CHAP VIII 1564 October On the position and views of Lord Robert-on the state of feeling at the court-on the Scotch and other questions-additional light is thrown by a letter of de Silva, written on the 9th of October. Elizabeth intends to say DE SILVA TO PHILIP.1 London, October 9. 'The gentleman sent hither from the court of Scotland has returned, and this Queen has written by him to that for various reasons there will be no Parliament this year. The succession question therefore will be allowed to rest. She says she is not so old that her death need be so perpetually dragged before her. 'Cecil has intimated to the heretical bishops that they check the must look to their clergy; the Queen is determined to bring them to order, and will no longer tolerate their extravagances. Protestants. 'He desires them too to be careful how they proceed against the Catholics; the Queen will not have her good subjects goaded into sedition by calumnies on their creed or by irritating inquiries into their conduct. I am told that the bishops do not like these cautions. Cecil understands his mistress and says nothing to her but what she likes to hear. He thus keeps her in good humour and maintains his position. Lord Robert is obliged to be on terms with him, although at heart he hates him as much as ever. Cecil has more genius than the rest of the Council put together, and is therefore envied and hated on all sides. "The Queen happening to speak to me about the beginning of her reign, mentioned that circumstances had at first obliged her to dissemble her real feelings in religion; 1 MS. Simancas. 1564 October but God knew, she said, that her heart was sound in his CHAP VIII service; with more to the same purpose: she wanted to persuade me that she was orthodox, but she was less explicit than I could have wished. "I told her (she knew it already) that the preachers railed at her in the most insolent language for keeping the cross on the altar of her chapel. She answered that she meant to have crosses generally restored throughout the realm. I 'Again and again she has said to me, "I am insulted. both in England and abroad for having shown more favour than I ought to have shown to the Lord Robert. I am spoken of as if I were an immodest woman. ought not to wonder at it: I have favoured him because of his excellent disposition, and for his many merits; but I am young and he is young, and therefore we have been slandered. God knows they do us grievous wrong, and the time will come when the world will know it also. I do not live in a corner- a thousand eyes see all that I do, and calumny will not fasten on me for ever." 'She went on to speak of the Queen of Scots, whose beauty she warmly praised. "Some tell me," she said, "that my sister will marry your Prince after all." 'I laughed and said that the last story which I had heard was that the Queen of Scots was to marry the King of France. 'She said that could not be, "The Queen-mother and the Queen of Scots were not good friends." 'The Lord Robert, whom they now call Earl of Leicester, has been with me again, repeating his protestations of a desire to be of service to your Majesty. He mentioned particularly the troubles in the Low Countries and the necessity of taking steps to pacify them. 1564 and the Spanish ambassador. CHAP VIII 'I assured him of the confidence which your Majesty felt in his integrity and of the desire which you enterOctober tained for his advancement. I repeated the words which Lord Robert the Queen had used to me about religion; and I said that now when she was so well disposed, there was an opportunity for him which he should not allow to escape. If the Queen could make up her mind to marry him and to reunite England to the Catholic Church, your Majesty would stand by him, and he should soon experience the effects of your Majesty's good-will towards him; the Queen's safety should be perfectly secured, and he should be himself maintained in the reputation and authority which he deserved. 'He answered that the Queen had put it off so long that he had begun to fear she would never marry him at all. He professed himself very grateful for my offer, but of religion he said nothing. In fact he is too ill-informed in such matters to take a resolute part on either side, unless when he has some other object to gain. 'I told him that the dependence of the Catholics was wholly on the Queen and himself. To him they attributed the preservation of the bishops and of the other prisoners; and I said that by saving their lives he had gained the good-will of all Christian princes abroad and of all the Catholics at home, who as he well knew were far more numerous than those of the new religion. The heretics notoriously hated both him and his mistress, and had not the Catholics been so strong would long ago have given them trouble; the Queen could see what was before her in the book on the succession, which after all it appeared she was afraid to punish. 'His manner was friendly, but I know not what he will do. Had the Catholics as much courage as the heretics, he would declare for them quickly enough, for he admits that they are far the larger number; things CHAP VIII are in such a state that the father does not trust his child.' To return to the Queen of Scots' marriage. Notwithstanding Lennox's efforts and Lady Margaret's jewels the Scottish noblemen were difficult to manage. Mary Stuart was still unable to act without her brother and Maitland; and the Earl of Murray was a better Protestant than Knox believed him to be, and Maitland's broad statesmanship had little in common with the scheming conspiracies which were hatched in the chambers of priests. Maitland's single object was the union of the realms, where Scotland in compensation for the surrender of its separate independence would have the pride of giving a sovereign to its ancient enemy. While therefore he was zealous for the honour of his mistress, he had no interest in those collateral objects of religious revolution and personal revenge of which Mary was in such keen pursuit. With the Darnley connexion, as it appeared afterwards, he had no sympathy, unless Darnley was freely offered by Elizabeth and the choice was freely sanctioned by the two Parliaments. 1564 October Conference Scotch and sioners. So far therefore Maitland was ill suited for the Queen Proposed of Scots' purposes; on the other hand he was by far the between ablest minister that she possessed. He was fanatically English eager-so far as a man of so cool and clear an intel- Commuslect could be fanatical about anything-to secure the English succession for her; and aware of his value she named him with her brother to meet the English commissioners and consider in form Elizabeth's proposals. The conference was to be kept secret from the world. The Queen of Scots would go to Dunbar in the middle of November. The two ministers would leave her as if for CHAP VIII a few days' hawking on the Tweed, and the Governor of Berwick would invite them to visit him. 1564 October Instructions to Bedford Lord Bedford and Randolph were to represent England; and Elizabeth's instructions to them are a fresh evidence of the feelings with which she regarded Leicester. When Leicester's name was first officially mentioned, Maitland had urged on Cecil the propriety of leaving Mary's choice of a husband as little restricted as possible. If Elizabeth objected to a foreign prince she must at least permit a free selection among the Scotch and English nobility. Besides Darnley there was Norfolk, there was Arundel-each more eligible than the son of the parvenu Northumberland; and Elizabeth had no right to demand more than a marriage which did not threaten herself or the liberty of England. 6 But Elizabeth's heart was fixed on Leicester, and and she could see no merit anywhere but in him. Among Randolph. all English noblemen,' she said in giving her direc : tions to the commissioners, she could see none for her own contentation meeter for the purpose than one who for his good gifts she esteemed fit to be placed in the number of kings and princes; for so she thought him worthy and if he were not born her subject, but had happened with these qualities to be as nobly born under some other prince as he was under herself, the world should have well perceived her estimation of him. The advantage of the marriage to the Earl of Leicester would not be great, but to the Queen of Scots it would be greater than she could have with any other person. The Earl would bring with him no controversy of title to trouble the quietness of the Queen of Scots, and she preferred him to be the partaker of the Queen of Scots' fortunes, whom if it might lie in her power she would make owner and heir of her own king |