concern for the
holiest of all institutions that's lost its way, and that
was the kind of passion sacred rage that Luther had.
He was immediately exercised about the sale of indulgences, which
are more complicated than people realize what it has to
(03:38):
do with lessening the time in purgatory. It seemed very
crass to Martin Luther. They lose campaign which was really
geared towards the construction of Saint Peter's of the great
Great Basilica in Rome. That's what this particular sale of
indulgences was about. And it played into something else, a
(04:03):
point of vulnerability with the Church, and that was its
immense wealth. Most people were poor, people were peasants who.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Either had no land or had very little land, lived
on a subsistence level.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Did not go down well. That the Church should flaunt
its immense wealth in a way that seemed in contradiction
to the teachings of the man from whose influenced the
church was developed and who member the church worshiped as God.
That contradiction is something else that's going to lead to the.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Unsettlement of Europe.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
But some of the theological points that he got to
were much too threatening to the institutional structure of the church.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
One of them is the central one.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
How are we found not guilty? Are you saved? Or
are you condemned? And that's the doctrine of justification by faith,
by faith alone, Christ alone, and not by deeds, not
by works, not by manifestations of your righteousness and your actions.
It seemed to lose her that there was no way that,
(05:27):
given are many misdeeds, our propensity for misdeeds, they were
just always messing up, always, no matter how hard we try.
And even when we think we've made it, then we're
messing up by having spiritual pride.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
So there's just no way of winning in the arena.
It works.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Now if you start thinking more, what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
That doesn't sound so radical? Well, hell, what's the place
of priests? What's the place of the sacraments?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
What's the place of all They put it this way,
the employees.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Of the church are their jobs going down the tubes?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Is the status of the church going to be the
same If we're justified not by anything a priest does
for us, but by our immediate relationship with God through Christ,
that's what's radical, more radical, probably than Luther really realized
when he started down that road. In retrospect, you kind
(06:24):
of wonder, how could he not have thought this was
going to cause them big rucous But he was an
interesting guy. I think he was propelled, you know, when
he was being tried. At one point he has said
to have said, here I stand, I can do no other.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
That's what I mean by him being propelled.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
If you go back, you see a lot of the
most admirable things are being done by people who are
propelled by their faiths. And the foundations of America wouldn't
be the same without it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And you've been listening to Hillsdale College professor Bill McClay
his book by It, there's a children's version two superb.
The beginning of America was an idea before it was
a place, a place of plenty of wonder, of renewal.
The settling of America was born out of the unsettlement
of Europe to central points that animate the framing of
(07:26):
this new nation. When we come back more of Bill
McClay here on our American stories, folks, if you love
the stories we tell about this great country, and especially
the stories of America's rich past, know that all of
our stories about American history from war to innovation, culture
and faith are brought to us by the great folks
(07:47):
at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the
things that are beautiful in life. And if you can't
get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more. And we returned to our American stories
(08:12):
and the first episode of our series The Story of America,
with Hillsdale College professor Bill McLay, author of the fantastic
book Land of Hope. When we left off, Bill was
telling us about a movement led by the likes of
Martin Luther and even folks like John Calvin, the Reformation,
and how it led to the unsettlement of continental Europe.
(08:35):
But things in England went a little differently. Let's return
to the story.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
The Reformation in England was very different from what happened
on the continent. England always was a little different, and
the difference in England made all the difference.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
In this case. The difference was that.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
The King of England, Henry the Eighth, you know, the
guy with all the wives, actually carried out the Reformation.
For the opposite reasons. He was very, very devout. The
Pope called him defender of the fates.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
How about that. But Henry had a problem. He wanted
to have a male heir. He was very concerned about that.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
His first wife and just saying first fife gives the way.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
The tail was unable to produce such a son for him.
But he went to the Pope.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
He knew that divorce was out of the question, but
you could get a marriage a novel that was open.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
That was a possibility. It was open.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Pope said no, for complicated reasons. Henry's first wife was
a relative. Henry reacted with fury and dissolved the bond
linking the Church of England to the One Holy Catholic Church.
He made the Church of England as separate entity, a
(10:09):
national church over which he was supreme. That's how the
Church of England came about.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
It was a strictly political thing. God having a sense
of humor, he never got that.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
He got a male heir, but he didn't grow to adulthood.
But for the most part, the Church of England was
exactly like the Catholic Church. The Henry didn't want to
change any of that. He wasn't a reformer, but there
were those who had been caught up in some of
(10:42):
the ferment on the continent who said, hey, this hasn't
gone far enough. The Anglo Catholics, Puritans, and later on
Evangelicals who thought about it the other way. In the end,
just to zooma had a little bit and the end
of the American religious settlements that would occur in New
(11:03):
England would be Puritans that sought a new zion, a
new world, to really rebuild the church and become an
example to the world of what a pure church looks
like and worships like it acts like. That's why we
have to go through this whole discussion of the Reformation. Yes,
(11:26):
the Reformation is important, but filtered through this particular English
conflict over the status of Catholicism within Protestantism.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
It's all very complicated.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Like most things, you have to tell a story to
get at what the truth is.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I've been talking as if it's a foregone conclusion that
the new world is going to be settled by English Puritans.
That isn't how it happened, and it could have turned
out very differently, very easily. We look back at the past.
It's so easy to just project what we know is
going to happen on the actors of the time.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
They don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
We have to grant to people the veil of ignorance
that we all dwell behind when we look ahead to
the future.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
So the Spanish were there first.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
You remember Columbus at fourteen ninety two sailed the Ocean Blue.
He was the leading edge of the Spanish colonial enterprises
that was already going full blast by the time Martin
Luther appears in Europe well ahead.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
The Spanish were top dog in.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The sixteenth century, the fifteen hundredths.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
They were the top dog in the world.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They had the best empire, the most powerful empire, the
greatest navy, the armed forces, wealth, you name it. They
came to the New World for two reasons. One was material,
and material in a very specific way. They were interested
(13:09):
in precious metals, gold and silver. The idea was that
the wealth of a country is measured by the amount
of precious metals it had in its treasury, So as
a result, you tried to get them when you could.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
That wasn't the only motive. They were also motivated by religion.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
They were strongly motivated choice, evangelism, spreading the church.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Because Spain is solidly.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Roman, Catholic and zealously so they did run their colonies
with a very heavy hand with respect to making sure
that everything that was produced was for the.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Sake of the mother country. It was an extractive approach
to colonization. They were about extracting.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
They didn't bring families, didn't make settlements, and they're the
way that they treated the native populations. Their use of
slaves of enslaved people is not a very happy part
of the Spanish record.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
It's brutal, it's inhumane.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
It's astonishing that kind of brutality can coexist in the
minds of people with spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
But somehow they put it together.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
So the Spanish were dominant. If you parachute it in
in the sixteenth century, you'd say, oh, this is going
to be Spanish.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
They've got it. So how did this change?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Things came to a head between the Spanish and the English.
Philip the Second, the leader of Spain, believed he could
crush Elizabeth the First, a mere woman, and.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Bring back the Catholic faith.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
As the official state religion. So he mounted an invasion force,
including the famous Spanish Armada one hundred and thirty ships,
which even today sounds.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Like a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
And then it was the largest fleet that had ever
been assembled. And he brought together an army of about
fifty five thousand men to invade England. This is a big,
big deal, big move, big bold move. It seemed very
plausible that they could prevail, but they didn't. The English
(15:37):
fleet prevailed that they were nimble like fighter planes, and
there was luck, providence if you like. There were storms,
the English called them the Protestant wind that blew the
Spanish fleet out to sea, and the invasion never happened.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
It never occurred. The Spanish Armada was defeated.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
And the English also had Elizabeth, an inspirational leader, and
there's a great story of her wearing armor, ceremonial armor.
She's not a particularly large woman, but she rode a
horse out to the troops that were assembled to fight
off the invading Spanish army.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
And she says this.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
That tyrant's fear, I have always so behaved myself that
under God I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard
in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects, and
Therefore I am come amongst you, as you see at
this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being
resolved in the midst and heat of battle, to live or.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Die amongst you all, to lay down for my God
and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor
and my blood, even in the dust.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
No of this means that the Spanish influence disappears. We
wouldn't have places like Los Angeles. But the important thing
here is that the defeat of the Spanish did change
what America would be, ensuring that it was going to
be more English.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Than anything else.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
It was from the English that we got our fundamental
institutions
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And a terrific job on the editing, production, storytelling, and
sound design by our own Monty Montgomery himself a Hillsdale
College graduate, and what storytelling by Hillsdale College professor Bill
McLay on the origins of this country, The Story of
America Episode one here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people.
Up next the first episode of our series about Us.
That is the story of America. Here to tell it
is Hillsdale College professor Bill McLay, author of the fantastic
(00:32):
book Land of Hope. Take it away, Bill.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
In the beginning, America was an idea, even before it
was actually a place. This idea that the West was
a special direction, a place toward which adventurous souls were drawn.
It was the idea of the West as a land
of plenty, a place of wonder, a place of renewal.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
This goes back to the Greeks.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So the West had this sort of magical appeal even before.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
We knew what was there. And America in a sense
comes into being with that legend, that story.
Speaker 2 (01:14):
So we have to begin with that idea that over
rides and undergirds a lot of the merely material.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Explanations for what America is. It's a land of hope.
From the very beginning. It's a land of hope.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
I think a great place to begin thinking about early
American history is with a quotation that I love, and
that is from the architectural historian and critic Louis Mumford.
He said, the settlement of America had its origins in
the unsettlement of Europe. So to start with, we ought
(01:55):
to know what was being unsettled. I think you go
back to a time when there was king's crowned by clergymen,
the Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, the era of
the great cathedrals, and of this great unity. All of
that started to come down bit by bit due to
(02:18):
a number of forces, the rising influence of nationalism, of
national identity, of commerce, the culture of cities built up
around the emerging commerce.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
And ecclesiastical conflicts.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Of course, the big one we all know is begins
fifteen seventeen in Germany with Martin Luther. You know, a
lot of people want to typecast Luther as a revolutionary,
this mad guy bend On splitting the Catholic Church.
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Absolutely not. He did not want that envision that.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
He thought that, you know, his ninety five theses, which
were his criticisms, that very far reaching criticisms of the
church were necessary for the Church's purification.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
You can be critical of the Church in.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
A way that bespeaks love, love and concern for the
holiest of all institutions that's lost its way, and that
was the kind of passion sacred rage that Luther had.
He was immediately exercised about the sale of indulgences, which
are more complicated than people realize what it has to
(03:38):
do with lessening the time in purgatory. It seemed very
crass to Martin Luther. They lose campaign which was really
geared towards the construction of Saint Peter's of the great
Great Basilica in Rome. That's what this particular sale of
indulgences was about. And it played into something else, a
(04:03):
point of vulnerability with the Church, and that was its
immense wealth. Most people were poor, people were peasants who.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
Either had no land or had very little land, lived
on a subsistence level.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Did not go down well. That the Church should flaunt
its immense wealth in a way that seemed in contradiction
to the teachings of the man from whose influenced the
church was developed and who member the church worshiped as God.
That contradiction is something else that's going to lead to the.
Speaker 3 (04:45):
Unsettlement of Europe.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
But some of the theological points that he got to
were much too threatening to the institutional structure of the church.
Speaker 3 (05:02):
One of them is the central one.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
How are we found not guilty? Are you saved? Or
are you condemned? And that's the doctrine of justification by faith,
by faith alone, Christ alone, and not by deeds, not
by works, not by manifestations of your righteousness and your actions.
It seemed to lose her that there was no way that,
(05:27):
given are many misdeeds, our propensity for misdeeds, they were
just always messing up, always, no matter how hard we try.
And even when we think we've made it, then we're
messing up by having spiritual pride.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
So there's just no way of winning in the arena.
It works.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Now if you start thinking more, what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (05:49):
That doesn't sound so radical? Well, hell, what's the place
of priests? What's the place of the sacraments?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
What's the place of all They put it this way,
the employees.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Of the church are their jobs going down the tubes?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
Is the status of the church going to be the
same If we're justified not by anything a priest does
for us, but by our immediate relationship with God through Christ,
that's what's radical, more radical, probably than Luther really realized
when he started down that road. In retrospect, you kind
(06:24):
of wonder, how could he not have thought this was
going to cause them big rucous But he was an
interesting guy. I think he was propelled, you know, when
he was being tried. At one point he has said
to have said, here I stand, I can do no other.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
That's what I mean by him being propelled.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
If you go back, you see a lot of the
most admirable things are being done by people who are
propelled by their faiths. And the foundations of America wouldn't
be the same without it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
And you've been listening to Hillsdale College professor Bill McClay
his book by It, there's a children's version two superb.
The beginning of America was an idea before it was
a place, a place of plenty of wonder, of renewal.
The settling of America was born out of the unsettlement
of Europe to central points that animate the framing of
(07:26):
this new nation. When we come back more of Bill
McClay here on our American stories, folks, if you love
the stories we tell about this great country, and especially
the stories of America's rich past, know that all of
our stories about American history from war to innovation, culture
and faith are brought to us by the great folks
(07:47):
at Hillsdale College, a place where students study all the
things that are beautiful in life. And if you can't
get to Hillsdale, Hillsdale will come to you with their
free and terrific online courses. Go to Hillsdale dot edu
to learn more. And we returned to our American stories
(08:12):
and the first episode of our series The Story of America,
with Hillsdale College professor Bill McLay, author of the fantastic
book Land of Hope. When we left off, Bill was
telling us about a movement led by the likes of
Martin Luther and even folks like John Calvin, the Reformation,
and how it led to the unsettlement of continental Europe.
(08:35):
But things in England went a little differently. Let's return
to the story.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
The Reformation in England was very different from what happened
on the continent. England always was a little different, and
the difference in England made all the difference.
Speaker 3 (09:00):
In this case. The difference was that.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
The King of England, Henry the Eighth, you know, the
guy with all the wives, actually carried out the Reformation.
For the opposite reasons. He was very, very devout. The
Pope called him defender of the fates.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
How about that. But Henry had a problem. He wanted
to have a male heir. He was very concerned about that.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
His first wife and just saying first fife gives the way.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
The tail was unable to produce such a son for him.
But he went to the Pope.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
He knew that divorce was out of the question, but
you could get a marriage a novel that was open.
Speaker 3 (09:45):
That was a possibility. It was open.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
Pope said no, for complicated reasons. Henry's first wife was
a relative. Henry reacted with fury and dissolved the bond
linking the Church of England to the One Holy Catholic Church.
He made the Church of England as separate entity, a
(10:09):
national church over which he was supreme. That's how the
Church of England came about.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
It was a strictly political thing. God having a sense
of humor, he never got that.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
He got a male heir, but he didn't grow to adulthood.
But for the most part, the Church of England was
exactly like the Catholic Church. The Henry didn't want to
change any of that. He wasn't a reformer, but there
were those who had been caught up in some of
(10:42):
the ferment on the continent who said, hey, this hasn't
gone far enough. The Anglo Catholics, Puritans, and later on
Evangelicals who thought about it the other way. In the end,
just to zooma had a little bit and the end
of the American religious settlements that would occur in New
(11:03):
England would be Puritans that sought a new zion, a
new world, to really rebuild the church and become an
example to the world of what a pure church looks
like and worships like it acts like. That's why we
have to go through this whole discussion of the Reformation. Yes,
(11:26):
the Reformation is important, but filtered through this particular English
conflict over the status of Catholicism within Protestantism.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
It's all very complicated.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Like most things, you have to tell a story to
get at what the truth is.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Now.
Speaker 2 (11:44):
I've been talking as if it's a foregone conclusion that
the new world is going to be settled by English Puritans.
That isn't how it happened, and it could have turned
out very differently, very easily. We look back at the past.
It's so easy to just project what we know is
going to happen on the actors of the time.
Speaker 3 (12:06):
They don't know.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
We have to grant to people the veil of ignorance
that we all dwell behind when we look ahead to
the future.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
So the Spanish were there first.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
You remember Columbus at fourteen ninety two sailed the Ocean Blue.
He was the leading edge of the Spanish colonial enterprises
that was already going full blast by the time Martin
Luther appears in Europe well ahead.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
The Spanish were top dog in.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
The sixteenth century, the fifteen hundredths.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
They were the top dog in the world.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
They had the best empire, the most powerful empire, the
greatest navy, the armed forces, wealth, you name it. They
came to the New World for two reasons. One was material,
and material in a very specific way. They were interested
(13:09):
in precious metals, gold and silver. The idea was that
the wealth of a country is measured by the amount
of precious metals it had in its treasury, So as
a result, you tried to get them when you could.
Speaker 3 (13:25):
That wasn't the only motive. They were also motivated by religion.
Speaker 2 (13:28):
They were strongly motivated choice, evangelism, spreading the church.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Because Spain is solidly.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Roman, Catholic and zealously so they did run their colonies
with a very heavy hand with respect to making sure
that everything that was produced was for the.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Sake of the mother country. It was an extractive approach
to colonization. They were about extracting.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
They didn't bring families, didn't make settlements, and they're the
way that they treated the native populations. Their use of
slaves of enslaved people is not a very happy part
of the Spanish record.
Speaker 3 (14:11):
It's brutal, it's inhumane.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
It's astonishing that kind of brutality can coexist in the
minds of people with spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
But somehow they put it together.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
So the Spanish were dominant. If you parachute it in
in the sixteenth century, you'd say, oh, this is going
to be Spanish.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
They've got it. So how did this change?
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Things came to a head between the Spanish and the English.
Philip the Second, the leader of Spain, believed he could
crush Elizabeth the First, a mere woman, and.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Bring back the Catholic faith.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
As the official state religion. So he mounted an invasion force,
including the famous Spanish Armada one hundred and thirty ships,
which even today sounds.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
Like a lot.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
And then it was the largest fleet that had ever
been assembled. And he brought together an army of about
fifty five thousand men to invade England. This is a big,
big deal, big move, big bold move. It seemed very
plausible that they could prevail, but they didn't. The English
(15:37):
fleet prevailed that they were nimble like fighter planes, and
there was luck, providence if you like. There were storms,
the English called them the Protestant wind that blew the
Spanish fleet out to sea, and the invasion never happened.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
It never occurred. The Spanish Armada was defeated.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
And the English also had Elizabeth, an inspirational leader, and
there's a great story of her wearing armor, ceremonial armor.
She's not a particularly large woman, but she rode a
horse out to the troops that were assembled to fight
off the invading Spanish army.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
And she says this.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
That tyrant's fear, I have always so behaved myself that
under God I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard
in the loyal hearts and goodwill of my subjects, and
Therefore I am come amongst you, as you see at
this time, not for my recreation and disport, but being
resolved in the midst and heat of battle, to live or.
Speaker 4 (16:47):
Die amongst you all, to lay down for my God
and for my kingdom, and for my people, my honor
and my blood, even in the dust.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
No of this means that the Spanish influence disappears. We
wouldn't have places like Los Angeles. But the important thing
here is that the defeat of the Spanish did change
what America would be, ensuring that it was going to
be more English.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Than anything else.
Speaker 2 (17:22):
It was from the English that we got our fundamental
institutions
Speaker 1 (17:30):
And a terrific job on the editing, production, storytelling, and
sound design by our own Monty Montgomery himself a Hillsdale
College graduate, and what storytelling by Hillsdale College professor Bill
McLay on the origins of this country, The Story of
America Episode one here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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