6

'her enemies,' he allowed, all over the world were wishing to see Mary Stuart and Darnley married,' and unfortunately there were also clearsighted, able English statesmen who desired it as well, as a means of uniting the crowns. 'But your Majesty,' he added, has in your hands both your own safety and your rival's ruin. France has been the shield of Scotland in its English wars. Take that shield for yourself. The world is dangerous, the strongest will fare the best, and your Majesty knows that the Queen of Scots dreads no one thing so much as your marriage with the most Christian King.'

With mournful irony Elizabeth replied that she did not deserve so much happiness.1 The English council in pressing her to take a husband was thinking less of a foreign alliance than of an heir to the crown; and the most Christian King was unwelcome to her advisers for the reason perhaps for which she would have preferred him to any other suitor. The full-grown, ablebodied Archduke Charles was the person on whom the hearts of the truest of her statesmen had long been fixed. The Queen referred de Foix to the council; and the council, on the 2nd of June, informed him 'that on mature consideration and with a full appreciation of the greatness of the offer, the age of the King of France, the uncertainty of the English succession, and the unlikelihood of children from that marriage, for

Paul de Foix to the Queen-mother, June 3: TEULET, vol. ii.

several years at least, obliged them to advise their mistress to decline his proposals.'1

2

The next day Elizabeth sent for the ambassador of the Duke of Wurtemberg who was acting in England in behalf of Maximilian. She told him that she had once resolved to live and die a maiden Queen; but she deferred to the remonstrances of her subjects, and she desired him to tell the Emperor that she had at last made up her mind to marry. She had inquired of the Spanish ambassador whether the King of Spain still wished to see her the wife of his cousin. The ambassador had assured her that the King could not be more anxious if the Archduke had been a child of his own. She said that she could not bind herself to accept a person whom she had never seen; but she expressed her earnest wish that the Archduke should come to England.

The minister of Wurtemberg in writing to Maximilian added his own entreaties to those of the Queen; he said that 'there was no fear for the Archduke's honour; the Queen's situation was so critical that if the Archduke would consent to come she could not dare to affront the Imperial family by afterwards refusing his hand.$

1 MIGNET'S Mary Stuart, vol. i. p. 146.

2 Se constituisse nunc nubere.'

• Adam Schetowitz to Maximilian, June 4, 1565: Burghley Papers, vol. i.

292

CHAPTER XLIV.

THE DARNLEY MARRIAGE.

(HE two Queens were again standing in the same

THE

relative positions which had led to the crisis of 1560. Mary Stuart was once more stretching out her hand to grasp Elizabeth's crown. From her recognition as heirpresumptive, the step to a Catholic revolution was immediate and certain; and Elizabeth's affectation of Catholic practices would avail little to save her. Again, as before, the stability of the English Government appeared to depend on the maintenance of the Protestants in Scot-" land; and again the Protestants were too weak to protect themselves without help from abroad. The House of Hamilton was in danger from the restitution of Lennox and the approaching elevation of Darnley; the Earl of Lennox claimed the second place in the Scotch succession in opposition to the Duke of Chatelherault; and the Queen of Scots had avowed her intention of entailing her crown in the line of the Stuarts. Thus there were the same parties and the same divisions. But the Protestants

were split among themselves among the counter-influences of hereditary alliance and passion. The cession of

her claims on the lands of Angus by Lady Margaret, had won to Darnley's side the powerful and dangerous Earl of Morton, and had alienated from Murray the kindred houses of Ruthven and Lindsay. There was no longer an Arran marriage to cajole the patriotism of the many noblemen to whom the glory of Scotland was dearer than their creed; and all those whose hearts were set on winning for a Scotch prince or princess the English succession were now devoted to their Queen. Thus the Duke of Chatelherault with the original group who had formed the nucleus of the CongregationMurray, Argyle, Glencairn, Boyd, and Ochiltree— found themselves alone against the whole power of their country.

Secure on the side of France, Elizabeth would have been less uneasy at the weakness of the Protestants, had the loyalty of her own subjects been open to no suspicion; but the state of England was hardly more satisfactory than that of Scotland. In 1560 the recent loss of Calais and the danger of foreign invasion had united the nation in defence of its independence. Two-thirds of the peers were opposed at heart to Cecil's policy; but the menaces of France had roused the patriotism of the nation. Spain was then perplexed and neutral; and the Catholics had for a time been paralyzed by the recent memories of the Marian persecution.

Now, although the dangers were the same, Elizabeth's embarrassments were incomparably greater. The studied trifling with which she had disregarded the general anxiety for her marriage had created a party for the

Queen of Scots amidst the most influential classes of the people. The settlement of the succession was a passion among them which amounted to a disease; while the union of the crowns was an object of rational desire to every thoughtful English statesman. The Protestants were disheartened; they had gained no wisdom by suffering; the most sincere among them were as wild and intolerant as those who had made the reign of Edward a by-word of mismanagement; the Queen was as unreasonable with them on her side as they were extravagant on theirs; while Catholicism, recovering from its temporary paralysis, was reasserting the superiority which the matured creed of centuries has a right to claim over the half-shaped theories of revolution. Had Mary Stuart followed the advice which Alva gave to her messenger at Bayonne, had she been prudent and forbearing and trusted her cause to time till Philip had disposed of the Turks and was at leisure to give her his a vowed support, the game was in her hands. Her choice of Darnley, sanctioned as it was by Spain, had united in her favour the Conservative strength of England; and either Elizabeth must have allowed the marriage and accepted the Queen of Scots as her successor, or she must have herself yielded to pressure, fulfilled her promises at last, and married the Archduke Charles.

This possibility and this alone created Mary's difficulties. She knew what Philip's engagements meant; she knew that Spain desired as little as France to see England and Scotland a united and powerful kingdom; and that if Elizabeth could be recalled out of her evil