her successors that which she found delivered her by CHAP VIII God's favourable hand." 1564 The peril had passed over; and for fear the French ambassadors might carry back too tempting a report of the defencelessness of the coast, Lord Abergavenny was directed-as if to do them honour-to call under arms the gentlemen of the south-eastern counties. The The French result not being particularly successful, the Arch-sadors visit bishop invited de Gonor and the Bishop of Constance to BekesBekesbourne, and in a little vain brag, perhaps infirmity,' showed them his well-furnished armoury, hoping that his guests would infer that if a prelate had regard of such provisions others had more care thereabout." The thin disguise would have availed little had there been a real desire for the continuance of the war. In the unprotected shores, the open breezy downs, the scattered and weakly-armed population, they observed the facility of invasion, and remarked upon it plainly. But Catherine de Medici had no interest in Mary Stuart and no desire to injure Elizabeth. Mary Stuart's friends were rather at Madrid than at Paris; and the French ministers were more curious of the religious condition of England than of its military defences. Their visit to Bekesbourne therefore gave occasion for the Archbishop and his visitors to compare ecclesiastical notes. The Bishop of Constance expressed the unexpected pleasure which it had given him to find that 'there was so much reverence about the sacraments,' 'that music was still permitted in the quires,' and that the lands of the suppressed abbeys had been bestowed 'for pious uses.' He wished that as happy a change 1 Parker to Cecil, January 20 and February 6, 1564.-LANSDOWNE MSS. 'Parker to Cecil, June 3.-Domestic MSS., ELIZ., vol. xxxiii. bourne. June CHAP VIII Could be worked in France; and marvelled that the 1564 deposed bishops should have been so stiff' in refusing to follow the Princess's religion;' he noted and delighted in English mediocrity; charging the Genevans and the Scots with going too far in extremities.' The Archbishop told him that there were priests and bishops in England both married and unmarried;' 'he did not disallow thereof, and was contented to hear evil of the Pope.' Happy effects of the peace. The ambassadors proceeded to London, leaving behind them an agreeable impression of themselves, and carrying with them a sunny memory of a pleasant English summer home, with its woods and gardens and cawing rooks and cheery social life; the French pages had been so well schooled in their behaviour that when they were gone the Archbishop was surprised to find he could not charge them with purloining the worth of one silver spoon." On both sides of the Channel, in London and Paris, the peace once made, there was the warmest endeavour to obliterate painful recollections; the moderate party was in power at the Court of Catherine, and with it the liberal anti-Spanish foreign policy; the interests of France and England were identical on the great political questions of the day; and Elizabeth was fortunate in having a treaty forced upon her which obliged Philip to look with less favour on the Queen of Scots-which compelled the Spanish ministers to postpone their resentment against English piracies, and drove them rather to dread their own inability to retain their own. Low Countries, than to seek opportunities for interference abroad. The King of Spain had intended to send no more 1 Parker to Cecil, June 3.-Domestic MSS., ELIZ., vol. xxxiii. June becomes friendly and the Catho ambassadors to England till Mary Stuart was on the CHAP VIII throne on the Peace of Troyes he changed his mind, 1564 and resumed or affected to resume his friendly relations with Elizabeth. Guzman de Silva received his commis- Philip sion as de Quadra's successor; and once more in the old language Louis Romano, a Spanish agent in London, reported to Granvelle 'the affliction and discontent of the English Catholics, who had been encouraged to hope that their trials were at an end; who had rested their entire hopes on Philip, and now knew not where to turn." Mary Stuart, as her hopes of the Prince of Spain grew fainter, was pausing over the answer which she should make to Elizabeth's last proposals. She had been in communication throughout the winter with the Netherlands, and was perhaps aware in some degree of the difficulties created by the Prince's character. She had decisively refused the Archduke of Austria whom Philip wished her to take in his son's stead; and although the Spanish Court, waiting probably for some favourable change in Don Carlos, had not yet determined that the marriage must be given up, the Queen of Scots knew enough to prevent her from feeling sanguine of obtaining him. It became necessary for her to consider whether she could make anything out of the English overtures. Elizabeth's attitude towards her was in the main honourable and statesmanlike. The name of a successor, as she said herself, was like the tolling of her death-bell. In her sister's lifetime she had experienced how an heir Los Catholicos del Reyno estan muy afligidos con gran descontento, viendo que todas las esperanças que tenian eran en su Magd., y que no veen semblante ninguno para prin- 1564 June Elizabeth and the Scottish CHAP VIII presumptive with an inalienable right became inevitably a rallying point of disaffection. She did not trust the Queen of Scots, and if she allowed her pretensions to be sanctioned by Act of Parliament she anticipated neglect, opposition-perhaps worse. But of assassination she succession. could scarcely be in greater danger than she was already; and if she could induce Mary to meet her half way in some moderate policy, and if the Queen of Scots instead of marrying a Catholic prince and allying herself with the revolutionary Ultramontanes, would accept an English nobleman of whose loyalty to herself she could feel assured, she was ready to sacrifice her personal unwillingness to what she believed to be the interest of her people. There could then be no danger that England would be sacrificed to the Papacy. Some tolerant creed could be established which Catholics might accept without offence to their consciences, and Protestants could live under without persecution; while the resolution of the two factions into neutrality if not into friendship, the union of the crowns, and the confidence which would arise from a secured succession, were objects with which private inclination could not be allowed to interfere. Elizabeth had made the offer in good faith, with a sincere hope that it would be accepted, and with a fair ground of confidence that with the conditions which she had named the objections of the House of Commons to the Queen of Scots would be overcome. ; Even in the person whom in her heart she desired Mary to marry, Elizabeth was giving an evidence of the honesty of her intentions. Lord Robert Dudley was perhaps the most worthless of her subjects; but in the loving eyes of his mistress he was the knight sans peur et sans reproche; and she took a melancholy pride in offering her sister her choicest jewel, and in raising Dudley, though she could not marry him herself, to the reversion of the CHAP VIII English throne. She had not indeed named Lord Robert formally in Randolph's commission. She had spoken of him to Maitland, but she had spoken also of the Earl of Warwick; and she perhaps retained some hope that if Mary would be contented with the elder brother, she might still keep her favourite for herself. But if she entertained any such thought such thought she soon abandoned it; her self-abnegation was to be complete; and in ignorance of the objections of Mary Stuart to the Archduke Charles, she had even allowed Cecil at the close of 1563 to reopen negotiations with the Emperor for the transfer of his son to herself. Ferdinand however had returned a cold answer. He had been trifled with once already. Elizabeth had played with him, he said, for her own purposes with no real intention of marriage; and neither he nor the Archduke should be made ridiculous a second time.2 Elizabeth accepted the refusal, and redoubled her advances to Mary Stuart; relinquishing-if she had ever really entertained, the thought of a simultaneous marriage for herself, until she had seen how her scheme for Dudley would end. 1564 June 1 Randolph himself seems to have thought something of the kind. On the 21st of January, before the peace with France, he wrote to Elizabeth: The French have heard through M. de Foix of your Majesty's intent, and the Cardinal of Guise is set to hinder it. He writes to the Queen of Scots to beware of your Majesty, that you mean nothing less than good faith with her; and that it proceedeth of finesse to make her believe that you intend her good, or that her honour shall be any way advanced |