yet they were no more successful than Sadler; the lawyers' still insisted; the House went with them in declining to endure any longer a future which depended on the possible 'movements' of the Queen's mind; and a vote was carried to press the question to an issue and to invite the Lords to a conference. The Lords, as eager as the Commons, instantly acquiesced. Public business was suspended, and committees of the two Houses sat daily for a fortnight, preparing an address to the Crown.1 1 Cecil, who was a member of the Commons' Committee, has left a paper of notes touching the main points of the situation : 'October, 1556. 'To require both marriage and the stablishing of the succession is the uttermost that can be desired. 'To deny both, the uttermost that can be denied. To require marriage is most natural, most easy, most plausible to the Queen's Majesty. 'To require certainty of succession is most plausible to all people. against a successor that hath right by law to succeed. 'Corollarium. 'The mean betwixt them is to determine effectually to marry, and if it succeed not, then proceed to discussion of the right of succession.' -Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, vol. xl. Another paper, also in Cecil's hand, contains apparently a rough sketch for the address to the Crown: 'That the marriage may proceed effectually. 'That it may be declared how necessary it is to have the succession stablished for sundry causes. 'To require the succession is hardest to be obtained, both for the difficulty to discuss the right and 'Surety and quietness of the the loathsomeness of the Queen's Queen's Majesty, that no person may Majesty to consent thereto. attempt anything to the furtherance 'The difficulty to discuss it is by of any supposed title when it shall reason of be manifest how the right is settled. I. 'The uncertainty of indiffer- Whereunto may also be added sunency in the parties that shall discuss dry devices to stay every person in it. his duty, so as her Majesty may 2. The uncertainty of the right reign assuredly. pretended. 'The loathsomeness to grant it is by reason of natural suspicion 'The comfort of all good subjects that may remain assured, how and whom to obey lawfully, and how In spite of her struggles the Queen saw the net closing round her. Fair speeches were to serve her turn no longer, and either she would have to endure some husband whom she detested the very thought of, or submit to a settlement the result of which it was easy to foresee. Into her feelings, or into such aspect of them as she chose to exhibit, we once more gain curious insight through a letter of de Silva. So distinctly was Elizabeth's marriage the object of the present move of the House of Commons that the Queen of Scots, in dread of it, was contented to withdraw the pressure for a determination in her own favour, and consented to bide her time. GUZMAN DE SILVA TO PHILIP II.1 October 26. 'The Parliament is in full debate on the succession. The Queen is furious about it; she is advised that if the question come to a vote in the Lower House the greatest number of voices will be for the Lady Catherine. This to avoid all errors in disobedience, | sion, that yet for the satisfaction of whereby civil wars may be avoided. her people she will prorogue this lady and her husband Lord Hertford are Protestants; and a large number, probably an actual majority of the Commons, being heretics also, will declare for her in self-defence. 'I have never ceased to urge upon the Queen the inconvenience and danger to which she will be exposed if 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 for1-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. 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 1 'Por conocer las voluntades y saber la dama de cada uno.' 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 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.1 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. That Queen's disagreement with her husband is doing her much mischief here; yet she has so much credit with the good all over the realm that the 1 'Respondióme que no sabia que | jects now-a-days to anarchy and requerian estos demonios.' volution. I invariably reply that 2 Elizabeth had before affected to this is the beginning, middle, and be alarmed at the revolutionary ten-end of the inventors of new religions. dencies of Protestantism. On the They have an eye only to their own 15th of the preceding July, de Silva interests; they care neither for God nor law, as they show by their works; and princes ought to take order among themselves and unite to chastise their excesses.'-MS. Simancas. wrote 'The Queen must be growing anxious. She often says to me that she wonders at the tendency of sub blame is chiefly laid on the Lord Darnley. I have told Melville to urge upon them the necessity of reconciliation; and I have written to the Commendador Mayor 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 together wonderfully well. He has given this Queen to understand that since she is reluctant to have the succession discussed, his mistress is so anxious to please her 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 forced in the Queen of Scots' interest, and with the best intentions. Her friends are very numerous; we shall soon see how things go.' Melville's information was right. Having failed in full Parliament, Elizabeth tried next to work on the committee. The Marquis of Winchester was put forward to prevent the intended address. He brought to bear the weight of an experience which was older than the field of Bosworth; but he was listened to with impatience; |