lady and her husband Lord Hertford are Protestants; CHAP X and a large number-probably an actual majority of the Commons-being heretics also, will declare for her in self-defence.

1566 October

and de

'I have never ceased to urge upon the Queen the in- The Queen convenience and danger to which she will be exposed if Silva. a successor is declared, and on the other hand her perfect security as soon as she has children of her own. She understands all this fully, and she told me three days ago that she would never consent. The Parliament, she said, had offered her two hundred and fifty thousand pounds as the price of her acquiescence; but she had refused to accept anything on conditions. She had requested a subsidy for the public service in Ireland and elsewhere, and it should be given freely and graciously or not at all. She says she will not yield one jot to them, let them do what they will; she means to dissemble with them and hear what they have to say, so that she may know their views, and the lady which each declares for meaning the Queen of Scots and Lady Catherine. I told her that if she would but marry, all this worry would be at an end. would be at an end. She assured me she would send this very week to the Emperor and settle everything; and yet I learn from Sir Thomas Heneage, who is the person hitherto most concerned in the Archduke affair, that she has grown much cooler about it.

The members of the Lower House are almost all Protestants; and seeing the Queen in such a rage at them, I took occasion to point out to her the true character of this new religion, which will endure no rule and will have everything at its own pleasure without regard to the sovereign authority; it was time for her

1 'Por conocer las voluntades y saber la dama de cada uno.

1566 October

CHAP X to see to these things, and I bade her observe the contrast between these turbulent heretics and the quiet and obedience of her Catholic subjects. She said she could not tell what those devils were after.' They want liberty, madam, I replied, and if princes do not look to themselves and work in concert to put them down, they will find before long what all this is coming to.2

'She could not but agree with me: she attempted a defence of her own subjects, as if there was some justice in their complaints of the uncertainty of the succession; but she knows at heart what it really means, and by and by when she finds them obstinate she will understand it better. I told her before that I knew they would press her, and she would not believe me.

'Melville, the agent of the Queen of Scots, was with me yesterday. Her disagreement with her husband is doing her much mischief here; yet that Queen has so much credit with the good, all over the realm, that the blame is chiefly laid on the Lord Darnley. I have told Melville to press upon them the necessity of reconciliation; and I have written to the Commendador Major of Castile at Rome to speak to the Pope about it, and to desire his Holiness to send them his advice to the same effect. Melville tells me the lords there are working

1566

together wonderfully well. He has given this Queen to CHAP X understand that since she is reluctant to have the succession discussed, his mistress is so anxious to please her October that she will not press for it; she will only ask that if the question is forced forward after all, she may have notice in time that she may send some one to plead in her behalf.

'This Queen is full of gratitude for her forbearance; she has told her that her present resolution is to keep the matter quiet; should her endeavours be unsuccessful however, the Queen of Scots shall have all the information and all the help which she herself can give.

'Melville learns from a private source that this Queen will fail in her object. The question will be pressed in the Queen of Scots' interest, and with the best intentions. Her friends are very numerous; we shall soon see how things go.'

Houses

a settle

Melville's information was right. Having failed in Both full Parliament, Elizabeth tried next to work on the com- determine mittee. The Marquis of Winchester was put forward to to press for prevent the intended address. He brought to bear the ment. weight of an experience which was older than the field of Bosworth; but he was listened to with impatience; not a single voice either from Peers or Commons was found to second him. Unable to do anything through others, the Queen sent for the principal noblemen concerned to remonstrate with them herself in private.

The Duke of Norfolk was the first called, and rumour said—though she herself afterwards denied the wordsthat she called him traitor and conspirator. Leicester, Pembroke, Northampton, and Lord William Howard came next. Norfolk had complained of his treatment to Pembroke; Pembroke told her that the Duke was a

1566

October

Elizabeth

CHAP X good friend both to the realm and to herself; if she would not listen to advice and do what the service of the commonwealth required they must do it themselves. She was too angry to argue; she told Pembroke Fends sepa- he spoke like a foolish soldier, and knew not what he was saying. Then seeing Leicester at his side, You, my lord,' she said, 'you! If all the world forsook me I thought that you would be true!'

rately for

the Lords.

'Madam,' Leicester said, 'I am ready to die at your feet!'

"What has that to do with it?' she answered.

'And you, my Lord Northampton,' she went onturning from one to the other; 'you who when you had a wife of your own already could quote Scripture texts to help you to another;' you forsooth must meddle with marriages for me. You might employ yourself better, I think.'

She could make nothing of them, nor they of her. Both Queen and lords carried their complaints to de Silva; the lords urging him to use his influence to force her into taking the Archduke; Elizabeth complaining of their insolence and especially of the ingratitude of Leicester. Her very honour, she said, had suffered for the favour which she had shown to Leicester; and now she would send him to his house in the country and the Archduke should have nothing to be jealous of."

The committee went on with the work. On the 2nd of November the form of the address was still undetermined; they were undecided whether to insist most on the marriage, or on the nomination, or on both. In some shape or other however a petition of a serious kind

'Northampton's divorce and second marriage had been one of the great scandals of the days of Edward.

2 De Silva to Philip, November 4.-MS. Simancas.

November

would unquestionably be presented, and Elizabeth pre- CHAP X pared to receive it with as much self-restraint as 1566 she could command. Three days later she understood that the deliberations were concluded. To have the interview over as soon as possible Elizabeth sent for the committee at once; and on the afternoon of the 5th of November, by her Highness's special commandment,' twenty-five lay Peers, the Bishops of Durham and London, and thirty members of the Lower House presented themselves at the palace at Westminster.

Presentation of the

The address was read by Bacon. After grateful acknowledgments of the general govern- address. ment of the Queen the two Houses desired, first, to express their wish that her Highness would be pleased to marry where it should please her, with whom it should please her, and as soon as it should please her.'

Further, as it was possible that her Highness might die without children, her faithful subjects were anxious to know more particularly the future prospects of the realm. Much as they wished to see her married, the settlement of the succession was even more important, 'carrying with it such necessity that without it they could not see how the safety of her royal person or the preservation of her imperial crown and realm could be or should be sufficiently and certainly provided for.' 'Her late illness (the Queen had been unwell again), the amazedness that most men of understanding were by fruit of that sickness brought unto,' and the opportunity of making a definite arrangement while Parliament was sitting, were the motives which induced them to be more urgent than they would otherwise have cared to be. History and precedent alike recommended a speedy decision. They hoped that she might live to have a child of her own; but she was mortal, and should she die