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diff --git a/78876-0.txt b/78876-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b6b3e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/78876-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14137 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78876 *** + + + + + ROMANTIC HISTORY + _General Editor_: MARTIN HUME, M.A. + + TWO ENGLISH QUEENS + AND PHILIP + + + + +[Illustration: _Philip II in 1586._ + +_From a contemporary engraving by Essarts._] + + + + + TWO ENGLISH QUEENS + AND PHILIP + + BY + MARTIN HUME, M.A. + (PEMBROKE COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE) + EDITOR OF THE CALENDARS OF SPANISH STATE PAPERS PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE + + WITH A FRONTISPIECE IN PHOTOGRAVURE AND + TWELVE OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS + + _Con todo el mundo guerra_ + _Y paz con Inglaterra_ + + METHUEN & CO. + 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. + LONDON + + _First Published in 1908_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + CHAPTER I + + INTRODUCTORY (1552-1553) 1 + + The Emperor and England—Death of Edward VI.—Mary and + Renard—To capture England by marriage—Philip II. accepts the + sacrifice—Spanish efforts to moderate the religious reaction in + England + + CHAPTER II + + 1553-1554 32 + + The Coronation of Mary—Noailles _versus_ Renard—Mary + accepts Philip—The marriage treaty—Alarm in London—Egmont’s + missions—Wyatt’s rebellion—Attitude of Elizabeth—The coming + of Philip—His voyage and arrival—His popular manners in + England—Arrival at Winchester + + CHAPTER III + + 1554-1555 75 + + Philip’s first meeting with Mary—The marriage—Discontent and + disappointment of the Spaniards—Philip’s kindness to his + wife—Spanish descriptions of England—Philip in London—Arrival of + Pole—Philip’s religious policy in England—His attempts to marry + Elizabeth to Savoy—The Emperor’s war with France—Departure of + Philip from England + + CHAPTER IV + + 1555-1558 128 + + Religious persecution in England—Philip’s attempts to restrain + it—His efforts to keep control of English policy—Elizabeth comes + to Court—Return of Philip to England—French intrigues—The + English drawn into the war—St. Quentin—Loss of Calais—Penury of + the English treasury—Illness and death of Mary—Feria’s approaches + to Elizabeth + + CHAPTER V + + 1558-1565 181 + + Accession of Elizabeth—The beginning of the long duel—Feria + urges Philip to use force—Philip’s many difficulties—He offers + his hand to Elizabeth—The Peace of Cateau Cambresis—The + Franco-Spanish Alliance—Fears of a Catholic League—Philip marries + a French Princess—English Catholics appeal to Philip—Mary + Stuart claims the Crown of England—War with Scotland—Philip’s + efforts to effect a reconciliation—Bishop Quadra—His relations + with Leicester—Intrigue for a Catholic reaction in England—Mary + Stuart approaches Philip—Disgrace and death of Quadra—A war + of tariffs—Guzman de Silva, ambassador—The interviews of + Bayonne—Failure of the Catholic League + + CHAPTER VI + + 1565-1569 234 + + Mary Stuart marries Darnley—Their intrigues with Philip through + Guzman—Plan to promote revolution in England in favour of + Mary—Expulsion of the English ambassador from Spain—Recall of + Guzman—Don Gerau de Spes ambassador—His character—Commences + conspiring at once—His turbulent behaviour—Seizure of Philip’s + treasure in England—Indignation of de Spes—His imprudent and + disastrous action—Alba stops trade—Strained relations—Proposed + declaration of war against England—The views of Philip and + Alba—The Norfolk plot—The Northern rebellion + + CHAPTER VII + + 1570-1578 296 + + Desperation of Alba—Fresh Catholic conspiracies—De Spes’s + complicity—Alba and the Ridolfi plot—Discovery—The revenge + of John Hawkins—De Spes outwitted—His expulsion from + England—Guaras appointed Spanish Agent—Reopening of trade—Guaras’ + intrigues with Mary Stuart and Don Juan of Austria—The plot + discovered—Imprisonment of Guaras—Fall of Don Juan—Bernardino de + Mendoza appointed ambassador in England + + CHAPTER VIII + + 1578-1584 354 + + Mendoza and Elizabeth—His haughty behaviour—The French in + Flanders—Elizabeth’s approaches to Philip—The Spanish designs + on Portugal—Renewed plots of Mary Stuart—Appeals to Philip to + aid her in England—Philip’s attitude towards Guise—Co-operation + with him in Britain—The Jesuit mission—Mendoza and the Catholic + plot in Scotland—Elizabeth aids the Portuguese Pretender—Anger + of Mendoza—His altercation with Elizabeth—Progress of the + plots—Collapse of Lennox—The interference of Guise in the + plans—The jealousy between English Catholic exiles and the + Scots—Development of the Anglo-Spanish plans and intended + exclusion of Guise—Arrest of Francis Throckmorton—Discovery of + the plot—Expulsion of Mendoza—Philip faces the inevitable and + slowly prepares for a war of invasion + + CHAPTER IX + + 1584-1588 416 + + English Catholics _versus_ Scottish—Santa Cruz’s proposal to + conquer England—Enlisting the Pope—Intrigues in Rome—Mary + Stuart and Philip—Drake’s raid on Galicia—Elizabeth assumes + the protectorate of the Netherlands—War at last inevitable—The + preliminaries of the Armada—The Babington plot—Philip’s + consent—His distrust—Discovery—Elizabeth’s fears of war—Her + approaches to Spain—Santa Cruz’s fresh proposals to invade + England—His great plan—The Scottish Catholics try again to + share the attack upon England—Failure of Huntly’s scheme—Guise + not allowed by Philip to interfere—Mendoza in favour of the + Scottish plan—Philip’s claims to the English crown—The peace + negotiations—Drake’s dash upon Cadiz—Parma and the Armada—Death + of Santa Cruz—Medina Sidonia—The Armada—The failure and its + causes—The end of the struggle to win England + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PHILIP II. IN 1586 _Frontispiece_ + From a Contemporary Engraving by Essarts + + TO FACE PAGE + + PHILIP II. AT THE AGE OF 24 38 + From the Painting by Titian in the Prado Museum. + Photograph by R. Anderson + + WILLIAM LORD PAGET 62 + From a Painting in the National Portrait Gallery + + QUEEN MARY AT THE PERIOD OF HER MARRIAGE 80 + From the painting by Antonio Mor in the Prado Museum. + Photograph by R. Anderson + + CARDINAL REGINALD POLE, PAPAL LEGATE AND ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY 102 + After a Painting by Sebastiano del Piombo. Photograph by W. A. + Mansell & Co. + + QUEEN ELIZABETH 192 + From a Painting by Zucchero in the National Portrait Gallery + + ROBERT DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTER 208 + From a Painting at the National Portrait Gallery + + WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY 228 + From the Painting by Marc Gheeraedts in the National + Portrait Gallery + + FERNANDO ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO, THIRD DUKE OF ALBA 308 + From an Engraving + + ROBERT PARSONS, S.J., 1546-1610 368 + + HENRI, DUC DE GUISE 400 + From an Engraving. Photograph by W. A. Mansell & Co. + + CARDINAL ALLEN 432 + From a Photograph by W. A. Mansell & Co. + + QUEEN ELIZABETH 464 + From the Painting by Marc Gheeraedts at the National + Portrait Gallery + + + + +TWO ENGLISH QUEENS AND PHILIP + + + + +CHAPTER I + +INTRODUCTORY + +1552-1553 + + The Emperor and England—Death of Edward VI.—Mary and + Renard—To capture England by marriage—Philip II. accepts the + sacrifice—Spanish efforts to moderate the religious reaction in + England + + +At an uncovered table, upon which rested a clock, a pair of horn-rimmed +spectacles and some other trifles, there sat a prematurely aged man of +fifty-two with a long, fair, sallow face and a white beard. His great, +projecting nether-lip was cracked and sore with fever, and between it and +the tongue there lay a fresh green leaf to give coolness and moisture. +His hands and feet were distorted by gout; and his fur-lined, black +gown clung around a once-stalwart frame now shrunken with sickness. +On his right hand at the other side of the table a stout, somewhat +pursy, middle-aged English gentleman, with his cap in his hand and in +an attitude of profound respect, was delivering a speech in Italian, +to which the old man was listening with eager attention, now and again +painfully raising his hand to his flat black velvet cap in salute when +the name of King Edward was mentioned. It was in the little city of +Landau in the Bavarian Palatinate, and Sir Richard Moryson, the English +Ambassador, had ridden from Spires, nearly twenty miles away, that day, +the 4th October, 1552, bringing his message to the greatest potentate on +earth, the Emperor Charles V. + +Fate had dealt hardly with the Emperor of late, and the impossible task +he had assumed was breaking him down mentally and physically. Once again +he had found himself faced, not only by his old enemy France, but by his +own German Princes; and solely by flight and good luck had he escaped +capture at the hands of the Judas whom he had made powerful at the +expense of right and justice, Maurice of Saxony. From sheer impotence to +struggle further, the Emperor had been forced to accept the humiliating +terms of the Peace of Passau dictated to him by the Lutheran Princes. But +free now from danger from his own people, he had turned again to cope +with the foreign ally of his rebel vassals, determined this time to make +a supreme effort to crush his French rival utterly before his growing +infirmities crushed him. + +As he had always done throughout his reign at such a juncture, he looked +to England for aid. The insults offered by Henry VIII. to his House +and to the Catholic faith, whose champion he was, had not been able to +alienate the Emperor, who well knew that with England permanently on the +side of France against him, the vast ambitions he cherished for himself, +his son, and his country were doomed to failure; and now, notwithstanding +the still more aggressive Protestantism of young Edward VI. and his +mentors, it was as necessary to Charles as ever it had been to secure the +goodwill of England in his struggle against France in defence of his own +Netherlands. So long as Charles had been fighting his German Lutheran +subjects it was hopeless for him to bid for Northumberland’s help; and +one of the considerations that led him to accept the terms imposed upon +him by Maurice and the Germans was that thereby he might the better +enlist his old ally England against the monstrous coalition of France, +the Pope, and the Turk. The suggestion for an alliance had reached +Northumberland from Charles’ sister, Mary Queen of Hungary, his Regent of +the Netherlands; and Moryson had received his answer from England whilst +he was following a day’s march behind the Emperor and his army, who were +on their way from Austria to Flanders when Charles had fallen ill at +Landau. + +Much dulcet verbiage there was in Moryson’s address, and much vague +desire expressed on the part of the English King—or, rather, the Duke of +Northumberland—to join a coalition against the Turk; but what Charles so +eagerly listened for—a declaration against the French—came not; though +he knew that the English had just then a bitter quarrel of their own +with France about the seizure of English ships and cargoes by French +privateers. Charles lisped and mumbled much at the best of times, but +now that he had the green leaf on his lip, it was difficult for Moryson +to understand what he said in reply to the speech, which, indeed, +the Emperor interrupted more than once in his anxiety to get at the +important point of it. “He could not forget,” he said, “the love of Henry +VIII. for him, shown at sundry times, nor betray the trust the late King +had put in him in asking him to protect his young son. He would never +forget the amity that for many years had lasted between England and his +House, and he had perpetually tried to preserve this ancient friendship.” +Then, raising his voice and speaking more emphatically, he said that +friendships that had long been tried and found good should be made much +of. Charles was not a man to wear his heart upon his sleeve; and his +stolid face and leaden eyes as a rule gave no key to his thoughts; but +Moryson says that on this occasion “he did so use his eyes, so move his +head and order his countenance, ... as I do surely think he meant the +most of what he said. Sure am I that he is too wise not to wish the +King’s Majesty surely his.” + +That Charles was sincere in his wish to gain the help of England against +France on this, as on all other similar opportunities, did not require +much penetration to understand; but when Moryson left the Imperial +presence and came to close quarters with Charles’s minister de Granvelle, +the wily ecclesiastic and future Cardinal tried what cajolery could do +the further to persuade the Englishman of the goodwill of the Emperor, +and his wish for England’s friendship. “He [the Emperor] only wished,” he +said, “that he found in the rest of the Princes the like godly mind as +in King Edward, his good brother, and did trust he should be a king of +as great honour as hath been in England this hundred years. This and a +hundred times as much he spake with such affection as, if words may be +thought to mean what they say, there can be no more wished for than is to +be hoped for.”[1] There was no thought yet of the young King’s premature +death; but Northumberland had many bitter enemies at home, and to him it +was a matter of policy to secure for himself a powerful supporter on the +Continent. The Catholic and Spanish interest being naturally against him +for his religious action and his treatment of the Princess Mary, he had +always hitherto looked towards France as his friend; but the maritime +aggression of the French and ancient prejudice had aroused a bitter +feeling against them generally in England; and it behoved Northumberland +at this juncture to make an appearance at least of conciliating the +ancient ally of England, the Emperor-king of Spain and monarch of the +Netherlands. To Northumberland in the circumstances this was a passing +expediency: to Charles the alliance or benevolent neutrality of England +was a permanent necessity if his cause and country were to prevail. + +This necessity became more pressing still three months after the +interview just described. The Emperor with a demoralised and discontented +army laid siege to Metz, which the French had captured from him, and +after months of effort and hardship in the depth of winter he was obliged +to retreat, defeated and heartsick; already swearing that he would turn +monk: “for fortune, like a very strumpet, doth reserve her favours for +the young.” In his palace at Brussels—sick, sorry, and dejected—he was +obliged to haggle with the German Princes as to the price of their +aid to fight the French. His darling son Philip, they stipulated, +must be separated from the succession to the Empire, and the dream of +the Emperor’s life to leave Philip strong enough to triumph where he +himself had failed must be forfeited. The French had stirred up trouble, +too, in the Emperor’s Italian dominions; the Turk was dominating the +Mediterranean with the blessing of the Christian Pope; the Netherlands +were sore and angry at the war taxes and the presence of marauding +Spanish soldiery; the Imperial ministers were at deadly feud with each +other; and on all sides Charles was surrounded by debts and difficulties. +If only England could be prevailed upon to divert the French by attacking +them in the Channel during the coming spring campaign, the tide of +victory for the Emperor might yet be turned and France be rendered +powerless. That, however, was the last thing that suited Northumberland’s +book. + +The continuance of the war, nevertheless, was a standing danger +to England itself, for it would have been impossible for her very +long to have stood by idly whilst the French overran Flanders; and +Northumberland made desperate efforts to bring about peace between the +two antagonists. To all approaches in this sense the Emperor and his +sister, the Queen-Regent of the Netherlands, could only point to the +aggressive action and impossible demands of the King of France. “And,” +writes Moryson in April, 1553, “whyle all these sturres ar growing great +in Germanie, and whyle the French King is plying both sides with secret +aydes and unseen practices, th’ Emperor keepyth his bed as unfyt to hear +of the myschiefs that grow rownd about him, as unable to devise how to +remedie them if they were told him.” + +All through the spring, however, the Emperor’s officers worked hard +to muster his armies in Germany and Flanders to face the French and +save the Netherlands. Northumberland still pressed upon both sides the +mediation of the King of England in their quarrel, but in the midst +of these negotiations in April, 1553, the new Imperial general, young +Prince Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, suddenly dashed upon the French +frontier-fortress of Thérouenne and inflicted a heavy defeat upon the +Emperor’s enemies. Northumberland’s new embassy to urge peace upon +Charles found less ready response even than before, whilst the King of +France in no wise abated his extravagant claims now that the Emperor was +looked upon as sick unto death. When the English envoys at length gained +audience of Charles in Brussels early in June, 1553, they found him with +his gouty limbs propped up, “looking very pale, weak, lean, and feeble,” +though his eyes were still bright and his mind clear. “Marry, to judge +him by our sight, we must say that he appeareth unto us rather a man of +short time rather than continuance.”[2] + +How important the life or death of the Emperor was at that juncture to +England, few people outside the immediate circle of Northumberland’s +friends fully understood. Already dark rumours were spreading abroad that +the slight indisposition of the boy King of England was really a mortal +malady. If Charles died first, it might easily be foreseen that the break +up of his Empire and the confusion resulting from the demise of his many +Crowns would deprive his successor of the power at the critical moment to +interfere with Northumberland’s plans to exclude the Princess Mary from +the throne and to perpetuate the Protestant _régime_ in England under +his own Dudley descendants. If, on the other hand, Edward died whilst +the Emperor’s power was intact, it was certain that such support as he +could give would go to his cousin Mary Tudor. To Spain and Flanders the +goodwill of England was the crucial point upon which their future power +and prosperity turned. To gain that, Charles had already condoned and +suffered much, and there was hardly any sacrifice too great for him if he +could win it now. With Mary on the throne and at his bidding—for he had +been her only friend in all her tribulations—the sympathy of her country +would be secure to him, and he and his could face France with confidence. +So Charles and his Ministers were alert for every whisper as to Edward’s +sickness, and the English envoys who were at his Court grew daily more +apprehensive at what would happen to them and their master if the young +King died before the old Emperor. + +On the 24th June Sir Philip Hoby, one of the English envoys in Brussels, +received a visit from Evered, “the King’s jeweller dwelling at +Westminster,” who had just come from Antwerp. In that city, he reported, +it was current, and wagers laid on it, that King Edward was already +dead, and that Mary had succeeded. To make matters more threatening for +Northumberland’s friends, it was further stated that the Emperor was +sending to England with all speed three Catholic Flemish statesmen to be +councillors of the new Queen of England. Well might Hoby in his private +letter to Cecil, written the next day, exclaim in dismay: “Pray God that +England’s wickedness may not be the cause of His taking away the King”; +for if the country was to be guided by Charles’s councillors, of whom +Hoby held but a poor opinion, then goodbye to Northumberland’s ambitions +and to the prosperity of all his friends. “England would go to utter +ruin,” he said, “if ruled by such men.”[3] + +The three envoys sent by the Emperor to capture England for Spanish ends +when Edward should die had indeed received their instructions two days +before Hoby wrote his letter to Cecil. They were all men of mark—Jean +de Montmorenci, Lord of Courrières, Jacques de Marnix, Lord of Tholuze, +both members of the highest Flemish nobility, and one of the Emperor’s +Masters of Requests, a keen, sagacious lawyer named Simon Renard. Charles +had maintained a minister resident in London, one Schefyne, who became +Chancellor of Brabant, but for so important a mission as that now in +hand he was considered inadequate; and in right of his experience and +ability Simon Renard, though inferior in point of rank to his colleagues, +became the real leader of the embassy. The envoys were to seek audience +of Northumberland and Edward, and to say that, as the King of France had +sent a secretary to visit him on account of his sickness, the Emperor, +whose affection for him was infinitely greater, could do no less. All +sorts of assurances of friendship and goodwill towards England were to be +given, and care was to be taken in any case to conciliate Northumberland. +“But,” continue the instructions, “if you arrive too late, you must take +counsel together and act for the best for the safety of our cousin the +Princess Mary, and secure, if possible her accession to the Crown: whilst +doing what you see necessary to exclude the French and their intrigues. +You must endeavour also to maintain the confidence and good neighbourship +which it is so important that our Flemish States and Spain should enjoy +with England for mutual trade and intercourse; and especially to prevent +the French from getting their foot in, or gaining the ear of the men +who now rule England, the more so if it be for the purpose of troubling +us.”[4] + +Already news had reached Flanders that Northumberland would endeavour to +exclude Mary from the throne on the death of her brother; and although +the Emperor foresaw that in such case the life of his cousin would be +in grave peril, especially if French aid were given to Northumberland, +the principal efforts of the envoys were to be directed to assuring the +English Government, in any case, that the Emperor was their real friend +and not France, the ancient foe of England. If Northumberland and his +friends feared that Mary would contract a foreign marriage under the +Emperor’s influence, they were to be assured that no such thing was +thought of, and Northumberland was to be given to understand that any +husband chosen by him for the Princess as future Queen would be willingly +accepted, though the actual fulfilment of the promise was to be postponed +as long as possible in order that Mary might, if she was strong enough +later, avoid compliance with it altogether. The envoys, indeed, were to +promise anything and everything to secure the throne for Mary. No change +should be made in the government or in religion, and full indemnity +should be given for all past acts against her. It is clear throughout +these instructions, however, that, much as Charles desired the accession +of his cousin Mary, he was prepared to accept any solution that would +enable him to remain friendly with England and exclude French influence +from the country. + +Before Renard and his colleagues arrived in England, Schefyne wrote +to the Emperor the news of the King’s expected death, and the patent +intrigues of Northumberland to exclude Mary from her inheritance; and +when, on the 6th July, 1553, the Imperial ambassadors entered London, +though Northumberland’s officers greeted them as though all was well, +they promptly discovered that Edward was no more for the world, and that +everything was prepared for the elevation of Jane Grey to the English +throne. On the day after their arrival, the 7th July, the ambassadors +learnt secretly that Edward had died the previous night, and that Mary +in fear for her life had fled to Norfolk and had resolved to proclaim +herself Queen as soon as her brother’s death was officially announced. +In their perplexity at this critical state of affairs, and their dread +at driving the ruling power of England into enmity with the Emperor, the +envoys took the unheroic course of blaming Mary’s bold action instead +of supporting it. Certain it is that if the Princess had waited upon +her Imperial kinsman’s effective aid, her opportunity would have been +missed and she would never have been Queen of England. She had, indeed, +no one to thank for her crown but herself; and the attitude of the +Imperial envoys towards her in her hour of trial proves once more the +impossibility of the Emperor and his son allowing any considerations, +either of religion or kinship, to stand in the way of their securing the +co-operation of England to their ends. + +Renard and his colleagues were weak reeds for Mary to depend upon, +and she did well to go her own way, understanding the feeling of her +countrymen better than they did. The envoys found Mary’s action in +defying Northumberland: “Strange, difficult, and dangerous.... All the +forces of the country are in the hands of the Duke, and the Lady has no +hope of obtaining forces nor aid to oppose him, whilst her proclamation +of herself as Queen will justify the new King and Queen in attacking +her by force, and she will have no means of resisting them unless your +Majesty stands by her. Considering your war with the French, it seems +unadvisable for your Majesty to arouse English feeling against you, and +the idea that the Lady will gain Englishmen on the ground of religion is +vain.”[5] Serious remonstrances were sent to Mary herself by the Imperial +envoys, pointing out her danger and the hopelessness of her position in +the face of Northumberland’s supposed strength; and at the same time they +laboured hard to dissuade the Duke from the idea that they had been sent +to England to sustain Mary’s cause. + +The Emperor himself was no bolder than his envoys. “If you cannot draw +the Duke of Northumberland to our cousin’s cause, you may see if you can +gain over some of the nobles by promises about religion or otherwise, in +order to alarm the Duke into showing some favour to the Princess.”[6] +Renard and his colleagues had been in London five days and had already +assumed the attitude towards Mary just referred to, before Secretary +Petre came officially from Northumberland on the 10th July to inform +them of the King’s death. They merely begged the Council to be kind to +Lady Mary, although they well knew that she was mustering her forces and +issuing her decrees in Norfolk, and that Jane was to be crowned in the +Tower of London on the following day; after which they feared that Mary +would be captured and done to death as a rebel. + +All through the critical time, whilst Mary was sturdily asserting her +rights and gathering her friends, the envoys of her cousin were thus +paltering, in mortal fear of driving the new government into the arms of +France, limiting themselves to a repetition of the mission originally +intended for Edward, and: “recommending Lady Mary to them with all +softness and modesty, without entering into any contention as to the +succession, which would be of no use.” In the meanwhile Northumberland’s +cause grew more and more hopeless, though the Imperial envoys did not +even yet understand it. English Catholics and others came to them begging +for information as to the Emperor’s attitude, and urging him to make +at least some declaration in his cousin’s favour; but all the answer +they got was a mild deprecation of violence of any sort, and an appeal +to the Emperor for instructions. The over-cautious ambassadors first +began to pluck up courage when the heralds proclaimed in London the +accession of Jane and her Dudley husband on the 11th July amidst the +silence of the frowning citizens; but when on the following day, 12th +July, a deputation of Jane’s Council, Lord Cobham and Dr. Mason, came to +inform them of the accession of the new Queen, and told them haughtily +that their embassy had come to an end, as they were known to be in +England only to help Mary, the ambassadors replied with bated breath and +whispering humbleness, and with perfect truth, that they had done nothing +of the sort. Their only mission, they said, which they had hitherto no +opportunity of carrying out, was to thank King Edward for his efforts to +bring about peace, and to assure the Government of the Emperor’s desire +to be friendly with England in spite of French lies and intrigue. + +On the 13th July the ambassadors had their first audience with the +Council. Northumberland, of course, was absent: he had just started on +his disastrous expedition to Cambridge, already a beaten man in the +face of Mary’s growing popularity; but Arundel, Shrewsbury, Pembroke, +Mason, Petre, and others received them. Renard was the spokesman of +the envoys, and he laboured hard, even now, to persuade the Englishmen +of the Emperor’s desire to banish from their minds all suspicion +of his motives—a suspicion, he said, engendered solely by French +misrepresentations. He was naturally anxious for the safety and good +treatment of his cousin, Lady Mary, but he had no desire whatever to +use her as a political instrument, or to promote her marriage with a +foreigner, or indeed to interfere in any way with the established order +of affairs in England. The Emperor’s message was received courteously, +as well it might be, for the Councillors were already trembling in their +shoes, and the envoys were requested to defer their departure from +England until further instructions came from the Emperor—a notable change +of tone since their interview with Cobham and Mason the day before. +The ambassadors, however, were still as far as ever from understanding +the real state of affairs, even at the date of their next letter (16th +July). “We consider it certain that before four days are over the Lady +will be in the Duke’s power if she has no force to resist him.... He is +raising troops everywhere and is strong on land and sea, so that we do +not see how those who secretly hold with the Lady will be able or dare +to declare themselves. We have no confirmation that the Lady is aided +by so many people as was reported.... On the contrary, a messenger from +the Lady brought us to-day the copy of the Council’s reply to her letter +to them, and a verbal message from her telling us that she saw the ruin +into which she would fall unless your Majesty helped her.”[7] If this had +really been the case, Mary would never have been Queen of England, for +the Emperor plainly told his envoys that, for an infinity of extremely +sage and prudent reasons which he detailed at great length, he could not +give the help that Mary hoped for. New credentials, indeed, were sent +to them, and instructions that they were again to ply the Council with +assurances that nothing was farther from the Emperor’s thoughts than to +interfere in any way in England. A mild word or two was to be introduced +on behalf of Mary; but the whole object of the mission was to induce +the English Government, whatever it might be, to renounce the French +friendship and depend solely upon their ancient ally the Monarch of Spain +and Flanders.[8] + +Before these instructions reached London, Northumberland’s house of cards +had fallen. His son, Henry Dudley, had in vain prayed for help from the +King of France; but the latter was now at grips with the Emperor and +dared not send troops to England, where the dread and hatred of the +French was one of the principal reasons of Northumberland’s fall. The +Duke himself was hopeless and helpless at Cambridge, ready to save his +unworthy skin by throwing up his bonnet and crying, “Long live Queen +Mary!” when in spite of him the Princess he had just declared a bastard +was acclaimed Queen; whilst the miserable Councillors he had coerced into +being his tools in London were tumbling over each other in their anxiety +to disclaim him and betray the unhappy girl whom his ambition was to lead +to an untimely death. + +On the 19th July the Earl of Shrewsbury and Dr. Mason came to the +Imperial ambassadors in a very contrite mood. There was no talk of their +embassy being ended now, no haughty reproaches for their supposed support +to the bastard Lady Mary. After much hemming and hawing, the deputation +of the Council announced to Renard and his colleagues that they came with +glad news, which they thought would be welcome to the Emperor. All that +the Council had done previously had been under the coercion of the wicked +Duke of Northumberland, whom they repudiated. They now all acknowledged +Mary as their true Sovereign, and they had decided to proclaim her +publicly that day in London. To the delight of the Imperial envoys, but +still apparently to their bewildered surprise at the failure of all their +predictions, Mary was proclaimed both in the Tower and the City amidst +the frantic joy of the people. Bonfires blazed, feasts were spread, +wine ran freely in London,[9] and coins galore were scattered; for the +rightful Queen had come into her own at last, whilst the “nine-days’ +Queen”—the poor fated girl in the grim fortress that had been her only +palace—found herself a prisoner instead of a potentate; and the cowardly +craven whose tool she had been was basely striving to win mercy, if not +favour, from the proud Princess whom he had injured beyond forgiveness. + +Still intent, as ever, upon gaining the friendship of England, no matter +who reigned over it, the first instructions of the Emperor to his envoys +when he heard the good news of Mary’s accession were to urge upon the new +Queen the acceptance, at all events at first, of the _status quo_: not to +be in a hurry to change anything, to bow to the decisions of Parliament, +to practise her own religion only in private, if necessary. “And above +all things she should be a good Englishwoman, and let people understand +that she has no intention of acting alone and without the advice and +co-operation of her nobles and the Parliament.” An assurance might now be +given to her of the Emperor’s desire and intention of supporting her—as +had always indeed been his intention, he said—and upon her, as formerly +upon her brother, was to be urged the first and principal points of +all—distrust of the French and the conviction that the real, trustworthy +friend of England was the Sovereign of Spain and Flanders. + +Mary was perfectly well aware that she owed her Crown to her own right +and to the boldness of the action she had taken, and she was not inclined +to accept to their full the moderating counsels of the Emperor, who +had done so little for her in her need. But she also understood that +her position was, as yet, far from stable; and with French intrigue +against her and in favour of the _régime_ she had supplanted, she turned +naturally to her powerful Spanish kinsman for such support as she might +need, as well as for counsel. So anxious was Charles to consolidate her +position as Queen, that the advice he gave her might rather have come +from a Protestant constitutional monarch than from the absolute champion +of Catholicism. She was urged to moderate her religious zeal, to abandon +her intention of celebrating the obsequies of Edward with Catholic rites, +and whilst using severity with the few leaders of the revolt against +her, to be clement to the great majority, and not to begin her reign by +any vengeful action either of her own or of the friends who had suffered +under the rule of her brother. Above all, she was recommended to summon +Parliament in the old form and banish most of the foreigners, especially +Frenchmen, of course, from her realm. With these sage counsels the +Emperor sent Mary a promise that if the French attempted anything against +her, she might depend upon the aid of Imperial troops under the Prince of +Savoy. + +The very first letter written by the Emperor after he had news of +Mary’s proclamation instructed Renard to tell the new Queen that it +would be advisable for her to take a husband at once, and to say that +the Emperor would support her in any choice she might make. There were +really very few princes whom Mary could have chosen. If she married an +Englishman, there was none of fitting rank and faith to be her husband +but Courtenay, whom she had just released from his long durance in the +Tower, and the elderly Churchman, Cardinal Pole, both of these being of +the blood royal of England. Mary, in violet velvet, rode in triumph from +New Hall in Essex to the Tower of London on the 3rd August. A thousand +velvet-clad courtiers followed in her train and ten thousand armed men +formed her bodyguard. As she passed through the leafy lanes and into +the smiling villages, and so to the eastern gate of her capital, no +discordant voice reached her. Close behind her in a litter rode her +younger sister, Elizabeth, with her fair skin and yellow hair, composed +and self-possessed; but, as Mary well knew, ready to make common cause +with her enemies if it would serve her own ends. Before Mary had left +New Hall the clever, courtly French ambassador, Antoine de Noailles, had +ridden out from London to greet her. Noailles’s task was a difficult one. +He had done his best, almost openly, to aid Northumberland and exclude +half-Spanish Mary from the throne; indeed, the Londoners, who hated +him and his country, were loudly proclaiming that six thousand armed +Frenchmen had been ready to invade England in the interests of Queen +Jane.[10] But Noailles was supple and insinuating, and the first speech +he made to Mary when he greeted her was an assurance of the devotion of +his master to her and an offer of armed assistance if she needed it. Mary +was polite but cool, for she knew, notwithstanding Noailles’s charming, +that she had nothing to hope for from France. As she entered London there +rode also in her train the Imperial ambassadors, jealous and distrustful +of the Frenchman, who they knew was trying to checkmate them. Beyond +formal greetings in the presence of many watchful eyes Renard had not +been able to obtain private conference of the Queen, who remained in the +Tower of London awaiting her journey to Richmond. Mary herself, knowing +who her friends were, was naturally anxious to have speech with the +representatives of her Imperial cousin, to whom she looked for guidance, +and she suggested that Renard should seek entrance to the Tower in +disguise to see her.[11] The ambassador, however, appears to have thought +it safer and more dignified to have patience for a few days until, in +the comparative freedom of Richmond, he could see the Queen without +attracting so much attention as in the Tower. In the meanwhile he had +been able in private conversation with Paget, of the Council, to broach +the subject of the Queen’s marriage. From him he had learnt positively +that the current rumour of the intention of Mary to make Courtenay her +Consort was untrue. “She was against such a match, because she distrusted +the English nation, knowing it to be treacherous and fickle, because +Courtenay is too young and lowly, her heart being high and magnanimous. +Besides which, if she married an Englishman, the children—if she had +any—would not be so much thought of as if her husband were a foreign +prince.” + +The Emperor’s son Philip, a young widower of twenty-seven, after +several years of widowhood, was betrothed to his cousin, the Princess +of Portugal, whose rich dowry was sorely needed by the Emperor for the +war; but Renard well understood without instructions that if Mary of +England could be won for the House of Spain, the gain would be infinitely +greater than any Portuguese money dowry could bring. So he gently hinted +to Paget in his talk that the Prince was not married yet, though the +Spanish merchants in England had falsely reported that he was. Paget +was doubtful. Yes, he said, no doubt the Queen’s marriage would be +the richest one in the world, but it was not yet time to discuss it. +Nevertheless, Renard decided when first he saw the Queen in private to +mention Philip’s name as if by chance, “so as to put the idea of such a +marriage into her head; for if she takes to it, she will be better able +to convert her councillors to it than anybody else in the world.” + +The idea once started was eagerly taken up by the Emperor—if, in fact, it +did not originate with him—and no time was lost by him in preparing the +ground on his side. He wrote to Philip as soon as Renard’s information +reached him that Mary would probably favour a foreign marriage, +recommending him to send from Spain a formal embassy to congratulate +Mary upon her accession. But to this recommendation he added the hint +that if Philip would break off the Portuguese match and consent to his +marriage with the new Queen of England it would be a masterstroke of +policy. Charles had not seen his son for two years, and although he knew +well that Philip was dutiful, yet he did not venture to press him too +urgently. The Prince was, as Granvelle wrote to Renard, a man of full +age, with children,[12] and the Emperor would do nothing decisive with +regard to the English marriage unless Philip’s own inclinations led him +to it. There was some fear on the part of the Emperor that Mary might +think of himself for a husband. To this he had no inclination.[13] He +was, as we have seen, in declining health, and had in secret already +made up his mind to embrace a monastic life as soon as he could cripple +France and leave his son at peace. Pending Philip’s reply, Renard was +instructed to keep the affair open with the Queen, always mentioning +Philip as being the preferable _parti_, but without pledging him, “in +case the Portuguese affair has gone too far, ... or if the Prince’s fancy +alights elsewhere.” Even Courtenay, who was known to be intriguing with +the French ambassador, was not to be banned entirely, though that idea +was to be gently discouraged; “for if her fancy tends that way she will +not fail, if she be like other women, to go on with it, and would never +forgive you if you had said anything against it.”[14] + +When, after all, Renard was received privately by the Queen in the Tower +on the 6th August, he slily introduced the idea of marriage, after +all the more prosaic points of his instructions had been disposed of. +At the suggestion of a foreign match, but with no mention of Philip, +Renard says: “She laughed, not once only but several times, whilst she +regarded me in a way that proved the idea to be very agreeable to her. +She clearly made me understand that she would not attempt or accept an +English marriage, but preferred a foreign one, ... by which I recognised +that she had her usual pride and inclination to speak of her rank and +grandeur. From what I can understand, her idea is that the Emperor should +propose some one to her, ... and I am in good hope that if his Majesty +inclines to our Prince [Philip], it would be the most welcome piece of +news that could be taken to her.”[15] But whilst this was the case, the +observant ambassador also recognised that the English Council would not +be so easily pleased as the middle-aged Princess, who for her thirty-nine +years of life had been starved of love—she, a Tudor, true daughter of her +father, whose passions and affections were strong; she, a Queen, who had +been outraged and insulted for years and now hungered for the vengeance +upon her foes that was only possible with the possession of power such +as the Imperial connection could give her. The French, said Renard with +perfect truth, were leaving no stone unturned, by intrigues, bribes, and +promises, to make the idea of a Spanish alliance hateful to the English +people; and if Mary’s councillors were to be gained to the Spanish side, +it could only be done by lavish expenditure both in ready money and in +future pledges. Gardiner, the most powerful of Mary’s Ministers, was +strongly in favour of his late pupil Courtenay as a Consort for the +Queen, and even Paget and Petre, both pro-Spaniards and former pensioners +of the Emperor, looked askance at a match which it was seen would be +hateful to the great majority of the English people. + +As week followed week—for the road between Spain and Flanders was a +long one—it is plain to see that Mary became somewhat restive at the +delay. Renard saw her privately at Richmond early in September, and, in +order to start the conversation on the subject, mentioned the common +talk in London of her intended marriage with Courtenay. Mary coldly +replied that she had never spoken to the man except when she pardoned +him. She knew nobody in England whom she would care to marry. Had the +Emperor, she asked, made up his mind about recommending any suitor to +her? Renard had much to say about the difficulty of selecting a fitting +person, though he was sure that the Emperor would do his best. Renard +dared not go too far, for no reply had yet been received from Philip; +and rumours were current in London that his marriage with his Portuguese +cousin was now irrevocably settled. But Renard began by mentioning the +various unmarried Catholic Princes—the Archduke of Austria, the Prince +of Savoy, the Princes of Ferrara and Florence, and even the Dauphin; to +all of which Mary listened crossly, for she knew this was only fencing. +“Of course, your Majesty,” continued Renard, “if you think twenty-seven +or twenty-eight too young for a husband, I do not know any other Princes +who are not too old.” Mary took the hint, for she knew that the age of +Philip was twenty-seven, and she replied: “But your Prince is already +married, I hear, to the Princess of Portugal.” Renard said that he did +not think that the marriage was concluded yet, though he knew that it +had been mentioned before the war;[16] whereupon Mary, apparently losing +patience at so much beating about the bush, determined to speak more +plainly. She was sorry, she said, that Philip should marry his Portuguese +cousin, as they were such near relatives. All the Princes that Renard +had mentioned to her were very young—she might be the mother of any +of them. She was even twelve years older than Prince Philip; besides +which, the Prince would want to remain in Spain and his other dominions, +and she knew how much English people objected to any reigning foreign +Prince marrying an English Princess.[17] When her father was alive, she +continued, several proposed matches for her had fallen through for this +reason alone; and when the late Duke of Orleans was proposed to her, +the affair was prevented by the antagonism which always existed between +England and France. She hoped the Emperor would bear this point in mind, +and not recommend her to marry a man she had not seen and spoken to in +England. Renard then began praising Philip’s good sense, judgment, and +seriousness. He had already a son six or seven years old, he said, and +was wise and experienced beyond his years. Mary, apparently thinking she +had gone far enough, broke into Renard’s panegyrics and declared most +emphatically that she had never felt the smart of what was called love, +nor had she ever had a voluptuous thought. She had never had an idea of +marriage until God called her to the throne, and now the step would be +taken against her own inclination and on public grounds alone. + +There need have been no misgivings as to Philip’s attitude in the +matter. Throughout his life he made of himself a martyr to his duty. +Overshadowed always by the immensity of the task confided to him and +his House, awed by the greatness and majesty of his father, he looked +upon himself from youth to age as an instrument in the hands of the +Most High to compass the victory of righteousness upon the earth as he +understood it, and incidentally to exalt Spain to the highest place among +the nations. That human suffering had to be endured to arrive at the end +was only an incident: that he himself, in his degree, should forego his +own inclinations, his ease, his comfort, and his pleasures in favour +of the great objects for which he lived, was to him quite natural and +inevitable, and he accepted the fate without repining. The marriage with +Mary—a woman whom he had never seen, who was twelve years his senior and +no beauty at best—could not have been attractive to him. His domestic +life with Doña Isabel de Osorio had apparently been harmonious; and the +absence from Spain which the English marriage would entail was both +inconvenient and unpleasant, whilst the necessary concessions in manner +and demeanour to his wife’s English subjects would, perhaps, be more +distasteful to him than any other of the sacrifices imposed upon him by +the match. But, as his Spanish contemporary biographer says, like another +Isaac he readily submitted himself to his father’s will and wrote without +a day’s delay that the Portuguese match might still be avoided, and he +had already taken steps in that direction, “cheerfully and unreservedly +placing himself in the Emperor’s hands to do with him as he thought +best in the interests of their great cause.”[18] Two days after the +Emperor had received the welcome letter from his son, a swift courier was +speeding to England with instructions to Renard to propose Philip, Prince +of Spain, as a husband for Queen Mary. + +The occasion was one of supreme international importance. Ever since +Ferdinand the Catholic sixty years before had betrothed Mary’s mother to +the heir of Henry VII., the sovereign of Spain had been trying to win for +his country the control of English policy, in order that France might +be beaten in the struggle for the hegemony of Europe. The tremendous +cataclysm of the Reformation, personal ambitions, the weakness and +sensuality of Henry VIII., and unexpected deaths, had again and again +frustrated the design. England had more than once fought by the side of +France in the great Continental duel, and the English friendship upon +which the House of Spain was forced to depend as one of the main elements +of success, had been for all those sixty years an unstable quantity, +though generally on the side of its traditional ally. But what was +necessary for Charles and his son was a friendship that could be counted +upon in all circumstances—an alliance that no bribes nor blandishments of +Frenchmen and Lutherans could shake; and for the first time this seemed +possible of attainment if by the marriage of Philip and Mary the crowns +of England, Spain, and Flanders could rest upon the same brows. + +To Mary of England, too, the match with her Spanish second cousin had +more than a sentimental interest, strong as that was with her. The +English people had rallied to her cause under the influence of their +recognition of her legal right to the throne, and their detestation of +Northumberland and his French friends; but Protestantism was undoubtedly +strong, especially in London and the Eastern Counties, which had first +acclaimed the new Queen; and it was evident to Mary that if she was to +impose her faith upon the country, as she was determined to do, even +against the advice of the Emperor, she must be able to depend upon some +force independent of her own people to aid or support her at a pinch. +France, of course, being out of the question for her, she could only look +to a Spanish match to serve her turn. Mary shut her eyes obstinately to +the vast change that had come over her country in the last thirty years. +She believed, as did the Churchmen throughout Europe, that she only had +to decree a return to the state of affairs prior to her father’s apostasy +for the country to accept the change without demur. Pole was for extreme +measures at once, and so, of course, was the Pope, Julius II.; but the +Emperor, who in the supposed cause of religion was always ready to +postpone religious considerations for politics, continued to advise Mary +through Renard to go slowly and to avoid incensing her people until at +least she was strong enough to coerce them. The marriage of Philip with +the Queen therefore seemed to hold out to both contracting parties the +ideal opportunity of attaining their great desire—in the one case the +control of English policy to the detriment of France, and in the other +the increment of strength necessary to force England once more into the +fold of the Church. + +Thenceforward for forty-five years Philip of Spain strove, often in +almost impossible circumstances, to attain this end. There was no +instrumentality left untried by him to secure it. Marriage, and proposals +of marriage, wars, and threats of wars, arrogance, humility, diplomacy, +bribery, subornation of treason and murder, were some of the means to +which Philip in his long struggle appealed; for to him and his cause and +country it was a matter of life and death; and it is my object to set +forth in the following chapters from contemporary sources the story of +this long series of efforts on the part of the Spanish King to win the +support of England by fair means or foul. To regard Philip as a fiend, +or even as a bad man, because in the cause of this life-struggle of +his he assailed England with weapons that would now be rejected by any +right-thinking statesman, would be unjust. The ethics of the time were +widely different from those prevalent to-day; the supposed interest +of the State was infinitely greater in proportion to the lives of +individuals that is at present the case, whilst the assumed interests of +religion—or, rather, of the orthodox Church—were considered by Philip to +be so overwhelming as to condone any action necessary to serve them, no +matter how criminal it would be if employed for other ends. No doubt, +in the view of the present day, Philip blinded himself to a sense of +right and wrong in his zeal to serve the cause for which he lived, +namely, the dominance of Catholicism for the temporal benefit of Spain. +But to him there was no wrong if it was done by his orders in the cause +which he believed to be that of righteousness. Sacrifice and suffering +seemed to him, as to most Spaniards of his day, a natural and necessary +preparation for spiritual exaltation and triumph; and whilst he never +flinched from inflicting suffering upon others, though naturally he +was a tender-hearted man, he never spared himself in the same cause. +Throughout his long life he made himself a martyr to what he conceived +to be his duty; a slow, laborious, unimaginative, morbidly conscientious +man, a good son, a good husband, and, according to his lights, a good +father; kind and indulgent to his servants, patient under adversity and +humble in success: indeed, a man endowed with most of the elements of +righteousness; and yet with a sense of right so blunted by his zeal as to +think that he might do God’s work with the weapons of the devil, and turn +enemies into friends by fear. How these principles as applied to England +ended in failure, it is the purpose of the present book to tell. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +1553-1554 + + The Coronation of Mary—Noailles _versus_ Renard—Mary + accepts Philip—The marriage treaty—Alarm in London—Egmont’s + missions—Wyatt’s rebellion—Attitude of Elizabeth—The coming + of Philip—His voyage and arrival—His popular manners in + England—Arrival at Winchester + + +All London was ringing with preparations for the coming pageant of the +Queen’s coronation. Fenchurch, Gracechurch, and Leadenhall, Cornhill, +Chepe, and Saint Paul’s were erecting the scaffoldings for their +triumphs, repainting and gilding gable ends and pinnacles, and trimming +forth their fine stuffs and liveries in honour of the great day when the +Queen was to ride in state from the Tower to Westminster.[19] Away across +the fields in the little sylvan palace of Saint James’s, Mary sat under +her canopy in her audience chamber one day in late September, surrounded +by courtiers, all, like the Queen herself, in a blaze of magnificence; +for the prim Puritanism of the late reign had been banished as savouring +of Reform, and the splendour of King Henry was being copied by his +daughter. To one man alone had Mary somewhat sourly prescribed modesty +in attire, and that was to Courtenay. The dissoluteness of this young +man of twenty-six, who had never before been free since his childhood, +had already shocked the austerely virtuous Mary, and had made his chances +of winning her hand more impossible than ever. But neither she nor those +around her could fail to see that the cunning Frenchman Noailles was +still ostentatiously feasting and honouring him, and already the talk +of the French party at Court was coupling the names of Courtenay and +the Princess Elizabeth in a way that boded ill to Mary’s peace of mind. +Courtenay had ordered a gorgeous suit of blue velvet covered with gold +for the coming ceremony; but blue was the colour the Queen had chosen for +her own outer garb, and she had no intention of allowing so much bravery +to the man she knew was being made the tool of her enemies to injure her, +and Courtenay was ordered to put his finery aside and wear more modest +raiment. At the public audience Renard brought forward to present to the +Queen two great Spanish nobles—Don Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and Don Diego +de Geneda—who were on their way from Flanders to Spain, the latter a +member of Philip’s household. As the two gentlemen in their distinctive +Spanish garb and with national gravity were led forward for presentation +to the Queen, many scowling brows were bent upon them; for although the +matter was supposed to be so secret, the talk of the Spanish marriage was +already common at Court; and Noailles, in the deepest chagrin at the way +things were tending, noticed that Don Diego de Geneda on this occasion +had whispered conference with the Queen, unheard even by his colleague or +by the Imperial ambassador.[20] + +Whatever French gold or interest could effect to alarm people at the idea +of the coming of a Spanish Consort was done. Stories of the terrible rule +of the Inquisition in Spain, and of the pride and cruelty of Spaniards +generally, were spread industriously by the agents of Noailles, and by +the day fixed for the Queen’s state procession to Westminster, the 30th +of September, 1553, London was almost in a panic of fear. The Queen +had come in with promises of toleration, and already the zeal of the +Churchmen and her own had belied her people’s hope for religious peace. +Parliament had been summoned for the 5th October, specially for the +purpose of restoring England to the orthodox Church; Cardinal Pole was +known to be coming to the land of his fathers as the Legate of the Pope +to receive the submission of England to the Power which King Henry had +flouted so contemptuously; and already the dungeons in the Tower were +being filled by the prelates of the newer ritual. + +All the dazzling magnificence that accompanied the passage of the +Queen through London from the Tower to Westminster, on the last day of +September—all the official greetings, the frequent pageants at the street +corners, and the wonder of the multitude at the rare show of sumptuous +garb—could not banish the dread thought amidst the crowd that, perhaps, +all this bravery was only a prelude to a Spanish domination over England. +The nobles who rode in Mary’s train and filled the great Court offices +in her household had most of them been enriched by the plunder of the +monastic lands, and had their own reasons for dreading a return of the +old order in its extreme form; though they did not know as yet that the +Spanish Consort, whose advent they feared so much, would be the great +modifying influence in their favour. Frenchmen and Venetians joined the +alarmed Englishmen in their apprehensions of the coming change, but the +few Spaniards in London were jubilant. One Spanish resident,[21] who +described the splendid show for the benefit of a noble patron in Spain, +thus writes with reference to the match: “If the Lord vouchsafed us to +behold this glorious day, what great advantage would befall our Spain +in holding the Frenchmen in check, by the union of these kingdoms with +his Majesty’s dominions. And were it only to preserve the States of +Flanders, surely the Emperor and son must greatly desire it, for, as your +Lordship knows well, the day that the Emperor dies the Low Countries +will be in peril of attack from the French or of a German invasion under +French auspices, help from Spain being so remote, and Flanders itself +not being free from suspicion of revolt on the ground of religion or +from the disaffection of the people towards Spaniards. It would be most +advantageous, too, to Spain, for should aught happen to the Prince’s son +(Don Carlos), the son born here would be King of both countries, which +would be a good thing for the English too.... All the Catholics here +would lift up their hands to God, for they love their country and the +Queen, and especially Spain, for the sake of the good Queen Katharine; +and the goodly here are so many that there are a hundred Catholics for +every four heretics.” + +With these mixed hopes and fears amidst the multitude, there went a +general trust in, and affection for, the Queen personally. She had +been ill-treated so long, as the people knew; she had grown faded and +middle-aged under unjust oppression, and she was a true Royal Princess +descended on both sides from kings of highest lineage. So when at the +Abbey next day, 1st October, during the interminable ceremony of the +coronation, Gardiner led the Queen, in her crimson velvet and ermine, to +the four corners of the daïs and called in a loud voice, “Is this the +true heir to this realm?” there was no hesitation, and all the lieges +shouted as if with one voice, “Yea! yea! God save the Queen!”[22] + +Parliament met on the 5th October. The Catholics in the country were +unquestionably in a majority, though not so great, probably, as in the +ratio of twenty-five to one, as the Spaniards asserted; and Mary had +no difficulty in obtaining the repeal of all the anti-Papal laws which +severed England from Rome. Gardiner was willing enough to aid the Queen +in this; but, prompted by Noailles, he managed dexterously to get the +House of Commons to vote an Address to the Queen, praying her not to +marry a foreigner. This, it is true, voiced a very general feeling in +the country, but the Queen had now (November) quite made up her mind; +for she had seen a portrait of Philip by Titian, and had fairly fallen +in love with the young, fresh-coloured man with the curly, yellow beard +who was asking for her hand. So in a rage, and after much delay, Mary +received the deputation of the Commons led by the Speaker. “This is one +of the Chancellor’s tricks,” she muttered, “and I will be equal with him +for it.” Then haughtily addressing the deputation, she rebuked their +presumption in attempting to dictate to her on such a matter, and said +that if private persons were allowed to choose mates for themselves, +surely sovereigns were not to be less privileged. This was the true Tudor +attitude towards the representatives of the people; and the Queen, having +legalised her religious changes, promptly dissolved Parliament. + +Watchful eyes followed Renard everywhere. The Queen’s Council, with the +exception of Paget, Arundel, and Petre, looked askance at him; French +and Venetian spies at Court reported his every movement; and his own +colleagues were bitterly jealous of him, as the marriage negotiation +had been kept exclusively in his hands. For many days he could obtain +no private access to Mary for the purpose of giving her the Emperor’s +message; but at last, by Paget’s management, on the 10th October, he +was introduced secretly into the Queen’s presence at Westminster. The +Emperor deplored, said Renard, that his age and infirmities prevented him +from offering his own hand in marriage to his cousin, as he would have +wished; but that being impossible, he begged her to accept his only and +beloved son as her husband. To the chagrin of Renard, Mary was now full +of hesitation. What would her people say, and how could her Council be +persuaded? She feared that when Philip succeeded his father, his many +other realms would occupy the whole of his time, and that he would never +be able to stay in England. Was Renard, moreover, quite sure of his +character? He could not be so wise as the Emperor, and he was very young +for her. Of course she would obey her husband, but he must not think for +a moment that she would allow him to rule her State, nor could she give +any offices to foreigners; and she threw out a strong hint that perhaps +Philip’s Austrian cousin, Maximilian, would be a better husband for her, +as she was absolutely free, and she had heard the Archduke was considered +wise. Besides, if Philip was voluptuous in his ideas, she had no desire +for anything of the sort at her age. + +[Illustration: PHILIP II AT THE AGE OF 24 + +FROM THE PAINTING BY TITIAN IN THE PRADO MUSEUM] + +All these objections were, no doubt, only a display of becoming maiden +modesty, but they somewhat disturbed Renard. He painted to her in lurid +colours the enmities by which she was surrounded, and the dangers that +threatened her—the intrigues of the French with Courtenay and Elizabeth, +the menacing attitude of the Protestant party in the provinces—and Mary +answered as best she might, asking Renard at last to put in writing the +arguments he urged in favour of her marriage with Philip. Four days later +he saw her again, and this time her hesitation took a more personal form. +With tears in her eyes she seized the ambassador’s hands and conjured +him to tell her truly whether Philip was so moderate, settled, and +well-behaved as he said. On his life and honour the ambassador protested +that he was, but still the perplexed Queen was unconvinced. If she could +only have seen the Prince first, she said, she would be better able to +judge. That, the ambassador gently told her, was not possible; but a good +portrait of him could be sent to her, and with this she was obliged to be +content.[23] + +It was only after long hesitation and prayerful searching of heart that +Mary finally decided to carry through her marriage, in the face of the +almost universal opposition of her people. She undoubtedly yearned for +the support of a husband in her difficult position, and naturally hoped +for a son who should carry on her tradition of a Catholic England. She +was of affectionate disposition, and for all her modest assurance to +Renard that she had never felt the promptings of the flesh, there is +nothing unbecoming in believing that the sight of her cousin’s portrait +had lit up the feeling of love in her heart where natural affection had +been suppressed for so long. But, withal, her principal desire for the +match and her determination to effect it were mainly prompted by public +considerations. The intrigues of the French with the Protestant elements +in the country, and the almost open way in which Noailles was playing +off Courtenay and Elizabeth against her, had convinced Mary that France +was her enemy. The only force in Europe strong enough to resist France +was the Emperor; and unless the Queen could depend absolutely upon his +support, it was evident that sooner or later the Protestant element in +England with French aid would oust her from the throne—probably in favour +of the young Queen of Scots, her cousin, already betrothed to the heir of +France. + +Motives personal, religious, and political, therefore all dictated to +Mary the absolute necessity of her prompt marriage with Philip; and, as +we have already seen, the motives of the Emperor and his son for the +marriage were equally strong. Some of Mary’s Council—especially Arundel, +Paget, and Petre—were first won over, for they were in the Emperor’s pay +before; and when Gardiner saw that the tide was too strong for him to +resist, he also accepted the inevitable with the best grace he could. +But when he had to be consulted on the terms of the marriage treaty, he +drove as hard a bargain as possible; for he, and, it is just to say, most +of his colleagues also, were determined that the marriage should not +mean the political subjugation of England by Spain. On the 31st October, +Sunday evening, Mary summoned Renard to her oratory, where she received +him, attended only by her devoted nurse, Mrs. Clarencius. Her eyes were +red with weeping, and she told the ambassador that for days she had been +sleepless, praying for guidance as to the choice of a husband. “My last +resource in all my difficulties,” she said, “is the Holy Sacrament, and +as it is even now displayed upon this altar, I will appeal to it for +counsel.” Then kneeling, as did Renard and Mrs. Clarencius by her side, +she recited with whispered fervour the _Veni Creator Spiritus_. After a +short period of silent meditation she rose, calm and self-possessed, and +told the ambassador that her mind was now made up: he, Renard, should +be her father confessor. She had consulted some of her Councillors, and +herself had pondered deeply upon the subject; and now, bearing in mind +what she had been told of Philip’s good qualities, she prayed the Emperor +to accept her as a daughter, to be indulgent with her, and to consent +to the conditions which her Councillors declared would be necessary for +the welfare of her realm. She hoped that henceforward the Emperor would +be doubly a father to her, and Philip a good husband. Then with all +solemnity she approached the altar and, with her hand upon the gospel +before the Sacred Presence, swore to marry Philip of Spain and make him +a good wife. God had now sent her light, she said, after she had wavered +long. No man but Philip should be her husband.[24] + +Whilst Renard and the Council were fighting hard over every point of +the marriage treaty, Noailles and the Venetian ambassadors were busy +intriguing against it, entertaining Courtenay constantly, and doing their +best to draw cautious Elizabeth into their plots. The muttering of coming +trouble sounded on all sides—Mary, jealous and distrustful of Elizabeth, +whose illegitimacy she was determined to assert; the Protestant elements +in the Court and country already in a ferment, thanks largely to French +incitement, and disaffection showing itself by partial disturbances +in various parts of the country. Religious persecution, too, began to +raise its head. Cranmer and Ridley were condemned to death, as were Lady +Jane Grey and the three sons of Northumberland; whilst the Emperor, +determined for his part to avoid exacerbating the evil, had, to the great +indignation of the Pope and the Churchmen, almost violently forbidden +Pole to go to England with his extreme Papal mission, at least until the +ultimate control of it had passed into the Emperor’s own politic hands. + +At length, by the end of the year, the hard terms of the treaty were +drafted. Renard had done his best, and so had the Imperial ministers in +Flanders; but Gardiner had been firm, and the conditions were a bitter +dose for Spanish pride to swallow; for, as they stood, they bade fair to +deprive the bridegroom’s country of the only benefit to be derived from +the marriage—namely, control of the policy and resources of England. The +Consort was to have no rule in the country, and none of his countrymen +were to hold office of any sort; the Queen was to receive a jointure of +30,000 ducats a year from Flanders; and the issue of the marriage, if +any, should, failing Philip’s only son Carlos, succeed to all his Crowns, +as well as to England; whilst in the case of Mary’s death, the Consort +was to have no hold whatever upon her country, nor was he to take the +Queen or her children out of England without the consent of the Council. +These and many similar provisions fenced round the authority of the +Consort so completely as to deprive him of any direct political power in +England; but Charles, confident in Mary’s secret promises to Renard that, +notwithstanding the conditions, the will of the Emperor should prevail in +England after the marriage,[25] determined to make the best of it, and to +gain the stubborn islanders by his son’s charming, if they were not to be +won by a diplomatic document. + +Noailles grew daily more bitter, and almost came to blows with Paget on +the subject of the marriage, but it became clear even to him now that +he had been beaten, and that in future England and the Emperor would +make common cause against France. A pompous Flemish embassy, headed by +the splendid young Count of Egmont, was known to be on its way across +to ratify the marriage treaty in the name of the Emperor; and Noailles +took care that all London should be in a fever of apprehension at their +coming. On the 1st January a great retinue of servants with the baggage +of the ambassadors rode through London to Durham House in the Strand, +where Egmont and his suite were to be lodged. Thick snow lay upon the +ground, and as the foreigners, with their long line of pack-horses, +passed through the narrow lanes of the old city, the very street-boys +pelted them with snowballs, “so hatfull was the sight of ther coming in +to theym.”[26] + +The next day, at the Tower Stairs, a gallant company of courtiers, headed +by Sir Anthony Browne, in the gorgeous garb he loved so well, awaited the +coming of the Emperor’s representatives, whilst the guns on the Tower +overhead boomed out their salutation. Egmont, the first of the Flemish +nobles, was accompanied by Montmorenci, Sieur de Courrières, who had +formerly come with Renard to England, as well as by several other high +Imperial functionaries; and they were escorted by Lord William Howard, +from Calais, and by Lord Cobham, from Dover, as Lieutenant of Kent. As +the gallant embassy of eighty finely clad gentlemen pranced out of the +Tower Gate, they were affectionately greeted by Courtenay, Hastings, +and Strange on Tower Hill, and led through the City in state, though +“the people,” we are told, “nothing rejoysing, helde downe their heddes +sorrowfully.”[27] Nothing was left undone by Mary and her Court to +show honour to the guests; and banquet followed banquet, whilst Egmont +unsuccessfully strove to modify the terms of the treaty. Renard tells +in a letter to the Emperor of a banquet given to the ambassadors by the +Queen on the 6th January,[28] after which a little scene took place which +well illustrates the free manners of the time. “And towards the end of +the dinner the Lord Admiral [Howard], who had dined in an adjoining +chamber, came in and stood before her [the Queen], who seemed pensive. +He said something to her in English, and then turning to us, asked us +whether we would like to know what he had said. Although her Majesty did +her best to prevent him from translating it to us, he went on and said +that he had wished that his Highness [Philip] had been seated there by +her side, pointing to her right, in order to banish her melancholy. She +blushed at this and asked why he said it, to which he replied that he +was sure she was not cross and liked to hear it; whereupon the Queen and +every one else laughed, and it all went off in good part.” + +The day after this entertainment (7th January, 1554), Egmont wrote an +urgent letter to Prince Philip, praying him to hasten his coming to claim +his bride. The treaty, he says, has now been agreed to with only a word +or two changed, and will be signed in two days. It is clear from this +letter that Egmont foresaw the trouble that was looming. The nobility, +he said, had received them better than he had expected. “But as for the +people, they are uncertain. We will advise the Queen to raise forces to +prevent any hostile movement, which would not be extraordinary, for these +people are very unstable.... It is of the utmost importance that your +Highness should come without delay. I hear that the French are arming +strongly in Normandy and Brittany.... I beseech you humbly to consider +how urgent it is that you come hither at once, for many reasons which I +hope to lay before you verbally soon. Besides this, I should like your +Highness to know that the Emperor has not provided us with a sou to spend +on necessary presents. More can be done here with money than anywhere +else in the world.”[29] + +The hollow affectation of keeping the Queen’s marriage secret could +not be continued after the treaty was signed, and on the 13th January +Gardiner, with the best countenance he could command, made an oration in +the Presence Chamber of the Palace of Westminster before the assembled +lords and courtiers, declaring the Queen’s intention to marry the Prince +of Spain “in most godly, lawful matrimonye: and further that she should +have for her joynter xxxᵐⁱˡ duckets by the yere, with all the Lowe +Countries of Flanders; and that the issue betweene them two lawfully +begotten shoulde yf there be any, be heir as well to the Kingdom of +Spayne as also to the sayde Lowe Country.” He declared, farther, that “we +were much bounden to thancke God that so noble, worthye and famouse a +prince would vouchsaff so to humble himself in this maryadge to take upon +him rather as a subject than otherwise: and that the Quene should rule +all things as nowe: and that there should be of the Council no Spanyard, +nether should have rule or office in the quenes house or elsewhere in +England nor have custody of any fortes or castells.”[30] Gardiner made +the best of it; but the bare fact of the announcement being officially +made set light to the tinder which Noailles and his allies had so +carefully prepared. When, on the following day, Gardiner made a similar +announcement to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, Noailles had seen enough to +justify him in sending off a special courier post-haste to his master in +France. “The nobles and commonalty declare,” he wrote, “that they will +never tolerate the Prince of Spain for their King. They would rather die +fighting against him than obey him, and will defend their liberties by +force before they will submit to such servitude. They are making ready to +rise in arms any day and expel this Queen, who they now see is unworthy +of the Crown and as she had twice broken her promise to them after they +had raised her to the position she occupies. First, in changing the +religion after she had promised them toleration; and, secondly, in taking +a foreign husband although she had promised that she would not.”[31] In +a few days the result of all this excitement was seen. Carew and his +friends and kin in the west, depending upon poor feeble Courtenay’s +open co-operation, rose in revolt. Rumours ran that French troops were +on the way across to aid him. But Courtenay was a reed easily broken, +and allowed Gardiner to frighten him into alarmed submission, whilst +Elizabeth, closely watched at Ashridge, was too cunning to be drawn into +open complicity by Noailles’s intrigues; though the Emperor and Renard +were urging Mary to put her sister well out of harm’s way in prison. + +And then came the most perilous movement of all—that of the men of Kent +under Wyatt. From the 26th January to the 3rd February Mary’s crown +was not worth a day’s purchase; for, though the cry of the rebels was +only against the Spanish marriage, the Queen knew full well that she +must now stand or fall by that. And she stood manfully when many of her +courtiers were distraught by fear and ready to desert her at a moment’s +notice. Whilst Wyatt and his growing host swept triumphantly onward from +Rochester Bridge to Blackheath, and so to Southwark, the Council were +wrangling. Should the Queen retire to the Tower or should she fly to the +country; should she believe what the friends of the French faction urged, +that the only safe place for her was Calais, where she could claim the +Emperor’s protection? Mary, almost alone, was undismayed. She sent word +privately to Renard that for their own safety’s sake the other Imperial +ambassadors should return home, but that she had no intention of backing +out of the marriage or of leaving London, although she might temporise +with Wyatt whilst she mustered her forces.[32] Riding to Guildhall, stern +and sorrowful but unafraid, she made a stirring oration to the citizens; +and although many were in favour of Wyatt, London Bridge was held +firmly by the Queen’s friends, until the rebel force began to melt away +discouraged at the delay. + +If Wyatt had struck promptly, he would probably have won; but loath to +shed blood and to use arms openly against the Crown, he lingered in +Bermondsey, hoping for the declaration of the citizens of London in his +favour, until it was too late. Then came the ignominious march through +the mire to Kingston Bridge, and the footsore, famished, and rain-soaked +crew tramping through the night into London, to be beaten almost without +effort by those who, if they had shown a fine front, would have joined +them. Vengeance promptly fell upon the offenders. The scaffolds at the +street corners with their dangling corpses taught the common people that +treason was a dangerous game to play; the block in the Tower was soaked +with the blood of Greys and Dudleys and many of their noble friends, +and Elizabeth was no longer bidden courteously to join her sister at +Court, but was sternly, if ceremoniously, brought to London, dangerously +ill though she seemed to be (22nd February). And, as the young Princess +passed through the silent, sorrowful crowd that greeted her, making, as +she did, an appeal to their sympathies by her proud, pale face and her +snow-white garments, the Londoners in their hearts felt that Elizabeth +was their champion against the Spaniard, whose coming they feared so +much. On the same day (Ash Wednesday, 7th February) that poor Wyatt’s +draggled host toiled up to Ludgate, there to meet final failure and +the gallows, Renard urged the Queen to make an end of Elizabeth and +Courtenay; and the Count of Egmont was already hurrying to England with +advice from the Emperor to the same effect; but Mary, who allowed herself +to be drawn into extreme severity against those who had openly conspired +against her crown, asserted her own will in the matter of her sister, +whose countenance of the French ambassador’s intrigues was amply proved +by Wyatt’s avowals and the seizure of Noailles’s letters at Gravesend. +Thus whilst Courtenay once more found himself in the Tower a prisoner, +Elizabeth was at first only secluded in her sister’s palace at Whitehall. + +A perusal of the letters of Renard and Noailles, and the evidence given +by Wyatt himself, leaves no shadow of doubt that Elizabeth and Courtenay +were accomplices in the series of risings that, with French support, +were intended to frustrate the Spanish match; and, although Froude and +other English historians have done their best to exonerate them, Mary’s +clemency to her sister on this occasion is at least entitled to a word of +praise, considering the great provocation she had suffered at her hands. +When at last Elizabeth was sent to the Tower, in March, it was only +because Mary was about to absent herself from the capital for a time; +and it was, of course, impossible to leave the disaffected Princess, +beloved as she was by the Londoners, practically at liberty in their +midst. Thus the open enemies of the marriage were silenced; Wyatt and +his accomplices, as well as the Greys and Dudleys, were dead or doomed, +Noailles was found out and raging impotently, Courtenay and Elizabeth +behind the bars, and the Carews and their West-country friends refugees +in France. + +When, therefore, on the 2nd March, 1554, Egmont again arrived in London, +with the Bulls, powers, and other formal documents necessary for the +solemn betrothal, it seemed as if all would now run smoothly. Renard, +it is true, always anxious to augment the importance of Philip, gravely +raised the question before the Queen and Council whether it would be safe +to bring the Prince to England in the circumstances; because, he said, +if there was to be any risk to either the Queen or her betrothed, it +might be better to abandon the match. But whilst Mary declared that for +the world she would have no harm happen to Philip, “neither she nor her +Council saw any means or danger that should cause the postponement of a +marriage so beneficial and honourable. Thank God, the heretics and rebels +were imprisoned, their conspiracy discovered and proved, and in a short +time exemplary punishment would be inflicted upon them! For the future +the Queen would see to it that the strong hand would be hers, and that +she retained full authority over her subjects; so that they had no doubt +whatever that his Highness might safely pass over to England, provided +that he guarded himself against the French naval force which was being +prepared to intercept him.”[33] + +A more private matter still had to be settled by Renard with the Queen. +Which of her ministers and household should be pensioned and bribed +by the Emperor, and to what extent, “as in order to gain them for his +Highness [Philip] his Majesty had ordered us to be liberal to those she +thought best”? and this question was gravely submitted to the Council +for consideration. Charles, as usual, was dreadfully driven for money, +but an extra turn of the screw could always be applied to long-suffering +Castile; and when it was a question of gaining England, money had to +be procured in plenty at any cost. As may be supposed, the list sent +by the Council to Renard for presents to themselves and others did not +err on the side of modesty; and four thousand crowns’ worth of gold +shoulder-chains and as much ready money was promptly handed over to the +itching palms of the English courtiers; whereupon “the Councillors gave +us such a good response, that if the result corresponds with their words, +we have no doubt that safety will attend the coming of his Highness to +this country.”[34] + +The further to secure Philip from the attacks of the French, a fleet of +twenty English ships was commissioned for his escort in the Channel; and +when all this was arranged, a deputation of the Council on the 7th March +came to lead Renard and Egmont to a chamber in Whitehall, where the Queen +and her household awaited them. Upon an altar in the room the Blessed +Host was exposed, and before it Mary and Egmont respectively swore that +the conditions of the marriage treaty should be held binding. Mary was +fervid and excited. Before taking the oath she spontaneously “fell upon +her knees and cried to God to witness that the marriage she had agreed to +had not been prompted by any carnal affection, by cupidity, or any other +reason than the honour, welfare, and profit of her realm, the repose and +tranquillity of her subjects; and that she had no other intention than +to keep true to the marriage and oath that she had already made to her +Crown; saying all this with such grace that the spectators were moved +to tears.”[35] The ceremony ended with more devout prayer by the Queen +on her knees; and then Egmont, handing to her the magnificent ring that +had been sent by Philip as a token of his troth, bade her farewell and +hurried off to Spain.[36] + +In the meanwhile Philip himself was busy with his great preparations. +All Spain was impressed with the grandeur of the occasion. The marriage +meant for Philip’s faithful lieges the final conquest over France and the +bringing back into the Catholic fold of the rich realm of England; it +meant, they believed, a cessation of the ruinous wars which had beggared +the realms of Castile and reduced whole provinces to misery. But, though +the Spaniards rejoiced at the great stroke of policy that in their view +was to fasten another crown upon the brows of their beloved Prince, they +were doubly enthusiastic at the noble self-sacrifice that he was making +for their sake, and filled with regret at his leaving them. Endless +preparations had to be made for the tremendous transport that would be +necessary for the crowds of nobles, courtiers and servants who were to +accompany the Prince to England. The absence was looked upon as being +for an indefinite time, and only such persons as were able-bodied and +fairly unencumbered were allowed to go. Indeed, a great assembly of +members of the household was held in order that the Duke of Alba might +announce that any of those who had good reason for not accompanying his +Highness were free to stay behind. Those who elected to go—the great +majority—were granted considerable sums of money for their outfit; and +the nobles, too, were given leave to go to their own towns to prepare the +gorgeous dresses and appointments they and their households were expected +to take with them. It is curious to note that many of the servitors +who were to undertake the journey sold all their property in Spain, in +the belief that they were at once to settle and take possession of the +land of England. We are told that the wife of one officer, expecting to +obtain the approval of Philip, asked for his leave to sell all they had +in order to follow him unencumbered. Philip’s answer was significant and +characteristic. “I do not order you either to sell or not to sell your +property, for know ye that I am not going to a marriage feast, but to a +fight.”[37] This was the spirit in which all regarded the sacrifice he +was making. He was going on a holy crusade, amidst many heretics, whom +he was to win for the Church; the French were lying in wait to thwart or +capture him; and all Spaniards felt that the Prince went to conquer and +not to woo, though none doubted, nor did he, that victory would finally +be his. Old servitors unable to make the journey were pensioned; the +girl children of those who went were, at Philip’s expense, boarded and +educated in their parents’ absence, the boys being similarly provided for +at Alcalá de Henares. + +Whilst all Spain was thus busy providing the splendid stuffs and +adornments by which the savage Englishmen were to be dazzled, news came +to Philip at Valladolid that the English special ambassadors, the Earl +of Bedford and Lord Fitzwalter, who were coming with greetings from his +betrothed, might be expected any day at Laredo, on the Biscay coast, and +his Steward, Gutierre Lopez de Padilla, hurried off to do them honour at +the end of February, whilst Valladolid was hastily decked from end to +end with bravery and lists erected for sports, bullfights, tourneys, and +the like. But the news was premature, for it was the 13th March before +Bedford and his colleagues left London on their embassy; and before they +arrived in Spain the rejoicings prepared for their reception were turned +into mourning by the news of the death of Philip’s brother-in-law and +cousin, the Prince of Portugal. + +As soon as the tidings of Mary’s ratification of the treaty reached +Philip, he, like the gallant suitor he intended to appear, despatched +the Marquis de las Navas to England with a present to his bride truly +magnificent in its richness. “A table diamond set as a rose, beautifully +wrought and worth 50,000 ducats; a necklace of brilliant diamonds +consisting of eighteen stones worth 30,000 ducats. A great diamond with +a large pendant pearl, one of the most beautiful pieces ever seen in +the world, worth 25,000 ducats; besides many jewels, necklaces, pearls, +diamonds, emeralds, and rubies of inestimable value.” This list is given +by one of Philip’s lackeys, attached to the service of Don Carlos. The +sartorial splendour of velvets, silks, satins, and bullion, which the +same authority sets forth for our admiration, as being in preparation for +Philip and his Court, and the extravagant richness of the appointments, +dresses, armour, saddlery, plate, and furniture, for the Prince’s service +sent forward to Corunna, where he was to embark, reads like a fairy +tale. Every noble’s dress and livery is described with the minuteness +of a tailor’s bill, and the appearance of these proud hidalgos must +have been sumptuous in the extreme.[38] Philip himself always preferred +serious gravity in his dress; but he had been told that the English loved +splendour, and he was determined on this occasion that they should have +it to their hearts’ content. Some of his beautiful garments we shall have +an opportunity of describing later, but here is one suit which must have +been exceedingly gorgeous. A crimson velvet cape, covered with little +chains made of silk twist, enclosing lozenges, and a sort of sprig with +large leaves running between them, made of silver lace and filled in +with silver fringe. The lining of this cape was smooth cloth of silver +embroidered with the same sort of work; the trunks, doublet, and tunic +were of smooth crimson velvet embroidered in the same way. + +All these elaborate preparations being completed, Philip, with the +Dukes of Alba and Medini Celi, Egmont, Feria, Pescara, Ruy Gomez, and a +score of the highest grandees of Spain and nearly a thousand horsemen +glittering and flashing in the Castilian sun, rode out of Valladolid on +the 14th May, 1554. The Prince’s Spanish and Teuton guards and his three +hundred servants were all dressed in the gaudy red-and-yellow livery +of Aragon, and each of the nobles was followed by a retinue which vied +with that of the Prince in brilliance. The cavalcade had to make a long +detour down to the Portuguese frontier to receive the grief-stricken +young widow, Philip’s sister, who was to govern Spain in his absence, and +again to Tordesillas for the Prince to take a last farewell of his mad +grandmother, Jane the Crazy. At each town, too, especially at Benavente +and Astorga, there were bullfights and tourneys, banquets and religious +ceremonials, so that it was the 22nd June, the day before the Vigil of +St. John, when the kneeling aldermen of Santiago de Compostela tendered +to Philip the golden keys at the gates of their sainted city. + +As the Prince and his suite rode through the decorated streets to worship +at the shrine of the Spanish patron Saint James, and thank him for his +protection so far, a party of gentlemen at the upper window of a house +looked on with faces shrouded in their cloaks. These were the English +ambassadors—the Earl of Bedford, Lord Fitzwalter, and others—sent by Mary +to pledge her troth to her new husband; and on the following morning they +were brought by a crowd of Spanish hidalgos into the presence of the +future King Consort of England. Philip received them smilingly, cap in +hand, for even thus early he had taken to heart the injunctions of his +father and of Renard that he would conciliate the English by changing +his habitual grave aloofness for the gay amiability which he afterwards +assumed in England. Bedford, Fitzwalter, Sidney, and the rest of them, +bowed low and half bent the knee before him one by one;[39] and when the +presentations were over, Bedford took from a secretary a copy of the +capitulations and handed them to the Prince, who confirmed them by word +of mouth without opening the paper. Bedford appears to have impressed +the Spaniards favourably as “a great gentleman and a good Christian,” +and both he and his colleagues did their errand in courtly fashion. When +Philip had confirmed the capitulations, we are told, “they showed the +greatest delight, from the highest to the lowest, kissing his Highness’s +hands with great demonstration; and as they went out they said to each +other in their own tongue, ‘Blessed be to God who has given us as good a +king as this!’ This was said so quietly amongst themselves that it would +not have been noticed, but that a Spanish gentleman who understood their +tongue heard and repeated it.”[40] The next day the Englishmen attended +pontifical Mass at the Cathedral with Philip, greatly, we are told, to +their edification and devotion, “which God grant may continue, for they +need it badly enough.” Before starting on his thirty-miles’ ride from +Santiago to Corunna, Philip distributed costly presents to the English +embassy, Bedford’s gift being “one of the finest pieces of gold plate +ever seen, more than three feet in height, exquisitely and elaborately +chased with classical and grotesque figures, the intrinsic value of the +gold contained being six thousand ducats.” + +A brave show of ships awaited the arrival of Philip in Corunna, for +many soldiers were to pass over with the Prince to defend him from the +French on the way and reinforce the Emperor’s army in Flanders; and as +the glittering cavalcade came in sight of the harbour, he was met “by +six hundred seaman—lancers from the province of Guipuzcoa, smart men +and prettily accoutred, who performed many evolutions, waving their +lances joyously, with much playing of drums and fifes. Then the fleet +and the fortress shot such a salute that in very truth it seemed as if +town and fortress together were coming down, the people being in great +fear and wonder to see the houses tremble thus as if by earthquake. All +said that the human race had never witnessed such a discharge as this. +The smoke was so great during the hour and a half that the firing lasted +that neither earth nor heaven could be seen. After this there entered +the harbour nine ships of the fleet, well supplied with everything and +very smart, with a vast number of painted standards and 3,500 soldiers +on board. These ships then took up the salute with their big guns, after +which the infantry shot with their muskets for half an hour.”[41] + +On Philip’s return to his lodging, forty fishing sloops cast at his feet +their fresh-caught harvest of the sea, and the next day he inspected the +ship, _The Holy Ghost_, of Martin de Bertondona, in which it had just +been arranged that he was to make the voyage to England. From end to end +the ship was alive with scarlet silk streamers, and many-hued heraldic +pennons waved aloft: the bulwarks and castles were hung with crimson +damask, and the cabin destined for the Prince was a marvel of chased and +chiselled gold and exotic woods. The great standard of crimson damask, +painted with the Imperial arms and golden flames, was thirty yards long, +and dozens of other standards rivalling it in size fluttered from every +mast and spar. Three hundred sailors, garbed in scarlet liveries, manned +this gallant craft. But all this splendour seems to have aroused some +jealousy amongst the English, and when Philip went on board the ship +that had brought the ambassadors to Spain to be bounteously entertained +at dinner, Bedford urged him to trust himself to an English ship and +English sailors. The Prince hesitated a while, but his councillors, and +particularly the Duke of Alba, would not hear of it, for none knew as yet +how far they might trust to the islanders so recently heretic. To please +the English sailors, however, Philip allowed them to choose for him the +Spanish ship they considered the safest; and at their recommendation he +sailed in Bertondona’s vessel, instead of, as intended, in the galleon of +the great sailor Alvaro de Bazan. + +To muster and ship six thousand soldiers as well as the great train +of courtiers and servants that followed Philip took many days, whilst +the Prince was being feasted and entertained by neighbouring nobles. +During this time there entered Corunna the Spanish ship that had carried +the Marquis of Las Navas to England with the presents for Mary, and +marvellous stories had the mariners to tell of the eager preparations +being made by the Queen and her people to receive the new King. How she +was at Winchester with a thousand gentlemen, and how, amongst other +fine things to welcome her bridegroom, she had collected two thousand +fine horses for the Spaniards, believing that they would bring none by +sea with them.[42] At length the fleet of nearly a hundred sail was +ready. The gilding upon the towering stern and forecastles, with lines +of shining lanterns, flashed back the summer sun, and the crowds of +gaily clad soldiers and sailors played strange pranks in the rigging and +amongst the gaudy flags to amuse grave Philip, whilst for two days the +ships lay idle in Corunna harbour awaiting the fair wind that was to +carry the Prince of Spain upon his mission of conquest. + +On Friday, 13th July, a soft breeze from the south enabled the fleet to +sail, whilst a dense crowd upon the shore sent up fervent prayers for the +safety of the Prince, who in a pure spirit of martyrdom was thus going to +“our new realm of England for the exaltation of our holy faith and the +good of Christendom.” Others there were on the shore who shouted insults, +taunts, and challenges to all the Frenchmen alive; for with England at +the bidding of the Emperor, the poorest beggar in Spain knew that France +was powerless against him. The slight swell that at first somewhat upset +unaccustomed stomachs, was succeeded on the morning of Saturday by a dead +calm and a motionless sea, which, whilst it comforted the landsmen, made +the seamen look blank; for, as they said, it might delay the fleet for a +month. But the next day, Sunday, a delightful fair wind sprang up, and +the long trail of vessels stretched across the tranquil Bay until Ushant, +the land of the enemy, loomed up to starboard on Monday afternoon. On +Wednesday morning in the Channel a fleet of galleons was sighted, which +it was feared might be Frenchmen, but which turned out to be the Flemish +escort sent by the Emperor, with several ships of the English navy. Thus +accompanied, the Spaniards sailed up to Southampton Water on Thursday, +19th July, and at four o’clock in the afternoon anchored amidst the royal +salute from the thirty English and Flemish ships assembled to receive +the Queen’s new Consort.[43] + +Things had not been going very smoothly in England in the meanwhile. +Mary’s Council was profoundly disunited, Paget and the Chancellor, Bishop +Gardiner of Winchester, being at bitter feud with each other; and Mary +herself was angry and distrustful with Gardiner and his adherents, who, +she feared, quite without reason, were secretly favouring Elizabeth +and the Wyatt prisoners. On one occasion, late in March, a number of +members of the Council, even Paget being amongst them out of enmity to +Gardiner, took the bold course of entering the Queen’s oratory after +vespers, and told her that it was now time for clemency, and that +if any more noble blood was shed it would no longer be justice but +cruelty. The bloody-minded advice, they said, of others should not be +followed—meaning by this Gardiner, who was absent, and Renard, who was +never tired of urging severity upon Mary. The Queen, taken by surprise, +at once pardoned six of the gentlemen of Kent implicated in Wyatt’s +rising who had been condemned to death. Poor Mary was beset on every +side by warring counsels, with Renard telling her that for her own and +her husband’s safety she must strike hard, and her Council in revolt +at what they considered the cruelty inculcated by Gardiner, and at one +time she consented to Renard’s plan for a _coup d’état_ which should +practically make her supreme. The Lord Admiral (Howard), Pembroke, Derby, +Shrewsbury, and Sussex were to be employed in distant parts of the realm; +a reconciliation was to be effected between Gardiner and Paget, and the +whole business of State was to be managed by them, with the assistance +of Petre, the Earl of Arundel, and two others. Renard thought that +this solution was the only one which offered any security for Philip’s +safety, and when the Queen was induced by some of her Councillors to +pardon on Good Friday the Marquis of Northampton and eight more prisoners +implicated in the Wyatt rising, the Imperial ambassador roundly scolded +her for her ill-timed clemency. It was not by any means certain, he said, +that Philip would consent to come to England at all. The dissensions of +her Councillors were very dangerous, and it behoved her to consider very +carefully, since the security must be furnished by her, and the Prince +could not come armed, what a scandal and calamity it would be if anything +happened to him.[44] Mary wept at this, and said that “she would rather +never have been born than that any outrage should be committed on his +Highness, but she trusted to God that no such thing would occur. All her +Councillors would do their duty in receiving the Prince, and are in great +hopes of him. She would reform her Council and reduce it to six members; +she would do her best to incline her subjects to his Highness’s favour; +and she would take good care that the cases of Courtenay and Elizabeth +were finished before the Prince arrived.”[45] + +[Illustration: WILLIAM LORD PAGET + +FROM A PAINTING IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY] + +Noailles and the French sympathisers, too, were still at work stirring +up alarm at the coming of the Spaniards. Here was a bridegroom, they +sneered, who was coming to win a wife, with a great army intended to +land on English soil and proclaim himself King in his own right, with +all his swarm of priests, friars, and inquisitors to oppress the English +people. Even the English sailors on Howard’s ships were so distrustful +of the Spaniards that when the Flemish crews of the Emperor’s fleet set +foot on shore during the time they awaited Philip’s arrival the visitors +were hustled and insulted everywhere, whilst the Lord Admiral himself had +openly mocked at their ships as mussel-shells.[46] Whether it be true, +as was asserted, that Howard committed the grave discourtesy of throwing +a shot across the bows of the Prince’s fleet to compel a salute to the +English flag is doubtful, but it is certain that the feeling in the +country amongst high and low as the time went on was as strongly against +the Spanish bridegroom as ever. + +During the months that passed between the formal betrothal in March and +the coming of Philip, Mary grew more and more impatient, railing at her +quarrelling Councillors, worried almost daily by Renard to hasten the +execution of Elizabeth and Courtenay, and a prey to frequent hysterical +attacks of wounded pride at what she considered the ungallant lack of +eagerness on the part of her new husband to join her. She grew more +faded and older with her anxiety, and this increased her distress,[47] +for Elizabeth was young and beautiful, and the Queen knew that the love +of the people for her was growing with the dread of Spanish Catholic +intolerance. And yet the majority of the Council, not to mention the +Parliament that was sitting, would never sanction the sacrifice of the +Princess at the instance of the Imperial ambassador; and even the Lord +Admiral and his fleet were suspected of a design to declare against the +Queen unless his cousin, Princess Elizabeth, was well treated. Renard’s +letters of the time reflect the distracted condition of affairs from +day to day, no man knowing in which direction future safety or ruin +to him might be encountered. “The Queen is reduced to such a state of +perplexity that she is at a loss whose advice to adopt, knowing well +that all is being done in favour of Lady Elizabeth.” Scurrilous ballads +were flung about in public places, even in the Queen’s palace, bitterly +lampooning the unhappy Mary and her lagging Spanish bridegroom. To make +matters worse, when the French ambassador, Noailles, who was known to +be the principal fomenter of all this trouble, went to take leave of +Mary at Whitehall the day before she set out on her gradual approach to +the coast to meet Philip at the end of May, an open wrangle took place +between them, and the ambassador in a rage threatened to leave England +immediately—a threat not at all distasteful to the Imperialists, because +it brought nearer what they aimed at before all things—the breaking out +of hostilities between England and France. + +By slow stages Mary travelled through the latter half of June and early +July from Richmond by Oatlands and Farnham to Winchester, where she +arrived two days after Philip had landed at Southampton. As Philip had +truly said, this was no romantic love voyage that he was making, but a +deliberate sacrifice of all his personal tastes and wishes for the sake +of overwhelming political expediency. No effort was to be spared to gain +England to the side of Spain against France, and Philip deliberately laid +himself out to please. On his famous voyage to stay with his father in +Flanders some years before, his cold hauteur and lack of expansiveness +had quite alienated the Germans and Flemings from him. His grave young +face, his prim demeanour, his sober garments, his rigid abstemiousness +in eating and drinking, and his distaste for the martial amusements of +the time, were all foreign to the rough vitality of the Teutons; and +Renard and the Emperor had warned the Prince that he must not repeat +his mistake, but conform to English customs and learn at least some +English words. The Spaniards of his train were enjoined also “to behave +themselves according to English fashion, and to be modest in their +bearing, trusting that your Highness, with your accustomed kindness, +will make much of them.”[48] And the Emperor, desirous of avoiding all +occasion for dissension, writes to his son (1st April, 1554): “They tell +me that some married women are going with their husbands in your company. +I think they will be more difficult to govern and keep friends with the +English women than even soldiers would be. You had better see whether +it would not be wiser to send them here [to Flanders] until affairs in +England are more settled.”[49] + +Even Philip’s enemies, the Venetians, testified to the change of +his demeanour during his stay in England; and Soriano, the outgoing +ambassador, said that from that time forward, even in Spain, his gentle +courtesy and kindness were continued habitually, whilst Michaeli, the +new Venetian ambassador, who was the staunch ally of Noailles, was +emphatic in his testimony of Philip’s affability in England, and says +that his conduct towards his wife was such as to make any woman love +him: “for in truth no one in the world could have been a better or more +affectionate husband.” Yet another Venetian envoy, Damula, accredited +to the Emperor, wrote that on disembarking in England the Prince was +“remarked by everybody for his graciousness, without any stiffness or +assumption of royal ceremony, mixing with the courtiers rather as a +comrade than as a king.” Certain it is, with public opinion in England +strongly unfavourable and in a perfect panic of apprehension, Philip’s +tact and graciousness to a great extent overcame the prejudice against +him, and he became in a few months personally quite popular, whilst he +contrived almost immediately to gain his wife’s devoted affection. The +over-coloured picture of Philip as a trembling, seasick creature,[50] +in daily fear of poison, which Froude drew from the letters of Noailles +and the account of the Venetian, Baoardo, needs much modification to be +near the impartial truth; for though, as we have seen, Philip looked +upon the marriage as a sacrifice to reasons of State, as undoubtedly it +was, he bore his cross gaily and like a well-bred gentleman. If he had +done otherwise, indeed, as he was quite clever enough to recognise, the +sacrifice itself would have been useless. + +From the hour of his arrival in Southampton Water, two o’clock in the +afternoon of Thursday, 19th July, until after breakfast the next day, +Philip remained on board the _Espiritu Santo_ at anchor, whilst the +salutes of the ships and forts thundered out their welcome; state barges +brought the English and Flemish Lord Admirals to visit the Prince, and +the Marquis of las Navas, Figueroa, the Emperor’s special ambassador, and +several high English nobles, came to pay their respects to the new king. +After breakfast on the 20th July, Howard’s state galley came alongside +the _Espiritu Santo_, and from it climbed to the deck the Lord Admiral +and a little group of English nobles—Arundel, Derby, and Shrewsbury—with +Sir John Williams, to whom Philip at once handed the white wand of +Chamberlain. The Prince stood upon the high deck, cap in hand and with +smiling face, to receive them, and after they had been presented to +the principal grandees the English nobles led the Prince to the barge, +followed by the Duke of Alba, with his lean, dark face and long, grizzled +beard; Count de Feria, with his raven hair and flashing eyes; Ruy Gomez, +Philip’s dearest friend, suave and imperturbable; Pescara, Egmont, Horn, +and a dozen other high courtiers, Spaniards and Flemings. No permission +was given to the other courtiers to land until the Prince’s barge touched +the shore, whilst no soldier or man-at-arms was allowed to land at all +on pain of death, for Philip dared not offend English feeling in this +matter, and he had learnt from his father that the fortune of war had +been against him, and he needed every man-at-arms at once in Flanders.[51] + +As the gaily dressed oarsmen rapidly forced the great gilded galley +through the smooth water to the shore, a little ceremony was performed +under the stern canopy. The Earl of Arundel and Sir John Williams as a +commission from the Queen besought permission to invest the Prince with +the Order of the Garter; and Williams fastened the gilt ligature around +his leg, whilst Arundel placed upon his breast a glittering pendant rose +and George. As Philip stepped upon English soil for the first time, +thirty nobles and gentlemen of the Queen’s Court did him reverence, and +Sir Anthony Browne, leading a beautiful white hackney caparisoned in +crimson velvet and gold, announced himself in a Latin speech as the new +Consort’s master of the horse. The Prince thanked the new grand equerry, +but replied that, as the distance was short, he would walk on foot to +the house prepared for him. But this he was told was not in accordance +with English etiquette, and without more ado Browne, lifting him up in +his arms, placed him in the saddle, and then, humbly kissing the golden +stirrups, walked bare-headed by his master’s side. With crowds of gaily +clad English and Spanish courtiers preceding him, Philip passed thus +through the curious townsfolk to the Church of Holy Rood. He must have +looked an impressive figure, with his dapper, erect bearing, his yellow, +curly beard and close-cropped fair head, dressed, as he was, in black +velvet and silver, hung all about with massive gold chains and with +glittering precious stones in his velvet cap, upon breast, neck, and +wrists. Browne himself was no unworthy company for his Prince, for he too +was garbed in a rich suit of black velvet entirely covered with fine gold +embroidery, with a surcoat of the same, of which the long, hanging false +sleeves were lined with cloth of silver. + +After a brief service of thanksgiving, Philip was taken to the house +destined for his reception. The English guards and archers on duty +and a crowd of English household servitors had been dressed by Mary’s +directions in the red-and-yellow livery of Spain; and when Philip +entered the rooms prepared for him, he found that here, too, his wife’s +thoughtful prevision had been exercised; for the appointments and +furniture were sumptuous, and upon the walls there hung royal draperies +of gold-embroidered damask.[52] To the assembled English nobles Philip +then delivered a dignified speech in Latin, saying that he had left +his own land not to augment his possessions or his power, of which he +had sufficient, but because God had called him to marry their Queen, +with whom he intended to live here in harmony; and he promised his +hearers that if they were faithful to her and to him, “he would be to +them a right good and loving prince.” He was from the first all smiles +and graciousness to the English, who were, indeed, agreeably surprised +at his amiability when after his private supper he came out into the +presence chamber and chatted unaffectedly and gaily with the gentlemen +there. To bluff Lord Admiral Howard he said that he had come to England +for his wedding unprovided with garb sufficiently sumptuous to do honour +to their Queen, but he hoped that the velvet horse-cloth of the hackney +the Queen had sent him might serve him to make a splendid vestment withal. + +The pledging of the company after supper in a draught of English +beer, which the partial view of Froude presented as a repellant and +unwilling concession, was a perfectly natural part of the whole of +Philip’s behaviour. He had come to win the English by affability, and +he was determined as much as possible to conform to English prejudices +and to impress upon his Spanish followers the need for their doing +likewise. Even the enemy, who records the action, does not hint at any +demonstration of dislike or reluctance on the part of Philip to the +politic course he took. So thoroughly, indeed, did he act up to his +policy, that before he left Southampton his Spanish attendants were +all scowling and grumbling in spite and jealousy that their Prince was +preferring Englishmen to them, and that his service and safety were +placed in the hands of foreigners to the exclusion of his own people. +Though Philip had great ends to serve in drinking beer and sitting out +gargantuan English feasts, at which his proud frugal countrymen scoffed, +to the courtiers who accompanied him from Spain, it was as gall and +wormwood to see the greatest Prince in Christendom thus curry favour +with these rough islanders, whom they regarded as inferiors; and when, +on Saturday, the Spaniards were all ordered to leave the church at +Southampton before the service was over, in order that the Prince might +come out attended only by Englishmen, they broke out into almost open +protest, particularly when, as the rain was coming down in torrents and +the Prince was without cape or hat, he borrowed the garments from an +Englishman near him rather than from a Spaniard, to go the few yards from +the church to his lodging. + +The three hundred houses of which Southampton consisted were already +crammed to overflowing with Philip’s great train of courtiers and four +hundred servants, but every hour the crowd in the little port grew as +the neighbouring gentry, with their followers, rode in to honour their +new King in accordance with Queen Mary’s orders. Nor was this all, for +early on Saturday morning the Earl of Pembroke came with an escort for +the Prince of two hundred English gentlemen in black velvet and gold +chains, and three hundred more in scarlet, all splendidly mounted. In +return for this, Philip sent Egmont to the Queen with thanks and loving +messages. Half way to Winchester Egmont met a great train coming towards +him, escorting the Lord Chancellor, Bishop Gardiner, bearing from his +Sovereign a valuable ring to her spouse. Gardiner had done his best to +prevent the match, and when that had proved impossible, he had cleverly +minimised its disadvantages from an English point of view, so that he was +far from being _persona grata_ to Renard and the Spaniards. But for weeks +past he had been in hourly danger of ruin from the cabals against him +and the distrust of the Queen; and he now sought safety in an apparent +cordiality towards the Spanish marriage, an attitude which Philip repaid +by treating him with almost excessive deference. The next day (Sunday), +in the torrential rain, the favourite Ruy Gomez rode to Winchester with +another beautiful ring for Mary, and the Lords of the Council and a +host of other nobles came in to salute Philip, who, after rising late, +dined and supped in public for the first time in England. To the rage +of the Spaniards, his English household served him; though the proudest +of his grandees, the Duke of Alba, was allowed unofficially to hand him +the napkin.[53] “We are of no more use here, and are simply vagabonds. +We should be better employed in serving in the war, for they make us +pay here twenty times what a thing is worth,” grumbled one of Philip’s +gentlemen-in-waiting, who fairly represented the general feeling amongst +them, even on the first days of their arrival in England. + +Before Philip started on Monday afternoon for Winchester, better news +came from the Emperor. The French had not followed up their victory at +Marienburg, and the six hundred Spanish jennets which had come in the +fleet, with Philip’s own horses, might now be landed.[54] The anxious +Queen, nevertheless, continued to send fresh supplies of splendidly +caparisoned horses for Philip’s use; and when, in a perfect deluge +of rain, at two o’clock in the afternoon the Prince started out to +join his bride in the ancient city seven miles away, a train of three +thousand magnificently accoutred horsemen clattered in his train. With +the exception of some fifteen of the highest Spanish nobles, who rode +close around the Prince—Alba, Medina-Celi, Feria, and their like—Philip’s +strong bodyguard was formed of English men-at-arms dressed in Spanish +colours, much to the jealousy of the Spanish guard still cooped up in +the pestilential ships. On the road six hundred more English gentlemen +in black velvet and gold met the cavalcade and joined it. Then, nearer +Winchester, six of the Queen’s pages, dressed in crimson brocade and +cloth of gold, were encountered with a herald bringing for the Prince six +more beautiful steeds as a present from their mistress. The malicious +Venetian tells a story embellished by Froude of a breathless, galloping +messenger from the Queen, whose haste threw Philip and his Spanish +friends into a panic of fear; but everything that Baoardo wrote on +the subject of the marriage is suspect and cannot be accepted without +confirmation, of which in this case there is none. + +When the Prince started from Southampton, he wore a surcoat of black +velvet adorned with diamonds, and doublet and trunks of white satin +embroidered with gold. But this delicate finery, though covered by a +thick red felt cloak, was wet through before he arrived at Winchester; +and a halt was made at the beautiful hospital of Saint Cross to enable +a change of garments to be donned, the fresh suit consisting of a +black velvet surcoat trimmed with gold bugles, and under-garments of +white velvet and gold. Thus bedizened he entered the ancient gateway, +past kneeling mayor and aldermen, and through silent, gaping crowds of +townsfolk, direct to the splendid cathedral, the shrine of England’s +ancient Kings. A little group of mitred bishops stood before the great +west door, crosses raised and censers swinging; and in solemn procession +to the high altar they led beneath a velvet canopy this slim, erect, +little man with fair face and yellow hair, whom they and their like +regarded as God’s chosen instrument to undo the impious work of Henry and +of Somerset. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +1554-1555 + + Philip’s first meeting with Mary—The marriage—Discontent + and disappointment of the Spaniards—Philip’s kindness + to his wife—Spanish descriptions of England—Philip in + London—Arrival of Pole—Philip’s religious policy in England—His + attempts to marry Elizabeth to Savoy—The Emperor’s war with + France—Departure of Philip from England + + +Dusk was falling upon the gloomy day when Philip, having duly performed +his devotions and admired the splendid fane of Winchester, found himself +at ease in the Dean’s house, which had been prepared for his reception. +The Queen’s maiden scruples had been respected, for it was not in +accordance with etiquette that they should both sleep under the same roof +before they became man and wife; so that whilst the Deanery sheltered the +bridegroom, the bride was lodged in Bishop Gardiner’s castle adjoining. +Philip supped, and when he was thinking of going to bed, it being ten +o’clock at night, some English courtiers and the Mistress of the Robes +came and said that the Queen wished him to visit her secretly in her +closet, where she awaited him, but that he was to bring only a very few +followers. Another beautiful dress had perforce to be assumed, consisting +of a French surcoat embroidered in silver and gold, with doublet and +trunks of white kid covered with gold embroidery; and then, accompanied +by Alba, Medina-Celi, Feria, Aguilar, Egmont, Horn, and a half-dozen +more grandees, the Prince was led by his English guides across the lane +and still-existing little green to a garden gate, through which only the +nobles chosen by Philip were allowed to enter. They found themselves in +a delicious garden, and in the mysterious darkness threaded the leafy +alleys, until they arrived at the great moated house, which they entered +by a little back door, from which a private stair led direct to the +Queen’s private apartment. + +When the English guide threw open the door at the head of the stair, +Philip for the first time looked upon the woman who was to be his second +wife. Mary was slowly pacing the long passage or gallery lined with +tapestry, which constituted the room. Two gentlemen bore torches before +her, and with her were Gardiner and three or four other aged men and some +ladies-in-waiting. Philip hung back a few seconds whilst Egmont entered +the room. He, being known to the Queen, was greeted by her graciously; +and then, as she caught sight of the smart figure of her bridegroom, she +walked rapidly towards him, and kissed her hand before she grasped his. +Philip did the same, and, in the English fashion of the time, gallantly +kissed his elderly bride upon her lips. Mary was, as usual, splendidly +dressed, and her trim little figure must have looked stately enough in +her black velvet gown, cut high at the neck, her petticoat of frosted +silver, her coif of black velvet and gold, and wonderful girdle, collar, +and pendants of flashing gems. Her complexion was of that peculiar +transparency which usually accompanies red hair; her eyes, which were +also of ruddy brown, were almost without eyebrows, as her father’s had +been; and her somewhat austere face was wreathed now with smiles of +welcome to the man for whose coming she had yearned. + +Leading him by the hand to a chair beside her own beneath the canopy, +she replied in French to his Spanish compliments. Whilst they were thus +seated in happy converse, the irrepressible Lord Admiral Howard broke in +with some of his usual suggestive jokes, not in the best taste according +to the ideas of to-day, but apparently accepted at that time as quite +permissible. Then, one by one, the Spanish nobles were brought forward +to kiss the Queen’s hand; and Philip, apparently finding the interview +somewhat tedious, as his knowledge of French was not extensive, proposed +that he should go into the adjoining apartment to greet the Queen’s +ladies. Mary insisted upon accompanying him. The ladies, in pairs, were +led forward to courtesy before the Prince, who, cap in hand, “in order +not to violate the custom of the country, kissed each of them on the lips +as they passed him.” The ceremony, probably, was not over-pleasant to +Mary, for when, the kissing being at an end, Philip suggested that it was +getting late and he had better retire, the Queen insisted upon leading +him to the canopy again for another chat. + +Already the Spaniards began to nod and wink to each other to signify that +the Queen had fallen in love with her husband thus soon at first sight, +and it is quite probable that such was the case. Mary’s heart had been +starved for love all her life. There was none of her kin now with whom +she could unbend, and, with her crushing responsibility, it must have +been for her like a glimpse of heaven to feel that this good-looking, +wise, young man, fully her equal in rank, and her superior in power, was +in future to be kinsman, husband, and upholder in one. At last the time +came for parting, and in jesting mood grave Philip learnt of his bride +how to say “Good-night” in English. But alas! before he could reach the +ladies in the other room to say the newly learnt words to them, the +outlandish sounds had slipped out of his mind, and with much laughter +and smiles he had to go back and learn them again from the Queen.[55] +In conversation with Philip, the Queen’s governess (Mrs. Clarencius?) +expressed her joy at the coming union and thanks to God for letting her +live to see the day, though she regretted that she had not reared a +more beautiful bride for him;[56] and according to another eyewitness’s +account the Queen herself modestly thanked Philip for accepting so old +and ugly a wife. Generally speaking, however, Mary does not appear +to have produced an unfavourable impression upon the Spaniards. They +speak of her manner at this time as being gay and gracious, and her +clear complexion was much admired. Certainly Philip played his part to +perfection, whatever his private feelings may have been; and if Mary had +been a budding beauty of twenty instead of a faded old maid of nearly +forty, he could not have been a more gallant bridegroom in appearance +than he was: although to his bosom friend, Ruy Gomez, he confided a few +days after the wedding that he was prepared with resignation to drain the +chalice to the end which his marriage presented to him, since, as his +friend knew, he had not married for love, but to restore England to the +Church; and such an object made him lose sight of the Queen’s lack of +personal attractions. + +Philip slept late the morning after his arrival at Winchester, and as +soon as he was out of bed the Queen’s tailor brought him two superb sets +of garments—one made of very rich white brocade profusely embroidered +with gold bugles and seed pearls, with diamonds for buttons, and the +other a similar suit in crimson. Philip went that day, Tuesday, to Mass +at the Cathedral, dressed in a purple velvet surcoat with silver fringe +and white satin doublet and trunks; and then after his private dinner, +went in great state to visit the Queen publicly. This time she received +him in the great hall of the Bishop’s palace, surrounded by the whole of +her Court and attended by fifty ladies—“none of them pretty”—dressed in +purple velvet. Mary received the Prince at the foot of her daïs, amidst +the fanfare of trumpets, and after kissing him affectionately led him +to the seat at her side. She must have looked as magnificent as fine +clothes could make her as she sat “in sweet converse” with him under her +canopy; for we are told that her purple velvet robe and cloth-of-gold +petticoat were all aglow with precious stones, and that coif, neck, +breast, and wrists, were stiff with pearls and diamonds. There were +special ambassadors, too, to receive and welcome: Figueroa, viceroy of +Naples, from the Emperor, others from the King of the Romans and his son, +from Venice, Florence, Poland, and Ferrara. But one was missing; for +Noailles, the Frenchman, for whom this marriage was a dire defeat, had +not been bidden to the feast; and in the intervals of his plotting to +raise trouble was writing to his baffled master ill-natured and distorted +reports, at second hand, of the proceedings. + +The next day, Wednesday, 25th July, was the Feast of St. James, the +patron of Spain, and the noble cathedral of Winchester was aflame with +glowing colour. The ancient nave can never have seen so gorgeous a +company as was there assembled in the forenoon. All that pomp, skill, and +lavish expenditure could produce was there to do honour to an event which +all spectators felt was one of moving interest for the future of the +world; because it meant, so far as men might see, the secure fastening +upon the neck of England again of the yoke of the Papacy, which Henry +VIII. had shaken off, the stifling of the Reformation in Europe, and the +reduction of France to a secondary place amongst the nations. Philip, +in the white satin suit the Queen had sent him and with a regal mantle +of cloth of gold, led his dazzlingly clad bride up the lofty nave to an +elevated platform in the centre; and there Gardiner, with three attendant +Bishops, made them man and wife. To equalise their rank, it was announced +that the Viceroy Figueroa had brought formal instruments from the +Emperor, resigning to his son the Kingdoms of Naples and Jerusalem; and +this proclamation having been made, the King and Queen, with swords of +state borne before them by the Earls of Derby and Pembroke, descended to +the high altar, followed by fifty ladies in cloth of gold, to hear Mass, +during which, we are told, the Queen never removed her devout eyes from +the crucifix. + +[Illustration: QUEEN MARY AT THE PERIOD OF HER MARRIAGE + +FROM THE PAINTING BY ANTONIO MOR IN THE PRADO MUSEUM] + +Rarely can a marriage have taken place prompted on both sides by such +elevation of spirit as this. The objects in view may be condemned now, +as they were condemned by many at the time, but there is no gainsaying +that, so far as Philip and Mary were concerned, they both believed they +were making private sacrifice for the public welfare. This feeling was +evident through the whole of the marriage negotiations and afterwards, +especially in Philip’s case, until it was seen that the plan had failed. +It is true that the famished heart of Mary grew to love her husband for +his own sake as time went on; but she loved him first and best because he +personified the force that was to make England Catholic, whilst she to +him meant the influence that was to enable him and his House to wield the +power of England against their enemy. + +After the ceremony, the King and Queen walked in procession through an +immense crowd to the Bishop’s palace, where in the great hall was laid +the wedding banquet. All the courtly ceremony of saluting the royal +dishes as they were brought in, the genuflexions to the throne, the +trumpeting of minstrels, and the symbolic functions of the great officers +of State, aroused the admiration of the form-loving Spaniards; but their +hearts were raging with jealousy during the progress of the feast, for +their wounded pride did not fail to notice that Mary took precedence of +her husband everywhere, that she had a more stately seat, and that while +she ate off gold plate he was served on silver. They comforted themselves +with the idea that all this would be changed when the King had been +crowned; but that their Prince, the Emperor’s son and heir, should take +a second place to any one on earth filled them with anger, for they had +already begun to realise that they were not to enter into possession of +England as they had hoped. The richness and abundance they saw around +them made their disappointment the more bitter. Such a show of plate +on tables and sideboards as this they had never seen before.[57] All +the platters and dishes were of silver, and great buffets loaded with +plate stood at both ends of the great hall. The sideboard behind the +high table, at which Philip and Mary sat, with Gardiner far off at the +end, had upon it a hundred great pieces, “with a great gilt clock half +as high as a man, and a marble fountain with a rim of gold.” Before the +King and Queen stood Lords Pembroke and Strange with sword and mace; +the four services of thirty dishes each, far too much for the 158 noble +guests, were borne in to the sound of minstrelsy; and after the feast the +Earl of Arundel presented the ewer of water for the King’s hands, whilst +the Marquis of Winchester bore the napkin. The only Spaniard allowed to +serve the King was the Duke of Infantado’s son, Don Iñigo de Mendoza, as +cupbearer: “as for any of the Prince’s own stewards doing anything, such +a thing was never thought of, and not one of us took a wand in our own +hands, nor does it seem likely we ever shall, not even the controller. +They had far better turn us all out as vagabonds.”[58] + +After the Queen had pledged her guests in a cup of wine, and a herald had +proclaimed Philip’s new style as King of England, France, Naples, and +Jerusalem, Prince of Spain, and Count of Flanders, the royal pair retired +to another chamber, accompanied by the English and Spanish nobles, where +the afternoon was passed in gallant conversation, though apparently with +some difficulty to the Spaniards, who were desirous of showing their +gallantry to the English ladies. “We had great trouble in making out +their meaning, except those who spoke Latin; so we have all resolved not +to give them any presents of gloves until we can understand them. The +gentlemen who speak the language are mostly very glad to find that we +Spaniards cannot do so.” + +At the ball that wound up the entertainments, the same difficulty arising +from diverse customs stood in the way of intercourse, for the Spanish and +English dances were different, and the courtiers of the two nations could +not hit upon a common formula until Philip led his wife out to tread a +measure in the German fashion, which was known to both. + +With every day that passed the discontent and jealousy grew. Philip +himself was charming, treating his wife in lover-like fashion, and full +of tactful affability to the English people. But the more conciliatory +Philip showed himself, the more his Spanish courtiers chafed. They +had found their position in England entirely different from what they +had expected; and their hopes of easily dominating the country were +fading rapidly. The men-at-arms and the bodyguard were still confined +to their ships at Portsmouth and Southampton, forbidden to land under +pain of death, and were becoming restive; the courtiers themselves and +their servants were ridiculed in the streets of Winchester, and even +waylaid and robbed if they ventured into the country; and yet they dared +not complain. “After this weary voyage these people wish to subject +us to some extent to their laws; for it is a new thing for them to +have Spaniards in the country, and they wish to feel secure.”[59] “We +Spaniards are miserable here, much worse than in Castile; and some say +that they would rather be in the barest stubble field of Toledo than +here in the groves of Amadis.” Another courtier writing from Winchester +says, “Great rogues infest the roads, and have robbed some of us, amongst +others, the chamberlain of Don Juan Pacheco, from whom they took 400 +crowns and all his jewelry and plate. No trace can be found of the +property, nor of the four or five boxes missing from the King’s lodging; +though the Council is scouring the country for it. As for the friars, +they have had to be lodged in the college for their safety, and they +bitterly repent having come.” + +It was difficult to please proud, disappointed people who were ready to +disapprove of everything; and when the Duchess of Alba came, three days +after the marriage, to join her husband, though Mary treated her with +almost royal honours, the haughty dame and her kin were in a chronic +state of indignation at the position she was obliged to occupy. An +amusing account of her first visit to Mary on the third day after the +wedding[60] does not suggest any lack of ceremony, though the lodgings +assigned to her may not have been so sumptuous as she thought fit. The +Duchess was conducted to the Bishop’s palace by the Countesses of +Pembroke and Kildare and the Earl of Bedford, and the Queen advanced +almost to the door of the presence chamber to meet her. The Duchess +knelt, and the Queen, failing in her efforts to raise her, courtesied +almost as low, and kissed her upon the mouth, which she usually did only +to those of the blood royal. She then led the Duchess to the daïs, and +seated herself upon the floor, inviting her guest to do likewise. But +the latter refused to sit on the floor until the Queen sat upon a chair. +This the Queen would not do, but sent for two stools as a compromise, +upon one of which she sat and invited the Duchess to take the other, +instead of which the Duchess then sat upon the floor, whereupon the +Queen left her stool and also sat upon the floor; and after an almost +interminable friendly wrangle, both ladies settled down on the stools, +their conversation being interpreted by the Marquis de las Navas, as +Mary, although she understood Spanish, did not speak it. When the Earl of +Derby was presented to the Duchess, she was horrified at his offering to +salute her in the usual English fashion by kissing her lips, and she drew +back from him in hot indignation, though hardly in time to avoid contact. +But as the lady haughtily expatiated to her own people afterwards upon +the uncouth fashion, she declared that the Earl had only just managed to +reach her cheek. + +By the last day of July most of the English gentry had gone home for +the present, the Spaniards being distributed about Winchester and +Southampton, whilst the troops were only awaiting a fair wind to carry +them to Flanders. With a comparatively small suite the Queen and King set +forth on the 31st July for Basing House, fifteen miles away, the seat of +Lord Winchester, the Lord Treasurer, and so by short stages to Reading, +Windsor, and Richmond, where they remained until the 17th August. In the +meanwhile the impatience of the Spaniards at their position in England +grew intolerable, and the Duke of Medina-Celi, the premier noble, and +of royal descent, was the first to insist upon immediate release with +permission to join the Emperor in Flanders. Within a few days eighty +other hidalgos had demanded similar licence, and by the time Richmond +was reached the only Spanish nobles in attendance upon Philip were Alba, +Feria, Olivares, Pedro de Cordova, and three gentlemen, amongst whom was +the indefatigable letter-writer, Pedro Enriquez, whose narrative of the +events is so expressive of the lack of community between the two peoples. +Not only were the manners of the English ladies and their dresses +unbecoming in Spanish eyes, and the English food coarsely excessive, but +the political institutions of the country appeared to them, used as they +were to the absolute monarchy of Castile, to be almost Republican in +their hard limitation of the power of the Sovereign. + +“Their Majesties” (writes Pedro Enriquez from Richmond) “are the happiest +married couple in the world, and are more in love with each other +than I can write here. The King never leaves her, and on the road he +rides by her side, helping her to mount and dismount. They sometimes +dine together in public, and on Feast days he accompanies her to Mass. +Although the Queen is not at all beautiful, for she is little, and thin +rather than stout, she is very red and white. She has no eyebrows, +she is a perfect saint, but she dresses very badly. The ladies here +all wear farthingales of coloured cloth, without silk, their outer +garments being of coloured damask, satin, or velvet, but very badly +made. Some of them wear velvet shoes, but most of them kid. They wear +black stockings, and even show their legs, some of them up to the knees, +at least whilst they are riding, for their skirts are not long enough. +They look quite indelicate when they are travelling thus, and even when +they are seated. They are not at all beautiful, nor are they graceful in +dancing, which with them consists simply of prancing and trotting.[61] +None of the Spanish gentlemen are in love with them or think anything +of them, nor they of the Spaniards. They are not worth troubling about, +or feasting much, or spending money upon, which is a good thing for the +Spaniards. All the rejoicing here consists of eating and drinking. The +Queen spends in food 300,000 ducats a year. The whole of the Lords of +the Council—thirteen of them—feed in the palace, as do the Officers of +State, the Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlain, the Master of the Horse, +and the King’s English household with all their wives. The ladies and +their servants and the households of all the courtiers and two hundred +guards all live in the palace as well. Each officer has a cook to look +after his food in the Queen’s kitchens. There are eighteen kitchens, and +there is such a hurly-burly in them that each one is a veritable hell. +So that, notwithstanding the greatness of these palaces, ... and the +smallest of the four we have seen has more rooms and better ones than +the _Alcazar_ of Madrid, the crowds in them are so great as to be hardly +contained.... The ordinary consumption in the palace every day is from +eighty to a hundred sheep, with a dozen fat oxen and dozen and a half of +calves, besides vast quantities of game, poultry, venison, wild boar, and +rabbits; whilst, as for the beer, they drink more in the summer than the +river would hold in Valladolid. The ladies and some of the gentlemen put +sugar into their wine. The noise and bustle in the palace are dreadful. +And notwithstanding the vast number of rooms, they have never given to +the Duchess of Alba a chamber in the palace. They are the most ungrateful +people ever seen. Not even in the villages where we stay—and each one has +a village—do they give to the Duke and Duchess a house to themselves, or +the best one. They have fine trouble over their lodgings, as if it were +not enough to prevent them from serving in their offices without housing +them badly.” + +Already the courtiers saw that the chance of Philip being allowed to +dominate England in consequence of his marriage was a slender one, but +the King himself, in his patient, prudent way, persevered. His personal +influence over his wife grew stronger every day, and when later she +gave him hopes of the birth of an heir, a new prospect for the future +seemed to open to him. The Londoners were as yet still almost in a panic +at the coming of the Spanish King, and the most exaggerated ideas with +regard to the number of armed men he would bring with him prevailed, +artfully fostered by Noailles and the Protestant party. On the eve of the +state entry of the royal pair into London the appearance of affairs was +unpromising enough, as may be seen by Pedro Enriquez’s letter dated on +the 17th August. + +“The English cannot bear the sight of the Spaniards: they would rather +see the devil. They rob us, even in the towns, and on the road none of +us dare to stray for a couple of miles for fear of being robbed. A body +of Englishmen on one occasion plundered and beat no less than fifty +Spaniards. The Councillors know all about it, but they shut their eyes. +The number of thieves in the country is quite incredible. They go about +sometimes twenty together. There is neither justice nor fear of God.... +For us there is no justice at all. The King commands us to raise no +questions, but whilst we are here to put up with everything and suffer +all their spite without a word. So, of course, they treat us badly and +despise us. When we have complained to Bribiesca (the magistrate) and to +the ambassadors, they tell us that it is to his Majesty’s interest that +we should overlook everything. This marriage will have been of small use +if this Queen does not have a child, of which I am not at all sure. When +we were in Castile they said that as soon as his Highness was King of +England we should be masters of France. The opposite is the case, for the +French are now stronger and more aggressive than ever in Flanders.... +Kings in this country do not command more than if they were subjects. The +real rulers are the Councillors, who are not only masters of the country +but masters of the King as well. They are all lords, some enriched by the +plunder of the monasteries, some by inheritance, but they are much more +feared and reverenced than the Sovereign. They say now that they will not +let his Highness go unless the Queen and they please, as this realm is +quite big enough for a King without any others. Seeing what they are, I +should not wonder if they do it, ... for they know how hard pressed we +are in Flanders and are glad of it; ... they would not care a farthing +if Flanders were lost, and his Majesty with it. The King and Queen enter +London to-morrow, and I am sure we ought not to do so, seeing the way +they are treating the Spaniards already there. Not only do they not +provide lodgings for them, insulting them as if they were savages, but +they rob them in the inns. As for the friars who came with his Majesty, +they had better have stayed at home, for these English are so wicked and +godless that they even maltreat friars, and these dare not leave their +lodgings. Don Pedro de Cordova and his nephew, Don Antonio, are knights, +and the people wanted to strip them of their habits the other day, making +fun of them and asking them why they wore those crosses on their coats.” + +On the day that this was written Philip and Mary and their Court in +state barges rowed from Richmond to Southwark, where they landed at the +Bishop of Winchester’s house, and after killing a fat buck in Southwark +Park, slept at the palace which stood upon the site of the present +London Bridge Station, in order to start betimes in the morning of the +next day across London Bridge, and so through the capital to Whitehall. +All the fifty gibbets in the streets upon which Wyatt’s men had hanged +were cleared away; the heads of the noble malefactors on the spikes at +the Bridge-foot were no longer to be seen. All that paint and gilt and +pageantry and pleasant looks could do to make the dour Londoners think +well of the Queen’s Consort was done. Gog and Magog in new suits stood +at the drawbridge that spanned the space from London Bridge end to the +Southwark shore. Triumphs stood at the street corners, one of the first, +that in Gracechurch Street, containing the maladroit statue of Henry +VIII. with the Bible labelled _Verbum Dei_ in his hand, that so much +moved Bishop Gardiner’s wrath.[62] Past kneeling aldermen and velvet-clad +guildsmen, and with a great train of splendid courtiers, Philip and his +English wife rode through the silent crowds, whilst the guns of the +White Tower thundered what was at the same time a salute to the King +and a warning to the people. The official greetings were, as usual, +extravagantly fulsome. That borne by Gog and Magog is thus translated— + + “O Noble Prince, sole hope of Cæsar’s side, + By God appointed all the world to guide, + Right harteley welcome art thou to our land. + The archer Britayne yieldeth thee her hand; + And noble England openeth her bosom + Of hartie affection for to bid thee welcome: + But chiefly London doth her love vouchsafe, + Rejoicing that her Philip has come safe. + She seeith her citizens love thee on each side + And trusts they shall be happy of such a guide, + And al do thinke that thou art sent to their citie + By th’ only means of God’s paternal pitie, + So that their minde, voice, study, power and will, + Is only set to love thee, Philip, still”—[63] + +and from Gracechurch to Whitehall tributes in Latin verse even more +eulogistic than this greeted the man whose very presence the great mass +of the people had been taught to dread. All the Philips that ever lived +were dwarfed, he was told, by such a paragon of excellence as himself; +Orpheus had not such power to move as by his eloquence could this +reticent, mumbling Philip, who spoke but little of any language but his +own. + + “In like case now, thy grace of speech so franke, + Doth comfort us whose minds afore were bleak + And therefore England giveth thee harty thanke + Whose chiefest joy is to hear thee Philip speke.”[64] + +Mary herself could see no evil in her husband, and we are told that she +was highly gratified at all this dithyrambic praise of him. As they +dismounted at Whitehall Gate, and she led him, all smiles, into the great +presence chamber, Mary and Philip seemed to onlookers an ideally happy +couple, notwithstanding the difference in their ages. Ruy Gomez, writing +on the 24th August to Eraso in Spain, says: “The King entertains the +Queen excellently, and well knows how to pass over what is not attractive +in her for the sensibility of the flesh. He keeps her so pleased that +verily when they were together the other day alone she almost made love +to him and he answered in the same fashion. As for these gentlemen +(_i.e._, the English nobles), his behaviour towards them is such that +they themselves confess that they never yet had a King in England who so +soon won the hearts of all men.”[65] + +Philip, indeed, had by his tact and amiability already begun to break +down the hatred and distrust that had heralded his approach. At the +period of the state entry into London, a diarist writing in the Tower +of London no doubt only reflected the general feeling of apprehension +when he wrote: “At this time there were so many Spaniards in London; +that a man should have met in the street for one Englishman about four +Spaniards, to the great discomfort of the English nation. The Halls +(_i.e._, of the City companies) taken up for the Spaniards.”[66] In +actual fact the number of Spanish servants and followers left to Philip +at the time was very few—less than a dozen noblemen with their respective +households, probably not more than two or three hundred people at +most; and as time wore on, and it was seen that no attempt was made by +Philip and his countrymen to interfere with the English, the influence +of the King personally being recognised as invariably on the side of +conciliation, a more equable frame of mind became general. News had come +that the Emperor and his son had detained Cardinal Pole on the way to +England, and had vetoed the extreme Papal policy with which he had at +first been entrusted; and it was seen also that Mary herself, as well as +her husband, assumed a desire to avoid drawing England into hostility +with France, which was the great fear of the English people. + +Noailles had not been bidden to the marriage, and had only been coldly +and tardily invited to the state entry, which invitation he refused. +But on the 21st August, whilst the Queen was at Whitehall, the French +ambassador could hardly avoid offering some form of congratulation, for +it was of the highest importance that England should not be driven to +espouse the Emperor’s war. Noailles was as grudging as possible in his +felicitations, dryly commenting upon the fact that he had not been asked +to the wedding, but hoped that it would not interfere with the friendship +between England and France. Mary was most emphatic in her assurance that +the peace would never be broken on her side, and as the ambassador left +the Queen’s presence, somewhat reassured, he turned to Bishop Gardiner, +who was conducting him, and said that if there was no objection he would +like to salute Philip also. The Bishop was delighted, and conducted +Noailles at once to the King, to whom the ambassador expressed a hope +that the peace which had existed so long between England and France would +not be imperilled by the coming of a Spanish Consort to England. He, +for his part, would do his best to prevent any rupture. Philip called +Gardiner to him and, speaking in Latin, told him to reply to Noailles, +that although he understood French he did not speak it. “He had sworn,” +he said, “both before and after his arrival in England, to maintain all +the friendships and alliances existing between this and other countries, +and he would keep his word faithfully. For his part the peace should not +be broken so long it served the interests of England.”[67] + +Noailles partly suspected what to us now is clear, namely, that all this +suavity and tolerance on the part of the Prince of the proudest nation +on earth was only a part of the deep-laid plan of the Emperor to obtain +for his son the full control of English policy that the marriage treaty +had withheld from him. Mary probably suspected this as little as any one. +Her position was extremely difficult. She was by this time really in +love with her husband, and was deeply desirous of pleasing him; she was +anxious for the aggrandisement of Spain, which would mean, she thought, +the triumph of the Church over heresy in Europe, and the consolidation +of her own throne. But she knew that her people dreaded above all things +being dragged into a war with their nearest neighbour in a quarrel which +did not concern them: she was an English Queen determined, so far as +in her lay, to govern for the benefit of her country, and to her the +only road to safety seemed to strive her hardest to bring about a peace +between the two antagonists before England was involved in the war. Pole +had also been entrusted by the Pope with the mission of pacifying the +Emperor and Henry II., and was as earnest in his efforts to do so as was +Mary herself. From Brussels, where he had been kept chafing impotently, +he had gone to Paris on his mission of peace, but the French arms were +on the whole in the ascendant at the time, and he returned to Flanders +unsuccessful.[68] + +These efforts of Mary, Pole, and Gardiner, to reconcile France and Spain, +received no active help from Philip and his father. The object of the +Emperor was to cripple France by the aid of England, not to patch up +another temporary peace with her, and the whole tendency of the Imperial +policy was to obtain complete control over England as the first step +to this principal object. The Emperor had always used religion when +necessary as an instrument for political ends, and it is not surprising +that the English Catholic Churchmen should regard his present attitude +towards the Catholic party as inconsistent. Gardiner, Pole, Bonner, and +the rest of them, who had never yearned for the Spanish connection, +thought, perhaps correctly, that they could have restored England to +the Church more speedily and safely if they had been unencumbered by +the unpopular marriage. Mary, for whom the question was complicated by +considerations of her personal maintenance upon the throne, thought +otherwise, and wisely the Churchmen had made the best of the position. +But they had no intention, if they could help it, of slackening in their +own purpose, or of allowing the restoration of their faith in England to +be retarded or imperilled for the political interests of the Emperor; and +the harsh action of Bonner particularly, supported as it was by Gardiner, +caused bitter complaints amongst the English people, and something +approaching dismay in the Spanish party of Mary’s Council. + +Throughout the home and eastern countries, where Protestantism was +strong, the action of the priests gave rise to constant brawls, the +actors of which were unfortunately not proceeded against by the civil +authorities but by ecclesiastics on the charge of heresy. Philip, +by means of his friends on the Council, did his best to discourage +these tactics, for which he saw he would unjustly have to suffer the +unpopularity. Whilst Philip and his wife were living at Hampton Court, in +September, there was a wild rumour in London that twelve thousand Spanish +troops were on their way to land in England and seize the Crown,[69] and +almost simultaneously people indignantly whispered that the Archbishopric +of Canterbury was to be given to a Spanish friar. The most extravagant +false news, too, was current that many leading noblemen and Councillors +had been proclaimed traitors, amongst them Pembroke, Shrewsbury, +Westmorland; that Dr. Petre had been dismissed from the Council; that the +Marquis of Winchester had been forced to give Basing House to the Queen; +that the King and Queen, in violation of the ordinary English traditions, +had become inaccessible to the lieges;[70] and much else of the same +sort, evidently designed to keep up the irritation against the Spanish +Consort, who, for his part, was using every means to ingratiate himself +with his poor faded wife[71] and her suspicious subjects. + +It is obvious that, so far as religion alone was concerned, the great +majority of English people would have been ready without demur to +accept Catholicism again if it had come without the foreign mark upon +it, and the moderative policy of the Emperor was dictated solely by the +political aim of conciliating the minority, who it was thought would +be most strongly opposed to Spanish influence. For this the Churchmen +cared nothing, whilst the Protestants and French party, instead of +being conciliated by the King’s attitude, naturally seized upon the +ecclesiastical prosecutions, which he deprecated, still further to +discredit him. Pole in the meanwhile was growing restive. He was a man +of high and unselfish aims, a true Catholic as well as a true Englishman, +and he resented his exclusion from his own country at the bidding of a +foreign potentate after his long exile for the cause of his faith. His +letters of exhortation to Mary and to Philip are throughout inspired by +the Churchman’s zeal, and not infrequently by scorn of the opportunist +policy which was, in his view, hampering the prompt and complete return +of his country to the Church.[72] + +Almost from Mary’s accession Cardinal Pole had been held back from his +mission by the action of the Emperor, thanks mainly to the complaisancy +of the new Pope Julius III. The great difficulty was the question of +the restitution of the Church property which had been confiscated in +the previous reigns. There were few noble courtly families in England +which had not indeed been enriched from this source; and the Emperor +expressed his opinion to Pole that the English people cared neither +for one form of faith or the other, so long as they could keep their +property.[73] “Pole,” said the Venetian ambassador at Brussels, “might +beg for permission to go to England for ten thousand years without avail, +unless he went with the briefs confirming the alienation of the Church +properties: for if the Church insists upon reclaiming them disorder will +prevail throughout the country.” + +At last the Cardinal had to accept the inevitable, not without some +bitterness of heart,[74] and steps were taken in the Parliament, which +met at Westminster early in November, to reverse the act of attainder +against him. His coming was regarded in some sense by the country as +that of a restraining force upon the dreaded Spanish influence in the +English Councils. He was known to be single-minded in his attachment +both to the Church and to England. He was not ambitious, and had nothing +to gain by serving as a tool for anti-English forces, whilst his rank, +his ability, and his good repute promised that his authority would be +great, even if necessary, against the foreign King-Consort. On the 5th +November, 1554, a deputation was despatched by Mary, consisting of Lords +Paget and Hastings and Sir William Cecil, to invite Pole to England, not +ostensibly as Legate, but as Cardinal and ambassador, on condition that +the Pope would consent to the present owners of the ecclesiastical lands +being left unmolested. Renard had already been sent over to Flanders to +persuade Pole of the need for this proviso, and had returned successful. +The Cardinal was ready, and rejoiced greatly when Sir John Mason, the +English ambassador, told him the news; though, “Marry, quoth he, you know +I am at this present, as it were, in another’s ward [keeping].—I must +depart when it please the Emperor, who is not at all times to be spoken +withal. I have already one sent to M. d’Arras (_i.e._, Granvelle) to be +my mean to have access to his Majesty to take my leave.... Marry, the +truth is that they have had as yet no news out of England of the Queen’s +determination.”[75] Mason assured the Cardinal that it was all settled +and that the embassy named had been despatched to fetch him. + +This news Mason also carried to the Emperor, who was better and brighter +than he had been for years, for he knew that Pole would now go only to +carry out his policy, so far as regarded restitution, and he was already +full of hope that a child was to be born to Philip and Mary. That, +indeed, would be to fix the hand of Spain upon England for at least long +enough for his great purpose to be effected. In answer to an inquiry +as to the Queen’s state, somewhat too coarsely worded to be quoted +verbatim here, Mason was able on this occasion to inform the Emperor +that: “I understand to my great joy and comfort that her garments wax +very strait.” “I never doubted, quoth the Emperor, of the matter; but +that God, who had for her wrought so many miracles, could make the same +perfect by assisting nature to His good and most desired work. And I +warrant it shall be, quoth he, a man child. Be it man or woman, quoth I, +welcome shall it be: for by that shall we come to some certainty, to whom +God shall appoint by succession the government of our State.... Doubt +not, quoth he, God will provide both with fruit and otherwise: so as I +trust to see yet that realm to return to a great piece of that surety and +estimation that I have seen it in my time.”[76] Here, indeed, the wish +was father to the thought. For some weeks past it had been whispered at +Hampton Court that the Queen was with child, though Mary herself refused +to confirm it or otherwise; but to the Spanish party such a fact was +all-important, and the Emperor’s jubilation was heart-felt. Noailles, +on the other hand, scoffed incredulously at what he asserted was only a +conspiracy to cheat the English people into giving Philip greater power +and importance in the country, and he quotes as an instance of the way in +which the hope was regarded by English people, a scurrilous placard on +the subject which, he says, was nailed to the door of Whitehall Palace. + +Cardinal Pole, already ailing and elderly, was carried in his litter +with great ecclesiastical state from Brussels to Calais, and crossed the +Channel as soon as news reached him that the Parliament at Westminster +had reversed his attainder. Travelling by road, as usual, from Dover +to Gravesend, he found awaiting him at the latter port King Philip’s +own state barge to convey him to Westminster. On his way to London, +on Saturday, 24th November, he was met by all the English Catholic +Bishops and the Lords of the Council in their barges, and then, leading +the imposing procession with uplifted crosier before him, the English +Cardinal, in his rochet, tippet, and scarlet hat, passed up the London +river to the palace of his royal ancestors. + +King Philip was at dinner at Whitehall when news came to him that the +Cardinal’s barge had shot the dangerous rapids formed by the narrow +arches of London Bridge. Rising from the table at once the King descended +to the landing-stage of the Palace as the state barge was approaching +it. With uncovered head and respectful mien Philip greeted the great +English Churchman with more honour than he might have shown to any +sovereign prince, leading him on his right hand through the alleys and +galleries to the entrance to the hall, where at the head of the stairs +stood Queen Mary. Making a profound obeisance to the huge uplifted cross +which preceded her husband and Pole, she advanced to meet them, Pole +kneeling at her approach. Curtseying low and kissing her kinsman the +Queen assisted him to rise, and then between him and her husband she led +the way to the canopy, where for half an hour in polyglot converse, for +Pole had lost some of his English, and Philip knew little Italian, Mary +must have been for once in her life happy.[77] + +Nothing could exceed the honour shown by the Sovereigns to Pole, for it +was Philip’s policy to win him over entirely to his side, and Mary was +overjoyed at the prospect of the full reconciliation of her country with +the Papacy on conditions that seemed to promise general harmony. The +people, too, who knew Pole’s history, welcomed him warmly. He, like Mary +herself, had been unjustly used, and his family judicially murdered; he +was virtuous, upright, and honest,[78] and above all, in the eyes of the +populace, he represented an English force strong enough to champion the +cause of his countrymen, if needs be, against the Spanish faction. Pole +was lodged at Lambeth Palace, from which the unhappy Cranmer had been +sent to the Tower, and on the day of the Cardinal’s arrival in London, +Mary offered him the primacy, an offer which Pole for the moment put +aside until, as he said, he had done his errand as papal ambassador. +For the next three days Pole and the Sovereigns were closeted for hours +together settling the preliminaries for the formal return of England to +the papal fold, and Philip himself on one occasion, breaking through all +the traditions of his house, crossed alone to Lambeth and remained with +Pole for the entire afternoon. + +[Illustration: CARDINAL REGINALD POLE, PAPAL LEGATE AND ARCHBISHOP OF +CANTERBURY + +AFTER A PAINTING BY SEBASTIANO DEL PIOMBO] + +At length, on Wednesday, 28th November, all was ready, and in the great +hall of the Palace the assembled Lords and Commons were gathered in the +presence of the Queen and King to receive the Pope’s representative. +Outside the people were still saying—to the horror of the Spanish +listeners—that the Pope was only a man, after all, and could do no more +than other men[79]; but here, in Mary’s Parliament, no inharmonious note +was sounded, as the Lord Chancellor, Bishop Gardiner, rose and introduced +the Cardinal as the messenger from the Apostolic Pontiff. Pole, speaking +from the second stage of the daïs just beyond the canopy, begged in +Latin permission of the Queen to address the assembly in English; which +granted, he spoke first feelingly of his long unjust exile and the +persecution of his House, his attachment to the land of his birth through +all his trouble, and then he launched into an eloquent appeal for the +reunion of England to the Church. He praised the Emperor for his sturdy +defence of orthodoxy; but said that for some inscrutable reason God had +not allowed him to achieve his end. “But,” continued Pole, “I can well +compare him [_i.e._, the Emperor] to David, whiche thoughe he were a +manne elected of God, yet for that he was contaminate with bloode and war +could not builde the temple of Jerusalem, but left the finishing thereof +to his son Solomon, which was _Rex pacificus_. So may it be thoughte +that the appeasing of controversies of religion in Christendom is not +appointed to this Emperor but rather to his son who shal perfourme the +building that his father hath begun.”[80] + +When the long and moving extempore speech was finished, the Queen desired +Gardiner to express her thanks and congratulations to the Cardinal, and +to desire Parliament to consider deeply his weighty words. On that very +day, as Noailles insisted for the purpose of forwarding Pole’s mission, +official letters were despatched in the Queen’s name ordering that +thanksgiving and rogations should be offered in all the churches for her +pregnancy, now openly acknowledged. Whatever the malicious Frenchman +may have said, it is quite incredible that Mary herself did not believe +the assertion of her condition, nor is it likely that Philip thought +otherwise, seeing the assurances which, even in private letters, he gave +to his father on the subject.[81] The Queen’s subjects, too, rejoiced +exceedingly at the news, for a disputed succession seemed to portend +if Mary died childless. But, in any case, the announcement was most +opportune both for the success of Pole’s mission, and for another mission +to be mentioned presently, which was nearer the Emperor’s heart, and he +had entrusted secretly to Paget when he had gone to Flanders to escort +Pole to England. + +On Thursday, 29th November, 1554, during the discussion of the +ecclesiastical question in the House of Lords, the lay peers roundly +blamed the Bishops for all the schism and trouble that had occurred. If +they had not been poltroons, and had refused to humour King Henry in his +repudiation of his wife[82] and his defiance of the Holy See all would +have been well, said the laymen; but recriminations apart, both Lords and +Commons promptly adopted, almost unanimously, a resolution repealing the +acts that separated England from the Papacy, and authorising a commission +of twenty-four members of both Houses to beg the Queen’s approval of the +resolution, and to present to the papal ambassador the submission of the +nation to the head of the universal Church, begging for absolution and +readmittance to the fold. The next day, St. Andrew’s Day, 30th November, +the formal ceremony was held in the Palace of Whitehall. That morning +Philip had gone to Mass at Westminster Abbey in state with 100 German, +100 Spanish, and English guards, all in new uniforms, 50 Flemish archers, +and 150 smartly-clad pages, as if to mark the occasion as one of special +significance, and at five o’clock in the afternoon the Cardinal in his +pontifical vestments rowed across from Lambeth, the King receiving him at +the foot of the Palace stairs. In the presence chamber the Commissioners +of Parliament presented their petition to the Sovereigns through Lord +Chancellor Gardiner. Then the King and Queen rose, and crossing to +the Cardinal’s chair, in attitude of supplication asked him as the +Pope’s ambassador to receive the submission of England; after which +the Sovereigns, having returned to their thrones, Pole’s powers from +the Pope were read, and the Cardinal in an English discourse heartily +welcomed the strayed sheep into the fold again.[83] Kneeling, the whole +assembly received absolution and the apostolic blessing, and England was +recognised as a Catholic country again. + +To spectators of the scene, and especially to Spaniards, this seemed to +be an occurrence which for importance surpassed all others of the time. +Spain burst out into uncontrollable rejoicing, and Philip, the man who +his countrymen thought had performed this miracle by God’s mercy, was +more revered than ever. Now indeed, with the almost certainty of a son to +be born and to succeed as King of a Catholic England in close union with +Spain, the Frenchmen must rest content with a secondary place and the +House of Burgundy-Habsburg must lead. This view, to some extent, was one +that it suited Philip himself to promote in England, and he left no stone +unturned to impress upon his wife’s subjects the profound significance of +the formal reconciliation of the country to the Papacy; a power which, +when it had suited his father and himself, they had flouted again and +again, and which, within a year under the new Pope, Paul IV., was to +denounce them both with invective more bitter than was applied to the +worst of heretics. + +On the 2nd December, in great state, Philip rode along Fleet Street and +up Ludgate Hill to St. Paul’s, accompanied by the whole Court. From +Lambeth Pole had gone by water to Paul’s Wharf, and thence in procession +with crosses, banners, and censers to the Cathedral, where he awaited +the King’s coming with the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London. Side by +side the King and Cardinal, with a glittering train, passed up the nave +and out at the east end to St. Paul’s Cross, where, we are told, “with +all the Lords of the Council and with such an audience of people as was +never seen in that place before,”[84] fiery Gardiner preached a sermon +upon the words of St. Paul, “Brethren, know ye, that it is time we arose +from slumber”; in which he exhorted his hearers to shake off the evil +dream of the past and salute the new dawn. But not exhortation alone +occupied Gardiner’s oration, for he hinted that all the ruin and misery +that England had suffered, “all the abominable heresies, synistrate and +erroneous opinions, tumults and insurrections,” were owing to the “lack +of restraint” that had permitted such evils without due punishment. For, +once more into the hands of the priests, the rod had been delivered, +and Gardiner had no mind that it should lie idle. The famous sermon was +a threat to England, and the people who had spoken lightly of the Pope +for the last twenty years looked askance not only at the Churchman who +threatened, but at King Philip, whose furthest thought it was for the +moment to light the fires of religious persecution in the country, the +enmity and suspicion of which he was striving to lull to rest. + +We are told by Philip’s watchful gentleman-in-waiting that he enjoyed +his dinner well after Gardiner’s sermon, but the gentleman-in-waiting +saw the surface only. Philip was glad to have England back again +within the fold, though that was not the end, but the means for him. +Two days afterwards the long-delayed Spanish cane tourney, perhaps the +only one ever held in England, was celebrated with great pomp in the +tiltyard at Whitehall. For many weeks the bands of Spanish horsemen had +been rehearsing the mimic battle, in which opposing forces dressed in +splendid uniforms prance and caracol to within a few yards of each other +at full speed, and then, launching cane javelins at their antagonists, +wheel suddenly away. The Queen and her ladies were dressed in cloth of +gold with solid sheet-gold coifs, all at the King’s expense, and the +Queen must have been a blaze of magnificence in her rich brocade, her +overgarment of crimson velvet lined with fur, and her dress covered +entirely with precious stones and sheet gold spangles. Twelve thousand +people, we are told, looked on, as band after band of Spaniards pranced +into the arena, some in white velvet and gold, some in blue and silver, +some in black and gold; and a great ball and supper wound up the +entertainment. + +Three weeks later, the visit of Philip’s heroic young cousin, Emmanuel +Philibert of Savoy, was an occasion for further festivities of the +same sort, although the occasion of his coming was in itself far from +a festive one. The Prince was in command of the Emperor’s army, but in +the clash of great empires he feared that his own smaller interests were +going to the wall, as indeed they were. The war had prevented him from +accepting the invitation to Philip’s wedding; but in September, 1554, he +had sent an embassy headed by Count Langosco to London to pray Philip to +intercede with the Emperor for him. Much of his paternal territory was +occupied by the French; he had no money even to pay the garrisons of +Nice and the other fortresses that remained to him, and he foresaw the +possibility that when France and the Emperor made peace Savoy might be +left in the hands of the former. Philip was amiable but indefinite in his +reception of Savoy’s embassy in London. A commission was sent to invest +the Duke with the Order of the Garter, and kind assurances of regard were +exchanged, but Savoy wanted more than that, and when his troops were in +winter quarters he managed with difficulty to raise enough money to run +over personally, in the last days of the year 1554, to see his cousin +Philip and his English wife for the purpose of urging his own suit. It +is usually assumed that the primary object of his visit was to offer his +hand to Princess Elizabeth, but such was not the case.[85] His handsome +presence and the fame of his military exploits made him an attractive +guest at Mary’s Court, and both the King and Queen were very favourably +impressed by him, Philip, indeed, to a great extent acceding to the +demands that brought him to London. + +The idea of his marriage with Elizabeth appears first to have come +from some of his Piedmontese subjects, naturally anxious that the +succession to his ancient throne should be secured. Writing from +London in September, 1554, one of his ambassadors says that if he were +authorised to do so, he would propose the match to King Philip. In any +case, some communication seemed to have passed between Philip and the +Savoy ambassadors on the subject, and when Emmanuel Philibert arrived +in London early in January, the question was further discussed. It was +a match that would have suited Philip admirably, and he was prompt to +adopt the idea. Emmanuel Philibert himself was in no mood for wooing, for +the French had just captured another of his fortresses, Ivrea, and it +seemed to him politic to keep himself free to marry a French princess, +if necessary, as the price of his restoration to his domains. Nor were +the obstacles in England to his marriage with Elizabeth slight. To begin +with, the Queen was opposed to her sister’s marriage at all without +the consent of Parliament, which would certainly refuse to authorise a +foreign match for the Princess, and especially to a dispossessed Prince +under the influence of the Emperor. Nor did the Queen wish to give to +Elizabeth the additional importance and power which would accrue to +her from her marriage with a sovereign. Philip, if we are to believe +Michaeli, was somewhat afraid of his wife, and did not dare to press +her too far in the matter “as she had a terrible and obstinate temper.” +To the King’s Confessor, therefore, was entrusted the task of winning +over Mary. After much trouble he persuaded her so far as to get her to +promise to speak to the King about it the next evening. This she did +not do, and it was believed that Pole had in the interval dissuaded +her. The opposition from Elizabeth was even more decided. She was quite +resolved, she said, neither to marry nor to leave England. On the part of +Savoy also the terms proposed by Philip were held to be quite out of the +question, including as they did the cession to Spain of the fortresses +of Nice and Villafranca, in case any children were born to Emmanuel +Philibert and Elizabeth. It will be seen, therefore, that at this time +the match was never probable, and though Savoy was lodged in Elizabeth’s +palace, Somerset House in the Strand, the Princess herself was not +even brought from her seclusion at Woodstock to see him.[86] Emmanuel +Philibert, impatient to be gone, left England, though not empty-handed, +to resume his turbulent career after a three weeks’ stay. + +Philip had to a great extent overcome the personal unpopularity which +at his first coming he had to face; but the fear of the people that, +sooner or later, England would be dragged by the Imperialists into +war with France was stronger than ever, and the Spanish followers of +the King got on no better than before with the English. One of the +gentlemen-in-waiting writes at this time, “We are in a pleasant land, but +amongst the worst people in the world, at least of Christian nations, +for these English people are terrible enemies of Spain. It is easy to +see that by the many serious quarrels that take place between us and +them. Hardly a day passes without a slashing match in the Palace between +Englishmen and Spaniards, and many have been killed on both sides. Only +last week, in consequence of a fight, they hanged three Englishmen and a +Spaniard, and every day something of the sort happens.... We Spaniards +go about amongst these English people like fools, for they are such +barbarians that they do not understand what we say, nor we them. They +will not crown our Prince, although he is a King now, nor will they +acknowledge him as their superior. They say that he only came to help to +rule the country and to beget a child, and that as soon as the Queen has +children he can go back to Spain. God send that it may be soon, for he +would be glad enough, and we infinitely more so, to get away from such +barbarous folk.”[87] To add to the tribulation of these disappointed +courtiers, they found prices in England ten times higher than those they +were used to, and they were almost ruined by their necessary expenses, +besides being robbed, even of their cloaks, if they ventured out after +dark in London. + +To their chagrin, too, they saw great sums of Spanish money, sorely +needed, they knew, for the Emperor’s wars, being squandered upon English +purposes. Gresham had been allowed by the Emperor to borrow for Mary +and export from Spain £100,000, an enormous sum in those days, and +one which, Gresham wrote, was terribly wanted in the country itself. +“I am not abell,” he wrote, “with my pen to set forthe unto you the +greate scarsity that is now through all Spayne....” And he adds later, +“I fere that I shall be the occasione they shuld all play bankrupt,” +since one great bank had already suspended payment in consequence of +his operations.[88] Apart from this, Philip’s own guard carried through +London to the Tower 97 chests of silver, estimated to contain £50,000 +for his own expenditure,[89] whilst Eraso brought 250,000 crowns to +England in January, 1555, and the gentleman-in-waiting says that not only +had the King guaranteed a debt of the Queen’s of 250,000 ducats, but he +had distributed in bribes and pensions to the Councillors and courtiers +30,000 ducats a year. + +At length, with all these blandishments and preparations, the Emperor and +Philip thought after the submission of Parliament to the Pope, that the +time had come when they might endeavour to reap the harvest. Paget, in +his interview with the Emperor in Brussels, had been urged to represent +to his colleagues on the English Council that the co-operation of their +country in his war against the French would be of immense benefit to +Christendom, and in a long memorandum sent by Renard to Philip during +the session of Parliament, he discussed the various pretexts upon which +a war between England and France might be precipitated. But Bonner’s +harsh and violent persecution disturbed men’s minds. A great conspiracy +was discovered in the Eastern Counties in which some of the Councillors +were suspected of being implicated, the main object being the marriage +and elevation to the throne of Courtenay and Elizabeth; and although +Parliament passed an Act recognising Philip as guardian of his expected +heir in case of the Queen’s death, his own wish to be appointed Regent in +the event of her death without children, and his present recognition and +coronation as King, were seen to be unrealisable in the state of public +feeling, and Parliament was dissolved on the 16th January Still less was +it possible to urge seriously that England should declare war against +France, and, thanks to the efforts of Mary and Pole, another attempt was +made to bring about peace by means of a Congress meeting at Calais. + +So far from going to war for the Spaniards, the people, indeed, were +increasingly inclined to war against them. King Philip’s countrymen, +moreover, were far from sharing or even understanding his tolerant +affability in the face of the unjust suspicion and insults to which they +were daily subjected. Affrays between them and the Londoners were more +frequent than ever, and although the hanging and mutilation of offenders +against the peace, English and Spanish, was frequent, and Philip himself +threatened dire punishment to any of his suite who drew a knife or shared +in a brawl, the national hatred was so strong that no penalties could +stop the disorders. In February, 1555, Renard wrote to the Emperor in an +alarming strain. He prayed most earnestly to be allowed to return home +when King Philip went to Flanders, which he then intended to do in a +few weeks. He was certain, he said, that he (Renard) would be murdered +the moment the King’s back was turned. The heretics were cursing him +for having been the cause of bringing the Papists back to England, the +French party were vowing vengeance against him for introducing the hated +Spaniards to domineer over free Englishmen, the Earl of Arundel had +sworn to be avenged upon him for frustrating his plan to marry his son +to Princess Elizabeth, and the Duke of Northumberland’s sons had already +hired four assassins to kill him.[90] + +In vain Philip urged moderation in the prosecution of heresy, and one +of his chaplains, Alfonso de Castro, publicly in an outspoken sermon +denounced the burning of heretics as opposed to the true spirit of +Christ. But Bonner and Gardiner pursued their stern way, and most of the +odium of their proceedings fell upon the King and his countrymen. The +Queen, herself in a fool’s paradise of hope and joy, thought of nothing +but the coming glory of maternity. The country itself was awaiting the +event as one that was to decide, so far as could be seen, its future +fate. Ominous mutterings of the fell bonfires that had already begun in +Smithfield were common enough, and the factions in the Eastern Counties +were as active as ever beneath the surface, notwithstanding their +ruthless suppression. The English exiles in France were being made much +of in the Court of Henry II., and loaded with favours, whilst Noailles +in London kept in close touch with the elements of discontent at home. +In the circumstances Philip’s intention to obey his father’s summons to +Flanders soon after the dissolution of Parliament had to be postponed, at +least until the expected confinement of the Queen in April had cleared +the air and settled men’s minds. + +In the meanwhile Philip continued to do his best to maintain his +popularity, counselling prudence to the zealous bishops, lavishing +money on courtiers, interceding gently for Elizabeth and Courtenay, and +taking active part in the showy military exercises which the English +loved, but which for him had no attraction.[91] In March, Courtenay +from his prison at Fotheringham wrote to Philip, saying that, as by the +King’s intercession with the Queen so many persons had been released, he +prayed for his mediation in his favour, very submissively beseeching his +protection and that he would deign to accept his service. This happened +at the very time that the new conspiracy was discovered, but Courtenay +was almost as dangerous in an English prison as free, and, thanks to +Pole’s support of Philip’s efforts, and on the understanding that he +would accompany the English embassy to Flanders and Rome, Courtenay was +summoned to Court and graciously received by the Queen and her husband. + +Much more important, and doubtless intended to be so by Philip, was his +successful intercession for Elizabeth. The Princess, as we have seen, +was not brought to London to receive the visit of her would-be suitor, +the Duke of Savoy, in January; for her own resistance to the match, and +Mary’s reluctance to restore her fully in blood, which would have been +necessary if her marriage with Savoy was to serve Spanish ends, had +nipped that plan in the bud. But now, in April, to the great delight and +surprise of the people, the Queen’s sister was summoned with graciousness +from her seclusion at Woodstock to the Palace of Whitehall. Michaeli, +who was a keen observer, attributes her release and presence at Court +before the expected confinement of the Queen to the fear of the Spanish +party that in case of Mary’s death “the King’s safety would depend more +upon her than upon any other person; not only from his hope of being +able, with the help of the nobles here whom he has gained by rewards, to +succeed to the Kingdom by marrying her, it being not improbable that she +herself will incline that way, as she knows his behaviour and character; +but even should she and the country refuse this, yet by her presence, she +being in his power, he would be able to secure himself against any rising +against him and his followers, and they might by her means get away +safely.”[92] + +Elizabeth came very quietly to Hampton Court late in April, and was +lodged in the apartment which the Duke of Alba had recently vacated. +It is evident that her presence was desired by Philip more for his own +security than for the sake of the Princess, as she only saw her sister +and Philip in strict privacy on two or three occasions. Whilst in this +close seclusion Elizabeth had at least one long private interview with +Philip alone at the Queen’s request, his object evidently being to induce +the Princess to confess her fault and throw herself upon her sister’s +clemency. But Elizabeth was wary and would not commit herself. When a few +weeks afterwards Gardiner on his knees urged the same advice upon her, +she replied that she had not offended and asked no mercy of any one. A +week later the Queen herself tried her hand upon her recalcitrant sister. +She had not seen her since she sent her to the Tower two years before, +and when the unexpected summons to the presence came to Elizabeth late +at night the young Princess gave herself up for lost. “Pray for me,” she +said to her attendants as she left the apartment, “for I know not whether +you will ever see me more.” Across the dark garden Elizabeth was led +between Sir Henry Bedingfield and Mistress Clarencius to the foot of a +small back staircase to the Queen’s rooms. Leaving her attendant outside, +the Princess was conducted by Clarencius alone to the Queen’s presence +in the bedchamber. Kneeling, Elizabeth besought her sister to believe in +her loyalty in spite of calumnies. “You will not confess your offence, +but stand stoutly in your truth?” asked Mary sternly. “I pray God it +may so fall out.” “If it doth not,” replied the Princess, “I request +neither favour nor pardon at your Majesty’s hand.” The Queen drily +suggested that her sister would probably say that she had been unjustly +punished, but Elizabeth deftly turned the point by a fervent reiteration +of her dutifulness and loyalty, and Mary, apparently somewhat mollified, +dismissed her sister not unamiably. + +Foxe, who describes the scene,[93] says that it was believed that Philip +listened behind the arras to what passed at the interview, and “that +he showed himself a very friend in that matter.” Certain it is that on +several occasions after Elizabeth had succeeded to the throne he claimed +her gratitude or consideration for having on one occasion rescued her +from grave peril, and it is probable that this may have been the occasion +referred to. There were many reasons beyond the temporary one already +mentioned that explain Philip’s solicitude for Elizabeth’s life. Failing +Elizabeth, and any possible issue of the Queen, the next heir to the +English throne by natural law was the young Queen of Scots, practically +a French princess married to the heir of France. Better a thousand times +for Philip and his House that England should be ruled even by a heretic +friendly to him than by the staunchest Catholic under the control of +the hereditary enemy of the House of Habsburg. It must have been clear +to him, moreover, by this time that the Reformation in England had not +been crushed by Mary’s advent, and that a large proportion of the people +regarded France as a more desirable friend than Spain. Nor could he shut +his eyes to Elizabeth’s popularity, and to the fact that the enemies of +his faith and his House looked to the young Princess as their head. So +sagacious a politician would naturally endeavour to gain the goodwill, +even the disposal in marriage, of a person so potentially powerful as his +young sister-in-law, who, in any case, was likely to outlive his wife, +and might if well handled perpetuate the hold of Spain upon England, now +depending upon so tenuous a thread. + +On the 30th April there came flying to London from Hampton Court the +news that the nation’s prayers had been heard, and that at midnight of +the 29th a male child had been born to the Queen, happily and well. +Proclamation was made, joy bells rang, all business was suspended, and +processions from every church perambulated the parishes with psalms +of thanksgiving for so signal a mercy. Public tables were spread that +all might freely eat and drink their fill, whilst bonfires blazed in +broad daylight, and the people forgot for a moment the grim spectre of +persecution that might be perpetuated if the news was true. But it was +not true, and the sad disillusionment came whilst yet the rejoicings were +in full swing. It was, said the Catholics, an invention of the enemy +in order to cause trouble; but though this was possible, for Noailles +had never ceased to sneer at the assurance of the Queen’s condition, +the open and ostentatious preparations for the event that had been +made at Court were of themselves sufficient reason for the rumour of +the birth. The occurrence naturally distressed Mary, who kept her room +thereafter for a time, and at once a flood of scurrilous literature +was surreptitiously circulated in London, calumniating the Queen, her +husband, and all their friends.[94] + +All through May the country stood on tiptoe of expectation for the birth +of the prince whose coming meant so much apparently for the future of +Christendom. Mary, still deceiving herself, was comforted by the sight +of new-born babies brought to her whose mothers were, it was said, as +old and as thin as she. Philip’s solicitude, too, knew no bounds. Every +demonstration of affection was lavished upon his wife, and nothing was +allowed to stand in the way of his anticipated joy. Although in deep +mourning for his grandmother, Jane the Crazy, he ordered that the moment +his expected son was born all signs of mourning were to be abandoned. +His father was summoning him incessantly, and he was yearning furiously +to get away, but he could not leave his wife whilst this event was still +pending. At last, at the end of May, he gave permission for most of his +Spanish suite and his guards to cross the Channel in advance of him. It +was indeed time; for only a week before a regular pitched battle between +five hundred armed Englishmen and a body of Spaniards took place at +Hampton Court, many being killed and wounded on both sides;[95] and the +fires of Smithfield were blazing freely now, to the almost open anger of +the people, who unjustly cast all the blame upon the Spanish influence at +Court. + +There were other things, too, which made it expedient for Philip to +hurry to his father’s side. The Venetian ambassador went to see him at +Richmond at the beginning of June, and on their way to chapel together +Philip told Michaeli that he had that moment received news from Brussels +that Cardinal Caraffa had been elected Pope. The ambassador noticed that +the King was disturbed and unquiet at the news, as well he might be, +for the Neapolitan, Caraffa, was the bitterest foe of Spain alive; and +this meant that the peace which was being so painfully negotiated at +Calais would be frustrated, or in any case be of short duration; for in +future the Spanish champion of orthodoxy would have not only to contend +against the “eldest son of the Church,” but against the head of the +Church himself,[96] making common cause, “not only with France, but with +the Turk, and if need be with the devil himself,” to dwarf the Spanish +power in Italy and the Mediterranean. But, urgent though Philip’s +presence elsewhere might be, it was more urgent still in England until +safety came with the birth of his hoped for child. Writing in June to +the Emperor, Renard says that everything hangs upon the happy issue of +that event. He continues: “The doctors and ladies were two months out of +their reckoning, and there is now no appearance of the affair happening +for another ten days. If, by God’s mercy, she does well, matters here +will take a better turn; but if not, I foresee trouble, and a great +disturbance, so great, indeed, that the pen cannot express it. For it is +certain that they have managed so ill with regard to the succession, that +if anything untoward happens Lady Elizabeth will have the preference, +heresy will take a new life and religion be overturned. She being French +in her leanings, the nation will decline, the ecclesiastics will be +persecuted, and revenge will be more rife than ever. I am not at all +sure that the King and Court will be safe from the people, and the final +tragedy will be calamitous. It is incredible to what extent this delay in +the birth affords to the partisans of Elizabeth ground for the spread of +false rumours. Some say the Queen is not pregnant at all, and that if a +fitting child had been found there would not have been so much delay.”[97] + +In this critical condition affairs remained for many weeks longer, +the Queen obstinately refusing to give up her hope, which her women +and physicians had already pronounced delusive. Hampton Court was +overcrowded by gossiping courtiers; but none were allowed to see the +Queen except a few of her favourite ladies, and the whole of the routine +work of the Sovereign was done by Philip. All this was, of course, known +by the expectant people in London, who saw daily church processions for +the Queen’s safe delivery month after month, until anxiety began to give +place to ridicule. Sometimes rumours ran that the Queen was dead, and +that the fact was being kept secret by Philip in order that he might work +his will in England. Religious feeling grew more bitter than ever, with +Bonner’s ruthless persecution on the one hand and fanatic sacrilege on +the other. To make matters worse, the summer was the most inclement and +the harvest the scantiest that had been seen in England for years, and +discontent was everywhere. At length, after another disappointment in +July, even poor, forlorn Mary herself was convinced that she had been +mistaken, and early in August she dismissed the crowds of hangers-on from +their attendance at Court and moved with a smaller following to Oatlands, +where she gradually resumed her ordinary routine again.[98] + +Orders were given for the processions and rogations of the Church to be +discontinued, and Philip was now faced with the fact that the splendid +plot of his father to capture the control of England by marriage had +practically failed, for Mary’s health was evidently bad, and her life +promised to be a short one. With it would end the hold of Philip over +England unless the Queen’s successor could be lured into the Spanish net. +Little knew the Spaniards yet what a wily bird it was that they hoped +to snare. But in the meanwhile it behoved Philip to make the most of his +opportunities whilst his wife lived. He could delay his departure no +longer, for his father was peremptory now, and the urgent need for his +presence in England had passed. He was as imperturbable as ever, still an +attentive and apparently an affectionate husband to the Queen, though his +gallantries to other ladies began to be talked about somewhat openly. If +the Queen were of a jealous disposition, wrote the Venetian ambassador, +she would indeed be unhappy; to which the reply may be made that she +was jealous and she was unhappy. Even now, on the very eve of Philip’s +departure, she strove ardently to keep him by her side, or at least to +extract a pledge from him that he would return to her within a month, a +promise which at last he gave, though to his own Spanish confidants he +said that if once he set foot in Spain again, he would never leave it on +so poor an occasion.[99] + +By the 20th August it became impossible to hide any longer Philip’s +approximate departure. Every day fresh parties of Spanish courtiers +and attendants were starting on the road from Gravesend to Dover, and +the rumour spread in London that, in order to get away quietly, and +so escape the notice of the French, the King intended to go down the +river in Lord Arundel’s barge and embark at Dover secretly. The news +was untrue, for Philip and Mary went openly through London to Greenwich +to make preparations for the voyage; though it was jealously noted by +the people that, although Elizabeth was now at Court and on good terms +with the Queen, she was sent to Greenwich by water, it was said in +order that the people might not see and cheer her.[100] Mary was full +of grief and inconsolable at losing her husband even for a month, and +Philip, ostensibly full of solicitude, specially confided the care of +her to Pole. Orders were given that the minutes of all the Privy Council +meetings, translated into Latin, were to be sent to the King during his +absence, and that no important resolution was to be adopted without his +approval. Gardiner was already dying of jaundice and dropsy, and in no +case would have been trusted by Philip; but Pole was wise and amiable, +and it was hoped would prove a pliable instrument for Spanish ends, +advocated as they would be by the Councillors already bribed in the +Emperor’s interest. + +On the 26th August Philip and his wife left Hampton Court by water for +Westminster, where they dined; and in the afternoon, with great and +unaccustomed state, rode through London to Greenwich Palace. It had been +generally believed at one time, and the fear still lingered, that Mary +was really dead, and it was thought necessary on this occasion that +all London should have an opportunity of seeing her. At the head of +the cavalcade rode Philip with the Cardinal on his left hand, followed +closely by the Queen in an open litter. But the French ambassador, who +saw the procession, sneered at the distrust shown by Philip of the +Londoners, for around him there were a hundred of his archers of the +guard, armed to the teeth, with their morrions on their heads and their +lances raised.[101] The joy of the people at seeing the Queen again was +great, for she was still popular personally, though murmurs there were +for the absence of Elizabeth. Three days afterwards, on the 29th August, +1555, Philip tore himself away from his reluctant spouse. Mastering her +grief in public by a great effort, but with tear-reddened eyes and drawn, +pallid face, the Queen led her husband composedly through the long suites +of rooms of the Palace of Greenwich; though when the members of Philip’s +Spanish household who remained behind came one by one, and, kneeling, +kissed his hand, Mary for a time failed to control her agitation: and +she sobbed convulsively when the English ladies of the Court, copiously +weeping, were kissed farewell in English fashion by the gallant young +king. With a last embrace Mary’s husband left her to enter the barge, +whilst she retired to her own apartment, where, leaning upon the sill +of an open window, and thinking herself unobserved, she gave way to her +sorrow unconstrained, whilst she watched the boat speed down the river, +bearing away all she loved on earth. + +Philip played his part admirably to the last. Standing on the most +conspicuous spot of the barge, he continued to raise his hat and waft +affectionate salutations to the royal watcher at the window, until a +bend in the river shut from his sight the Palace of Greenwich and its +mistress. The bitterest disappointment must have been his. France was as +far from being subdued as ever, the Emperor was weary of the struggle, +old and sick at heart, and yearning to cast his burden upon his son. +Peace was absolutely necessary at almost any terms that the French would +grant, for it was now clear that England would not, even if she were +able, throw her resources into another’s war at the bidding of the King +Consort. But Philip showed no sign of defeat. Like a courteous high-bred +gentleman, smiling and debonair, he bade a fond farewell for a month to +his faded wife, whom, if he could have his way, he wished never more to +see.[102] + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +1555-1558 + + Religious persecution in England—Philip’s attempts to restrain + it—His efforts to keep control of English policy—Elizabeth + comes to Court—Return of Philip to England—French intrigues—The + English drawn into the war—St. Quentin—Loss of Calais—Penury + of the English treasury—Illness and death of Mary—Feria’s + approaches to Elizabeth + + +Renard had been right in his prediction. The moment that the restraining +presence of Philip was removed from England the ecclesiastics carried +things with a higher hand than ever.[103] Not only did the fires to burn +heretics increase in number, but proposals were made in the Council +to resume possession for the Church of the alienated first-fruits and +tithes, as well as the benefices in lay hands. The minutes of the +discussion were sent to Philip in Flanders with the report of the +publication of the Bull confirming the possession by private people of +the confiscated monastery and Church lands. To the latter Philip gives +his readiest acquiescence; but for the proposal to restore the dues +to the possession of the Church he has nothing but doubt and evasion. +The question, he says, should be maturely discussed by eight selected +Councillors, who should report to him before anything decisive is done, +and he warns them that in the forthcoming Parliament nothing must be +proposed without his prior consent. So, also, in the matter of the +English Navy. The Council reported to him that the ships were mostly +unseaworthy and should be brought into the Thames for repair, whilst +the few good vessels should be reinforced and stationed between Dover +and Calais. There was nothing that Philip needed more than that the +French should be held in check in the Channel, and he is emphatic in his +endorsement of the Council’s suggestion. “England’s chief defence depends +upon its Navy being always ready to defend the realm against invasion, +so that it is right that the ships should not only be fit for sea but +instantly available.... The vessels ought to be stationed at Portsmouth, +where they can much more easily be brought into service.” That Philip had +his own interests in mind quite as much as those of England in the matter +is seen by what follows. “The King is the more inclined to this course, +as the Emperor has decided to sail for Spain about the end of October ... +and has expressed a wish that twelve or fourteen English ships should +escort him beyond Ushant. This makes the King more anxious that these +ships should be ready and in excellent order; so that, besides other +necessary uses, they may go upon this service, which will be especially +grateful to his Highness.”[104] + +Mary, it will be seen, counted for nothing. The sole object in view was +Philip’s interests, and, although decently cloaked with his usual bland +professions of his desire to serve England, everything he did at this +time was directed to using the country for his ends whilst his wife +lived. After that he would have to deal with a new state of affairs. +Another instance of the postponement of English interests for his +benefit is seen in the delay in summoning Parliament until after he had +left England. The sole object of the session was to raise money. Mary’s +Government was in the deepest penury. Extravagance, corruption, and +demoralisation existed everywhere in the administration; but pressing as +was the need for funds, Philip could not face the certain unpopularity +that would have fallen upon him if the demand for large taxation before +his departure had given a pretext to the suspicious English for the +belief that the money was being raised for him. + +In great state Mary, with Pole by her side, proceeded from St. James’s +Palace in a sort of throne-litter on the 21st October, 1555, to open +Parliament at Westminster, and Gardiner as Lord Chancellor, now a dying +man, appealed in the Queen’s name for liberal supplies to conduct the +business of the nation. It was his last effort, and though Parliament +voted a million crowns, to be paid in two years, the Chancellor took +no further share in public business, dying three weeks after at +Whitehall, whither he was carried from the Parliament Chamber. The +death of Gardiner was an irreparable loss to Mary. The man had many +faults; he was arrogant, unscrupulous, and violent, but he was a bold +and experienced statesman, who kept his shifty, greedy colleagues in +something approaching subjection; and he was determined to prevent, if +he could, either of the great Continental rivals from obtaining control +of English policy for their ends. He had opposed the Spanish match as +long as opposition might have prevented it; but when it was effected +he minimised its disadvantages and never allowed either the Queen or +Philip to subordinate English interests to those of others. He was as +unpopular with the French faction as he was with the Spanish, and his +death left the greedy cliques of Councillors, of whom Paget was the +most active and corrupt, most of them bribed by one or both rivals, to +wrangle uncontrolled in the interests of their paymasters or their own, +with little thought for England. Pole had lost touch of English politics, +for he was, to all intents and purposes, an Italian ecclesiastic, with +a first thought for his papal mission. He lived in the Palace during +Philip’s absence, and every day solemnly prayed with Mary for the King’s +safe return; but he had refused to act as leading political Councillor, +and was only consulted, as the Queen was, on subjects of high importance +or upon which the Councillors differed. He, like the Queen, undoubtedly +meant well by England; but, like her also, his views were exalted and +unpractical, and thenceforward there was little restraining power upon +the Council, except such as could be exerted by Philip, far away in +Flanders and overwhelmed with his own affairs. + +Philip had found his father in the last stage of mental and physical +depression, and soon after the son arrived from England, on the 25th +October, 1555, Charles V., in one of the most dramatic scenes in +history, surrendered to him the sovereignty of the land of his birth, his +beloved Flanders. This was soon followed by the abandonment of the rest +of his crowns; and Philip, in January, 1556, found himself monarch of all +the vast inheritance of Burgundy and Spain, whilst his uncle Ferdinand +took the exalted but powerless crown of the Empire. Almost simultaneously +with Philip’s accession to the Spanish Crown the Emperor, desirous above +all things of leaving his son at peace, brought the long-drawn peace +negotiations to an end by signing a five years’ truce at Vaucelles with +his rival, France. England was thus for a short time relieved from the +dread of being drawn into the war to please the King Consort. + +In the meanwhile, Mary had been fretting and pining for her absent +husband. He had promised her faithfully to return in a month, but that, +of course, was out of the question. Stories came to her, also, that he +was enjoying himself there with ladies younger than herself, not wisely +but too well for the faithful spouse of so saintly a wife. “This has +so much upset her that in conversation with one of her most intimate +friends she said that if it should so happen that the King never came +back, notwithstanding all her efforts to recall him, she must put up +with living the rest of her life without the company of a man, as she +had done before her marriage, and with such patience as she could. This +gives food for the reflection that in order to persuade him to return +the sooner she will make incredible efforts in this Parliament in his +favour.”[105] Philip’s revenge for his enforced good behaviour in +England, indeed, almost alarmed the Emperor. For the only time in his +life the King Consort now became dissipated, carrying on vulgar intrigues +and scouring the streets of Brussels in disguise in search of adventure. +News came to Mary that he had fallen ill, though there was nothing +the matter with him but the effects of too much gaiety, and a special +English courier sent by the anxious Queen to learn the truth with regard +to his health was received by Philip in Brussels in December, 1555. +The King sent reassuring news to his wife with affectionate greetings, +and a faithful promise to go over to England at once, and the English +messenger, overjoyed at the good tidings he bore, promised the Spanish +courtiers that he would not damp the Queen’s delight by telling her of +her husband’s high jinks, “as she was so easily upset, and was so anxious +about him that it would afflict her too much.” For a few days after she +got Philip’s message Mary lived in a heaven of anticipation, but, alas! +orders came anon that the King’s Spanish household in England was to +make ready to depart, and this cast her into despair, for she believed +it portended Philip’s own return to Spain. The English people, unlike +their Queen, were rejoiced at the departure of the Spaniards, and as they +went on their way to Dover followed them with reviling and insults, for +Philip’s new dignity had in no way increased the popularity of himself +and his countrymen in Spain, because it was feared that when the war +broke out again with France, as it evidently soon would, his position +as King Consort of England and Sovereign of Flanders would make it +impossible for the English to keep out of the conflict. + +One of Mary’s baits to draw Philip back to her was to persuade her +Council to consent to his coronation in England. From the first both +Philip and his father had laid great stress upon this, but the successive +English Parliaments, and even the English Council, had vetoed it. Now +that the strongest man who opposed it was dead, Philip urged his wife to +press the proposal again, certain that she would do so, if possible, in +order to bring him to London, if for no other reason; but Mary had to +face for the first time a Parliament of some spirit and independence, +consisting largely of gentry, and she wrote to her husband saying that +she did not dare to propose his coronation yet, as so many disaffected +members had been returned. Noailles was busy inciting opposition in +Parliament, and he noted with glee that now that the King had gone people +spoke more freely about him than ever. Another demand was repeated by +Philip to his wife, namely, that she should join him in the war with +France.[106] Mary, through an envoy of Cardinal Pole, was obliged to +tell her husband that she was surrounded by people whom she could not +trust, that the nation was already unquiet, if not disaffected, and that +any attempt to draw England into the war at present might cost her her +crown. But she ended with another earnest prayer that he would return +to her, and all might then be well. Once more Philip promised to come +immediately, and the English fleet was made ready to receive him at +Calais; but the truce of Vaucelles, already mentioned, for the next few +months made Philip’s need less pressing, and he came not. + +Gradually the centre of interest in English politics was changing from +Mary to her sister Elizabeth. Notwithstanding the Queen’s continued +assertion of hope that she yet might become a mother if Philip would +return to England again, every one but the deluded lady herself had now +abandoned such a hope. By the will of Henry VIII., which Mary did not +dare to alter, Elizabeth was the next heir. The Princess was idolised by +the people, and although she was to all appearance a devout Catholic, +the Reform party and the friends of France looked towards her as their +leader. Paget was more than suspected of intriguing in her favour, for he +was now receiving French pay; her kinsman, Lord William Howard, treated +her, to Mary’s anger, almost as a queen already; and other Councillors, +uncertain of the future, were unblushingly hedging in her favour. When +Philip left England he specially commended the Princess to the kindness +of the Queen; and according to Noailles, his chamberlain in England, Don +Diego de Geneda, with the other Spanish courtiers, paid marked attention +to her, visiting her in her apartments at Greenwich during her stay there +every day. Geneda appears, indeed, to have secretly offered to Elizabeth +Philip’s ten-year-old son as a husband, but the Princess again took +refuge behind her impenetrable reserve. She was determined, she said, +neither to marry nor to leave the country.[107] + +The Spanish attempts to win Elizabeth were watched closely by Noailles, +as were the suspected intentions of the Queen in her disfavour whilst +Parliament was sitting. Mary, as we have seen, however, found the newly +elected Commons so stout and outspoken that she was afraid to advance +any of her dearly cherished designs to them, and hastened to dissolve +them in December, clapping some of the bolder members into prison for +speaking too freely. The group of English exiles still in France were +continuing to demand fresh help to aid their disaffected brothers in +England, and in the circumstances it is not surprising that Noailles and +his master should consider the juncture a favourable one for making a +clean sweep of Mary and the Spanish interest in England. Courtenay, in +Italy, was secretly warned to hold himself in readiness, but this was +only a matter of precaution, for poor Courtenay was in the hands of the +enemy and already a dead force. The principal card by which Noailles +hoped to win the game for France was Elizabeth, now living quietly +and devoutly at Hatfield, surrounded by servants upon whom she could +depend. Through a French agent named Bertheville Noailles approached a +number of disaffected gentlemen, several of them members of the late +Parliament, from Devonshire; and Sir Henry Dudley, Sir Anthony Kingston, +Sir William Peckham, Ashton, Daniel, the two Tremaynes, and others, +agreed to proclaim Elizabeth, expel or otherwise dispose of Mary, marry +the new Queen to Courtenay, and free the country finally from the Spanish +nightmare. The aid of France was, of course, a necessary condition +of success; but when the moment for action came Henry II. had just +signed the truce of Vaucelles, and he counselled prudence and a waiting +policy, knowing that the blow might be more effectually dealt when the +inevitable war recommenced. That Elizabeth was at least cognisant that +something was afoot is evident from Montmorenci’s letter to Noailles +of 7th February, 1556 (Ambassades, vol. v.), in which he says: “And, +above all, prevent Madam Elizabeth from moving in the slightest degree +to undertake what you say; for if she do it will spoil everything and +prevent the fruition of their designs, which must be deferred until a +good opportunity offers.” + +The French Embassy in London became the rallying-point for treason +against Mary; crowds of disaffected Englishmen begged for means of +joining Dudley, who had gone to France, and there with French aid to +organise a descent upon England simultaneous with a rising at Court. +Noailles himself was an eager conspirator, but the French Government +advised delay, and the ambassador was obliged to temporise. The +conspirators were in no mood now for half-measures, for the country +was growing indignant at the religious persecutions and the unfounded +belief that Mary was impoverishing her country by sending out money to +her Spanish husband, and it was determined by the conspirators to act +at once. Sir Anthony Kingston, with the Devonshire men, was to march +to London, raising the country on the way; the Captain of the Isle of +Wight, Uvedale, was to place the island at the disposal of the English +refugees from France, whilst Heneage and other courtiers undertook to +raise London, pillage the treasury, and proclaim Elizabeth Queen. Pole +always distrusted Elizabeth, even in her most submissive and Catholic +moods; and, thanks to a spy, he had already been informed of the whole +plan of the conspirators; whilst Wotton, the English ambassador in +France, had kept the English Council well informed of the movements +and gossip of the English refugees. Just before the time fixed for the +rising, therefore, the hand of the Council came down heavily upon the +conspirators, and by the end of March all the principals found themselves +behind the bars, most of them on the way to the scaffold. + +There was no direct evidence of Elizabeth’s guilt—she had taken good care +of that; but Mary and Philip were well aware that she was the person +to supplant them, and they determined, if possible, to remove her from +future temptation. The idea at first was to send her to Flanders or +Spain, with or without her consent; and this probably would have been +done but for the efforts of Pole’s secretary, the Abbé of St. Salut, a +Piedmontese, who had been gained over to the French side, and convinced +the Cardinal of the danger to England of thus handing the heiress to the +Crown to the keeping of Spaniards. As an alternative Mary determined +to search Hatfield House, arrest her sister’s confidential servants, +and place the Princess herself under arrest. Protestant books and +seditious publications against the King and Queen were discovered in a +hiding-place, and some of her household, when pressed in the Tower, gave +evidence seriously implicating Elizabeth herself. Again her fate trembled +in the balance. To carry her to the Tower or to deal with her as a rebel +might precipitate a rising in London, where she was greatly beloved; to +send her to Spain might be to perpetuate the hold of Philip upon the +country, and not even Pole wished for that. So in her perplexity, whilst +guarding Elizabeth straitly, Mary begged her absent husband’s direction. + +Philip’s need for England’s co-operation was greater than ever, for he +was faced with a new formidable coalition of France, the Pope, and the +Turk against him, sworn to crush him finally; and he knew that his wife +was failing. To drive Elizabeth into the hands of the French now would +be impolitic, and for him policy was everything. So Mary was enjoined to +treat her sister gently, to release her from arrest, and to assure her +of future favour. Two members of the Council went to Hatfield with the +Queen’s message. Her Majesty did not believe the allegations against her +sister, they said, and so long as the latter was obedient and loyal she +would find that, very far from being distrusted, she would be beloved and +esteemed; and this kind message was sealed by the gift of a costly ring. +But blandishments had no more influence over Elizabeth than threats. She +had begun to realise her power and importance, and declined to play the +game of Spain by going to Court and allowing herself to be cajoled into a +marriage to suit her brother-in-law. + +In the meanwhile the English refugees in France, led by Sir Henry +Dudley, were more active than ever, and the reports of the spies with +regard to the intention of Henry II. kept Mary in a state of constant +alarm,[108] for invasion was threatened at a dozen distinct points on +the English coast, and her navy was in a deplorable condition. Some +check was afforded to the intrigues by the premature death of Courtenay +in September, but this rendered more necessary than ever assurance of +Elizabeth to the Spanish party. In response to a peremptory command +Elizabeth was fain at last, in November, 1556, to travel from Hatfield +to London. Attended by two hundred horsemen in her livery, her ride +through the capital to her Palace of Somerset House was like a triumphal +progress. Cheers and blessings resounded on all sides, for she knew +well how to draw the affectionate greeting of the common people: but +what was more surprising was that the courtiers and Councillors, even +Cardinal Pole, who had previously refused even to see her, hastened +to salute her, and on her appearance at her sister’s Court no honour +was considered sufficient for her.[109] What could it mean, asked her +French friends, this sudden favour? and perhaps the Princess herself was +puzzled at first. She had not, however, many days to wait. Philip had +written to Mary and the Council directing them to press urgently the +suit of Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy for Elizabeth’s hand, and Mary left +no effort untried to carry out her husband’s wishes.[110] Letter after +letter came from the King in Flanders expressing his profound interest in +the result, for the new Pope had united the enemies of Spain, Henry II. +had broken the truce of Vaucelles, and, beset on all hands, Philip saw +that unless he could depend upon England even after his wife’s death, +his cause could never prevail. But Elizabeth was as adamant. To all the +arguments and desires of her sister she would only give one reply: she +was determined not to marry. + +In vain Mary, losing all patience, stormed and threatened. She would +deprive her of the succession in favour of Mary of Scotland, she would +have her proclaimed a bastard, she would send her to the Tower as a +traitor, and much else of the same sort, said the angry Queen; and +Elizabeth, alarmed at the violence, fell ill. She thought, too, of +seeking safety by flight to France, though from this she was dissuaded +by Noailles. But, ill and frightened though she was, she never wavered +for a moment in her refusal to marry Emmanuel Philibert at the bidding of +her brother-in-law; and after only five days’ stay in London she stolidly +went in disgrace again under guard to Hatfield.[111] + +The intemperate violence of the Neapolitan Pope Paul IV. (Caraffa) +against Philip and the Spaniards, and the war which the Pontiff had +precipitated, made it more difficult than ever for Philip to persuade +the English to join him in the fight: for to war against the Papacy +seemed to Mary impious, and Pole, now in the place of the martyred +Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury as well as Papal Legate, strongly +discountenanced any such an attitude on the part of a country only just +reconciled to the Holy See. The Lord Chancellor, Heath, Archbishop of +York, and a devout Catholic, was shocked at the idea of entering into a +war, and above all a war without any provocation, against the apostolic +power; and Philip found now that not only were the common people in +England against his adventure, but the principal advisers of his wife, +and, for the first time, even his wife herself. She was willing, even +eager, to make war upon France; for she had her own grudge against a +Power which harboured her rebels and subsidised all the plots against +her; but to go to war with Henry was now also to oppose Rome, and the +main bone of contention was the Spanish dominion over Italy, which +concerned England not at all. She was, moreover, in the deepest poverty, +for, against Philip’s wish, she had insisted upon restoring to the Church +all the ecclesiastical property in the hands of the Government; and the +country itself was seething with discontent; so that, whatever her own +wishes were, she was perfectly powerless to help Philip as he wished with +men, arms, and ships for his purpose. + +Alba, whom Philip had sent from England to represent him in Italy, was no +weakling, and, like his master, though a devout Catholic he looked upon +the Papacy as a mere instrument for Spain’s exaltation, and he promptly +answered Paul’s denunciations by marching in September, 1556, boldly +upon Rome, submitting town after town in the Pope’s dominions. In vain +Paul shrieked anathemas and flung defiance at the hated Spaniards, and +threatened with instant death any one who dared to speak of peace with +them. Guise with the French army hastened to relieve Rome from imminent +capture; and in the hope of delaying matters until he could arrive, +the Pope entered into negotiations with Alba for a forty days’ truce, +leaving the Spaniards in possession of most of the papal fortresses. +Guise and his army soon altered the aspect of affairs, and through the +summer of 1557 Alba and Guise fought out the quarrel of Spain and France +upon Italian papal soil, whilst on the frontiers of Flanders Emmanuel +Philibert was at close grips with Henry II. himself. + +Now, if ever, was the time when the English connection might help Philip, +but it was obvious that unless he could exert his personal influence upon +Mary and her Councillors he could not hope to obtain it. So, at length, +in February, 1557, Philip, sorely pressed though he was, announced to +Mary his intention of visiting her again. The Queen’s joy at the news was +pathetic in its intensity, though Pole warned her not to build too much +upon a promise that had been broken so often before. She had been ill and +disconsolate with hope deferred, but the news of Philip’s coming gave her +new life, and she hurried to London from Hampton Court, visiting Pole at +Lambeth on the way, exerting all her influence to win him to her side. +Thenceforward for some weeks, whilst the King’s voyage was pending, the +English Council sat nearly night and day, and couriers hastened backwards +and forwards between London, Brussels, and Paris. The English refugees +in France had treacherously given to Henry II. much information about +the weakness and disaffection in the English fortresses of Calais and +Guisnes; and at the first news of Philip’s fresh visit to England the +French forces around Calais were increased, for it was evident now that +Mary would be dragged into the war, and her most vulnerable point of +attack was Calais. + +Philip landed at Dover on the 18th March, 1557, and took horse with all +speed to Gravesend. At Canterbury he alighted to attend service at the +cathedral; but so hurriedly that he did not wait to take off his spurs. +This being against the rule, a young student was bold enough to claim +the forfeit, or fine: and the King smilingly emptied his purse of gold +in the youth’s cap before he rode on his way. Again his habitual haughty +frigidity was changed for the genial _bonhomie_ that he found suited +his purpose best in England. At every stage messengers from the Queen +met him, one of whom galloped back to her immediately with news of his +progress, and on his arrival at Greenwich poor forlorn Mary hailed him +with love unutterable. For two days he remained with her alone, draining, +as he formerly said, the chalice of his sacrifice to the dregs; and then +they passed through London together once more, she borne in a litter, +he riding by her side. His reception was not unfriendly by the people, +whom he tried to gain by his affability and moderation, though the fear +that war might be the result of his visit made them uneasy. So far as +the Councillors were concerned, they were now but feeble folk to stand +against him and the Queen; though Pole, the Pope’s legate, did not even +officially greet one who was in arms against the Papacy, and the Cardinal +departed as quickly as might be to his diocese, so as to be out of the +way whilst Philip was at Court. + +But still, bribed though the Council was and however submissive the +Queen, the state of feeling in England was such as to make a declaration +of war against France a dangerous matter. A series of bad harvests, the +depreciation of the coinage, and the enclosure of the commons and parks +had reduced the country to a condition of the utmost misery. Money was +extremely scarce, and the idea of squandering large sums upon a foreign +war drove the distracted Council to despair, though Philip in the course +of many conferences with them urged it incessantly. The Councillors +admitted that, in accordance with the old treaty of 1543 between the +Emperor and Henry VIII.,[112] England might be called upon to provide an +armed contingent if Flanders were attacked by France: but Philip wanted +more than that, and to some extent he was successful, notwithstanding +that Archbishop Heath tearfully protested that the country was quite +unable to meet the necessary expenditure. It was at last arranged that +eight thousand English infantry should be raised for service and one +thousand cavalry, three thousand of the former to reinforce the English +fortresses in France, and the rest to be at Philip’s service for four +months, under the command of Lord Pembroke, Sir Thomas Cheyne, Lord +Bedford, and Lord Grey de Wilton, one-half the cost only to be borne by +England. But there was also a promise on the part of the Council to fit +out and man with six thousand soldiers the English fleet to hold the +Channel against the French. Upon one point the Council was firm: these +forces were simple auxiliaries contributed in accordance with the old +treaty, and must not entail a national war between England and France. + +But this arrangement did not suit France better than it did her enemy. +If England was to join Philip in the war, she must be open to counter +attack and reprisals. But if England could strike indirectly so could +France, and by such means a national rupture might be precipitated +which would allow of a French invasion over the Scottish border and +the siege of the English fortresses in France. So again the English +Protestant exiles in France were feasted and made much of by Henry II. +They were a turbulent lot of young gallants whose brawls and adventures +had scandalised the French Court: but now they suddenly assumed a new +importance. Thomas Stafford, the nephew of Cardinal Pole, a cadet of his +family with no valid claims whatever, was the most hairbrained of the +crew, and took it into his head to pose as the rightful pretender to the +English Crown. Henry could not openly countenance such a pretension, but +Stafford was allowed to recruit men for his attempt. Frenchmen, Scots, +and discontented English, a motley rabble of lawless adventurers, flocked +to his standard at Rouen, in ignorance of their exact destination. +Sailing in two well-armed ships from Dieppe, he suddenly descended +upon Scarborough. Affairs were in so critical a condition in England +that anything might have happened, and Wotton, the English ambassador +in France, believed that if Thomas Stafford once secured a footing in +England he might draw to him all the discontented element, to Mary’s +undoing. Stafford, however, was not of the stuff from which successful +pretenders are made. He seized Scarborough Castle in April, whilst +Philip was still in England, and at once announced that he came to claim +the Crown and deliver the country from the yoke of the Spaniards, who +intended to rule it by force. But in a day or two the Catholic Earl of +Westmorland with his militia took him by surprise and Thomas Stafford’s +bubble burst before it was well inflated, greatly to Noailles’ scorn and +annoyance. The retribution for treason came swiftly, and before a month +was out the heads of the principal rebels had fallen on the block on +Tower Hill. But a gust of indignation passed over England at the attempt, +prompted as it had been by the French, and suddenly the idea of war with +France, the enemy of the Queen, became popular. Henry II. did his best +to explain away his complicity;[113] but Mary, transported with rage, +dismissed Noailles, and Philip was delighted to find that England was now +ready to join him nationally in a war against France. + +On the 6th June heralds in London proclaimed hostilities, and Philip +for the first time, even at this eleventh hour, saw some return for the +sacrifice he had made in marrying the Queen of England. He hated war, and +his methods were essentially peaceful and diplomatic; but he knew that +his best chance of securing a durable peace was to exert his utmost power +whilst his control of English resources lasted, which it was evident +could not be very long, for the Queen’s declining health was plain now to +every one but herself, though she clung still tenaciously to her pathetic +dream of happy maternity. Satisfied with the results of his mission, +Philip rode on the 1st July, 1557, from Gravesend through Canterbury to +Dover. Mary would not leave him whilst he remained on English soil, and, +weak and ailing but happy with her new fallacious hope, she was carried +in a litter by her husband’s side to the coast. On the 3rd July she bade +him a last farewell, as he stepped upon the barge that was to carry him +to the waiting galleon, and then, with sorrow and satisfaction mingled, +she turned her back upon the sea and was carried to her desolate palace +at Greenwich. + +The gentry of England, at all events, were ready to welcome the war with +France that gave them the taste of warlike adventure which they loved, +and the contingent to fight in Flanders was soon made ready, whilst the +Lord Admiral with his fleet of twenty-three ships held the Channel. +Philip’s General-in-Chief was his young cousin Emmanuel Philibert of +Savoy, who had an army of fifty thousand men under him ready for the +autumn campaign; whilst the French on the Flemish frontier, under +Constable Montmorenci, numbered less than half that strength, for the +flower of the French troops were under Guise in Italy, with difficulty +defending the Pope from the great Duke of Alba, and Emmanuel Philibert +opened his campaign as soon as the English arrived. By a series of rapid +and unexpected movements, which entirely misled the French, he suddenly +concentrated his attack upon the rich and important city of St. Quintin, +weakly garrisoned and in poor condition of defence. Montmorenci hurried +with his main army to relieve the fortress, and on the 10th August was +cleverly outflanked by Emmanuel Philibert; caught in a trap between a +stronger enemy and a morass, the French were utterly routed with a loss +of half their numbers, Montmorenci himself being captured, and the whole +force dispersed. Coligny with his tiny garrison in St. Quintin heroically +held out for a fortnight longer; but from the day of Montmorenci’s +defeat there was no force to prevent Philip from marching upon Paris and +crushing his enemy for good.[114] This was his chance, and he missed +it, as he did every great opportunity in his long life by that “prudent” +leaden foot of his which always lagged when it should have hastened. In +vain Savoy begged his permission to march on, and was refused, to the +indignant surprise of the old Emperor when he heard of it in his cloister +at Yuste. + +Philip had been at Cambrai on the day of the battle, but when he saw +the awful sack and sacrilege after the surrender of St. Quintin he was +horrified at the sight. Te Deums were chanted, votive offerings of +unheard of richness were promised,[115] joy bells were rung in Flanders, +Spain, and England for the great victory; but Philip’s host moved no +further onward towards Paris. The German Schwartzreiters, mercenary +troops in Philip’s service, unpaid ruffians, held high revel in the +ruined town, burning and ravaging unchecked. The Earl of Bedford, writing +to Sir William Cecil from St. Quintin a few days after the surrender, +says that these rascals, “being masters of the King’s whole army, used +such force as well to the Spaniards, Italians, and other nations as unto +us, that there were none could enjoy nothing but themselves. They have +now shown such cruelty as the like hath not been seen for greediness. +The town by them was set afire, and a great piece of it burnt. Divers +were burnt in cellars, and were killed immediately; women and children +gave such pitiful cries that it would grieve any Christian heart.” +The Germans, discontented with their loot, quarrelled and deserted in +thousands, for Philip’s fatal deliberation had left them idle; the +English, sulky and unpaid, grumbled incessantly. Bedford reports that +“they are pinched with scarcity and divers have fallen sick”; and, +again, a month later: “Our General is sick of ague, our pay very slack, +and people grudge for want. I trust we shall speedily be discharged.” +The Spaniards asserted that the English had shown no stomach for the +fight before St. Quintin, and certainly they did not shine in it. Their +discontent at last became so pronounced that Philip, realising their +uselessness, and being, as usual, short of money, acceded to their +clamour to be allowed to return home at the end of the stipulated four +months of their service. Much was made of the King’s victory in London. +Mary and Pole congratulated him upon the signal mark of God’s favour. +Bonfires, free feasts, and official rejoicings were provided; but London +wanted to gain no victories for Spaniards, and refused to be glad. + +Whilst Philip’s army was melting away in idleness Guise, realising +where the danger lay, quietly abandoned the Pope to the mercy of Alba, +and by forced marches hurried to the Flemish frontier. The intemperate +Pontiff was then obliged to make terms with Alba, who entered Rome, as +a pretended penitent instead of a conqueror, and once more the two +great antagonists were left to fight out their quarrel without papal +interference. Henry II. had long had his eye upon England’s important +foothold on France, the citadel and town of Calais. The English refugees +had exposed to him the weak points in its defence, it had been starved +and neglected both by Edward VI. and Mary; and the younger Noailles on +his way home when Mary had dismissed him, carefully scrutinised the +fortress and reported to the King that it might easily be captured. +Guise, on his hurried return from Italy, directed himself straight +towards the place and beleaguered it, capturing the Rysbank, the island +fort defending the harbour, on the first days of January, 1558. Philip +had long known that Calais was weakly held, and in many of his letters +to the Queen and Council he had urged that it should be effectively +reinforced. On Guise’s approach the King sent his favourite, the Count +de Feria, hurriedly to England to say how desperate the condition now +was with the Rysbank in the hands of Guise; but the preparations for +the voyage of so important a person as Feria took much time, and the +Queen in London learnt of the disaster immediately by a letter from Lord +Wentworth, the Governor of Calais. + +Mary, still full of her renewed hope of maternity, which all but herself +knew was piteously fallacious, received the news courageously and set to +work to reinforce the town. Pembroke was ordered to raise five thousand +men and cross at once to Philip’s harbour of Dunkirk, whence Calais might +be reached by land. Unfortunately, the English town of Guisnes, near +Calais, was in as perilous a condition as Calais itself, and Lord Grey de +Wilton, the Commander, found himself, as he says, “clean cut off from +all aid and relief. I have looked for both out of England and Calais, +and know not how to have help by any means, either of men or victuals. +There resteth now none other way for the succour of Calais, but a power +of men out of England or from the King’s Majesty or both.”[116] Alas! the +King’s Majesty himself had now few fit troops to meet Guise’s veterans. +His demoralised army, scattered wide in winter quarters through Flanders, +were difficult to collect rapidly, and Lords Wentworth and Grey de Wilton +in vain sent daily beseeching letters to Philip to come to their aid, as +Guise pressed Calais and Guisnes more closely. Calais particularly was +crowded with traitors and enemies of the Spaniard, anxious to deliver +the place to the French; and, although the English troops repulsed one +attempt to storm the town on the 6th January, it cheerfully surrendered +to the besiegers two days later; and Guisnes fell with but little more +resistance directly afterwards.[117] + +The news fell like an aerolite upon the English Queen and nation. The +possession of Calais had been regarded for centuries as the keystone to +England’s commercial prosperity and political importance in Europe, and +the surrender of the last foothold in France seemed a loss irreparable. +That it should have been lost in a war undertaken on behalf of the +Queen’s Spanish Consort, whilst he with a great though scattered force +was in the immediate neighbourhood, added bitterness to the humiliation; +and the Count de Feria, foreseeing the storm of anger that in England +would greet the news, tarried a day or two in Dunkirk rather than +cross the Channel with the sinister tidings. His first mission had +been to induce the English Council to send forces to defend Calais and +Guisnes, but he knew full well that behind this demand there was the +need for English forces again to aid his master in the coming campaign; +so, interpreting his instructions freely, he determined to proceed on +his journey and turn his request into one for troops to recover the +fortresses with the King’s help. + +Feria arrived in London on the 26th January, 1558, and to his surprise he +found the people and the Queen quite changed in temper since he had left +them with the King six months before. There was no despondency anywhere +now; for though the blow had been a shrewd one it had aroused the spirit +of the nation. The Queen was like a lioness; for she was fighting now, as +she thought, poor soul, for the inheritance of her unborn offspring; and +she threatened to have the head of any Councillor of hers who dared to +talk of peace with France until she had recovered the towns her ancestors +had held for centuries. She would win them again, she said; her son would +be born, and she and Philip, triumphant and at peace, would live happily. +It was a dream, but it was shared, so far as concerned the recovery of +the English territory in France, by the nation at large, which was now +on its mettle; and clergy, gentry, and merchants opened their coffers, +melted their gold chains, and mortgaged their belongings to provide funds +for avenging English honour and protecting the English soil against the +foreigner. + +The moment the news of the peril of Calais had reached Mary she +despatched the Earl of Sussex and her Controller, Sir R. Rochester, to +assure Philip that she would send the forces to defend or recover Calais +without loss of time. When both Calais and Guisnes had been surrendered, +however, it seemed better to Philip to curb somewhat the Queen’s ardour +in the matter. It was too early in the year for him to begin his regular +campaign, and it was obvious that without his powerful co-operation the +English troops alone would be unable to recapture the lost fortresses. So +the first letter written by the King to Feria after the arrival of the +latter in England was couched in the cool, prudent tone so characteristic +of him. The ambassador was to thank the Queen heartily for her goodwill +to send him the troops, even after Calais had been lost, but as his own +territories were not in present danger, “I do not wish the Queen to begin +yet to incur expense, especially as we shall have to spend a great deal +later in attempting to recover the ancient English territory. You will +therefore tell the Queen how highly I appreciate her affectionate regard +for my interests; but as I have now sufficient forces to hold my own I +hope she will countermand the sending of troops, and apply the money to +defending the English coast, which is of the greatest importance.”[118] + +Before receiving this letter Feria saw Mary in the Palace of Greenwich on +the day he arrived, 26th January, 1558, and found her, as usual, eager to +serve Philip’s interests. Feria said he only wished that her Councillors +were as willing as she. She would, she said, summon the Council at once +that Feria might discuss matters with them; but as Parliament was sitting +it was Friday, 28th, before Feria and the resident ambassador, Figueroa, +met the Councillors in Cardinal Pole’s room. Feria had agreed with the +Queen as to the tone he should adopt with the Council. It was being +murmured in London, and even in the Council itself, that this misfortune +had fallen upon the nation because Philip had dragged it into the war; +and Mary urged upon Feria that he should anticipate any such talk as +that by saying at once that as Calais had been lost during a war which +the English had undertaken on Philip’s behalf, he considered it his duty +to help them to recover the fortress. The first need, however, he said, +was to ensure the coasts of England from attack. What did the Council +propose to do in the matter? Heath, who was the spokesman, was apologetic +and despondent. The nation was in dire danger and its resources were +very low: they agreed that defence of England must precede recovery of +the fortresses on the other side of the Channel, and thought it best not +to send across the hasty levies already collected at Dover. Feria, who +had seen the mob of recruits as he passed through Dover, quite agreed +with them. They had only been sent, said the Councillors apologetically, +because the Queen had insisted. As for the broad question of national +defence, they asked for time to consider what they proposed; and although +Feria and Mary urged expedition, three days passed before the Council, +headed by Heath, came in a body to Feria’s lodging and laid before him +their plan of campaign. + +In a harangue full of honied words for Philip the Chancellor set forth +the poverty of the country, the need for a strong force on the Scottish +border to defend the north from a French incursion, the undefended +condition of Ireland, and, above all, the danger of the Isle of Wight +and Portsmouth, now that eighty French ships were collected at Dieppe +with, it was feared, hostile intent. What they proposed was to fit out +a hundred English vessels with fifty victualling smacks for service in +the Channel, carrying an army of some fifteen thousand soldiers, ready, +if Philip needed it, to land upon any spot on the northern French coast +as a diversion. They were in fear, too, of a league of Denmark and the +Free Cities to attack the northern coast of England in the interests of +France; and they knew of no other means of raising a force to defend that +part of the country than to beg the King to choose for them some good +German mercenary leader who would engage to come over in their service +with some three thousand Germans, to embark in Amsterdam for Newcastle. +When they had found the money for all this, they said, they did not see +how they could do more even to recover Calais. + +These proposals, which had indeed been suggested first by the Queen and +Philip, were exactly those which suited the latter. Under the guise of +defending the English south coast a large English fleet and army would +be practically at his orders, to alarm and divert the French wherever +he needed. Lord William Howard,[119] the Lord Admiral, a great-uncle of +Elizabeth’s, and little in Philip’s favour, was by Feria’s intrigues +superseded by Clinton, who was his obedient servant. The great +difficulty, of course, was money. Everyday Feria urged the need for +raising large sums at once. Parliament was sitting, and it was believed +would vote liberal supplies in view of the national danger; and Mary +herself once complaisantly told Feria that she believed Parliament would +vote her a larger amount than had ever been granted to her father. “That +is not to the purpose,” replied Feria, “but to get all the money you want +in the circumstances.” The Earl of Sussex when in Flanders had given +the King an idea that the nobles in England might still be induced, as +Spanish nobles were, to supply feudal contingents of mounted men on the +Sovereign’s demand; but when Feria suggested this to the Queen she told +him flatly that all the nobles of England together would not contribute a +hundred horse. + +The loss of Calais was unquestionably a serious blow to the prestige +of Mary. Already people were grumbling that this was what she and her +Spanish husband had brought the nation to. Here was this haughty Count +of Feria, too: what had he come over for but to carry some more English +money out of the country to feed Philip’s armies? This, of course, had +no foundation whatever in truth, but the mere whispering of it made +people stay away from the Catholic churches, and frown more sourly at +the persecutions than they had done before. So far from carrying English +money out, except to pay for the recruiting of the German mercenaries, +whom Philip all along, however, meant to use for his own purposes, the +Councillors to a man began dunning Feria for their unpaid Spanish +pensions;[120] for although the Spaniard scornfully complains of their +unwillingness to serve Philip’s interests first, they were all anxious +for his money. The fear of invasion, which was, in fact, very remote, was +industriously promoted by Feria and the Spaniards in order to keep the +English Council up to their determination in raising forces which might +be, and were, subsequently used by Philip for his own purposes when his +summer campaign opened. These forces, however, did not satisfy Philip, +who was somewhat chagrined to find that the English Council was so ready +to limit its efforts to the defence of the coasts, without insisting upon +the recovery of Calais. He had counted upon using the national anger at +the loss to bring when he most needed them a good English contingent +across the Channel to join his army, though the hasty levies in January +would have been worse than useless to him. + +Both the King and Feria were impatient at the cumbrous English +constitutional way of raising money, and pestered poor Mary daily by word +and letter to obtain resources by other means. This she knew, and said, +was impossible in England, and might cost her her crown. One day Paget +came to Feria with a great plan to raise the vast sum of 800,000 crowns, +in addition to the parliamentary vote, and the Spaniards were all eager +to put it into practice; but when the time to discuss it seriously came, +Paget’s proposal, to Feria’s anger, reduced itself to a loan of £100,000 +to be raised by Gresham in Antwerp and £80,000 to be borrowed from the +London bankers. All would have been well managed, grumbled Paget, if he +had the direction of affairs; and the other Councillors thereupon fell to +wrangling with him as to their responsibility. This was early in March, +1558, and Feria had quite lost patience with what he considered the +ineptitude of Mary’s advisers, which really meant their disinclination +to subordinate English interests entirely to the wishes of Philip and +his minister. From the sitting of the Council just referred to, Feria +and his colleague Figueroa went off in a rage to the Queen to: “complain +of the reply [about the money], and to warn her again of the danger in +which the country and she herself are, her Councillors being so inept +that, although they say that the country is not rich, they cannot devise +means even to raise sufficient money to defend themselves and recover the +prestige that has been lost. We dwelt much upon this, as much indeed as +we could; for the Queen was not fully aware of the poor service rendered +by the English contingent which you had with your army last year. She was +not even yet undeceived as to their not having been the first to enter +St. Quintin until yesterday, we told her amongst other things. She was +much grieved and promised that she would press them again about the money +at Greenwich, where she will go to-day. Her one thought is that your +Majesty should come to her again. She seems still to believe that she +is pregnant, though she does not say so openly. She promises me to send +Gresham to Antwerp at once to borrow the £100,000 they say have arranged. +I think if that be the case, it would be easy to get them to borrow +another £100,000, though I have not pressed it until he is there.”[121] + +Gresham’s instructions are dated two days after this letter was written, +12th March. He had previously been dismissed from his former post as +royal financial agent at Antwerp, and his reappointment was probably +owing to the fact that in the narrow condition of the national finances +he alone had sufficient authority on the Continental money market to +raise the funds required. He was to bargain for the loan of £100,000 +that had been offered through one Germayn Scholl for one year, and to +ascertain what powder and other munitions of war could be obtained in +Flanders for English use.[122] Scholl was Gresham’s kinsman by marriage, +but the bargain does not seem to have been fully concluded, only £10,000 +being obtained from that source,[123] Gresham remaining in Flanders +until the summer, spending much of the money he could raise in munitions +of war. He had been instructed to present letters of recommendation to +King Philip, and to acquaint him with all he did. But Gresham, who was +no admirer of the Spanish faction, appears to have been somewhat remiss +in paying court to the King, for he failed to mention anything about him +in his letters. Mary, who was always hankering for news of her husband, +began to get restive at the omission, and her Secretary, Boxall, writes +a private letter to Gresham in April hinting to him that he will make +things easier all round if he will pay more court to the King, as the +Queen asked about him. Gresham promptly took the hint and wrote a long +letter to Mary, saying that he had just seen King Philip at a monastery +outside Brussels, where he had passed Easter, “who is in right good +health as your Majestie’s own harte can desyre.”[124] + +Whilst Gresham in Flanders was thus borrowing and spending money, Feria +was chafing at the lack of sympathetic activity in the Councillors in the +direction he desired. Writing to Philip in March, he says: “Before God, +I can do no more, Sire! I do not know what to make of these people. For, +believe me, your Majesty, from morning to night and from night to morning +they are changing their minds about everything, and do what I can it is +impossible for me to make them understand what a state they are in—the +worst, surely, that ever people were in before. If it were only for their +own sakes, I should like to leave them to the mercy of those who would +treat them as they deserve; but I am afraid that they will drag us after +them, as your Majesty knows. The Queen does, and says, all she can, and +she really has spirit and goodwill; but in all else there is nothing +but trouble. As for the Cardinal, he is a dead man; and although he has +plucked up a little with what they write to him every day from Italy +since the loss of Calais, he is not so warm as I should have liked to see +him. Of all the rest of them, I really do not know which is the worst +disposed to your interest. But I know that those whom you have favoured +most serve you the least.”[125] + +Feria noticed that Mary grew ever thinner and more despondent. She slept +badly and was devoured with anxiety and yearning for her husband, whose +letters came to her so rarely. Both she and Pole, indeed, were now almost +negligible forces; and Feria began to plot with a few of the Councillors +upon whom he could depend to take into his own hands practically the +direction of affairs. How it was managed is well set forth in a letter +of his to the King of 1st May, 1558. He has, he says, been able to hold +a private conference with Privy Seal (Bedford) and the Admiral (Clinton) +“about that enterprise they had proposed to me, and also to press them +about the land armaments.” They were of opinion that they could raise a +land army, and that the recovery of Calais would not be so difficult as +people imagined. “They say that they could get together 12,000 English +and German infantry, 3,000 horse (2,000 Germans and 1,000 English), +2,000 English pioneers, and if your Majesty did not think well of the +_enterprise_ they might be used for other purposes. I did not dwell so +much upon this point as upon getting the force together. They think, and +quite rightly, that it is useless to deal with this matter with more +than four or five persons who will be in favour of it; and they propose +besides themselves Jerningham, the Master of the Rolls, who was the +Solicitor-General (Cordell), and the Controller (Rochester), although the +latter is a man who always raises difficulties to everything. I think +that these three will suit best for the purpose, as they are favoured by +the Queen. + +“I know of no other way to remedy matters but this: that your Majesty +should write to the Queen saying that on mature deliberation you have +decided that the best course will be for her Majesty to raise these +troops, beginning with the money voted by Parliament: for as soon as the +people see your Majesties determined to avenge the loss of Calais you +believe that they will favour the enterprise, since no prince ever begins +a war with all the money in hand necessary to finish it. You might add +that nothing should be said about spending the Parliament money, but +that it should be entrusted to some person for the object in view. Paget +thinks that Bacon would be a fit person for this, and the Queen would +agree to him. Your Majesty should also write to her that the business +should be discussed with nobody but the five persons mentioned. Paget, +Clinton, myself, and Figueroa think that this is the last thing we can +do. Paget thought lately that Rutland would be the best man to command +this force, and we think that Clinton and the Vice-Admiral should conduct +the fleet. The fleet is now ready and is costing money with no profit. +Even if your Majesty does not think well to press the Queen about the +foregoing business you might send her instructions at once as to what she +is to do with this fleet.”[126] + +It will be seen by this that the plan was to use every atom of the force +raised in England and with English money, not for the defence of the +country itself, which had been the first pretext for raising it, but +to send across the sea, either to aid in the recovery of Calais or, +at Philip’s option, for any other purpose he might choose, and that +similarly the fleet was to be placed at his disposal.[127] It is quite +plain from the way in which Feria writes of her that Mary was simply to +be told what to do by Philip, and that she was expected to do it without +demur. How completely she hung upon Philip’s words, and subordinated +everything to his wish, is seen in a paragraph in the same letter as +that quoted above from Feria to the King. A Swedish envoy had arrived in +England with an offer of marriage to Elizabeth from Prince Eric, the heir +to the crown. He had been already several days in London and had not even +asked audience of the Queen, though he had committed the gross breach of +propriety of going down to Hatfield and delivering the Prince’s letter +to Elizabeth before he saw Mary. The poor Queen was terribly upset at +this; and hearing that Feria was despatching a courier to Antwerp, she +feared that he was going to write to Philip about it. Sending for Feria +she with tears and reproaches upbraided him for his supposed intention, +and said that she herself was going to write to her husband telling him +all about it. “When the ambassador from Sweden first came,” writes Feria, +“she was in great trouble, fearing that your Majesty would blame her for +not having carried through that affair last year [_i.e._, the marriage of +Elizabeth with Savoy]. Since then, however, Madam Elizabeth has replied +that she will not marry; and the Queen is more tranquil, but she is +intensely impassioned in the matter; and one of the reasons for her grief +at the pregnancy having turned out fallacious is the fear that it will +cause you to press her in this other business [_i.e._, the marriage of +Elizabeth]. Both Figueroa and I think that your Majesty ought to do so +_apropos_ of the coming of this Swedish ambassador and the failure of +the pregnancy. But it is necessary that such pressure should not come at +the same time as the matter of the land armament, or it will upset the +business altogether. In short, Sire, I believe that the Queen will not +stand in the way of her [_i.e._, Elizabeth] being Queen if God does not +send you children.”[128] + +Already Elizabeth’s sun was seen to be in the ascendant, and, regardless +of the feelings of her sister the Queen, it suited Spanish policy to +ensure her marriage, if possible, with a nominee dependent upon Philip. +How anxious Philip personally was not to lose touch of Elizabeth at this +juncture is seen in his reply at the end of May to a suggestion of Feria +that the latter should go to Hatfield and pay his respects to her before +he left England: “What you say about visiting Madam Elizabeth before you +depart appears to me to be very wise, for the reasons you point out, +and I am writing to the Queen, saying that I have ordered you to go. +You will act accordingly; and I have no doubt that when the Queen sees +the firmness with which I write on the subject she will consent.”[129] +Philip’s fiery and impetuous ambassador Feria went considerably beyond +his master in his high-handed dealing with the English Government; for +Philip’s methods were diplomatic and far-seeing, and his object was not +to ride roughshod over his wife’s country, as Feria would have done, +but to use its resources for his ends, as if without design, and to +perpetrate his hold upon it after his wife’s death. + +Mary, still suffering from her usual indispositions, persuaded herself +in May that Philip was coming over to see her again. It was, as Feria +said, unreasonable; for Philip was overweighted with business, arranging +the summer campaigns and a thousand other things: but Mary, full of hope +again, caused herself to be carried to St. James’s to be ready to receive +her husband, and had horses and lodgings prepared for him from Dover to +Gravesend and an escort of ships at Dover to convey him across. Feria +told her blankly that the King was too busy to come, and again pressed +her about raising the land army to reinforce Philip in Flanders. He found +her less ready in the matter than he had hoped—“for the Cardinal and +Council persuade her as they like”—and she wearily suggested that Clinton +should go to Brussels to discuss the matter with the King. “This,” said +Feria, “was only because they think that I push them too hard; and they +believe they can deal more easily with your Majesty, their real object +being to upset the scheme altogether;” and the ambassador continues by +recommending the King when Clinton arrived in Brussels to deal with him +high-handedly, blaming the Council angrily for their slackness in the +past. Clinton was evidently the most pliant tool of all; and yet, even of +him, Feria writes: “Nothing that he says will be true, unless he thinks +it will be investigated. I have had no end of trouble about this, for +they do nothing but lie and prevaricate.” + +All this haughty pressure on the part of Feria, and the servile +compliance of Paget and the rest of the Spanish clique, in order to bully +the English into raising a large force to join Philip’s army on the +pretext of recovering Calais, was seen by the politic King to be unwise. +The English fleet, with its seven thousand soldiers on board, might be +useful for him in many ways, and he made much of Clinton when he saw +him in Brussels, urging him to have the fleet provisioned and ready for +service whenever ordered from June to September; but the raising of a +land army of Englishmen did not suit him: in the first place because it +would pledge him to a regular campaign against the French in Calais for +the ultimate benefit of England alone, to the neglect of the Flemish +frontier that concerned him most, and secondly, as he says, because “the +English, as they would arm unwillingly, however much they were pressed +and encouraged, would not be of much use. I can even see that they +might cause more inconvenience than otherwise. Either they might come +so badly organised and weak as to be easily defeated, which would be +most injurious, or they might force me to go to their rescue, and upset +my own plans.” The King was of opinion that the English had much better +concentrate their land strength on the Scottish frontier and in Ireland, +so long as he was allowed to do as he liked with the English fleet. + +The meaning of this is made abundantly clear, and Philip’s own foresight +vindicated by the sequel. If the English Council were encouraged to +employ all their own forces on the Scottish Border it was foreseen that +they would not need the three thousand or more German auxiliaries which +were now mustering on the Rhine under the leader Wallerdun, much of the +money for them having been already disbursed by the English special +agents in Flanders, Sir William Pickering and others. Feria, in his +letter of 18th May to the King, says: “I understand that these people +already repent of having asked for the three thousand Germans, for their +view now is only to defend their own shores, and the Scots will not +trouble them. They have said nothing to me about it yet, but I know that +what I say is true.... If they do not want to bring these 3,000 Germans +over, your Majesty might consider whether you will ask for them for +yourself.” This, although it was exactly what Philip himself desired and +intended, was only effected after much wrangling about the money spent +and the responsibility incurred by the English Council. Philip, writing +on the 10th June, instructs Feria cunningly to manage so that the Council +may be got to propose that the German mercenaries might be taken off +their hands as a favour; but if they could not be got to see it in this +light that the Queen should be told in confidence that the King needed +the Germans very much. The Council proved recalcitrant; for, as they +said, they had spent already a large sum upon the mercenaries, and might +need them; but they had to give way before the pressure of the Queen and +Feria, insisting ultimately, however, that Philip should pay the sum of +£2,000 for which Gresham had made himself responsible but had not paid +for the arms supplied. The recruiting money of the Germans and first +month’s pay was lost. + +Relations between the imperious Feria and the English Council became +daily more strained, every unimportant point was made a question of +dignity by the ambassador,[130] and the sick, disconsolate Queen between +the jarring elements, wishing to conciliate both sides, was rendered +doubly unhappy. From Feria’s contemptuous and insulting references to +Pole it is evident that the Cardinal declined to become an instrument for +purely Spanish ends; whilst all the rest of the Councillors are dismissed +by the ambassador in his letters to the King as lying rascals intent +only upon plunder. Looking beyond Feria’s intemperate, angry words, +the principal sin of the Councillors in his eyes seems to have been a +disinclination to squander money of which the nation was so sorely in +need upon raising forces without some assurance that they would be used +for English ends. Already people were grumbling that the powerful fleet +under Clinton was to be merely an auxiliary of Philip in the war, at his +entire disposal, and the continued bad fortune that followed the Spanish +arms increased the anger in England at being thus tied to the tail of +Philip in the war, without any attempt being made by him to recover the +lost English fortresses. + +So far from doing this, indeed, news came early in July that Dunkirk, one +of the most useful of his ports, within a few miles of Calais, had been +captured by the French, as well as Thionville, an important fortress. +Mary was panic-stricken at the news, and summoned Feria from Durham House +to say that she must at once send off a courier to Philip to know the +truth. Feria made light of the news, and said it was not worth while +to send in such haste, and the overburdened Queen broke out in angry +reproaches at his indifference. How could her merchants send their wool +to Flanders, she asked, if Dunkirk was in French hands? and yet Feria +treated the matter as of no importance. But when the ambassador suggested +that the English fleets in Plymouth and Dover should at once sail to +Dunkirk to help the King, Mary eagerly assented, though the Council at +once vetoed it; for, said they, the French have also captured Alderney, +and it behoved the admiral to go there first. “And really, to tell your +Majesty the truth,” wrote Feria, “I did not dare to contradict them, +for I saw that if but four French ships were to land their companies in +England they would overturn everything.” This was written in July, and +shortly afterwards Feria, having hectored the English Queen and Council +thus into placing the English fleet almost entirely at Philip’s disposal, +and having raised and paid three thousand German mercenaries which he had +appropriated, took his leave and returned to Flanders, first visiting +Elizabeth at Hatfield, much, he says, to her and his pleasure: “for +reasons which I will tell your Majesty when I see you.” + +Mary now was a mere shadow. The cruel persecutions and the loss of Calais +together had completely destroyed the belief of the people in her power +to rule England for its own benefit. Her father and grandfather, and +even the greatly inferior Northumberland, had managed to maintain the +balance of power between the two great Continental rivals upon which +the importance of England depended. Mary from the first day of her +accession, as we have seen, had neglected this essential point in English +policy, and had ended by becoming a mere satellite of the Spanish +King, involving her country thus in a ruinous war, in which it had lost +much and had nothing to gain. The Council, against which Feria raged so +savagely, was, it is true, after the death of Gardiner, composed of men +of no commanding ability; but it had done its best to prevent the utter +subjection of England to Philip’s aims. The success of its efforts was +not great; for as Feria’s correspondence shows the most active members +of the Council were bought body and soul by Spain, and Mary was in +most cases ready to back up Feria’s arrogant hectoring with her royal +authority. For her, in her forlorn condition, the first consideration +was to please her husband and prevent the Catholic power, upon which she +increasingly depended, from collapse. + +Her great hope was that Philip might be lured back again to her side +to live in prosperity and peace. Again and again her fond hopes were +disappointed, and, a prey to a constitutional disorder, she sank deeper +and deeper in despondency. After Feria left her in July she continued +ailing, whilst those around her, seeing the approach of the inevitable +change, busied themselves in plans which might, if they were fortunate, +save them from disaster in the future. For men of all opinions recognised +that it was not alone a woman who was dying, but a political and +religious system that had failed; and vengeance was sharpening its knife, +whilst those who had thus made England the servant of a foreigner and a +prey to the bigots were trembling for the wrath to come. + +Early in September a fever came to add to the Queen’s ailments, and this, +being an unusual symptom with her, caused grave anxiety; but Philip’s +Flemish councillor Dassonleville, who was in London to inquire whether +any league was being negotiated between England, Sweden, and Denmark, +wrote early in October that both the Queen and Cardinal Pole were better +than they had been since the beginning of their maladies. Parliament met +at Westminster on the 5th November, and in it resounded loud complaints, +bold and unsuppressed now, of the cost and damage to England caused by +the war undertaken to please King Philip, and suggestions were made that +the peace negotiations already in progress should be actively pushed. +The great question, moreover, that was occupying all minds was that of +the succession to the Crown when the Queen should die. “If your Majesty +could have been present it would have been of the greatest importance in +moving the Parliament to your desires,” wrote Dassonleville. “But if that +be impossible, and important affairs should detain you in Flanders, the +coming of the Count de Feria, who is much liked here,[131] would serve, +nevertheless, to direct affairs so far as the time will allow. Many of +the Council are beginning to understand how necessary the alliance of +Flanders is to this realm, the salvation of which depends upon it, as +England cannot alone withstand for long the efforts of its old enemies, +the French and Scots, without the aid of your Majesty. The common people +do not understand it yet, and talk of allying the Lady Elizabeth with the +Earls of Westmorland or Arundel, and sometimes with a Prince of Sweden or +Denmark, so inconstant are they.”[132] + +It is quite evident that when Dassonleville speaks of the impossibility +of England holding its own without Philip’s aid he meant under the +existing system. In this, of course, he was right; but he overlooked +the fact that if the country freed itself from the Spanish connection, +which had dragged it down, and once more dexterously held the balance +between the two Powers, neither would attack it, because neither would +be benefited by weakening a possible useful ally. But the English +people were quite awake to the alternative if Dassonleville was not, +and were looking anxiously away from the sad sufferer who had failed +as a Queen and was awaiting extinction in St. James’s, to the demure, +self-controlled young woman who bided her time so patiently and so +confidently at Hatfield. She knew now she would not have to wait long. +“Sire,” continued Dassonleville, “the Queen has had some good intervals +since her grave malady; and for some days past has been quieter from her +paroxysms. The issue of her illness is as yet uncertain. The people make +her out to be worse than the doctors say, and rumour says that a change +is so imminent that it will cause the enemy to be the more obstinate +about the restoration of Calais. Nevertheless, if your Majesty insists +upon not making peace without it, they will have to put up with it.”[133] + +This was written on the 6th November; but before the letter was +despatched Dassonleville heard from Paget that the Queen’s malady +being recognised as grave, the Council had requested her to make some +pronouncement with regard to the succession. Mary, feeling the hand of +death upon her, consented to a deputation of the Council waiting upon +the Princess at Hatfield on the morrow, to tell her that the Queen was +willing that she should succeed when she (Mary) should die, only begging +two things of her—one to maintain the old religion, and the other to pay +the debts she (Mary) had incurred. It was known by this that the gravest +anticipations of the people were justified. Ten days before this Philip +had learnt that his wife was not likely to live, and he had at once +instructed Feria to start for England, for the special purpose of pushing +forward urgently the question of Elizabeth’s marriage, which was now seen +to be the only means by which he might still hold England. As has been +already explained in previous pages, Mary had on each former occasion +when the matter had been urged firmly stood out against it, as well as +Elizabeth herself. Once the Queen had been won over for a day to the +Savoy project, but Cardinal Pole had changed her mind, and nothing had +been done. The bold offer of the Swedish prince had shown to Mary as well +as to Philip the danger of Elizabeth’s accepting a Protestant marriage; +and even at this late hour Philip determined to make a desperate effort +through Feria to win Elizabeth for a nominee who would suit him. Suriano, +the Venetian ambassador with Philip, writes[134] with regard to Feria’s +mission: “The Count’s instructions are that he is to try and dispose the +Queen to consent to Lady Elizabeth’s marriage as her sister, and with the +prospect of succeeding to the Crown. This negotiation is being conducted +with the utmost secrecy, as they suspect that were the French to learn +of it they would easily find means to thwart the project, as the greater +part of England is opposed to the Queen and most hostile to King Philip +and his party, whilst strongly inclined to Lady Elizabeth, who was always +attached to the French faction rather than the other.” Feria tarried a +few days in Flanders when the news came that Mary was somewhat better; +but Dassonleville’s and Cordova’s letters, foreshadowing, as they did, +Mary’s rapid passing, sent him hurrying across to England in order to +perform his mission before she should die. The great obstacle to the +marriage with Savoy—apart, of course, from Elizabeth’s own reluctance—had +now disappeared, for Mary had recognised her sister as her successor, +without which her marriage would have been useless to Philip. + +Feria arrived in London on the 9th November, and he found England in a +turmoil. Whispers spread every few days that the Queen was indeed dead, +and that her Council only kept back the news until King Philip should +come with the strong hand. “Every man’s mynde was then travayled with a +strange confusione,” says Hayward, who lived through the crisis, “all +things being immoderately eyther dreaded or desired. Every report was +greedily both inquired and received, all truthes suspected, diverse tales +believed, many improbable conjectures hatched and nourished. Invasion +of strangers, civil dissentions, the doubtfull dispositione of the +succeeding prince, were cast in every man’s conceite as present perills; +but noe man did buysy his witts in contriving remedyes.” Whilst her +people were anxiously looking to the future, some with dread and some +with hope, the Queen lay in anguish waiting for the end. It was only five +years since, full of faith and belief in her system, she had passed over +ruined ambitions amidst the acclamations of the people to the throne of +her fathers. In that short time, with the best of intentions, she had +sapped the basis of England’s international importance, she had opened +wide the doors of religious persecution, and, so far as she could, had +laid the resources of her country at the feet of her foreign husband. +She was leaving England poorer in possessions, in power and in spirit, +than it had been at any time since her grandfather brought to an end +the civil strife of a century. She had sacrificed her people’s welfare +and happiness, as well as her own popularity, by obstinately ignoring +accomplished facts and leaning upon a foreign Power to enable her to +restore a state of things that was dead. + +The Queen was only partially conscious and unable to read Philip’s letter +when Feria came to bring her a message from her husband, and he lost no +time in travelling to Hatfield on his principal mission. Elizabeth had +been so wary and diplomatic in her difficult circumstances that she was +as yet an unknown quantity; and doubtless the crafty men of the world who +proposed to win her for Spain anticipated no great difficulty from this +reticent young woman of five-and-twenty, who had accepted Catholicism +so readily. The country was profoundly divided, and it was thought that +the new Queen—as Dassonleville wrote, in good faith—would be unable to +establish her authority without help from abroad. It was therefore, on +the face of it, not an extravagant presumption that she might prefer to +follow her sister’s lead and adhere to the traditional policy of England +in allying herself with the sovereign of Spain and Flanders. + +When Feria arrived at Hatfield he received his first surprise. Before +starting from London he had summoned the Council, and in Philip’s name +had approved of Elizabeth as the heir to the Crown. Believing that this +would enable him to claim Elizabeth’s thanks, he began at Hatfield to +enlarge upon the service Philip had done her in thus securing to her +the succession. So long as high-flown compliment had been the staple of +conversation Elizabeth had given Feria as good as he had brought; but +the moment he bespoke her gratitude she stopped him, and said that she +would owe her Crown to no one but her people; and when he broadly hinted +at the advantage to her of a marriage with her Spanish brother-in-law or +a nominee of his she evaded the suggestion dexterously.[135] All through +the interview she showed a determination to resist any attempts to place +her in the tutelage of Philip. She answered Feria, indeed, somewhat +tartly at one point, that her sister had lost her people’s love by +marrying a foreigner; and the ambassador left her already convinced that +she would be no docile instrument in his master’s hands, as her sister +had been. + +Mary and Pole lay dying at the same time, fortified by the rites of +their Church, whose services were celebrated ceaselessly before their +weary eyes. With the Queen there were few now to do her reverence, +for most of her courtiers and Councillors were flocking to Hatfield +to worship the rising sun; but Mrs. Clarencius, the Countess of Feria +(Jane Dormer, Mary’s favourite maid of honour), and a few other faithful +friends stood by her to the last. On the morning of the 16th November +the Council assembled in her room, and Cordell, the Master of the Rolls, +read aloud the Queen’s will, although Mary was unconscious at the time. +Feria asserts that when the reader reached the bequests to her personal +attendants the Council desired him to omit that portion. In any case, +little attention was afterwards paid to the Queen’s testament, for there +were none who loved or mourned the forlorn woman. Before dawn on the +17th November Mass was celebrated in the dying chamber in the Palace of +St. James. Like her mother on her death-bed in similar circumstances, +Mary followed the sacred office devoutly, in the full possession now +of her faculties, making the responses audibly and fervently. When the +celebrant appealed to “the Lamb of God who took upon Himself the sins of +the world,” Mary answered clearly “_Miserere nobis, Miserere nobis, Dona +nobis pacem_.”[136] These cries for mercy, for mercy and peace, were the +last words of unhappy Mary Tudor. A few moments afterwards, as the priest +held up before her the Sacramental Host, her eyes flushed with tears, and +then closed for ever. Philip had no longer any footing in England. He +must win one again by force or favour, unless Spain was to surrender her +proud supremacy and Catholicism cease to rule the world. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +1558-1565 + + Accession of Elizabeth—The beginning of the long duel—Feria + urges Philip to use force—Philip’s many difficulties—He offers + his hand to Elizabeth—The Peace of Cateau Cambresis—The + Franco-Spanish Alliance—Fears of a Catholic League—Philip + marries a French Princess—English Catholics appeal to + Philip—Mary Stuart claims the Crown of England—War with + Scotland—Philip’s efforts to effect a reconciliation—Bishop + Quadra—His relations with Leicester—Intrigue for a Catholic + reaction in England—Mary Stuart approaches Philip—Disgrace + and death of Quadra—A war of tariffs—Guzman de Silva, + ambassador—The interviews of Bayonne—Failure of the Catholic + League + + +Though Mary’s death had long been foreseen, Feria was distracted when +it came, for change was on all sides, and each change unfavourable to +Spanish interests. “It is very early,” he wrote, “to talk about marriage +yet; but the confusion and instability of these people in all their +affairs make it necessary for us to be the more alert, so as not to +lose the opportunities that may offer, and especially in the matter of +marriage.... The new Queen and the people hold themselves free from your +Majesty, and will listen to any ambassadors who may come to treat of +marriage. Your Majesty understands better than I how important it is that +this affair should go through your hands, which will be difficult except +with great negotiations and expenditure.” He continues by urging Philip +not to allow the Emperor Ferdinand to offer the hand of either of his +sons to Elizabeth, and opines that the English would not favour Savoy, +whilst, he says, the nobles recognise that it would be impossible for the +Queen to marry an Englishman. This was, of course, preliminary to the +suggestion of Feria that Philip should marry Elizabeth himself. “The more +I think of this business the more certain I am that everything depends +upon the husband this woman may take. If he be a suitable one, religious +matters will go on well, and the realm will remain friendly with your +Majesty; but if not, all will be spoilt. If she decides to marry out of +the country she will at once fix her eyes upon your Majesty, although +some of them here will be sure to pitch upon the Archduke Ferdinand.”[137] + +Feria, who had lorded over Mary’s Council, found the members now sorely +changed. They had mostly been bribed heavily by him, and the ambassador +roundly abuses them for their ingratitude. They were indeed, such of +them as were included in Elizabeth’s Council, too anxious to clear +themselves from the odium of the past to smile upon the unpopular Spanish +connection; though secretly Lord William Howard, Clinton, and Paget +promised their services to Feria. As for the people at large, the death +of Mary was to them as if a crushing weight had been lifted from their +hearts. Even as she lay dying, the sacred things—the images, relics, and +the like—of which she had enforced the veneration, were openly slighted; +and Feria wrote a few days after her death: “The people are wagging their +tongues a good deal about the Queen’s having sent great sums of money to +your Majesty, and that I have sent you 200,000 ducats since I came. They +say that it is through your Majesty that the country is in such want, and +that Calais was lost; and also that through your not coming to see the +Queen she died of grief.” + +Under Cecil’s guidance Elizabeth’s first steps were prudent and wise +in the extreme. The religious burnings were at once stopped, and those +persons who were imprisoned on the charge of heresy were enlarged on +their own recognisances; but most of the members of Mary’s Catholic +Council were retained, though reinforced by seven new Protestant +Councillors, Cecil and Parry being given the most influential duties. +But, moderate though the new rulers were, the Catholics, and especially +the Spanish party, were in dismay. Only a week after the Queen’s +accession Feria wrote to Philip: “The kingdom is entirely in the hands +of young folks, heretics, and traitors, and the Queen favours no man who +served her sister. The old people and the Catholics are dissatisfied, but +dare not open their lips. The Queen seems to me incomparably more feared +than her sister was, and gives her orders as absolutely as her father +did.” + +In the meanwhile the new Queen heard Mass, and made no change in +religious observance, but she turned her back upon Bonner when he went to +greet her with the other Bishops, and took care to show that, Catholic or +Protestant, she was not going to be the submissive tool of either Spain +or France, though she professed a desire to be friendly with both. “These +people,” wrote Feria, “try to make it known everywhere that your Majesty +will have no more influence here than if you had not married the late +Queen, and they persuade the present Queen not to be intimate with me. As +she is much taken up with the people, she does as they wish her to do, +and treats foreigners slightingly. I have therefore decided to go slowly +until things settle down and I see who takes the lead. Up to the present +nothing is certain, and every one talks as his wishes lead him. I wonder +they have not sent me crazy. The whole point is the husband she chooses, +and we must try by money arrangements that he shall be one agreeable to +your Majesty.” + +Elizabeth declined to receive personally either Feria or Dassonleville +until she approached London, though Feria sent her an amiable message by +Lady Clinton when she arrived at the Charter House, and a splendid ring +from Philip by Controller Parry. At the Charter House on the following +day the ambassador first saluted the Queen. He was a gallant, handsome +gentleman, one of the first nobles in Spain; and Elizabeth was most +gracious to him, taking off her glove as soon as he entered the room, +in order that he might kiss her hand. The chamber was crowded with +people, and it was, of course, no time for political business. He was +only in England, he assured her, in order to serve her and let her royal +brother-in-law know how best he might gratify her wishes, so as to help +forward the good understanding already existing. Feria ventured to touch +lightly upon religion, hoping that she would be careful on that point; +but to this she gave a broad reply, which Feria thought equivocal. When +he left her she had almost allayed his fears, so fine was her diplomacy, +and he sent her that day by Lady Clinton two more rings that had belonged +to Mary—“as I saw she was so fond of her jewels, and I thought best to +give her even the poorest of them.” + +He saw her again three days afterwards at Somerset House, where she was +staying, and told her that a truce had been settled between France and +Spain during the peace negotiations. She showed her suspicions in a +moment, thinking that the intention was to isolate her and leave her at +hostilities with France. By means of Cecil, however, Feria persuaded her +that her fears were unfounded; and in another conversation she exerted +all her blandishments upon him to convince him that her leanings were +not towards the French, whilst he further delighted her by telling her +that he had at Whitehall and at her disposal a casket of jewels that +had belonged to her sister. In this sort of intercourse Elizabeth was a +match for any one living. It was not until Feria tried to pledge her to +anything that he found out his powerlessness. He had occupied the royal +residence called Durham Place, in the Strand, as a dwelling house, but he +had also apartments at Whitehall, and he tried hard to obtain a renewal +of these, “although I am much afraid they will not give it to me. I have +little chance of talking to people unless I am inside the Palace, and +they are so suspicious of me that, as the late Chancellor (Heath) plainly +told me, nobody dares to speak to me.... They are very glad to be free of +your Majesty, as though you had done them harm instead of good. Although +in several of my letters to your Majesty I have said how small a party +you have here, I am never satisfied that I have said enough to describe +things as they really are. I am so isolated from them that I am much +embarrassed and puzzled to get the means of discovering what is going on; +for truly they run away from me as if I were the devil. The best way will +be for me to get my foot into the Palace, so as to speak oftener with the +Queen, as she is a woman very fond of argument.” + +The great question for the Spaniards was Elizabeth’s marriage. If she +married a Protestant or a man open to French influence, the effect upon +Spanish interests might be disastrous. The gossip on the subject at +Court shifted from day to day—sometimes an English suitor, sometimes +Prince Eric, sometimes one of the Archdukes, Philip’s cousins, being the +favourite. Savoy was always rejected by public voice, because of the fear +that he might drag England into war with France to recover his dominions. +None of the suitors mentioned except Savoy would have suited Spanish +ends. The Archdukes, if they would accept the absolute dictation of their +cousin Philip, would have been the least objectionable of the foreign +Princes: but Philip was not on very good terms with the Austrian branch +of his family at this time; for he was still sore about the succession to +the Empire, and the Archdukes were too much dependent upon the Lutherans +to please him. So the conviction grew in Feria’s mind that the only +satisfactory solution would be for Philip to marry Elizabeth himself. He +proposed to appeal to her pride, and to suggest that it would be beneath +her to match less splendidly than her sister. Little did either he or his +master understand the subtle mind with which they had to deal. Elizabeth +was, of course, anxious to keep on good terms with them, and indeed to +restore England to its former position as the balancing power, but, smile +and coquette as she might, she would never allow herself to be drawn into +a position from which she could not retreat. + +Feria—impatient, scornful, and proud—began to tire of this inconclusive +dallying, especially as he saw, both at Court and outside, that the +Protestants were growing bolder, and the Queen herself was relaxing her +orthodox observance. He complained bitterly to Philip that everything was +hidden from him, and that he could learn nothing, though the Queen said +that he knew too much about English affairs; that he was proud, and that +she would be glad if he were recalled. “I am afraid,” he wrote, “that one +fine day we shall find this woman married, and I shall be the last man to +learn anything about it.... I overlook many things and try not to take +offence or to appear inquisitive; but their enmity and evil consciences +make them so suspicious of me that they think I know everything, and in +return for all my efforts to please, I believe that they would like to +see me thrown into the river—that is to say, the Queen and her friends +would—for the Catholics and goodly people are glad that your Majesty +should gain ground here.” + +The fear that Elizabeth would slip through their fingers was accentuated +for the Spaniards by the idea that her proceedings in religion might +induce the Pope to listen to French prompting and excommunicate her, +declaring her throne forfeit to the next Catholic heir, Mary of Scotland, +Dauphiness of France. Anything would have suited Philip better than that, +and it appears to have been this consideration which finally moved him +to dazzle the new Queen, and cut out all the other suitors by proposing +formally to become her husband himself. Elizabeth had, of course, in her +two previous conversations with Feria, understood his veiled allusions +to the subject; and when he had pressed his demand for rooms in the +Palace of Whitehall, Elizabeth, with prudish modesty, sent word by Cecil +that, as she was unmarried and Feria might be her suitor, it would be +improper for him to sleep under the same roof. Feria, recognising the +absurdity of the alleged reason, believed that the refusal was owing to +French intrigue, and urged his master to act promptly. “Your Majesty must +get the affair into your own grasp. We must look to it at once that the +King of France does not get in and spoil the crop that your Majesty has +sown here.” Thus abjured, Philip took the plunge, once more in a pure +spirit of martyrdom—not this time on account of disparity of age or lack +of attraction on the part of his bride-elect, but rather because of her +doubtful orthodoxy. + +It is difficult to understand how so sagacious a man as Philip can +have been so blind to the character of his sister-in-law as to have +believed that an offer made in the spirit displayed in his letter to +his ambassador could have been accepted by her. On 10th January, 1559, +the King wrote thus to Feria: “I highly approve of the course you have +adopted in persuading her and the Council that it is not to her interest +to marry a subject. As regards myself, if she should broach the subject +to you, you should treat it in such a way as neither to accept nor reject +the suggestion entirely. In a matter of such grave importance it was +necessary for me to take counsel and consider it maturely in all its +bearings, before I sent you my decision. Many great obstacles present +themselves, and it is difficult for me to reconcile my conscience to it, +as I am obliged to reside in my other dominions, and consequently could +not be much in England, which, apparently, is what they fear; and also +because the Queen has not been sound in religion, and it would not look +well for me to marry her unless she were a Catholic. Besides this, such +a marriage would appear like entering upon a perpetual war with France, +seeing the claims that the Queen of Scots has to the English Crown. The +urgent need for my presence in Spain, which is greater than I can say +here, and the heavy expense I should be put to in England by reason of +the costly entertainment necessary to the people there, together with +the fact that my Treasury is so utterly exhausted as to be unable to +meet the most pressing ordinary expenditure, much less new and onerous +burdens: bearing in mind these and many other difficulties no less +grave, ... I nevertheless cannot lose sight of the enormous importance +of such a match to Christianity and the preservation of religion, which +has been restored in England by the help of God. Seeing the importance +that the country should not relapse into its former errors, which would +cause to our neighbouring dominions serious dangers and difficulties, I +have decided to put aside all other considerations which might be urged +against it, and am resolved to render this service to God, and offer +to marry the Queen of England; and I will use every possible effort to +effect this, if it can be done on the conditions that will be explained +to you. The first and most important is that you should satisfy yourself +that the Queen will profess the same religion that I do, the same that I +ever shall hold, and that she will persevere in the same and uphold it +in the country, doing with that end all that may appear necessary to me. +She will have to obtain secret absolution from the Pope and the necessary +dispensation, so that when I marry her she will be a Catholic, which she +has not hitherto been. In this way it is evident and manifest that I am +serving the Lord in marrying her, and that she has been converted by my +act. You will not propose any conditions until you see how the Queen is +disposed towards the matter itself; and mark well that you must first +broach the subject alone, as she has already opened the door to such an +approach.”[138] Later Philip mentions that the clause in his marriage +treaty with Mary granting Flanders to the issue of the marriage could not +be conceded in the case of Elizabeth. + +There are few letters extant that reveal so clearly as this does +the character of Philip. As he points out in his long preamble, the +objections to the match are numerous and grave. Elizabeth was of doubtful +orthodoxy, excommunicate and officially declared a bastard, the daughter +of a woman whom Catholic Spaniards looked upon as the personification of +evil, and yet to marry her the proudest monarch on earth and the champion +of the Church omnipotent was ready to salve his conscience, sacrifice +personal desires and lavish upon a people he loathed the money wrung +painfully from the Castilian subjects that he loved. The talk of his +sacrifice to God no doubt was sincerely uttered and believed by himself, +because he ever identified his political aims with the cause of the +Almighty; but the real reason for his willingness to marry Elizabeth in +spite of everything was primarily to prevent England from slipping away +from his grasp to the irreparable injury of his cause. If England became +a Protestant power under Elizabeth, he foresaw that it would reinforce +the elements in his own dominions with which his great struggle was even +now visible on the horizon; if it became Catholic under Mary Stuart, +matters would be still worse for him, because his great rival France +would then hold the whip hand over him for ever from across the Channel. +It was a dire predicament for a proud, devout monarch to find himself in, +and of the two great evils that threatened, Philip proposed to choose the +lesser in marrying Elizabeth “for the greater glory of God.” + +But it takes two persons to make a marriage, and Elizabeth, unlike her +sister, had no notion of allowing herself and England to be made the +tools of another’s ambitions, for she had ambitions of her own, and in +most cases they were not identical with those of her brother-in-law. In +one particular alone they coincided, namely, in the need for excluding +the French from gaining control of England by means of Mary Stuart or +otherwise, and this was the point that restrained Philip from proceeding +to extremities with Elizabeth for thirty years of provocation. Feria, +who was in closer touch with the progress of affairs in England than his +master, must have seen the impracticability of proposing for Elizabeth’s +hand in the spirit of his instructions, and, although he saw her in the +little chamber at Whitehall on the eve of the opening of Parliament +on the 25th January, where she chatted very affably with him, he did +not venture to mention the question of marriage, as he had been told +that Parliament would press her to choose a husband, and thought that +he had better wait until then. But Philip was impatient, the English +Peace Commissioners at Cateau Cambresis, who had now been joined by Lord +William Howard, were standing out firmly for the restoration of Calais +as a condition of the general peace.[139] If Elizabeth showed herself +ready to become Philip’s wife and the obedient tool of his policy, he +was willing to make a stand too on the subject of Calais; but he was +determined not to be kept at war for the sake of the English if Elizabeth +persevered in her proposed Parliamentary action with regard to religious +reform, and he peremptorily instructed Feria to remonstrate earnestly +with her on the subject, and to tell her from him, “as a good and true +brother, who really wishes her well, both on account of our relationship +and because I wish to see her firmly established on the throne, that +I warn her to ponder deeply the evils which may result to England, +particularly so early in her reign, from any change in religion.... You +will enforce this by all the good arguments and persuasions that you +can employ, ... but if you can obtain no success in that way you will +consider whether it will be well to press the Queen by saying that if +this change is made, all idea of my marriage with her must be broken off. +If she has any thoughts that way this may be effective.”[140] + +[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH + +FROM A PAINTING BY ZUCCHERO IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY] + +Feria was in a quandary, for he knew how impossible it was, seeing +Elizabeth’s temper, to deal with her in this way. After two or three +inconclusive interviews with the Queen, in which the question of the +religious changes was pressed and the marriage broadly hinted at, Feria +came to close quarters with her. She began with her usual professions +of disinclination to marry at all, and was proceeding, as he feared, to +decline her brother-in-law’s proposal, when the ambassador stopped her +and said he did not want an answer then. After some coquettish verbal +fencing she promised him that she would give him a good answer if she +gave him one at all. And then came the serious part of the business. +Howard had written to her that Alba had said that they (the Spaniards) +could not stand out for Calais any longer, but must make peace in any +case.[141] + +Elizabeth worked herself up into a rage about this, and began to storm +about Mary of Scotland’s claims upon England. She was not so poor that +she could not get what money and soldiers she needed to hold her own, +she said. Her people were all grumbling, she declared, at the waste of +money upon the fleet for Philip’s service and other heavy expenditure +the late Queen had incurred for him; and Feria had much ado to enforce +his view that England owed a deep debt of gratitude to Philip, and the +unreasonableness of expecting that he would keep at war with France for +the sake of a single town like Calais. He was afraid even to speak about +the religious point for fear of exacerbating their relations: “Yet, +although I plainly see her going to perdition, it seems to me that if +the marriage can be carried through, the rest will soon be arranged in +accordance with the glory of God and the wishes of your Majesty. If the +marriage do not take place, all I could say to the Queen about religion +would be of little avail, as she is so badly advised by the heretics who +surround her, and it might even prejudice the principal matter” (_i.e._, +the marriage). + +Events thereafter moved apace. To the Queen’s indignation she was +forced to consent to a peace with France, postponing the restitution of +Calais for eight years, to be followed by a peace with Scotland. The +Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity were passed; and every day, +notwithstanding Elizabeth’s diplomatic professions of attachment to Spain +and its King, the hold of the latter over England became less powerful. +Philip had to make up his mind rapidly after the religious changes in the +English Parliament had been made. It was clear to him then that Elizabeth +would be no fit instrument to his ends. Feria was telling him hotly that +“the only way to deal with these heretics is sword in hand,” and Alba, +in Flanders, was for coercing Elizabeth before she grew strong enough to +resist Spain and the English Catholics combined. + +But Philip hated war, and had a supreme belief in his own diplomatic +methods. He was face to face, moreover, with a new development. Always +before France had been the insatiable rival of his house, and France had +been a solid instrument in the hands of its King. But the Reformation +was already confusing the traditional boundaries. Henry II. was growing +apprehensive of the increasing spread of Calvinism in his own dominions, +and a solution after Philip’s own heart was devised by the Churchmen that +drew the Catholic rivals together to face the new danger of Protestantism +throughout Europe. England was no longer to be the balancing power +between them, but the enemy of both, so long as she remained Protestant. +To cement this hopeful attempt to combine Europe politically on new +lines Philip was to marry the eldest daughter of France, the Princess +Elizabeth of Valois, who, so long as he had hopes of marrying Elizabeth, +had been destined for his only son Don Carlos. + +The close union of France and Spain caused, as usual, a wave of alarm +to pass over England. Paget and the Spanish party in Elizabeth’s Court +were for continuing the war against France at any cost and clinging to +Philip as the sole chance of safety[142]; and, although the Queen and +Cecil would not go so far as that, they did their best to mollify Feria +and his master. When the ambassador saw the Queen on the 7th April, 1559 +(the day that the news of the signing of the peace of Cateau Cambresis +came to London) she was pouting and coquettishly aggrieved that Philip +should have engaged himself to be married to any one but her, as she had +given him no answer yet. Feria retorted crossly that the King could not +wait four months for her answer, and when Cecil told him that they were +quite willing to continue the war against France if Philip liked, the +ambassador answered him rudely, and “I left them that day as bitter as +gall.” Again and again the angry ambassador complained and remonstrated +with the Queen about the religious changes and the licence now taken by +the people. But she outwitted him at every point, kept up an elaborate +pretence of negotiations to marry one of the Austrian Archdukes, who +would depend entirely on Philip, and personally assured Feria that she +was as good a Catholic as her father, the only point upon which she +differed from the Spaniards being the supremacy of the Pope. + +Thus England freed herself from Spanish tutelage within six months +of Elizabeth’s accession. Feria said she “was a daughter of the devil +and her chief ministers the greatest scoundrels and heretics in the +land,” and when he went back to join his master in Flanders he breathed +fire and slaughter against England and the Queen, whose diplomacy had +stultified all his efforts. He had done his best to persuade Philip to +pluck a quarrel with England that should give him an excuse for armed +intervention, the deposition of Elizabeth by the Pope, and the patronage +of Catharine Grey as a pretender for Elizabeth’s throne with the aid +of the English Catholics, who, he assured Philip, were all in his +favour.[143] But Philip thought that he had found a better way than by +war and rejected the advice of his fiery councillors. To represent him in +England there remained at Elizabeth’s Court the best possible instrument +that could have been selected in the circumstances, the Bishop of Aquila, +Alvaro de la Quadra, a supple, patient, unscrupulous old ecclesiastic, +who had lived long in Italy and was an adept at sly, stealthy diplomacy, +which so cleverly used religion as the stalking-horse of politics. Bishop +Jewel calls him “a clever, crafty, old fox”; and he needed all his +cunning, for his task for the next five years until it broke his heart +was to keep Elizabeth, heretic though she might be, from joining either +the Protestants or the French against Philip. + +For even before the ink was dry that ratified the peace of Cateau +Cambresis, before the pompous ceremonies in England, France, and Spain +that celebrated it were finished, a stroke of Fate had rendered the +union between the two great Catholic Powers unstable, and old political +traditions were reasserting themselves. I have told elsewhere[144] of +the ill-fated feast in Paris, when stern Alba wedded in June, 1559, as +proxy for his master, the beautiful Valois Princess of fourteen. How +her father, the gallant Henry, was stricken down mortally at the joust +that followed, and how the rise of his long-neglected wife, Catharine +de Medici, able and ambitious, soon made the Catholic League a hollow +pretence. She needed not the dominance of the Guises and their Catholic +friends, but so nicely to balance them against the Huguenots that she +herself might hold the scale. She did not send her sweet daughter to +Spain as a pledge for the extirpation of Protestantism root and branch, +as had been intended, but to cajole Philip into helping her personally to +hold her own as ruler of France, whichever faction was paramount, and to +win, if possible, the heir of Spain for her younger daughter, so that her +hold over the country might be perpetuated. + +The accession also of young Francis II. and Mary Stuart to the throne of +France, under the dominion of their ambitious Guise uncles, had driven +a great wedge into the unity of the Catholic League. The Guises, who +led the Catholic party in France, were now for a short time masters, on +behalf of the young King and his wife, of the national resources, and +were prepared to use them in furthering their Scottish niece’s claims +to the English throne. This naturally drew Philip more to the side of +Elizabeth, however perverse she might be, and, from the very first, +rendered abortive the Catholic League secretly cemented by the treaty of +Cateau Cambresis. When the death of Francis II., after his short reign, +threw the Guises into the background and made Catharine de Medici Regent +of France, matters were hardly improved. Philip was always a bad hand at +playing another’s game, and though his young French wife lived happily +with him, for he was a good husband, the purpose of her going to Spain +was never achieved, and Philip was as anxious after his French marriage +as before it to prevent his mother-in-law and his English sister-in-law +from making common cause against him. They, knowing this as well as he, +could, and did, always checkmate or paralyse him when they pleased by +simulating friendship with each other, either by marriage talk or by a +pretence of common interest. Whilst Catharine de Medici lived this was +the problem of Europe, and to Philip it proved an insoluble one. + +Feria and Alba were for ever advocating the high hand with Elizabeth, but +Philip knew that his hollow union with France had drawn all Protestants +together, so that if he aided the English Catholics to depose Elizabeth +and crush Protestantism in her country, not only would Catholic France +be against him, but the Lutheran Germans would be disturbed, and perhaps +he might let loose the storm, of which the mutterings were already +audible, over his own Netherlands. So, in spite of the Bishop of Aquila’s +soft hints and Feria’s warlike advice, Philip decided, notwithstanding +Elizabeth’s religious recalcitrancy, upon a policy of palliation and +suavity in England. “You must,” he instructed his ambassador, “keep +mainly in view by all means to avoid a rupture. I have already pointed +out the importance of this, but it is so great that I cannot be satisfied +without repeating it many times.” But yet he was ready even thus early +if Elizabeth’s subjects attacked her for her religious measures to take +full advantage of the opportunity for his own advantage, and so to +prevent the French from establishing themselves in England. With these +pacific instructions, therefore, he sent the great sum of 60,000 crowns +“to gain friends,” and says, “I have also ordered, in case of need, that +money shall be raised to fit out a fleet at short notice, so that it may +be ready to carry men over to England if required.” + +The difference between Feria’s arrogant methods and the Bishop’s +blandness was soon seen in his intercourse with the Queen. Of her and her +advisers in his letters to Philip he has nothing but violent abuse; but +he was all tolerant kindness when he was with her, and got quite friendly +with the “heretic” Cecil. He was lodged in Durham Place, as Feria had +been, and was in close touch with Lady Mary Sidney and her brother, Lord +Robert Dudley, who was soon to be created Earl of Leicester. During all +the comedy of pretended marriage negotiations with the Archduke Charles +the Bishop dexterously aided or hindered the progress as the interests of +Philip seemed to dictate. If the Archduke was to come as a thoroughgoing +Catholic and obedient servant of Spain well and good, but the moment +there was any talk of his making religious concessions or appearing under +Lutheran auspices, then the wily Bishop smiled upon the perennial second +string of Lord Robert Dudley. In the meanwhile he was hand in glove with +the discontented and dismayed English Catholics, gaining friends amongst +them by money promises and blandishments, whilst his spies were busy +discovering the weak points on the East Coast towards Flanders, making +lists of the Catholic and disaffected English gentry, and whispering to +them of the armed aid that in case of need would be sent by the Catholic +King. To Philip the Bishop wrote often with affected humility, but with +studied significance, saying how surprised the English Catholics were +that he made no move to help them. “Your Majesty,” he wrote, “is the only +hope of the godly and the dread of the wicked, if the latter are not to +be allowed time to combat and weaken the Catholic party.”[145] + +But Philip was powerless to stir a finger to help them, much as they +might cry to him. The death of Henry II. and the accession of Mary +Stuart’s husband, as has been pointed out, had suddenly changed the +situation. The claims of the Queen of Scots to the English throne, and +the despatch of a strong French force to Leith to succour the Regent +Mary of Lorraine, hardly pressed as she was by the rebels subsidised by +Elizabeth, precipitated the eventuality that Philip dreaded most—a war +in Scotland between France and the Queen of England. If in such a war +the latter were beaten by the Guises, then farewell to Spanish influence +in England, however Catholic the country might become. Yet Philip dared +not fight on the behalf of heresy against the Catholic French element +and the Guises, or the Huguenots would become all-powerful; whilst if he +interfered in England at all to Elizabeth’s detriment his action would +draw together in close unity the powerful Protestant party in England, +the majority of the Scots who were Reformers, the Huguenots of France, +who were panting for revenge on the Guises, and the Lutherans of Germany +and Holland. With such a combination as this behind her Elizabeth might +adopt a stronger anti-Catholic attitude than ever. + +But what Philip dreaded even more than this was the encouragement that +such a strong combination of Protestants would give to the Flemings, +who were already straining in the leash to escape from the Spanish +religious system. Philip sent envoys to England and France to urge, +both by persuasion and threats, that the peace should be kept (March, +1560), but, as usual, his step was too late to prevent hostilities. The +Bishop of Aquila, in his private letters to Feria, was scornful of his +master’s methods. “If these envoys from his Majesty are only coming to +talk, they will do more harm than good, as the Catholics here expect much +more than that.... The Queen is greatly alarmed, and this is the time to +do what ought to have been done before; but if we are always to be on +the defensive and to palliate everything, I can only pray for patience, +though I well know we shall never have such an opportunity again. All +here are with us, and the very heretics are sick of it.”[146] The Bishop +dared not write in this strain to Philip, though he said as much as he +could; but the King saw, if his advisers did not, that he could not take +up arms against Elizabeth without playing the French game, and it was +equally impossible for him to fight his Catholic French allies on behalf +of the heretic Queen. All he could do, therefore, was talk. + +The result of the short war in Scotland was favourable to Elizabeth, and +the pressing danger passed; but Philip’s threat to aid the French if she +insisted upon continuing the hostilities brought home to Elizabeth and +her minister that the Catholic League was still a danger to them. An +attempt was made to persuade the Spaniards that the Queen would really +marry the Archduke at once and follow Philip’s advice, the object being +to weaken the friendship between Spain and France; but Lord Robert +Dudley’s philandering was now so open, and Elizabeth so obviously +fond of him, that the new pretence about the Archduke and her sudden +Catholic professions deceived nobody.[147] Even Cecil lost heart at the +difficulties created by this infatuation of the Queen for Dudley, and the +Spanish ambassador chuckled with delight that the “heretics” were falling +out amongst themselves and the Catholic cause was looking brighter. + +As soon as the death of Dudley’s wife set him free he made an attempt, +which for a time hoodwinked Bishop Quadra, to gain the support of Spain +for his suit, and even wily Philip believed that England was going to +fall under his sway again by means of the Queen’s lover, a belief that +proved that he still failed to gauge Elizabeth’s true character. The +intermediary in this case was Sir Henry Sidney, who, being a kinsman +of the English Countess of Feria and the husband of Robert Dudley’s +sister, was _persona grata_ at Durham House. He came to Bishop Quadra +late in January, 1561, and after much circumlocution remarked that he was +surprised that it had not been suggested to Philip that the opportunity +offered “for gaining over Lord Robert by extending a hand to him now in +the matter of his marriage with the Queen, and he would thereafter serve +and obey your Majesty like one of your own vassals.” The Bishop was cool +about it, for Dudley’s character was bad, and many evil tales were afloat +about his wife’s recent death. The King of Spain, said the Bishop, had +no need to win the Queen of England’s goodwill. She had not, moreover, +shown herself very ready hitherto to take his advice upon anything, and +it was not sure that she would do so in the matter of her marriage with +Lord Robert. Sidney admitted that the rumours about the foul play upon +Amy Robsart were generally believed, but he said they were untrue. The +Queen, however, was really in love with Robert, and was most anxious to +settle the religious question by the help of him as her husband. Yes, +said the Bishop, that no doubt is very praiseworthy and necessary; but he +did not see why the religious matter should be mixed up with so mundane +a business as marrying Dudley. It ought to be undertaken whether the +Queen was married or single. Sidney quite agreed. Matters in the country +were in a bad way, he admitted, but the Queen and Robert were anxious +to put things right, and he swore most solemnly that they intended to +restore the Catholic religion in England by means of a General Council of +the Church, in which England would join if King Philip would patronise +the bridegroom and urge Elizabeth to marry him. The Bishop reminded +Sidney that he had been led astray several times before by such talk +when the Queen wanted for her own ends to appear friendly to Spain. It +was, moreover, very improper to make religion the excuse. If Lord Robert +repented of his heresy and wanted to recant there was nothing to prevent +him from doing so without bargaining about it, and the interview ended +by Sidney’s promising to bring Lord Robert himself to Durham House to +satisfy the Bishop of his _bonâ fides_. + +In his letter to the King the Churchman expresses himself as being much +shocked at the barefacedness of the proposal; but he goes on to say +that he believes that it is only by this means that the Queen can be +brought round to the Spanish side. The gossip about her and Dudley, he +says, is so scandalous that she will not dare to marry him without some +strong support; and there was no price she would not pay to obtain it. +Such a tendency as that shown in Sidney’s proposal would, of course, be +strenuously opposed by most of Elizabeth’s advisers; and Paget, with +Cecil and his friends, attempted a diversion by strongly advocating a +close alliance with France, where the young King Francis II. had recently +died, and Catharine de Medici had become supreme. The Dudley intrigue +with Spain, however, went on, though probably, as we see now, without +the full knowledge of the Queen. Lord Robert at length came with Sidney +to see the Bishop on the 13th February, and professed his readiness to +be the humble servant of King Philip if he would recommend the Queen to +marry him. Quadra was cautious. He had no special instructions, he said, +and the King was now in Spain, a long way off; but he would promise +Dudley that he would, the next time he saw the Queen, urge her to marry; +and if she mentioned any particular person he (the Bishop) would enlarge +upon Lord Robert’s good qualities and King Philip’s affection for him. + +Two days later the smooth-tongued old Bishop found himself alone with the +Queen, and ventured to say how glad he was to hear that her marriage was +seriously under discussion at last. If she wished to consult the King +of Spain on the matter the Bishop was very much at her service, though +no instructions from Spain had been sent to him. The Queen talked wide +of the subject for some time; but she said at last that she knew she was +no angel, and would make the Bishop her confessor. She would not deny +that she had some affection for Lord Robert for his good qualities, but +had not decided to marry him or any one else. But she saw every day the +necessity for her marriage, and that to satisfy the English humour it was +desirable that she should marry an Englishman. What would the King of +Spain think, she asked, if she married one of her servants? The Bishop +said he did not know, but would ask if she directed him to do so; and +then he launched out into warm praise of Dudley. Elizabeth promised to do +nothing without Philip’s advice, and told the Bishop that when the time +came she would speak to him on the subject. The Bishop, in relating the +interview, says that he humoured her thus “because he saw the heretics so +busy forming combinations with England, France, Scotland, and Germany, +and, above all, because your Majesty’s neighbouring States are so pressed +that a perverse decision of this woman might prejudice them, though she +herself were ruined by it.”[148] + +The Bishop, for all his sanctimonious horror that religion should be +used in political bargaining, was really quite willing to carry through +the deal and to patronise the marriage of Elizabeth and Dudley if he +were assured of the payment. That Dudley was ready to promise anything +and everything is also certain, but it is more than doubtful whether +Elizabeth was aware of what he was promising. It suited her at the +moment to meet the Catholic league between France and Spain, hollow as +it was, by threatening combinations of Protestants; whilst at the same +time, as a second string to her bow, cajoling the Spaniards into the idea +that she was willing to be reconciled to them, and had Catholic leanings. +When Bishop Quadra saw Dudley the next day Lord Robert was profuse in +his thanks, for he knew from the Queen word for word what had passed. It +had only been timidity that had prevented the Queen from deciding on the +spot, he said, and he begged the Bishop to revert to the subject when he +saw her again. His promises knew no bounds. Everything in England, even +religion, he said, should be put into the hands of King Philip; and if +the sending of a representative to the Council of the Church were not +enough he would go himself. To this the Bishop replied that he would do +his best to forward matters, but again, in shocked tones, he begged Lord +Robert not to mention religion in the matter on any account. What the +Queen and Dudley did about _that_ concerned their own consciences. Of +course the Catholic King would be delighted to see all these religious +dissensions settled, but it should not be a matter of bargain. “I am thus +cautious with these people, because if they are playing false, which is +quite possible, I do not wish to give them the opportunity of saying that +we offered them your Majesty’s favour in return for their changing their +religion.” + +At the same time the Bishop urged upon his master that the moment had now +come for action: either this bargain must be struck with Dudley, or help +must be given to the enemies of the existing _régime_ to revolutionise +England. “To let these affairs drift at the mercy of chance neither +secures England to us nor punishes evil, and must end in disadvantage +to your Majesty.” Philip was just as sanctimonious in profession and as +pliable in practice as his ambassador. “Our principal aim,” he wrote +in reply, “is directed to the service of our Lord, the maintenance of +religion, and the settlement and pacification of England, and, as we see +that Sidney’s proposals tend to this, and further bearing in mind that +God if He wills can extract good from evil, we have decided that the +negotiation suggested by Sidney should be listened to.” Dudley was to +be helped to marry the Queen, but “the bargain and its payment must be +clearly set forth in writing signed by Elizabeth herself, and she must +give some earnest of her sincerity by liberating the Catholics she has +in prison, she must undertake to send Catholic bishops and ambassadors +to the Council of the Church, and submit herself unconditionally to +its decisions. And, besides all this, she must begin by giving full +toleration to Catholic worship.” + +This, again, shows that Philip was utterly at sea as regards the real +condition of England at the time, and was still ignorant of Elizabeth’s +character and position. Such demands as those he formulated as a +preliminary were utterly out of the question, even as a final concession. +Before this letter was received in London the insincerity of Elizabeth +in the matter began to appear. The Earl of Bedford was sent to France, +ostensibly to condole with Catharine for the death of Francis II.; but +also to suggest that the French bishops—and especially those of Huguenot +leaning—should join her in sending representatives to the Council, but +not at Trent, as had been agreed, but somewhere else on this side +of the Alps. The cleverness of this move is apparent. Catharine and +Elizabeth would in such case seem to be making common cause, which +would paralyse Philip; and at the same time the Catholics in England +would be tranquillised with the idea that a Council of the Church would +settle matters to their liking. Catharine, however, did not jump at the +bait, as just then in the first days of her Regency she did not wish to +quarrel with her Spanish son-in-law, or to drive the Catholic Guises to +desperation by seeming to join with Elizabeth against them. + +As soon as this became evident the English Queen grew cool about the +Council, much to Dudley’s annoyance, who still tried to keep her up to +the mark. She sent Cecil to the Spanish Bishop, asking him to move Philip +to write to her recommending her to marry an Englishman, hinting at the +same time that this was in Philip’s interest, as she might otherwise +marry a foreign enemy of his. Cecil said that her idea was to bring +Philip’s letter before a committee of peers, prelates, and commoners, +all friends of Dudley, and they would recommend the marriage. This was +all very well, said the Bishop, but how about Lord Robert’s religious +pledges? But Cecil had no intention, nor probably had the Queen, of +carrying out any such promises; and this new proposal was really intended +to upset Dudley’s plan. So, gradually, a barrier of limitations and +conditions was introduced by Cecil, which made the affair impossible. The +Anglican and Lutheran bishops were to sit in the Council; certain points +of doctrine must be settled beforehand; the Pope or his legate might be +President but not ruler of the Council; and the place of meeting must +be mutually agreed upon by all the princes. Dudley alternately fumed +and sulked at this diversion by his opponents, and tried desperately to +keep the Spanish Bishop in hand. It had, of course, been evident to the +latter at once that Philip’s attitude as shown in his instructions was +impossible. “Elizabeth,” he said, “had not entered into the business so +humbly and submissively that he could lay down the law to her and insist +upon her pledging herself in writing”; besides, it would be most unwise +to give the “heretics” the opportunity, if they were playing false, of +proving that they had got Philip to bargain for his political help in +return for religious concessions. + +[Illustration: ROBERT DUDLEY, EARL OF LEICESTER + +FROM A PAINTING AT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY] + +In the meanwhile, encouraged by this philandering, a Papal Nuncio was +hurrying across Europe to be ready at a moment’s notice to sail from +Flanders to England and invite the representatives of Elizabeth to the +Council of Trent. This Nuncio, the Abbé Martinengo, was to be received at +Greenwich privately, and not to go through the streets of London, which +it was thought would not be safe. Dudley was again in the seventh heaven +of blissful anticipation, and ready, if he was the Queen’s husband, to +lay England and the faith he had professed at Philip’s feet. He would +restore the Catholic Church, he promised, the Queen should give a good +answer to the Nuncio about the Council of the Church, and some of the +Protestant bishops even, he said, were beginning to waver. But Cecil saw +which way matters were tending, and promptly stepped in with another +diversion. Protestant feeling in England was already becoming excited +at the rumour that a Papal Nuncio was on his way to see the Queen, and +Bishop Quadra found himself a prey to intense unpopularity for having, it +was said, plotted to bring about a Catholic revolution. The Nuncio was +informed that he would not be allowed to land in England (April, 1561), +Sidney was hurried off to his post in Wales, Dudley retired before the +storm, and Cecil, triumphant, had the satisfaction of knowing that he had +prevented England from being dragged into Philip’s clutches again by the +ambition of a worthless courtier, aided by the Queen’s momentary weakness. + +Bishop Quadra was deeply mortified by the way in which he had been +misled, and became more desirous than ever that strong measures should +be taken to aid the Catholics to rebel against Elizabeth. After +unsuccessfully approaching the French Huguenots to obtain help from them +for his marriage with the Queen, Dudley had the impudence, in January, +1562, to approach Quadra again and offer his servile obedience to Spain +in return for the aid of King Philip towards his marriage; but the bait +was stale, for, as the Bishop wrote, the Catholics thoroughly distrusted +Dudley now, and he was of no use any longer as a Spanish instrument. + +Though Philip had failed again to secure England as a satellite, the +need for his doing so was as urgent as ever, for the Netherlands were +seething in discontent, the Huguenots in France were being supported for +the time by the Regent Catharine, and it looked as if the stronger coming +combination in Europe would not be Catholic but Protestant. To counteract +this threatening state of affairs it was necessary for Philip to try a +new tack. The massacre of Vassy had precipitated the opening of the first +war of religion in France (March, 1562), and this made it expedient for +him to strengthen the Guises. So a proposal, upon which, when Cardinal +Lorraine had made it a year before, he had looked upon coldly, was now +regarded with favour. This was no less than the marriage of the widowed +Mary Stuart, now in Scotland, and on ill terms with Catharine, with +Philip’s heir, Don Carlos. It was not such a match as the Spanish King in +ordinary circumstances would have considered adequate for his son; but +as Mary was the Catholic heiress of England, and might by a turn of the +wheel become Queen of Britain she was a useful countercheck to Protestant +combinations. + +As soon as the project got wind Elizabeth, Catharine de Medici, and the +Scottish Protestants, led by the Earl of Murray, sought an antidote to +the threatened evil. The Darnley match was positively patronised both by +Elizabeth and Catharine, and Lethington posted off to London eager to +negotiate a friendly understanding between England and Scotland before +his Catholic mistress should fall into the marriage net of Spain. But the +war between Catholics and Protestants in France was now blazing fiercely, +and the Guises were fighting for their lives, unable to help their niece +or interfere in any way with Elizabeth’s game in Scotland. This made +her for the time the mistress of the situation, and she could afford to +deal high-handedly with the Queen of Scots, especially after the Duke +of Guise himself had been assassinated before Orleans (February, 1563). +She threw all her power on the Huguenot side in the struggle, allowing +English contingents to join in the fight and subsiding Condé with money. +Mary Stuart’s Protestant advisers had tried hard to negotiate an alliance +between England and Scotland on Protestant lines in conjunction with +the recognition of Mary as Elizabeth’s heiress under the same auspices; +and once more Lethington went to London, in February, 1563, to urge his +point. He found the Queen coolly evasive, for she had nothing to fear +from Mary or her French kinsmen now, and she knew that Philip would +not dare to attack her or interfere forcibly in Scotland whilst the +Protestants in France were in the ascendant. + +Lethington, of course with Mary’s acquiescence, then shifted his ground. +He and Murray had always been strong partisans of England, with the idea +of securing the succession to Mary of a Protestant Britain; but, out of +patience at last with this new rebuff from Elizabeth, they determined +to throw over England and Protestantism, and marry Mary to a nominee of +Philip and defy Elizabeth to do her worst. So, at dead of night, again +and again, Lethington, the Scottish minister, landed from his boat at +the dark stairs of Durham House, and remained for hours closeted with +Bishop Quadra. The Bishop himself was daily growing more bitter against +Elizabeth. She had now openly aided the French Protestants against the +Catholics. She had treated him personally with marked contumely, raiding +his house on the pretext that people other than his own servants attended +Mass there, for she knew she could do all this now with impunity, because +Philip could not afford to quarrel with her whilst the Catholics in +France were in a bad way. So the Bishop listened eagerly as the Scot told +him how the Queen of England had deceived his mistress, and now again +had evaded the question of her succession; how she had artfully stepped +in by intrigue, and had rendered abortive all the negotiations for the +marriage of Mary with a fitting foreign prince, and had tried to drive +her into some unworthy marriage. “Had she not better accept any marriage +that the Queen of England proposes for her?” asked Quadra, as a feeler, +“if in return she obtains her recognition as the heiress of the English +Crown?” No, replied Lethington, emphatically. They had made up their mind +that the only way was to force Elizabeth, by marrying Mary to a powerful +Catholic prince, with sufficient force behind him to maintain the rights +of the Queen of Scots. And then, after a little fencing on both sides, +he proposed that Don Carlos should become King Consort of Scotland, and +afterwards of Great Britain, with Mary for his wife. Mary was, he said, +quite resolved never to marry a Protestant or to accept any husband on +the bidding of the Queen of England, and if her approaches to Spain were +not well received she would offer to marry her young brother-in-law, +Charles IX. + +This latter declaration, we may well suppose, was only for the purpose of +forcing the hand of Philip, for the match would certainly not have been +allowed by Catharine de Medici. The old Bishop, aware of this, passed it +over with a smile, and said that there was nothing the Queen of England +dreaded more than a marriage between Mary Stuart and a friend of Spain. +She had been at infinite pains lately to make them believe that she was +a Catholic, but now that her friends the Huguenots were in the ascendant +she had become less anxious to conciliate them. But were not the Scots +Protestants too? he asked. Lethington, Protestant and friend of Knox +though he was, minimised the difference between the creed of Scotland and +Spain. Religion, he assured the Spaniard, was not really at the bottom of +their trouble in Scotland. Both Elizabeth and Catharine, he said, were in +mortal fear of the marriage of Don Carlos and Mary of Scotland, as well +they might be; for not only would the Prince thus win the most chaste +and beautiful bride in the world, “but he would also succeed to almost +universal monarchy by adding to the dominions already possessed by your +Majesty two entire islands, this and Ireland, the possession of which +would give no trouble whatever, having regard to the attachment which the +Catholics bear to this marriage and the union of England and Scotland.” + +Bishop Quadra, well aware of the vast importance of such a declaration +from one of the leaders of the Scottish Protestants, tried to extract +precise religious pledges from him. But Lethington had said all he +wished to say in the four hours’ conference, and the Bishop, full of +encouragement, promised to obtain promptly the King’s answer to the +proposal. Lethington’s next move was to approach the discontented +English Catholic nobles, already in a ferment at Dudley’s insolence and +Cecil’s religious policy. Almost to a man they assured the Scot of their +enthusiastic support of a Spanish marriage for Mary and the acceptance +of the revolutionary changes that such a marriage would produce in +England. “Only let her marry the heir of Spain and we will salute her as +our leader,” they said. This could only mean that with Spanish aid Mary +and Carlos were to be placed upon the throne of a united Britain, and +that Philip would regain the paramountcy he had lost. Elizabeth’s spies +soon got wind of all this, and her counter move was a most extraordinary +one—no other, indeed, than to offer Dudley as Mary’s husband, with the +assurance of her succession to the English Crown after Elizabeth’s +death without issue. It was a mere feint and never meant seriously by +Elizabeth, but it divided Scottish opinion and unsettled poor Mary +herself, and shows how much more than a match Elizabeth was for Philip in +diplomacy. + +Whilst she, with consummate skill and daring, was ready with such +a diversion as this, the Spanish King was pondering, considering, +discussing, and receiving reports upon every phase of the Scottish offer. +The opportunity was a supreme one for him, and if he had been prompt +and bold to seize the chance he might have won England and Scotland by +this means. It is true that Don Carlos was a weak, half-witted boy of +degenerate type, though this was not generally known at the time, but it +would have been sufficient to betroth him to Mary for his father to have +gained a right to interfere in Scotland. The Catholics of England were +on the alert for any such opportunity, and the Scots, as we have seen by +Lethington’s action, were ready to welcome any power strong enough to +defend their country from the intrigues by which Elizabeth sought to sap +the independence of their ancient realm. + +But promptitude was impossible where Philip was concerned. It took him +three months to answer the important letter of Bishop Quadra telling +him of Lethington’s offer, and when the reply came to London, in June, +1563, it was thoroughly characteristic of the writer. As usual, he wanted +to pledge everybody else up to the hilt, whilst himself remaining free +behind bland generalities. His greatest praise was for the Bishop’s +prudence in hearing what Lethington had said without giving him any +plain answer. “And seeing that the bringing about of this marriage +may perhaps be the beginning of a reformation in religious matters in +England, I have decided to entertain the negotiation You will have it +conducted in the same way that it has been commenced if you consider +that safe and secret, telling them [the Scots] to inform you of all the +engagements and understandings they have in England; and you, who know +how valuable such knowledge will be to me, will keep me fully informed +of everything. You will advise me step by step of all that happens, but +without settling anything except to discover the particulars referred to +above, until I send you instructions. You may tell them of my intentions, +but urge them above all to use the utmost secrecy in the business and all +connected with it, as all the benefit to be derived depends absolutely +upon nothing being heard of it until it is an accomplished fact. If it +becomes known that I am concerned in any such negotiations, the French +will be greatly alarmed and will spare no efforts to frustrate them—or +at least to counteract any profitable result that may arise. As for that +Queen of England and her heretics, they are so deeply concerned that it +is easy to judge what they would do if they heard of it; so, as I say, +it is absolutely necessary that you should keep secret and urge secrecy +upon all persons with whom you treat.” Philip knew that Cardinal Lorraine +was now pressing his niece to marry the Archduke Charles, Elizabeth’s +former suitor; but Lethington had scouted him as being useless for their +purpose, as being poor and powerless, and Philip was willing to cut +out his own close kinsman if he could thus gain England and Scotland +for his son, or rather for himself,[149] and above all avoid another +French domination of Scotland, which was threatened by Mary’s pretended +willingness to marry the King of France. + +When Philip’s letter arrived in London the old Bishop was under a cloud. +He was accused of holding communication with Arthur Pole in the Tower. It +was known that he had been receiving in Durham House emissaries of the +Irish Catholics; and Cecil’s spies reported that suspicious boats came +often at night to the water gate. To make matters worse, one day in May a +hanger-on of the Bishop’s household, an Italian serving lad, had shot at +from the back gate of Durham House a Huguenot captain who was swaggering +down the Strand towards Whitehall. The would-be assassin had taken refuge +in the house, and had sought sanctuary in the Bishop’s own chamber, +whence he was smuggled away by boat by the servants and escaped. Search +and violation of diplomatic domicile by the officers of the law followed. +The Bishop’s servants were interrogated, the house itself placed in the +custody of an officer of the Queen, and the old Bishop, with bitterness +in his heart, found himself shunned by all and powerless.[150] + +So when Philip’s impossible instructions reached the Bishop, affairs +had changed. Lethington had been plainly told by Elizabeth that she was +well aware that he was plotting to marry his mistress to Don Carlos or +the Archduke, but that if she married either she must face her enmity, +whereas if she married a friend of England she would make her the heir +to her throne. Lethington and the Scots were therefore already wavering, +for the fear was that if Mary wedded a Spanish nominee, Elizabeth would +make Darnley her heir. The Catholics, too, not unnaturally, seeing the +Countess of Lennox, Darnley’s mother, suddenly taken into high favour +with Elizabeth, were thinking what an ideal arrangement it would be to +marry Mary and her cousin Darnley with Elizabeth’s blessing, and the +assured joint succession to her crown. The Bishop knew all this, and had +well nigh lost heart when Philip’s letter arrived. He saw how impossible +his master’s methods were in the face of Elizabeth’s rapid changes of +policy and fertility of resource; for how could he keep the English +Catholics in hand and learn all their combinations, or even get them to +make any, on vague secret encouragement which might mean nothing? To +the Duke of Alba he wrote: “The remedy is a weak one for so dangerous +a malady. When they see that instead of giving them a firm reply we +come only with halting proposals and inquiries, I know not what they +will think. It is useless to ask them to give me information as to the +amount of support the Queen of Scots can rely upon in England for the +information of his Majesty. Lethington knows well that all this has been +done long ago, for, of course, I could not hide my communications from +him. We have been approached by the same people about the marriage ... +and they have given to Lethington lists of the Catholics and others who +would raise troops for the Queen of Scots.” + +Almost hopeless of success, therefore, the Bishop sent one of his +most confidential servants to Scotland to tell Mary verbally that the +ambassador had a very important communication for her if she would send +a trustworthy agent to London to receive it. This messenger, Luis de +Paz, left London in the middle of July, 1563, and eventually reached +Mary whilst she was travelling in the Western Highlands. She had been +ardently expecting Philip’s answer, and had with difficulty held off the +other suitors, the Archduke Charles and Eric of Sweden, until it arrived. +She gave to Quadra’s messenger a favourable verbal reply, but before +he reached Langley, in Buckinghamshire, where the Bishop was staying, +the old Spanish Churchman was dying. He had plaintively written to Alba +shortly before that it was impossible to conduct affairs in England on +Philip’s lines. He had done his best but had been beaten. The English +scorned and contemned him. He had been expelled from the Queen’s house; +he saw his master’s cause daily waning in England, and he knew that only +bold, prompt action would regain the lost ground. The hopelessness of +moving Philip to such action broke the old man’s heart. Luis de Paz had +just time to whisper Mary’s message to him, and the dying man grieved +sorely, he said, that he should thus drop just when he might hope to have +succeeded. “I can do no more,” he sighed, just before he passed away, +and Spanish influence in England was cast further into the background +by his death; for Durham Place during his residence there had been the +secret trysting-place of all those who hated Elizabeth’s rule. In the +absence of any diplomatic channel through which Mary might work the great +combination that she dreamed was to give her the crown of Britain under +Philip’s protection, the clever, strong diplomacy of Elizabeth carried +all before it. Dudley and Darnley were alternately dangled before Mary’s +eyes and then withdrawn, until at length came the Lennox _coup d’état_ +and the marriage of the Queen of Scots with her cousin Darnley, which for +a time took her out of the market. + +In the meanwhile every day that passed made it more difficult, and +yet more necessary, for the King of Spain to gain the friendship or +control of England. Affairs were going worse and worse with him in the +Netherlands, where the struggle was assuming the character of a duel +to the death between the old traditions of Flemish self-government and +the newer absolutism which had already been fixed upon Castile and now +threatened the ancient patrimony of Burgundy under Philip. The Reformed +religion, or, indeed, any assertion of the lay right of judgment in +matters of faith, was to Philip the embodiment of a rebellious spirit +against the absolute centralised authority which was the essence of +his system of government, and as such had to be crushed at any cost +or sacrifice. Almost openly the English Protestants were sympathising +with their Flemish brethren, and many Protestant refugees were flocking +into England to establish their industries and seek security under a +Protestant Queen. Boldness and good fortune had enabled Elizabeth, on +the other hand, to take advantage of the jealousy of her neighbours and +to gather around her the growing Protestant party which welcomed the +national independence she had attained in so few years, whilst Philip’s +hesitancy had succeeded entirely in disheartening the English Catholics, +who had at first looked upon him as their champion. + +The attitude of Elizabeth throughout her intercourse with the Spanish +ambassadors had been such, that she had been able to beguile them +when it suited her, and to checkmate them at pleasure; for whilst +they had to wait for tardy instructions, which when they came always +enjoined impracticable conditions, Elizabeth was opportunist and able +to change her tack at an hour’s notice, to the utter confusion of her +slow antagonist. The hard treatment of Catholics in England and the +welcome accorded to the Flemish Protestant refugees had been met by +Philip by the cruel persecution in Spain of Englishmen, upon the barest +suspicion of heterodoxy; and this had been resented by the recrudescence +of the pillage of Spanish and Flemish ships at sea by English rovers. +Not content with this, Elizabeth attempted to foster the new Flemish +industries in England by imposing restrictions upon the entrance into her +ports of certain manufactured goods coming from Flanders. In retaliation +the Spanish rulers began a regular war of tariffs against England; and +this, by the middle of 1564, had resulted in a general prohibition being +issued on both sides, which practically forbade commercial intercourse +altogether. Envoys went backwards and forwards for months, trying +unsuccessfully to arrange matters; and in these efforts the Flemings were +much more anxious than the English; for the latter had secured a good +inlet for their cloths to the Continent through Embden, and Elizabeth +had given permission for unrestricted export to all other countries but +Flanders and Spain. + +The Flemish merchants, on the other hand, were almost bankrupt by the +loss of the English trade, and were clamorous to Philip to remedy the +matter.[151] Elizabeth could afford to stand firm and resist all attempts +to force her into an inferior position in the negotiations. She had taken +Philip’s measure by this time, and knew that whilst his own Netherlands +were seething in revolt, and the Catholic party in France were held in +check by the Huguenots, he dared not seriously injure her. So at last it +was not the Queen of England, but Philip, who had to speak humbly; and in +June, 1564, there arrived in London a Spanish ambassador of rank, a canon +of Toledo, Diego Guzman de Silva, on a new errand. His instructions were +precise, and his position was quite distinct from that formerly held by +haughty Feria and of Bishop Quadra. They had both had for their mission +the forcing of a policy upon a new unstable Queen, whilst Guzman was +sent to seek a redress of grievances, and by diplomacy and moderation to +compass what threats and retaliation had failed to accomplish. Philip’s +hands, indeed, were then too full of his own troubles, both in the +Mediterranean and Flanders, for him to hope to rule other countries, +and bitter as it must have been for him, and still more bitter for the +statesmen of the Alba school, he was forced to speak mildly through his +new ambassador to the heretic Queen to prevent the ruin of his Catholic +Flemish subjects. To this pass had he been brought in six years from the +time when in the days of Mary he had worked his will in England almost +unchecked. + +Guzman was instructed to make vigorous remonstrance to the English +Government with regard to the grievances inflicted on Spanish and Flemish +trade in many ways; but he was warned that when he saw Queen Elizabeth +he was “to compliment her with the fairest words you can use.” “You will +tell her, as I write to her, that I send you to reside near her as my +ordinary ambassador, with orders to try to please her in all things, +as, in effect, we wish you to do, using every possible effort to that +end, and to strive to preserve her friendship towards us, and our mutual +alliance. You will assure her that nothing will be wanting on my part to +this end, as she well knows by the acts we have hitherto done, and the +offers we have made to her.” The ambassador was instructed to win over +Lord Robert Dudley, “who is so great a favourite of the Queen, and can +influence her to the extent you have been informed. With kindness you +will try to gain him, and will also strive to make the friendship of +the Queen’s Councillors and officers through whose hands affairs pass, +so that you may the more readily guide them in the way desired.” His +mission was primarily concerned with securing the restoration of Flemish +trade and the reopening of the ports on both sides, though he was also to +watch closely the coming and going of “heretics” between England and the +Netherlands, to persuade Elizabeth, if possible, to extend toleration to +the Catholic worship in England,[152] and he was to spy out the Spanish +Protestants who had sought refuge there. + +But, although he said nothing to his new ambassador, it is evident +that Philip was not inclined to accept as permanent his present state +of powerlessness in England, and was patiently biding his time until +circumstances allowed him to obtain control once more. This is seen by +the stress laid upon the importance of gaining Leicester to the Spanish +cause, and still more by the instruction that Guzman was stealthily to +encourage the hopes of the English Catholics, “with such dissimulation +and dexterity as to give no cause for suspicion to the Queen or her +advisers, as it is evident that much evil might follow if the contrary +were the case.” Guzman was an amiable, easy-going Churchman in favour of +peace, and very soon managed to get affairs upon a more friendly footing. +The marriage juggle, by which Elizabeth balanced her own supposed +marriage against that of Mary Stuart; the prospective bridegrooms, +the Archduke Charles, Don Carlos, Don Juan of Austria, the boy King +of France, with Leicester always in reserve, being often changed or +transferred from one Queen to the other, were looked upon by Guzman with +somewhat scornful amusement. He quite understood that these ever-varying +phases of advance and recession obeyed the passing political need of +Elizabeth and Catharine de Medici, and he was never greatly perturbed by +them. + +Elizabeth was all graciousness when she received Guzman’s first visit at +Richmond on the 22nd June, 1564. He had had no need to seek Dudley, who +had begun to cultivate his friendship as soon as he arrived, for what +purpose we shall see presently; and the more to do him honour, on the +arrival of the ambassador at the palace landing-stage, young Darnley, +of the blood royal, was awaiting him, to lead him to the Queen. She was +standing, listening to a keyed instrument, when he entered the presence +chamber, led by Lord Chamberlain Howard; and as soon as she saw him she +came forward and embraced him warmly. Speaking at first in Italian and +later in Latin, she expressed her delight at his coming: “As there were +some friendly countries trying to make her believe that your Majesty +would never again have a representative here, and she was glad that +they had turned out false prophets. She said I should be treated and +considered commensurately with the deep interest which for many reasons +she took in your Majesty’s affairs.” Then, as a diversion, she displayed +much curiosity about the mental and physical qualities of young Don +Carlos, and talked some prurient nonsense about Philip’s widowed sister, +Juana, whom she said she might marry, she (Elizabeth) being the husband +and Juana the wife. To impress the ambassador the more with her desire +to be friendly, and to attract attention, as usual, to her own charms, +she said that the King, her good brother, “had seen her when she was +sorrowful, distressed, ill-treated, imprisoned, and afflicted, and that +she had grown greatly since then, and even gave me to understand that +she had greatly changed in appearance.” She promised the ambassador +a prompt settlement of all grievances, and affectionately embracing +him again, handed the somewhat dazzled cleric over to the hospitable +care of her courtiers. Dudley, Pembroke, Northampton, Clinton, Howard, +and Cecil “came separately and embraced me, congratulating me on my +arrival, and expressing their pleasure at my coming;” and so, with much +suave compliment, Guzman, surprised at the warmth of his reception, was +conducted by Darnley to his barge again. + +All this new-born delight in Spaniards on the part of Elizabeth and her +courtiers was, of course, not without its reason. The fact is that, after +all her aid to Condé and his Huguenots, peace had been made in France +upon terms which gave predominance to the Catholics; and she considered +that Condé had betrayed her in this, as, indeed, he had. Cardinal +Lorraine, the bitter enemy of Elizabeth, was now Catharine de Medici’s +henchman, and was busy negotiating a renewal of the Catholic League, +which boded ill for England and Protestantism if it succeeded. A meeting +was to take place between Catharine and her daughter, Elizabeth, Philip’s +wife, with Alba and Lorraine in the background, to settle an accord +between France and Spain for the utter extermination of Protestantism +throughout the world; and even the Bourbon Huguenot princes of France +had been temporarily silenced. In the circumstances Elizabeth naturally +wooed Spain violently, and before Guzman had been in England a week +he found himself in the centre of a real or feigned conspiracy of the +unprincipled Dudley, to introduce Catholicism into England under Spanish +protection, and depose Elizabeth’s Protestant minister, Cecil. On the +pretext that Cecil had helped in the production of a book by John Hales +in favour of Catharine Grey’s claim to the succession, Dudley’s friends +secretly urged Guzman to recommend Elizabeth to dismiss and punish Cecil, +“as if he were out of the way, the affairs of your Majesty would be more +favourably dealt with, and religious questions as well, because Cecil +and his friends are those who persecute the Catholics and dislike your +Majesty, whereas the other man is regarded as faithful, and the rest of +the Catholics so consider him, and have adopted him as their instrument.” + +Dudley again was willing to become the humble servant of Philip if Cecil +could be got out of the way by Guzman’s aid. He hoped still, he told +Guzman, to marry the Queen; “he had an understanding already with the +Pope, and a person was in Rome to represent him.” When, however, Guzman +asked for details of exactly what Lord Robert promised to do with regard +to religion, the answers were vague, and the example of Bishop Quadra, +moreover, was not lost on his successor. The ambassador knew that Philip +was not ready to attack the English Protestants yet, or on the shifty +word of Dudley, but he prepared the ground cleverly for future action. +The first thing, he told the conspirators, was to bring the Queen into +close friendship with the King of Spain, and with the Catholics through +him, as otherwise she would not dare to dismiss her Protestant ministers. +“All people think,” he wrote to the King, “that the only remedy for the +religious trouble is to get these people turned out of power, as they are +the mainstay of the heretics, Lord Robert having the Catholics all on his +side; and I tell them that they must take these things [_i.e._, the need +for fortifying Elizabeth by the friendship of Spain] into consideration +when they are seeking a remedy, and that plenty of opportunities will +offer themselves, if needed later, to raise war or stop trade.[153] The +Catholics are much disturbed, and as they have no other idea than this +they will not abandon it until they see some way of gaining their point. +Certainly, from what I hear, they are very numerous if they dared to +show, or had a leader.” + +But desirous as the Queen was to curry favour with the Catholic-Spanish +party, and infatuated as she might be with Dudley, she could not +dispense with Cecil’s services, and Dudley’s hopes again decreased, +notwithstanding Philip’s sympathy expressed through Guzman, who was +instructed to offer him all the aid he sought; but only on a distinct +promise fully to restore the Catholic religion in England in the event +of his marriage.[154] This Dudley could not do, though by innuendo he +promised much, and thus Cecil remained unmolested. Elizabeth on this +occasion was probably a party to Dudley’s action, for she carried matters +almost as far with Guzman herself. She went out of her way several +times to hint broadly at her desire to enter into negotiations for her +marriage with Don Carlos, without the slightest intention, of course, of +ever doing so, even if the health of the Prince had made such a match +possible. She assured Guzman that she was really a Catholic at heart, +“although she had concealed her real feelings in order to prevail with +her subjects.”[155] Some weeks later she ordered a crucifix and ornaments +to be placed upon the altar in her chapel, and Guzman told her that the +preachers were slandering her for it, whereupon she said that she would +order crosses to be placed in all the churches in the realm.[156] + +[Illustration: WILLIAM CECIL, LORD BURGHLEY + +FROM THE PAINTING BY MARC GHEERAEDTS IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY] + +Elizabeth, indeed, was seriously alarmed at the impending Catholic +League, and in addition to redressing the Spanish trade grievances and +lavishing endless blandishments upon Guzman, she made a desperate bid +to draw Catharine de Medici to her side by opening negotiations for her +own marriage with the boy King of France—negotiations as insincere, +doubtless, as the rest, but directed to the same end, namely, the +diversion of France and Spain from their threatening friendship, as +were also the attempts to revive the now almost outworn subject of the +Queens match with the Austrian Archduke. The constant changes perfectly +bewildered Guzman, who found Dudley (now created Earl of Leicester) +blowing hot and cold. The Catholics, on the one hand, were smiled upon by +the Queen, and on the other strong measures were being proposed by Cecil +and his friends to stay the growth of “papistry.” But though Philip wrote +on behalf of the Catholic English bishops in prison, and Guzman urged for +the toleration of Catholic worship, no practical concessions could be +obtained from Elizabeth, much as she might smile and suggest to Guzman, +with whom she had grown personally very intimate. + +In the meanwhile the elaborate preparations for the settlement of the +Catholic League by the meeting of the Queens of France and Spain at +Bayonne went on, and rumours came to England which caused Elizabeth +additional alarm late in 1564, that Philip himself was coming to Flanders +in the following year to bring his Flemish subjects into due subjection. +Elizabeth’s amiability then grew more intense than ever. “How much she +wished her dear brother could stay in one of her ports, that she might +regale him!” and Guzman was the object of her constant affectionate +solicitude at the numerous balls, feasts, and tourneys to which she +invited him, often deploring that his master was not there, too, to +enjoy the fun. It must be confessed that, to judge by the relations +between Guzman and the French ambassador in England (de Foix), the +coming national alliance between their respective countries did not look +promising. De Foix had Huguenot leanings, and Guzman always resented +his presence at Court at the same time as himself, Elizabeth on several +occasions having the greatest difficulty in keeping the peace between +them, when by some inadvertence they met in her presence. Indeed, as was +soon afterwards proved, the national jealousy of France and Spain and the +personal interests of Catharine overrode the Catholic religious object of +the League so perseveringly promoted by Cardinal Lorraine and Alba. + +On Ash Wednesday, 1565, Elizabeth listened to an open-air sermon preached +by Dr. Nowell, Dean of Saint Paul’s, an ardent Reformer, who probably was +not a politician. In the course of his sermon he condemned the veneration +of images, and Elizabeth angrily told him not to talk upon that subject. +Nowell either did not hear her or did not choose to regard the rebuke, +and continued, when the Queen again raised her voice and peremptorily +commanded him to pass to another subject, as that one was worn out. Soon +afterwards de Foix, in conversation with Guzman, remarked that the Queen +might have avoided so public and marked an interruption of the preacher. +The Spaniard was of another opinion. “I think quite differently,” he +said. “Those who sin publicly must be publicly rebuked; and as this Queen +does, so might your most Christian King do it: when he gets older he +will, I fear, be likely to make more account of the heretics.” + +The much feared interview of Bayonne, which the warlike party in Spain +hoped would result in the crushing of Protestantism and the eventual +submission of England to Spanish dictation, took place in these not very +encouraging circumstances in May, 1565. Elizabeth, as a diversion, had +been for months negotiating with Catharine for a French marriage, and +the Queen Regent of France was taken aback when she saw at Bayonne the +articles which she was expected to sign. The total extermination of +Protestantism in France and the world over would have meant her personal +political extinction, and probably that of her son’s realm; for Philip +in that case would have been paramount. What she wanted was not this, +but to be able to play the Guises off against the Bourbons, and keep +Elizabeth always as a potential ally when the Catholics grew too strong +to suit her. At Bayonne, therefore, whilst she ostensibly acceded to +everything dictated by Alba and Lorraine, and led her devoutly Catholic +and hispanolised daughter to believe that France with all its national +power would support her husband’s objects, Catharine no sooner turned her +face towards Paris than she began to introduce all sorts of conditions +and limitations which stultified the whole plan of the Catholic League, +whilst she became more warmly interested than ever in the talk of +Elizabeth’s marriage with one of her sons. + +The result of the much discussed conferences of Bayonne, in which Philip +personally had never been very sanguine, finally disillusioned him as to +the practicability of a league with his artful mother-in-law which should +make him master of Europe. He had thenceforward no other policy open +to him than to revert to the traditional national affinities that had +obtained before the religious changes in Europe. He must win England to +his side by fair means or foul. For seven years he had tried to isolate +her by means of a Catholic league and he had failed: he had spoken +arrogantly through Feria, he had tried subtlety through Bishop Quadra, +and he had essayed friendly cordiality by means of Guzman. Elizabeth, +when it suited her, had been amiability itself, she had languished for +a Spanish husband, she had pretended more than once to be a Catholic, +she had smiled, pouted, or frowned, as her aims for the moment required; +but, notwithstanding all this, the English Catholic bishops were still in +durance, Catholic worship was still proscribed, and Philip was further +off than ever he had been from controlling English statecraft for his own +ends. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +1565-1569 + + Mary Stuart marries Darnley—Their intrigues with Philip through + Guzman—Plan to promote revolution in England in favour of + Mary—Expulsion of the English ambassador from Spain—Recall of + Guzman—Don Gerau de Spes ambassador—His character—Commences + conspiring at once—His turbulent behaviour—Seizure of Philip’s + treasure in England—Indignation of de Spes—His imprudent and + disastrous action—Alba stops trade—Strained relations—Proposed + declaration of war against England—The views of Philip and + Alba—The Norfolk plot—The Northern rebellion + + +In July, 1565, Mary Stuart had been swept by her passion along the rapids +that led to her marriage with Darnley and her ruin. Up to this period +her policy had been consistent and sagacious, directed mainly to the +recognition of her present or prospective right to succeed to the throne +of England. She had tried to attain the end alternately by the only two +means open to her, by seeking marriage with a Catholic prince strong +enough to enforce her claims, and by winning Elizabeth’s acknowledgment +of them by submission to her will. So long as she was under the influence +of Cardinal Lorraine, and the Guises were powerful, her main efforts +had been in the first direction, but after her arrival in Scotland the +influence of Murray and Lethington had led her into the second course. +In a former chapter it has been related how, despairing of obtaining +recognition from Elizabeth, Mary and her Protestant Anglophil advisers +had on one occasion, in 1563, reverted to her earlier plans, and had +attempted to secure Philip’s aid through her marriage with Don Carlos. +She had never since quite abandoned this hope—her only one in this +direction, since Guise was dead and Catharine de Medici was her deadly +enemy. It is true that she had satisfied herself before Darnley arrived +in Scotland that Don Carlos was unlikely or unfit to be a husband for +her,[157] but prudence would have dictated delay in her marriage in order +that Philip might have provided her with another Consort who would take +with him the support of Spain. But Mary lost her head, if not her heart, +when she saw “the long lad” Darnley, and took the step which made it, at +first sight, appear the more difficult for Philip to help her, and which +yet alienated from her Murray and the Protestants and brought her into +open enmity with the Queen of England. On the other hand, the wedding +of both the Catholic claimants to the Crown of England consolidated +the Catholic elements in the north, making Elizabeth’s position more +dangerous than at any time since her accession, and Mary had undoubtedly +not lost sight of this feature, which she saw might yet enable her to +obtain Spanish support when the time for action came. + +On the 24th March, 1565, four months before the Darnley marriage, though +the prospective bridegroom was already in Scotland, a servant of the +Lennoxes, named Fowler, came to Guzman in London with a letter from Mary +Queen of Scots. He had been sent from Scotland, he said, by the Queen, +ostensibly to obtain from Elizabeth a passport for Secretary Lethington +to visit England, but really to ask the Spanish ambassador whether he had +instructions to discuss with her a certain business that had formerly +been broached to King Philip through his predecessor, Bishop Quadra, +as if so she would send Lethington to see him. Guzman did not know +Mary’s handwriting and was suspicious, especially as he was aware that +Don Carlos could on no account marry Mary; so that Fowler, who said he +could not return to Scotland without an answer, proposed to prove his +_bonâ fides_ by showing his mistress’s letter to Luis de Paz, a Spanish +merchant, who knew her handwriting. On the morrow Guzman was satisfied +of Fowler’s honesty, and as he heard alarming news of a plan to marry +Mary to her French brother-in-law, he hesitated no longer but sent the +messenger Fowler back to Scotland with a letter for Mary, asking her to +send Lethington to confer with him. + +A few days afterwards Guzman got a further hint from Darnley’s mother, +the Countess of Lennox, of what was really in the wind. She sent to +tell him how kind Mary was to her son in Scotland, and that the French +ambassador had come to her promising all French help and support to +Darnley if the Queen of Scots married him. The Countess in her message +to Guzman affected to distrust this French offer, which probably she +herself had invented, “as she knows the French way of dealing,” and said +“that she and her children had no other refuge but the King of Spain, to +whom she and they will ever remain faithful. She begs me to address your +Majesty in their favour, so that in case the Queen of Scots should open +negotiations about Lord Darnley, or in the event of this Queen’s death, +they may look to your Majesty for support.” A week or two later the +Countess of Lennox returned to the charge. She prayed Guzman to assure +Lethington, when he arrived in London, “that your Majesty desired to +favour her, as she believes that it would help her son’s business very +much. She thinks he may marry the Queen of Scots, who rests her claim to +this country more on the support of your Majesty than on anything else, +especially as the Queen-mother of France is very much against her.” This +seemed to Guzman important, and he did his best to assure Lady Lennox by +hints of the sympathy that Mary and Darnley might expect from Spain. “As +I have said on many occasions,” he continued in his letter to Philip, +“it should be borne in mind that, in addition to the Queen of Scotland’s +great claims to this realm, she has certainly here a very strong party, +and it is highly desirable in many respects that she should be reckoned +with in the interest of affairs that so deeply concern us. The English +ports are necessary for the passage of trade between Spain and Flanders, +&c.; and, besides this, these English are beginning to navigate largely, +and may interfere with us in the Indies, upon which they look greedily, +unless they are prevented from sailing.” + +Even mild, conciliatory Guzman was thus already joining those who looked +eagerly for the ejection of Elizabeth and the substitution of Mary Stuart +as Queen of a Catholic Britain under Spanish control. When Lethington +arrived in London, therefore, on the 24th April, 1565, Guzman was quite +prepared for the approaches he knew would be made. The two first met at +some formal occasion at the French Embassy, and as they went along the +road together on their way home, Lethington tried to arouse the fears of +the Spaniard by hinting that Elizabeth was fishing for a French husband; +but Guzman parried that by saying that in such case it would go hard with +the Queen of Scots, who would then be on bad terms with both England +and France. The next day, 25th April, the Scottish Secretary of State +unmasked his batteries. Closeted secretly with Guzman at Paget House in +the Strand, he explained how Mary had always desired to lean upon Spanish +support alone, how she had bidden for the hand of Don Carlos, and had +waited two years for Philip’s answer. Now there were thoughts of the +Countess of Lennox’s son, since the King of Spain, it was feared, might +have other views for Don Carlos. Lord Darnley had many advantages, but if +the King of Spain gave her any hopes of Don Carlos the Queen would not +conclude the proposed marriage with Darnley. Guzman replied that the King +had not pursued the negotiations for Don Carlos because he had heard that +Cardinal Lorraine had practically arranged with the Emperor for Mary to +wed the Archduke Charles. After much conversation and explanation on this +point, in which Cardinal Lorraine’s betrayal of his niece was made clear, +Guzman cautiously expressed approval of Darnley, as he says, “trying to +keep them in a good humour in view of eventualities.” + +But this was not enough for Lethington. Setting forth the enmity that +the Darnley match might draw upon Mary from the Queen of England, he +continued, “All this would cause grave evil, but could be remedied by +the King of Spain taking my Queen and her affairs under his protection, +in the assurance that at all times and in every matter they shall be +considered as his own.... Such an arrangement would have to be treated +with the utmost secrecy until the opportune moment arrived. There is +no doubt whatever that the majority of the [English] gentry and common +people are attached to my Queen, and I can promise positively that she +will follow the wishes of your master in everything.” Lethington then +suggested that, as the despatch of an ambassador from Scotland to Spain +might alarm Elizabeth, the King of Spain might authorise Guzman to +conclude a secret agreement by which Mary and her future husband should +be bound absolutely to Spain in return for Philip’s support, or otherwise +that the affair might be carried through by Mary’s ambassador in Paris +(Beton, Archbishop of Glasgow) and the Spanish representative there. + +Once again we see here that the exigencies of the position had driven +the Protestant Lethington to place Scotland and, if possible, England, +under the tutelage of the King of Spain, if no other way could be found +to enforce the claim of Mary to the English Crown. The course he took +was dictated by the highest diplomacy, whatever might be said for its +religious consistency. Failing Don Carlos and the King of France, who are +now out of the question, Darnley was, in fact, the only man who could +unite the English Catholics in Mary’s cause and attract foreign support +to her claims. Lethington and Mary knew that Philip’s vital political +need was a submissive England, and that Scotland was only interesting +to him as contributing to that end. If Philip, by means of Mary and +the Lennoxes, could obtain command of the powerful Catholic elements +in England united in favour of the two legitimate heirs to the Crown, +with the added advantage of a permanent base of operations in Scotland, +he might find himself by the death or deposition of Elizabeth, which +might be brought about at any time, the virtual master of Great Britain. +No wonder, therefore, that Guzman smiled upon Lethington’s important +mission, and promised to send post haste to Spain for the King’s decision. + +Whilst Elizabeth was making frantic efforts to prevent Mary’s marriage, +and to keep up an appearance of negotiating for her own union with Don +Carlos or the Archduke, and Leicester was again trying to win Spanish +support for his suit by Catholic professions, Philip recognised that the +offer made by Lethington to Guzman at last gave him a real opportunity +of carrying through his plans for subjugating England by means of a +subsidised Catholic rising in favour of Mary and Darnley. The suggestion +was one after his own heart, and he accepted it with alacrity. Although +cautiously, he was gradually coming round to the view that had been urged +by Feria in the first days of Elizabeth’s reign, that England would have +to be dealt with by force, only now, and for years afterwards, he wanted +it to be the force of others wielded for his benefit. The King’s answer +to Guzman was unusually decided and emphatic for him: “Your news has +been very pleasing to me, and on the assumption that the marriage of the +Queen and Darnley has really gone so far as they say, the bridegroom and +his parents being such good Catholics and our affectionate servitors, +and having in view the Queen’s good claims to the Crown of England, to +which Darnley also pretends, we have decided that, the marriage is one +favourable to our interests, and should be promoted and supported to the +full extent of our power. We have thought well to assure the Queen of +Scotland and Lord Darnley’s party, which we believe is a large one in the +country, that this is our will and determination, and that if they will +be ruled by our advice, and will not be precipitate, but will patiently +await a favourable juncture, when any attempt to frustrate their plans +would be useless, I will then assist and aid them in the object they have +in view. I have instructed the Duke of Alba to write to this effect to +the Scottish ambassador in Paris; but I think well to advise you also +that you may know my views and keep them quite secret from the Queen +of England and her friends, seeing the great danger that would result +to this business and all our affairs if it were known. You may assure +Lady Margaret of the sympathy and goodwill I bear to her son and towards +the successful accomplishment of the project, in order that they may +be satisfied, and know that they may depend upon me, and so be able to +entertain and encourage the Catholics and their party in England.”[158] + +Philip foresaw the danger of Elizabeth’s being driven by the fear of +a Catholic coalition against her to adopt Catharine Grey, or some +other Protestant, as her successor, and he enforced upon Guzman, the +Lennoxes, and the Scottish and English Catholics, the closest secrecy, +and especially that every means should be employed to prevent a rival +successor being brought forward. At the same time there is in the King’s +letter to his ambassador no concealment of the intention to use this +union of Mary Stuart and Darnley to foment a Catholic revolt in England +which shall sweep Elizabeth aside. “You will,” he writes, “keep in good +intelligence with their party in England and with the Catholics, which +is the same thing, and try by all means in your power to animate and +encourage them to carry the business into effect, promising them what I +have said. But it must all be done so dexterously and adroitly that it +shall not become public or reach the Queen’s ears, or evil results will +ensue.” + +Anxious as Philip might be for secrecy, it was difficult to attain where +so many people were concerned. Already Murray and the Scottish Protestant +nobles had fallen away from Mary on the mere rumour of a Catholic Darnley +match, and were looking askance at the Queen’s new Catholic friends. The +Lennoxes, even the Earl himself, retorted foolishly by boasting of the +support of the King of Spain,[159] which made matters infinitely worse +and gave rise to alarming whispers in Scotland that religious persecution +at the point, mayhap, of Spanish pikes might be the outcome of this +godless wooing. Darnley, who was still ill in bed, was as imprudent as +his father; threatened to break the Duke of Chatelherault’s head as soon +as he could get up, and vapoured about his coming greatness under foreign +auspices that would enable him to snap his fingers even at the Queen +of England. Nor was Mary herself much more cautious in her utterances, +and the English agent, Randolph, attributed her new-born pride and +indifference to the effects of some devilish enchantment. + +But though she was deeply infatuated with “the young fool,” Mary would +not marry him until she had received a reply to her advances to Philip. +The match with Darnley was to give her, she hoped, the English Crown, but +it could only be done with the aid of Spain. So, tired almost of waiting, +she seized upon a hollow pretext to send James Hay, of Balmerino, to +London to see Guzman, and learn if he had any news for her. On the +very day that Hay first saw the Spanish ambassador Philip’s important +letter had arrived in London. The Scot had just been violently snubbed +by Elizabeth, and all his requests refused contumeliously, as no doubt +he had foreseen they would be; his real reason for coming south at all, +indeed, being to obtain the sanction not of the Queen of England but the +King of Spain to Mary’s marriage with Darnley. The reply from Philip that +Guzman gave to Balmerino was indeed a welcome one. “He appeared delighted +with it, and said that his Queen desired nothing so much as that she +should follow your Majesty’s orders in all things, without swerving a +hair’s breadth, and that you should take her under your protection. I +urged him to try to get his Queen to manage her affairs prudently, and +not to strike until a good opportunity presented itself.” + +Hay only stayed in London one day longer, for he knew that the great +wish of Mary’s heart was now to be granted; and though to the English +partisans and the Protestants in Scotland he deplored “the evil success +of his long journey,” it must have been with a merry heart beneath his +doublet that he carried his welcome message to Holyrood on the 7th +July, 1565. Two days afterwards Mary was secretly married to Darnley, +though the public wedding was deferred until the 29th; and the great +conspiracy against Elizabeth and Protestantism was then complete. Mary +was so infatuated with Darnley at the time that she would probably have +married him in any case, but her caprice for him and her determination to +supplant Elizabeth had thus led her to promise the submission of herself +and her realms to the dictation of a foreign monarch, the traditional +foe of France that she pretended to love so well; a monarch whose first +object was to gain command of the policy and resources of Scotland and +England by exterminating the religion of a large proportion of the +people. It was a triumph for her that her marriage with the man for whom +she was temporarily crazy should be instrumental in gaining what she had +striven so hard for since she left France, namely, the support of Spain; +but indoctrinated though she was by the cynical teaching of her uncle, +Cardinal Lorraine, she can hardly have realised the turpitude of the act +of treachery she was committing. She had been cherished and beloved even +by her Protestant subjects, and yet the step she was taking would lead, +if she were successful in her object, to the employment of the hideous +methods of Spanish religious coercion to crush their religious liberty, +to the subordination of the land of her birth, and of England over which +she aspired to rule, to the interests of a foreign nation, and would +involve the ruin or death of another Queen closely related to her. + +On the other hand, it must be allowed on Mary’s behalf that her +circumstances were exceptionally difficult. The political system of +Catharine de Medici had deprived Scotland of the strong ally that for +centuries had been its main protection against the aggression of England, +whilst the spread of Protestantism in Scotland had created a new bond +of union between the country and Elizabeth’s government. In order to be +able to rule Scotland peacefully in these circumstances it was necessary +either that the sovereign should accept frankly the Reformed doctrines +and become more or less a vassal of England, or else make common cause +with the great enemy of the Reformation, submit to the dictation of Spain +with all it involved, and restore the lost balance of power in Europe to +Philip’s advantage by uniting England and Scotland under Catholic rule. +The effect would have been to reduce France to a secondary position, to +secure supremacy for the papal Church, and to place Europe at the bidding +of Philip II. Between these two alternatives Mary chose that to which her +Guisan and Catholic traditions led her, and, reprehensible as her choice +may seem to the political ethics of to-day, it was in the circumstances +the most natural course for her to take. + +There was no hesitation or weakness in Mary’s attitude as soon as she +had taken the step and married Darnley with the blessing of Philip. Knox +thundered his denunciations from the pulpit, but whimpered and “longed to +depart” when the guns of Edinburgh Castle began to speak; Murray, with +his 1,200 men-at-arms, meaning mischief, waxed lachrymose when he found +that the burgesses shrank from open disloyalty to the Queen, and that +Elizabeth dared not help him now to rebel against the friend and ally of +Spain. Mary, on the other hand, was confident and energetic. Keeping the +saddle through the foulest weather, and over execrable paths, she rode +almost alone, armed, and eager to meet her rebellious brother and his +supporters. This was the eventuality which she had foreseen when she had +ensured Catholic support from abroad on her marriage with Darnley, and +she lost no time in claiming it. + +All the North of England was on the alert and ready for action in her +favour if success were assured by the aid they looked for from Philip; +and to the Pope Mary appealed even before her marriage was publicly +celebrated. The Protestants, she wrote, were in arms against her, the +Queen of England was in desperation: if his Holiness would send a force +of 12,000 men to Scotland for six months the religion of Rome might be +restored permanently. It was too much for the Pope to do without Philip’s +connivance, so he put off Mary’s envoy with fair words until the reply +could come from Spain.[160] To Philip himself she also wrote shortly +before her public marriage (24th July, 1565): “I have given notice to +your ambassador of all that has taken place, on the assurance that in the +event of my urgently needing your succour and assistance, which I do, +your Majesty will grant them to me in order to maintain the faith, with +which object you raise such great forces against the Turk. I can truly +say that no war is more dangerous to Christianity nor more pernicious to +the obedience due to princes than that moved by these new evangelists +(God grant that you may never be troubled with them in your dominions), +and I therefore beg your Majesty, for this reason, and in consideration +of the desire I have and always have had to bind myself to you against +all the world, to instruct your ambassador to uphold the rights of the +Earl of Lennox’s son and my own in England, and to order him to declare +to the Queen of England that you will not allow anything to be done to +our disadvantage.”[161] + +There is no doubt that a vast Catholic conspiracy, especially in the +North of England, was in existence at this time, full of hope, encouraged +by the agents of the Countess of Lennox, that the aid of Philip sent +to Mary would enable them to shake off the yoke of Elizabeth and her +Protestant ministers. The constant injunctions of the King of Spain +that everything must be kept inviolably secret, and no move made until +success was ensured, had been powerless, as usual, to close the mouths +of elated people who thought that their days of tribulation were soon +to end. Before Mary’s public marriage the eager English Catholics also +sent their own emissary to the Spanish Regent of Flanders, Philip’s +sister, the Duchess of Parma, to confer with her, and thence to proceed +to Scotland. The man they chose was one Francis Yaxley, who had filled +several bureaucratic posts in the English Court, especially that of Clerk +of the Signet during Philip’s stay in England. He had been a friend of +Bishop Quadra and a follower of Cecil, but at this time was a professed +Catholic attached to the Lennox party. He knew foreign countries, and had +even been in Spain; so that he was considered to be a good instrument +for bringing into accord the English Catholics, the Scottish Queen, and +King Philip. Guzman, giving notice to the King of his going to Flanders, +says that “he is a person well acquainted with affairs here and will +be able to give the Queen of Scotland a great deal of information. They +(_i.e._, the English Catholics) say that he is a devoted servant of your +Majesty.”[162] + +Exactly what this man arranged in Flanders before proceeding to Scotland +is not known, but when he arrived, in August, at Leith, Randolph, the +English agent in Edinburgh, knew enough to suspect him. “His errand +I yet know not,” he wrote to Cecil, “and would I knew what might be +said to such ‘gestes’ who come for little good.”[163] Whatever message +Yaxley brought it was a welcome one to Mary and her husband, Darnley +particularly “rejoicing and imparting all his affairs to him.” Yaxley is +represented by the English agent as imposing upon Darnley and his “yong +company,” by his boastful talk, “as a fit man to send abroad, as he +knew so well the Courts of Spain and England, besides his acquaintance +in Flanders and at Brussels, that he doubted not to accomplish any +commission. So he is to pass secretly to the Duchess of Aerschot [Mary’s +aunt], who shall procure him audience of the Regent, to whom he shall +declare that this Queen ... will commit herself, her husband, and her +country to his [King Philip’s] protection, and, seeing the Queen of +England disposed to marry the French King, the rather to maintain her +[Mary’s] estate she and her husband will remit all her titles to England +to the King of Spain’s judgment; and if the Duchess of Parma thought +meet he is to pass with these offers to Spain.... He [Yaxley] told his +secret friends the names of many noblemen and gentlemen of good power in +England ready to follow the King of Spain’s directions for the alteration +of religion.”[164] + +Before Yaxley left again—not, as this letter says, to Flanders, but +direct to Spain from Dumbarton—he renounced his English citizenship to +become a Scotsman. “The Queen and her husband,” wrote Randolph, “have +sent him ambassador to Spain; he embarked three days past [_i.e._, 17th +September]. It passes my power to know his commission, but it is for +little good.”[165] What Randolph could not fathom is to some extent +divulged to us by the letter Mary wrote to Philip by Yaxley; although, of +course, his verbal message was more precise as to what was required and +intended. “Monsieur mon bon frère,” she writes from Glasgow on the 10th +September, “the earnestness you have always displayed in the maintenance +of our Catholic faith has caused me previously to crave your favours +and aid, foreseeing that which has now happened in this realm of mine, +tending to the entire ruin of the Catholics and the establishment of +these unhappy errors. In resisting them my husband and myself will be in +peril of losing our Crown, and by the same means our claims elsewhere, +unless we have the help of one of the great Christian princes. Bearing +this in mind, and seeing the energy with which you have proceeded in your +own States, and especially the firmness with which you have upheld those +who have depended upon your favour, we have thought well to address you, +in preference to any others, to ask for your counsel, and for your help +and support. With this end we have sent this gentleman, an Englishman +and a faithful servant of my husband and myself, with ample charge to +render to you an account of the condition of our affairs, of which he has +full knowledge; praying you to give credit to his words as if they were +our own, and to send him back with all speed, as the case is so pressing +as to touch both our Crown and the liberty of the Church for ever. To +maintain this we will spare neither life nor estate, with your support +and counsel.”[166] + +Elizabeth’s Government were fully informed through their spies of the +grave purport of Yaxley’s mission; and Catharine, who was almost as +apprehensive of a Spanish domination of Scotland and England as Elizabeth +herself, made an attempt by means of a special ambassador (Castelnau +de la Mauvissière) to win Mary away from dependence upon Philip by new +professions of friendship towards her. Mary, however, was in no humble +frame of mind now, and would brook no interference either from her +mother-in-law in France or her cousin in England, with both of whom +she had long scores to settle. She would listen to no suggestions of +a reconciliation with Murray, and she plainly threatened the French +ambassador that if his King did not at once help her to punish the +rebels she would invoke the aid of the King of Spain. The position was a +triumphant one for Mary so long as she depended upon Spanish help; and +if Philip had been prompt and such armed aid had been sent to Scotland +before Murray succumbed, Elizabeth might have been deposed and Philip +have obtained the control of Britain. + +Elizabeth for once was really alarmed. There was the confident talk +now of Philip’s coming with a great fleet and army to Flanders, which +pessimists in England thought might be used against this country. So +whilst Mary of Scotland, in full hope of Philip’s support, was defying +England, Elizabeth was afraid of stirring a finger to help Murray and +the Protestants ostensibly, for fear of bringing Spaniards or French +Catholics, or both, into North Britain; in which case her own crown would +have been in dire danger. Guzman saw Elizabeth on the 16th September, and +found her full of complaints of the ingratitude of the Queen of Scots and +the Lennoxes, to whom she had been so kind and meant so well. The present +rebellion in Scotland was not really about religion at all, she said, and +Mary only pretended that it was, in order to enlist the help of foreign +princes. “Well, that may be,” replied Guzman drily, “but in any case it +is very inexpedient, and sets a bad example to help rebellious subjects +in their disobedience.” “Oh,” cried Elizabeth, quite shocked at the +idea, “God forbid that _I_ should ever help disobedient subjects, unless +I saw very good reason why they should not be made to suffer without a +hearing!” Elizabeth, indeed, who was sending money secretly to Murray, +and throwing the blame for everything upon the Lennoxes and Darnley, was +now quite apologetic at the attitude into which she was forced by events +and by Mary’s appeal to Spain. So powerless was she at this juncture that +she had to sit idly by whilst Murray and his adherents fled across the +Border (13th October, 1565) before Mary’s threatened vengeance, and she +was even forced to feign anger and indignation at his rebellion when he +sought audience in England of the Queen whose stalking-horse he had been. + +Ignorant, of course, of Murray’s collapse, Yaxley duly arrived at +Segovia, where Philip was, on the 23rd October, 1565, and gave his letter +and verbal message to the King. Fortunately Philip repeated this message +to Guzman in his letter to him, written on the following day, and we are +thus able to understand exactly how far Mary was willing to go in her +ambitious plans. “The first thing,” writes Philip, “was to assure us in +fair words of the great hope and confidence they reposed in me, desiring +to govern themselves by my direction alone, and to do nothing without my +consent and pleasure: for this reason they wish to inform me of the need +in which they are, and assure us of their zealous desire to establish +their realm anew under the Christian religion, and to join other +Christian princes with that object. Not having sufficient forces of their +own they begged me to aid them as a Christian monarch; and, in order to +induce me to do so, the envoy set forth the danger in which the Queen +and King of Scotland were, by reason of the heretics, stimulated and +favoured by the English with men and money; so that the said sovereigns +might easily fall into the hands of the rebels, and be conveyed abroad, +leaving the State unprotected, unless I, in whom after God they put their +trust, aided them with money and troops. If I would consent to do this it +would not only be the means of destroying the rebels, but would confirm +the King and Queen in their hope of succeeding to the English throne, +and would banish their fear that the heretics would oust them, the +real heirs, and elect some heretic instead. They promised that if they +obtained the succession of the Crown by my means they would renew more +closely the alliance and league between England and our house against +the world, and leave all other friends for us. They also begged us to +write urgent letters to the Queen of England, first asking her to release +Lady Margaret (Lennox), and secondly to desist from aiding the Scottish +rebels.”[167] Yaxley also asked that an accredited Spanish ambassador +might be sent to Scotland to arrange a binding treaty and to advise Mary +and her husband as to their proceedings. + +Philip was not ready yet for heroic measures in Great Britain, for he +was busy planning the deadly blow he hoped to deal upon his disaffected +Flemings. But he sent back by Yaxley cordial letters to Mary and Darnley, +and told them to consult either Guzman or the Spanish ambassador in Paris +when they were in doubt how to proceed. What advice was to be given to +them in such case is seen in the King’s instructions to Guzman. “They +should confine themselves for the present to punishing the rebels and +pacifying the kingdom. When they have done this, and affairs have settled +down, they could look further ahead than at present.” Philip was equally +cautious in other directions. He did not want to tie himself openly or +formally to Mary until he was quite sure that she would be a fit and +obedient instrument for him to obtain command of England. She must, with +her husband, for this purpose be able to command the united support +of the English Catholic party, and Philip must be quite sure that her +French relatives were not to influence her in any way. So he declined to +negotiate a formal treaty or to write to Elizabeth about Lady Lennox, +and even confined his present assistance to a sum of money, no less than +20,000 crowns, which was to be secretly handed to Yaxley by a Spanish +banker, who himself did not know its destination, outside Antwerp. + +With this answer Yaxley travelled post-haste to Flanders, and duly took +ship in Antwerp bound for the port of Leith with this large sum of +money on his person. This was about the 20th November, 1565. The season +was a terribly tempestuous one, and at some time in December, from the +wreck of a Flemish ship, there was cast up by the sea upon the coast of +Northumberland the drowned body of Yaxley with his treasure upon him. +Guzman was alarmed when he heard of it, more for the letters and papers +from Philip that the man bore than for the money, as they would divulge +the whole plot; but if the letters were found, which it is probable they +were, they were not delivered to Elizabeth. The Earl of Northumberland +was a Catholic noble and secretly an adherent of Mary’s, as will be seen +later; but, although his attachment to her might prompt him to keep or +destroy letters compromising her, it was not proof against his claiming +the money upon the dead man, which he seized in virtue of his territorial +rights; although he had angry disputes and lawsuits with the Lord +Admiral on the subject, who also claimed the salvage. Mary herself sent +Melville to ask Northumberland for the delivery of the money intended for +her. “But all my entreaties were ineffectual; he altogether refused to +give any part thereof to the Queen (of Scots), albeit he was himself a +Catholic and professed secretly to be her friend.”[168] + +At about the same time the Pope sent to Mary, by Philip’s permission, +a similar sum of 20,000 crowns, and promised a subsidy of 4,000 crowns +a month to pay troops to suppress the rebellion. But Murray was in +England and the revolt practically at an end by this time. Elizabeth +was protesting with injured innocence that nothing was further from her +thoughts than subsidising trouble in her dear sister’s realm; whilst +Mary, taking Philip’s advice to heart, was diplomatically biding her time +for the great blow to be struck that would give her the Crown of England. +She once more turned a smiling face upon Randolph, and readily agreed +now to receive special ambassadors from Elizabeth to settle all disputes +between them. The rebels, all but Murray and Kirkaldy of Grange, were +received into favour again, and to please and lull Elizabeth into false +security, Darnley was ostentatiously neglected by his wife. Kirkaldy, +dour and unbending, warned the English that Mary was fooling them. “Send +as many ambassadors as ye please to our Queen, they shall receive proud +answers, for she thinks to have a force ready as soon as ye do, besides +her hope of friendship [of the Catholics] in England, of which she brags +not a little, so driving time is to her advantage.”[169] Kirkaldy was +right, as events proved. Mary was temporising as Philip advised her to +do, counting upon the aid of Spain, the Pope, and the English Catholics +when the hour should strike. But for her the hour never did strike. Her +evil star led her along the path which ended in England and martyrdom. + +The tragedy of Rizzio, the vicious foolishness of Darnley, the levity +of Mary, and the falsity of Murray and Morton, destroyed for a time the +great dream, once so promising in appearance, that the Queen of Scots +would mount the Catholic throne of Britain by the aid of Spain. When Mary +was in Lochleven and her infant son had been adopted as their King by +the nobles, Elizabeth and Catharine vied with each other in their loud +expressions of sympathy with a Queen thus contemned by her subjects, +the object in both cases being to obtain, if possible, either through +Mary or her persecutors, a pretext to interfere in Scotland, and thus +to frustrate the Spanish combination. Murray, who was not in Scotland +when Darnley was murdered, found himself assiduously courted, by the +French especially, on his way home, and had a long friendly interview +even with Guzman in London. After the first shock of dismay caused to +the Catholics by the marriage of Mary to Bothwell—a divorced man and a +Protestant—public opinion on their part agreed to regard her as innocent +of the crimes laid to her charge; and when, on the unhappy 16th May, +1568, Mary, weeping with grief and bitter disappointment, bade a last +farewell to the land of her fathers to claim the hospitality of her +bitterest enemy, her party in the north still founded their hopes upon +her, notwithstanding the black suspicion that hung over her, whilst she +was unsubdued and full of plans for future triumph over her enemies. + +In her first letter to Elizabeth she struck a high but unwise note, +claiming admission to the Queen’s presence and English aid to subdue her +rebel subjects, failing which she demanded leave to go to France or Spain +and obtain assistance there. Elizabeth refused both requests, for whilst +she was kept in England the unhappy Mary had nothing to offer in return; +but Knollys, who took the message, warned the Queen of England that the +Catholic gentry were flocking to salute the fugitive, whose presence in +the north was a danger, and Mary sent indignant and imprudent messages +by Lord Herries to Elizabeth threatening to appeal to her great Catholic +friends on the Continent. This attitude sealed Mary’s fate and determined +her imprisonment. Lord Herries talked openly, even in Elizabeth’s palace, +of his plans for claiming Catholic aid for his mistress; and although +Guzman used all his deft persuasions to soften the English Queen, +Elizabeth explained to him quite cogently again and again that she dared +not allow Mary to bring foreign Catholic forces into Britain, nor from a +safe refuge on the Continent to organise disaffection in England. + +Elizabeth, with ample reason, was at the time in a panic at Philip’s +action in Flanders. For many months the pretence had been kept up that +the King himself was coming to the Netherlands to pacify discontent. +Great forces had been raised in Italy, Spain, and Germany, and a strong +fleet fitted out, to the great alarm of the English, who feared that at +last the time for Philip’s vengeance had arrived, although Elizabeth +had tremblingly tried to keep up the pretence to Guzman that she was +delighted at “her good brother’s” coming. At last when all was ready, +in the autumn of 1567, vast sums of money collected, and the troops +under arms, no longer a royal escort but a strong avenging army, Philip +announced that he would not go to Flanders himself but would send the +terrible Duke of Alba. Then all the world knew what was meant—war to +the knife until Protestantism and political liberty were crushed in the +Netherlands. It was clear to Huguenots, Lutherans, and Anglicans that the +time of trial and struggle was at hand, and mutual messages and promises +of support crossed from one to the other, for they all knew that if the +King of Spain were victorious over dissent in his own land the turn of +the others would come. Elizabeth’s retort to Alba’s proceedings was, as +usual, both bold and diplomatic. She once more made strenuous efforts +to reopen the negotiations for her marriage with the Archduke, she +cajoled Guzman again into the belief that she was not in accord with the +proceedings of her Reformed bishops; and whilst all England was thrilling +with sympathy for the oppressed Flemings she made the most elaborate +protestations to the Spanish ambassador that she had not helped and would +not help them in their resistance.[170] But at the same time Elizabeth, +by a policy of alternate severity and leniency towards them, convinced +the English Catholic party that their future treatment depended alone +upon their gaining her goodwill. + +The first suppression of revolt in Flanders effected by Alba on his +arrival coincided with a change in Philip’s policy towards England, +probably under the influence of the warlike party now dominant in his +counsels. Guzman, as we have seen, had always spoken fair to Elizabeth +and Cecil, though he often complained to his master of having to deal +with “heretics” thus. But from Madrid now a harsher note was struck. The +English spies in Spain reported that all the talk now was of the coming +conquest of England, and of Catholic combinations to overthrow the Queen; +and in February Elizabeth learnt from a messenger sent by her ambassador +in Spain, Dr. Man, Dean of Gloucester, to inform her of the imprisonment +of Don Carlos, that the household of her ambassador had not been allowed +to celebrate Protestant worship in the embassy building. Dr. Man was a +notoriously foolish, babbling person, and, as Philip averred, had openly +scoffed at a religious procession, and had spoken at dinner before +Spaniards disrespectfully of the Catholic faith. The Duke of Feria had +been sent to warn him, which we may be sure he did haughtily enough,[171] +and Philip, on Man’s first arrival in Madrid, appears to have told him +harshly “that he must conduct himself as his predecessors had done.” The +Inquisition had, so Philip declared, complained of him, and he was said +to have acted “simply as a perverse dogmatiser.” + +However this may have been, the prohibition of his own national worship +within the embassy walls was a violation of diplomatic privilege, though +Philip said that other English ambassadors (meaning Challoner) had put up +with it; and when Elizabeth heard of it she was violently angry. Cecil +went to Guzman and told him heatedly that unless the English ambassador +in Madrid had the same privileges conceded to him as those that Guzman +enjoyed in London, he would immediately be withdrawn. Philip, said +Elizabeth, might do as he liked with his own subjects, but he should not +persecute hers. The complaint, of course, went to Madrid, and at the +same time a letter to Dr. Man from the irate Elizabeth ordering him to +demand immediate satisfaction from the King. Philip was ready for it and +gave him no opportunity. In a violent letter to Guzman, entirely unlike +his previous tone towards England, he tells his ambassador that he has +banished Man from Madrid, and refused to have any more intercourse with +him. He had, says the King, even tried to proselytise in Spain; and if +he had not been an ambassador the Inquisition would have made short work +of him. If Elizabeth did not recall him at once, he would be expelled +from Spain. When Guzman waited upon Elizabeth early in May, 1568, with +this message and handed her his new letter of credence, he watched her +face closely. “When she came to the latter part about the ambassador she +changed colour and seemed annoyed, asking me what it meant.” Guzman, as +gently as he could, gave her the rough message, and said that a gentleman +was on the way from Spain to explain matters. In the meanwhile, amongst +other things, he might tell her that this precious ambassador of hers +had publicly called the Pope a “canting little monk!” “Oh! there is +nothing in that,” said the Queen, but Guzman thought otherwise. She had +not dealt with Bishop Quadra so harshly, she said, although she found +he was positively plotting against her. “She therefore grieved that her +ambassador should be treated as he had been, especially as at this time +suspicions and comments would arise therefrom. This way of treating +ambassadors was a forerunner of greater unpleasantness, particularly +coming as it did on the top of the news of the Catholic league against +her, and I should hear next day what would be said in London about it.” + +A week or so after this came the news that Man had been expelled from +Madrid with every circumstance of insult, and Guzman, anxious to hear +what the English would think of it, called upon Cecil. He found the +minister in a furious passion at the outrage upon international courtesy. +Such a thing, he said, had never been heard of before unless a pretext +for war was sought, and it was a great piece of disrespect and an insult +to the Queen, showing a desire to pick a quarrel with her, as had already +been stated in certain quarters, and it now behoved the Queen to be +prepared. It is certain that this incident, almost coinciding as it did +with Mary Stuart’s arrival in England and her open threats to appeal to +the Catholic Powers for aid, greatly perturbed and alarmed Elizabeth. The +war of religion in France was again in full swing, and her friends the +Huguenots had their hands full and could not help her, the Flemings were +temporarily crushed under the iron heel of Alba, and the Catholics of the +North of England were in a ferment at the coming of the Queen of Scots. + +In spite, therefore, of Guzman’s remonstrances, the flail fell upon the +backs of the English Catholics, and for the first time Guzman himself +was treated with harshness. Cecil told him “that the Council regarded him +with suspicion, and the Queen did the same.” The ambassador was gentler +and more conciliatory than ever; but in the new situation created he was +not the man for the place. In February, 1568, he had earnestly begged the +King to recall him on the pretext of ill-health and lack of means. At +that time, before Mary Stuart’s arrival in England, the relations between +England and Spain were not abnormally strained, for Mary, being deposed +and imprisoned, was powerless. Philip sent no answer to the ambassador’s +request for several months; but in May, when the prospect was no longer +“quiet and friendly,” he sent to Guzman his letter of dismissal. The King +at this time needed a rough, overbearing man to support his strong action +with regard to the English ambassador. The communications that had passed +between Philip and Mary Stuart, and the reports he had received as to +the attitude of the English Catholics of the north from the Lennoxes and +others, had convinced him that an opportunity offered for dealing his +blow. Guzman had continued gently to encourage the Queen of Scotland’s +agent, Fleming, but neither his instructions nor his disposition allowed +him to go beyond bare expressions of sympathy. “I have shown him great +goodwill, and have in general terms assured him of your Majesty’s sincere +affection for his Queen, as I am letting the Catholics, her friends, +understand.”[172] But Guzman went no further than this. + +Philip always chose his instruments carefully, with a view for the +precise task he confided to them. He had sent Guzman to London to +tranquillise Elizabeth by cordiality and a show of simple frankness, +at a time when trade was suspended and she was deeply irritated at the +intrigues of Bishop Quadra. The ambassador had done his work admirably, +but now another phase had to be dealt with, and a different man was +required. To some extent, perhaps, Guzman’s recall may have been +influenced by his own remark that Catholics are exposed to much danger +to the purity of their faith by living so long amongst heretics, in +answer to which the King told him that he was not to join in religious +discussions with enemies of the Church; but the choice of his successor +was certainly made with a view to an alteration in the attitude in +future to be adopted towards Elizabeth by her brother-in-law. All hope +of bringing her round to a Catholic policy was now quite abandoned. To +invade and conquer her country, as Feria had proposed, when it might have +been done, in the first days of her reign, was not at present in Philip’s +power. But he had a famous general and a powerful army a few hours only +from her shores, and she might be frightened into a humble and tolerant +mood, perhaps, by a rough-tongued bully with such a force to threaten +with. Besides, reports had told the King that the Catholics of the North +of England were yearning for his coming to liberate their country from +the yoke of heresy, and a bold zealot was needed to organise them into a +fit instrument for Philip’s future purpose. + +Such a man, though without the subtlety and secrecy required, was found +in Don Gerau de Spes, a haughty Catalan knight of the Alba school, as +intolerant as Feria himself. It was no part of Philip’s intention yet to +quarrel openly with Elizabeth, and the instructions he gave to his new +ambassador were, as will be seen presently, entirely pacific; but the +King was really in great trepidation as to the way in which the Queen +would take the expulsion of her ambassador, and de Spes’s first task was +to frighten her into humility, and into desisting from countenancing the +open aid that was flowing over from England to the Flemish rebels. When +Guzman went to Hatfield to announce to the Queen his recall he found her +troubled and suspicious at the rumours that had reached her as to the +reasons for the change. “She showed more sorrow than I expected, and, +changing colour, told me that she was grieved to the bottom of her heart +that there should be any change, as she was so greatly pleased with my +procedure. She said she had always shown me how pleased she was with me, +and hoped to God there was no mystery behind this change.” + +The supple ambassador tranquillised her. She knew, he said, what poor +health he had, and how badly the English climate suited him. There was no +other mystery behind his going than that. She was coquettishly aggrieved, +too, at his wanting to leave her, as they had been such friends; and +besides, there was all this talk about a Catholic league against her! +Guzman again reassured her; but when he got back to London he found Cecil +less easy to calm. He had been told alarming stories by his spies, most +of which we now know were untrue, and after assuring Guzman of the grief +that his recall would cause to the Queen, he continued that “it confirmed +what he had heard from various quarters, that Cardinal Lorraine had +arranged a treaty with the Duke of Alba respecting this country and the +Queen of Scots, which had been negotiated through me [_i.e._, Guzman] as +they could not trust the French ambassador. It was said, also, that the +Queen of Scots herself was in communication with me and sent me letters +for your Majesty. It was asserted that, now that I had arranged it all, +I wished to leave in order that my successor, and not myself, should +witness the carrying out of the plan.”[173] Guzman knew that a letter to +him enclosing one from Mary to Philip had fallen into Cecil’s hands, so +he had to be dexterous in his management of the situation. He affected +to laugh at such assertions as absurd;[174] and the interview ended by +the highest praise being bestowed upon Guzman, who, said Cecil, had +absolutely gained the Queen’s confidence; and many dubious questions were +put by Cecil as to what sort of a person Don Gerau de Spes was. + +Don Gerau soon showed this for himself. He was instructed by Philip +to explain to Elizabeth the misdeeds of Dr. Man that had led to his +expulsion, and to exonerate the Duke and Duchess of Feria, and especially +the English relatives of the latter, from any blame in the matter. He +was also to watch the introduction of warlike stores into England and +keep in touch with the Duke of Alba in Flanders; but he is emphatically +enjoined “to serve and gratify the Queen on every possible occasion, +trying to keep her on good terms, and assuring her from me that I will +always return her friendship as her good neighbour and brother.” De Spes, +however, must have carried secret instructions in addition to this, +because when he was passing through Paris, Mary Stuarts ambassador, the +Archbishop of Glasgow, recommended to him the care of the imprisoned +Queen’s affairs, “as she founded all her hopes on your Majesty’s favour,” +and, in reply, de Spes said that he had orders to do everything he could +for her. There is no such clause in his public instructions, and it is +most unlikely that any ambassador of Philip would have dared to plunge +without instructions into conspiracies against the Government to which he +was accredited, as de Spes did immediately after his arrival in England. + +Before crossing the Channel, de Spes had a conference with the Duke +of Alba at Utrecht, where a long list of Philip’s grievances against +Elizabeth were discussed. The indictment was a grave one, the injuries +said to be inflicted by the English upon Spaniards and Flemings amounting +in value, it was computed, to 300,000 ducats a year; and it is certain +that at this interview between the two fiery Spaniards plans for +revenging and amending this state of things were canvassed and agreed +upon. In England at the time there resided a Spanish merchant, ambitious +to fill a diplomatic _rôle_, and, although he had lived in London for +thirty years at least, he was as zealous and intolerant in religious +affairs as de Spes, or even Philip himself. This man, of whom we shall +hear much presently, Antonio de Guaras, anxious to ingratiate himself, +had sent to de Spes in Flanders two broadsheets that had just been +published in England attacking Philip’s system and the communications +that it was known passed between the English Catholics and the King of +Spain. Such papers, of course, had been published in Guzman’s time, but +he had wisely passed them by or minimised their importance. To de Spes +they served as a spark to the tinder of his passion, and he arrived in +England fuming with rage at the insolence of the heretics. + +As de Spes rode from Dover towards London, with a long train of Spanish +residents in England at his heels, early in September, 1568, he was +overtaken by a Scottish gentleman (probably James Beton) on his way +from Paris in the service of the imprisoned Mary, with whom he was +going to seek an interview. De Spes listened eagerly to his story of +the ill-treatment of Mary by the “heretics,” and told him that he had +letters in London from King Philip to her. He had enough prudence to +tell the Scot when, after their arrival in the capital, he came for the +King’s letter to take to Mary that it would be wise that he, as Spanish +ambassador, should not be seen too prominently in her interests; but he +associated himself at once in all the Scottish Queen’s plans to escape +from her bondage, and sent her warm messages of encouragement. Almost +at the same time (15th September) Philip himself was writing from the +Escorial an important letter to the Duke of Alba. The Queen of Scots, he +said, had written praying for his help to extricate her from Elizabeth’s +hands, and professing her readiness to die in defence of the faith.[175] +“I have refrained from arriving at any decision or answering her +autograph letter ... until you tell me what you think of the business, +and in what way and to what extent I should assist her. I beg you to +write to me by the first opportunity on the matter, and in the meanwhile +to encourage the Queen the best you can to persevere firmly in her +saintly purpose; for whilst she does so God will not abandon her.”[176] +It is obvious from this that Philip had not decided yet to help Mary, +but only to encourage her until affairs appeared to him propitious, and +we shall be able to judge, therefore, to what extent the zeal of de Spes +precipitated matters. + +Elizabeth was making a progress through Hampshire, and Guzman presented +his successor to her at Newbury on the 12th September, 1568. To the +scornful anger of de Spes, Cardinal Chatillon, the Huguenot brother +of Coligny, was also seeking audience of the Queen, and being feasted +and made much of in the interval by Sir Thomas Gresham at his house in +London. That a Cardinal, a prince of the Catholic Church, followed by a +wife and family and with several bishops at his side as unorthodox as +he, should be ruffling about the streets of London in cape and sword and +jewelled cap, shocked de Spes gravely; but that he should be asking, +and obtaining, arms from the Tower of London and money and English +volunteers to fight against the Catholics and the King in France made the +Spaniard more bitter than anything else. The new ambassador had not been +installed in Paget House[177] a fortnight before Mary Stuart’s emissaries +were in close conference with him. One of them came to him early in +October disguised as a merchant, saying that he was bearing letters from +her to the Duke of Alba in Flanders. The Conference of York, which had +been summoned to decide Mary’s guilt or innocence of the murder of her +husband, was already gathering, and the Scottish Queen herself was at +Bolton. How eager de Spes was even thus early to engage in plots in her +favour is seen in the letter he wrote to the King on the 9th October +giving him this news. “Where she is the Catholics are more numerous than +in any part of the country. She knows how to ingratiate herself with her +keepers, and has many sympathisers on her side. It will not be difficult +to release her, and even to raise a great revolt against this Queen; but +it will be more prudent that your Majesty should not appear in this, +and I will do nothing until I receive orders from your Majesty or the +Duke.”[178] + +All this foregathering with Scottish agents on the part of de Spes was +not lost upon the English Government, whose spies reported everything. De +Spes says that Cecil sneeringly asked Beton (the nephew of the Archbishop +of Glasgow, who was in London on his way from Paris to see Mary) “whether +he had been with his complaints to the new Spanish ambassador yet, and +how often he went to Paget House.” In these circumstances it is not +surprising that relations grew rapidly acrimonious between Philip’s +ambassador and Elizabeth’s ministers. He pressed with boldness and +persistence the claims of the Spanish shipmasters for the depredations +committed by English rovers, and by the Huguenots and Dutch rebels +who took shelter in English ports; and to these claims Cecil retorted +by bringing up the old grievance of Dr. Man’s expulsion, and certain +insulting references to the Queen of England contained in a recently +published Spanish book by Dr. Illescas on Pontifical History. To make +matters worse, de Spes did not confine himself to the redress of Spanish +grievances, but made himself the champion of Catholics generally. A +Portuguese envoy, Dr. Alvarez, was in London to ask Elizabeth to forbid +English ships to go to the coast of Guinea, where Hawkins had been +slave-trading, and suddenly one morning the Bishop of London’s men +appeared before the house in which Alvarez lived and demanded that +certain Englishmen then attending Mass there should be delivered to them +for punishment. The Portuguese refused to surrender them, and the house +was soon surrounded by a threatening crowd. Word was carried to de Spes, +who immediately sent off one of his household to demand of the Lord Mayor +(Sir Roger Martin) the dispersal of the mob. “What is the cause of the +gathering?” asked the chief magistrate, and when the Spaniard told him +that it was a question of Catholic worship, Sir Roger burst out in a rage +that he would rather send his men to reinforce the mob than to disperse +it in such a case. + +The presence of such a firebrand ambassador as this in London, in +constant communication, as Elizabeth’s ministers knew, with all the +elements of disaffection in England, and in close correspondence with the +terrible Duke of Alba in Flanders, convinced the English Government that +evil plans were brewing. It was known that Philip’s principal difficulty +was money. The expense of the campaigns in Flanders and the constant wars +in the Mediterranean had exhausted the resources of Castile, and Philip’s +credit was as bad as could be. Alba’s troops were unpaid and growing +mutinous, committing outrage and depredations upon Catholics as much as +upon Protestants. The Duke had pressed, again and again, for money from +Spain, and the English spies in Flanders had continued to send alarmist +reports, all premature as we see now, but then believed to be true, of +the hostile intentions of Alba against England as soon as he had crushed +the Dutchmen and obtained the needed resources from Spain. + +Chance threw into Elizabeth’s way a means of paralysing Alba for a time +and rendering impossible the plans to injure her that she knew were +hatching. Philip had, with infinite difficulty, managed to contract, +at usurious rates, a loan of money from Genoese bankers, and, with his +characteristic caution, he had stipulated that the money should be +delivered by the lenders to the agents of the Duke of Alba in Antwerp. +The Channel was infested with Huguenot privateers and pirates of all +sorts on the look out for ships flying the Spanish flag, and the Dutch +“Beggars” blockaded the Belgian coast. The ships, six or seven of them, +which were bringing Philip’s borrowed treasure were known to have sailed +late in November, and the rovers were all on the alert for them when they +came. Finding themselves chased, the treasure ships ran into English +ports, some into Plymouth, some to Falmouth, and the largest of them into +Southampton, in order to escape their pursuers and claim official English +protection. Even in port the privateers threatened the fugitives, and two +of the treasure ships, swift Biscay cutters, fearing that the heretics +on shore were as dangerous as their colleagues afloat, boldly ran the +blockade of pirates and escaped, eventually arriving safely in Antwerp. +But the others, and especially the big ship in Southampton with £31,000 +in money on board, could only cling desperately to the English port +authorities, whilst they sent swift messengers to Benedict Spinola, the +famous Genoese banker in London, the agent and partner of the lenders, +praying him to obtain safety for them. + +Spinola, being, of course, interested in the treasure, went at once to +de Spes, and asked him to request officially of the Queen’s Council that +the money should be protected effectively in the English ports, and, +if necessary, landed and conveyed overland to Dover for transmission +to Antwerp under English convoy. De Spes lost no time, and on the 29th +November saw the Queen, who readily promised him a passport to carry the +money overland, or, if the Genoese preferred it, she would have the ships +convoyed to their destination. Satisfied with this, de Spes wrote to Alba +for instructions as to which course to follow. In the meanwhile Admiral +Wynter was leaving the Thames with an English squadron to relieve the +Huguenots besieged by the King of France in Rochelle, and on the way he +looked into the Channel ports to ensure the safety of the treasure ships. +Before Wynter sailed finally from England Spinola, who was interested, +as great financiers are to-day, in many enterprises, wrote to him that +he had just received word that rumours were current in Spain of a great +disaster having happened on the coast of Mexico to Captain John Hawkins, +the bold English sailor who had on more than one occasion braved the +Spanish prohibition and had conducted successful trading expeditions to +the Spanish colonies. De Spes had been bitterly complaining of this, and +it was feared, said Spinola, that the Hawkins expedition, in which he had +an interest, had been attacked and annihilated by the Spanish authorities. + +When Wynter received Spinola’s news on the 2nd December he was in +Plymouth, assuring himself of the safety of the Spanish treasure ships +there. Wynter naturally told the evil news he had learned from Spinola +to William Hawkins, the brother of John, who lived in Plymouth, and +William at once wrote to Cecil, who was also interested in the venture, +suggesting that Spinola should be questioned, and if it turned out that +the Spaniards had attacked the English trading expedition, the money +in the ships now being protected by English guns should be seized in +reprisal. This letter was written on the 3rd December, the day after +the safe conduct had been signed by Elizabeth for bringing the treasure +overland to Dover, and before Cecil can have received it this safe +conduct was on its way in the hands of de Spes’s agents to Southampton, +and so to Plymouth and Falmouth. Cecil’s messengers, however, were not +far behind, and, in spite of the protest of the Spanish captain, Horsey, +the Governor of the Isle of Wight, by Cecil’s secret orders, landed the +treasure from the ship at Southampton and placed it in the keeping of the +mayor of the town. Similar action was taken with the treasure at Plymouth +and Falmouth, and when the news reached de Spes in London he at once +jumped at the conclusion that the rumours were true that he had heard at +Court to the effect that some of the Queen’s Council and her Huguenot +friends had been urging her to keep the treasure for her own purposes. + +Spinola, a resident in London, dependent largely upon Elizabeth’s +goodwill and Cecil’s friendship, had, indeed, let out in conversation +not only what he had heard about the Spanish attack upon John Hawkins’s +expedition in Mexico, but also that the Genoese financiers were +responsible for the money advanced to Philip until it was handed to the +Spanish authorities in Flanders. “In that case,” said Elizabeth, “I can +borrow it myself; for my credit is quite as good as that of the King of +Spain.” Rash de Spes, however, did not wait for any such public avowal. +To his intemperate and insolent protests Cecil and the other Councillors +would only say that the money was quite safe, and for the present no +other answer with regard to it could be given to him. This was on the +21st December and the ambassador at once sent a special courier to Alba +with a letter praying, in burning indignation, that all English property +and that of Spinola on Spanish soil should be seized.[179] Nothing more +unwise than this can be conceived; for no sooner had Alba made the +confiscatory proclamation than Elizabeth not only justified thereby her +seizure of the money, now openly avowed, but at once confiscated all +Spanish and Flemish property in England, including the ships that had +brought the money. + +De Spes had been saying for weeks past that the best way to bring the +Queen to her knees, and to force her into the arms of Spain, would be to +stop all English trade; and when he had sent to Alba the unwise advice +to make the seizure of English property he still believed that such a +measure would dismay the “heretic” Government. So far from doing that it +placed Elizabeth technically in the right; for up to that point she had +not openly avowed her intention of keeping the loan money; and the value +of Spanish-Flemish property in England was immensely greater than that of +English property in Philip’s dominions. The news of the seizure of the +loan money fell upon Alba and his master like a death sentence. Without +this money to pay his troops Alba was almost in despair, and Philip had +exhausted his last rag of credit in raising the loan. In vain de Spes +raged and fumed. Cecil and his mistress were perfectly cool about it; for +they saw that the impetuousness of their opponents had put them in the +right, and the large sum of ready money they had seized strengthened them +as it proportionately weakened Philip. De Spes’s house was placed under +guard; and a threatening mob in the City of London breathed vengeance +upon the foreigners, and especially Spaniards, most of whom had fled +into hiding. To make matters worse, a cipher letter from de Spes to Alba +was intercepted and deciphered, full of violent and insulting references +to Cecil, and other letters to Spanish friends in Flanders containing +foolish abuse of the Queen herself.[180] Called upon peremptorily for +explanation of these references, the ambassador could only palliate, +disavow, and explain that he did not mean what he said; and he himself +was placed under arrest and forbidden access to the Court. + +Even then, when the dire consequences of his imprudence must have been +patent to him, he was in close cipher correspondence with Mary Stuart, +who sent him news, which he took care to exaggerate, of Protestant +plots being formed to murder King Philip. Writing to the King on the 8th +January, 1569, he says, after pressing him to foment dissatisfaction in +England by stopping all trade: “In the meanwhile means will be found +to bring this country to its senses and subdue it to the Catholic +faith. Those who have spoken to me about a rising for the Queen of +Scots will not fail to return to the subject,[181] and I will inform +the Duke [Alba], as your Majesty orders. Pray do not consider me or my +safety, but take the best course for your Majesty’s interests.... These +heretic knaves of the Council are going headlong to perdition, incited +by Cecil, who is indescribably crazy in his zeal for heresy.” Later +in the same letter de Spes tells how his own prediction came true and +the conspirators did seek him. “The Earl of Northumberland came to see +me disguised at four o’clock this morning, and is ready to serve your +Majesty. I sent a post yesterday to the Duke by an Englishman who has +secret communication with Flanders.... At midnight last night the Bishop +of Ross came to offer the goodwill of his mistress [_i.e._, Mary Stuart] +and of many gentlemen of this country, and I have reported this to the +Duke [of Alba]. The Queen of Scotland told my servant to convey to me +the following words: ‘Tell the ambassador that if his master will help +me I shall be Queen of England in three months, and Mass shall be said +throughout the land.’”[182] + +It will be seen that before de Spes had been in England four months +he had forced King Philip into a position of hardly veiled hostility +towards England, at the very period when his lack of resources and the +recrudescence of the war in the Netherlands made it impossible for +him to attempt coercion upon Elizabeth. Alba himself was dismayed at +the unexpectedly bold action of the English Government in seizing the +treasure and embargoing all Spanish-Flemish property in England. The +Flemish burghers, already sorely distressed by the civil war, were almost +in open revolt at this stoppage of the rich English trade and the embargo +of their property in England, and Alba, hard as he might be, was forced +to make an attempt to reason with Elizabeth by means of some more pliable +instrument than de Spes. The person chosen was the garrulous Flemish +lawyer, Dassonleville, who had come to England just before Queen Mary +Tudor’s death, but he found himself more contemptuously treated even than +de Spes. Who was he, the Council asked, that he should seek audience of +a Queen with a letter of credence from a person who, so far as she knew, +was not a sovereign? Nothing wounded proud Alba so much as this slight, +and poor Dassonleville was denied audience, and was placed under arrest +in the house of the Sheriff of London. + +By this time no less than 700,000 ducats worth of Flemish ships and +property had been seized in England, besides Philip’s treasure of a +million; and the Spaniards, especially Alba, were bitterly regretting +the deplorable diplomacy of de Spes. Philip, who hated to come to +prompt decisions, was now face to face with a crisis. In obedience to +the clamours of his ambassador he had stopped all trade between his +dominions and England; by which, instead of its bringing Elizabeth to her +knees, his subjects suffered much more than the English. It was evident, +however, that this state of things could not continue indefinitely, +and he was driven by these circumstances, at the very time when he was +more hardly pressed than ever, to consider whether he could now conquer +England by means of the English Catholics and Mary Stuart. For such a +conquest to be of use to him it was necessary to be quite sure that +Mary should be free from French influence, and that the new Catholic +Government should look to him alone for orders. + +When, therefore, he received news from Alba and de Spes of the seizures +he wrote to the former: “Don Gerau urges the opportunity which now +presents itself to remedy religious affairs in that country by deposing +the present Queen and giving the crown to the Queen of Scots, who +will immediately be joined by all the Catholics. Please inquire what +foundation there is for this, and what success would probably attend +such a plan; as if there is anything in it, I should be glad to carry +it out. It appears to me that, after my special obligation to maintain +my own dominions in our holy faith, I am bound to make every effort to +restore and preserve it in England, as in former times. If there is any +good grounds for the suggestion, no time more opportune than the present +could be found ... and in order not to miss the chance, I have thought +well to refer the decision to you. If you think the opportunity will be +lost by waiting to consult me you may at once take the steps you may see +fitting.” It was not often that Philip went so far as this in a prompt +decision, and to de Spes he was equally decided. “If what you suggest +about taking the crown away from the Queen were successful, it would +certainly be of great moment, and I would help it most willingly, in +order to redress religion, and shelter and console the Catholics, who, I +am convinced, are very numerous. You will learn all you can about this +thoroughly and advise me and the Duke of Alba fully.”[183] + +In the meanwhile the conspiracy, by far the most dangerous that Elizabeth +ever had to face, was developing in London. Cecil, who, in fact, was the +most pacific of ministers, is represented by the Spanish party as the +firebrand, determined to precipitate a war with Spain. This was certainly +not the case. He, with his cool head, understood how far he might go now +that Philip was powerless to attack England. The seizure of the money +destined to pay Alba’s troops had made all the difference, and Cecil +and his mistress knew that they might for the present defy Spain with +impunity. The news of the attack upon Hawkins’s expedition at San Juan +de Lua was now confirmed and added to the determination of the English +Protestant party to get even with a Power which, for the time at all +events, was disabled for harm. But the conservative elements, the old +English nobility, with their strong Catholic leanings, their traditions +of awed regard for the alliance of the House of Burgundy and Spain, and +with their long-standing jealousy of Cecil, saw in his present action a +dangerous provocation to a Power they dreaded, and a possible opportunity +of supplanting him and his party in the counsels of the Queen. + +On several occasions the nobles of this party had expressed to de Spes +their annoyance at the seizure of the treasure; and we have seen that +the Earl of Northumberland, the powerful Catholic head of the House of +Percy, had sought him out secretly in the dead of night to make disloyal +offers to him. The Duke of Norfolk, unhappily for himself, had also +been drawn into these questionable intrigues by his father-in-law, the +Earl of Arundel. Late in February, 1569, Norfolk and Arundel sent a +Florentine banker in London, one Ridolfi, a great friend of de Spes and +the Pope’s agent in England, to tell the Spanish ambassador that they had +put up with Cecil’s impertinences and violence in seizing the treasure +so far because they were not strong enough to resist him. “But they are +gathering their friends, and letting the public know what is going on, +in the hope and belief that they will be able to turn out the present +accursed Government and raise a Catholic one, bringing the Queen to +consent thereto. They think you [_i.e._, the Duke of Alba] will support +them in this, and that the country will not lose the friendship of our +King.” The object of this conspiracy was to capture (and probably kill) +Cecil; and, although the nobles euphemistically professed to believe +that Elizabeth would consent to a entire revolution in her religion and +policy, it is evident that the intention of the majority was to depose +her in favour of Mary Stuart. On the 2nd April de Spes writes: “The Duke +of Norfolk and the Earl of Arundel wish to serve your Majesty. They have +many friends and adherents in the country, and when they hear that your +Majesty will accept their goodwill, they will declare themselves more +openly at a convenient opportunity. The Duke of Alba ... orders me to +entertain and caress them on your Majesty’s behalf, and says that he +expects shortly your Majesty’s decision as to what is to be done.... +If your Majesty orders measures to be taken for the conversion of the +kingdom and the punishment of these insolent heretics and barefaced +thieves, I do not think it will be difficult to bring them to subjection, +or at least to change the Government and religion.... Many Catholics +write to me secretly, saying that the moment they see your Majesty’s +standard raised in this country they will all rise to serve you.” + +But Cecil was too wary to be caught by such weaklings as Norfolk and +Arundel, and by pretending to fall into their views for a time about the +reconciliation and concessions to the Spaniards, he managed a few weeks +after the above letter was written to throw the plans of the conspirators +into confusion by dividing their counsels. In the meanwhile Alba (on the +10th March) had to tell Philip some unpleasant truths in answer to his +suggestion that English affairs should be taken in hand and settled on +the impracticable lines suggested by feather-headed de Spes. “I know +not,” Alba wrote to the King, “whether an open rupture with England at +the present time will be advantageous, considering the condition of your +treasury, and these States being so exhausted with the war and late +disturbances, and so lacking of ships and many other things necessary +for a fresh war; and it would certainly be a grave loss of dignity, with +your Majesty’s power, to return to the old negotiations. All things +considered, I think it would be best to adopt a gentle course, writing +to the Queen that, seeing the close friendship and alliance that have +so long existed between the two countries, particularly between her +father and the Emperor, and your brotherly affection for her, even though +she should desire to quarrel, you will not consent to do so, and that +it shall never be said that the tie that binds you together has been +loosened.” + +To this lame and impotent conclusion had even warlike Alba been brought +by the inevitable logic of events. Elizabeth had seized the treasure, +imprisoned two ambassadors, embargoed all Spanish property in her realms; +she had at the time hundreds of Spanish sailors and others in gaol, and +she rejected with contumely all attempts of the Spaniards to reconcile +her on the basis of mutual concessions. The Dutch and the Huguenots +depended now largely upon her support, and the English Catholics were +made to feel more painfully than ever that appeals to their powerful +friends upon the Continent could not protect them from the hard rule of +their own Sovereign. And yet, withal, Alba had to confess that the only +course now open to him was to speak fair, until at some future time a +safe opportunity for injuring Elizabeth might arrive. + +Up to this time since Philip had faced the necessity for winning England +by other means than moral suasion, the projects for doing so had always +run upon the lines of subsidising and supporting the revolt of the +Catholic party in the interests of the Queen of Scots; and in this +direction, but later with an ominous addition to the programme, the +next attempts developed. During the sitting of the Conference of York +in October, 1568, to investigate the charges against Mary relative to +the murder of Darnley, the Duke of Norfolk had suggested to Lethington +the desirability of hushing up the ugly business as against the Queen of +Scots; and on the following day he had a long, private conversation with +Murray to the same effect. Thomas Howard, fourth Duke of Norfolk, son of +the martyred Surrey, was the greatest noble in England, a kinsman of the +Queen, and up to this time ostensibly a Protestant. Personally, he was +popular, for his manners were kindly and his possessions great, but, as +events proved, he was as weak and unstable as he was ambitious. At this +time he was about thirty-three years of age, and his wife, the daughter +of the Earl of Arundel, and widow of Lord Dacre, had died. Such a man, +with his personal prestige and his powerful name, was a fit instrument +for stronger spirits than himself. In conversation with Murray at York, +Norfolk said that Queen Elizabeth herself would not consider the subject +of the succession, but it was necessary for the nobles of England to look +ahead. “What could be Murray’s motive,” he asked, “in coming to England +to blacken Queen Mary’s character and thus injuring her chances of the +English succession?” + +As a consequence of these efforts of Norfolk, it was agreed with Murray +and Lethington to make the Conference of York abortive, and Mary was +informed of this by a letter from Norfolk.[184] In the course of the +subsequent negotiations a few days afterwards, Lethington remarked that +as Norfolk showed himself so much in favour of Mary, the whisper he had +heard about the possibility of his marriage to her was probably true, +and, according to Norfolk, earnestly advocated the match.[185] Norfolk +listened, for the prospect of the matrimonial Crown of England was a +tempting one, and his sister, Lady Scrope, who was with Mary at Bolton, +had no difficulty in obtaining the Scottish Queen’s acceptance of a +suggestion which seemed to secure for her cause the higher nobility +of England, who were anxious to overthrow the Cecils, and Bacons, and +Hunsdons, and other new men, who now ruled England. De Spes was very soon +approached, and, of course, warmly approved of the plan to marry Norfolk +to the Queen of Scots, whilst a close and affectionate correspondence +was carried on between Mary and her new suitor. For a time the plan was +frustrated by the alarm of Leicester, when he suspected the real object +of it, and by the dexterity of Cecil, as has already been described. + +Norfolk and Arundel had, however, never lost touch of de Spes, both of +them constantly importuning him for money in return for their efforts +in favour of the Spaniards in the seizure dispute. The Bishop of Ross, +Mary’s busy agent, also kept the matter alive with de Spes. Norfolk, +Arundel, Lumley, Northumberland, Cumberland, Montagu, Dacre, Morley, and +many other Catholic nobles, de Spes wrote to Alba, were ready to join +in the conspiracy to release Mary and place England under the control of +King Philip, if some armed demonstration were made on their behalf from +Flanders. But Alba, as he plaintively assured King Philip, was powerless +to assail, or even to offend, Elizabeth further, until she could be +persuaded to surrender the vast quantity of Spanish-Flemish property she +now held. Until then, he said, they must speak fair and softly to her, +though the English and other Protestant privateers were capturing and +plundering every Spanish ship they came across. + +In the meanwhile de Spes, still in disgrace and forbidden from Court, +could only plot impotently through the Bishop of Ross and Italian +intermediaries, many of them spies. The coming and going of such folk +and the constant news sent by de Spes of the progress of the conspiracy, +fairly alarmed Alba, who was now chiefly concerned in getting some of +the confiscated property restored and trade reopened. In July he sent +to de Spes, though he could ill spare it, the six thousand crowns bribe +demanded by Norfolk, Arundel, and Lumley for their efforts in favour +of the Spanish claims, and for the first time he spoke firmly to de +Spes about his constant plotting. “I must again repeat,” he said, “to +you, most emphatically, that you are not, on any account, to entertain +approaches to you against the Queen or her Councillors, or anything +touching them. On the contrary, if people come to you with such talk, you +must be so reticent that they may never be able to say that any minister +of the King has given ear to it.” At this very time the imprudent +ambassador was almost daily or nightly closeted with some agent of the +conspirators, and was warmly seconding their plans. But as pacific, +almost humble, representations by other agents came from Alba to the +English Government, in hope of some arrangement for the restitution, +Elizabeth assumed a gentler attitude; though she gave up not an atom of +her plunder, and she partially released de Spes from his imprisonment. + +In the comparative remoteness of Winchester House, in Southwark, which +he now rented, the Spanish ambassador, as imprudent as ever, found it +easier than before to carry on his plots for the subjection of England; +and, regardless of Alba’s stern injunction quoted above, he became more +active and mischievous than ever. On the 25th July, 1569, he wrote to the +King that the Bishop of Ross had been to see him at three o’clock that +morning “to assure me of the wish of the Duke of Norfolk to serve your +Majesty. He said he was a Catholic, and has the support, even in London, +of many merchants and aldermen. I will report everything to the Duke of +Alba and follow his instructions.” Shortly before this, Mary herself, in +one of her many affectionate letters to Norfolk, had intimated that she +was in communication with the Duke of Alba; and de Spes followed up the +letter by an assurance that everything was almost ready for the great +_coup_. Whilst Norfolk was thus playing the game of Spain and pretending +to be a Catholic, he was full of Protestant professions to Murray, and +to the French ambassador, La Mothe Fénélon, and he avowed himself at the +same time the devoted servant of Catharine de Medici. A majority of the +English Council had met in caucus and had decided in favour of Norfolk’s +marriage with Mary; and although it is probable that most of the members +were not aware of the plot behind the match, it is certain that neither +Mary nor her intended husband deceived themselves with regard to the +ultimate aim. Nor was there any concealment on the part of the Spaniards. +Alba sent Mary a subsidy of 10,000 ducats in August (she had asked for +30,000 or 40,000), and at the same date de Spes wrote to the King: “I +believe some great event will happen here soon, as the people are much +dissatisfied and distressed for want of trade, and these gentlemen of +Nonsuch have some new imaginations in their heads.”[186] + +The “new imaginations,” whatever they were, hardly suited Philip. He had +through life a distinct repugnance to associating himself with the French +in any of his plans with regard to England. Norfolk and his friends, +doubtless in good faith, desired by means of Mary Stuart to change the +government and religion of England, with or without the deposition of +Elizabeth, and in order to do so they were glad to obtain support from +any quarter they could. They had primarily no desire to hand England, +bound hard and fast, to Spain, which was alone what Philip wanted. It is +certain that Mary herself was willing to do so, because she knew that +no effective armed aid could come to her from France, divided as that +country was religiously and with her enemy Catharine dominant. Whilst +Norfolk and his friends, therefore, were bidding for support on all +sides and obtaining it, Mary was endeavouring with her might to keep the +Spaniards, upon whom alone she depended, from slipping away from her. By +the Bishop of Ross she begged de Spes to obtain Philip’s consent to her +marriage with Norfolk, and the ambassador, in relating this to the King, +wrote: “The business is so far forward that it will be difficult now to +prevent it, and if it is to be done I think it had better be with your +Majesty’s consent, which cannot fail to be of great advantage to them, +and will bind them more closely to your Majesty’s service. The Queen +of Scots says that if she were at liberty, or could get such help as +would enable her to bring her country into submission, she would deliver +herself and her son entirely into your Majesty’s hands; but that now she +is obliged to sail with the wind, though she will never depart from your +Majesty’s wishes.” + +Philip, indeed, was growing doubtful of the way the affair was +progressing, and of de Spes’s management of it. “If the marriage of the +Duke of Norfolk and the Queen of Scots,” he wrote, “is effected in the +way, and with the objects you are informed, there is no doubt that it +would be of great importance for the restoration of our true Faith in +England, and would console the good Catholics now so oppressed. I desire +these objects warmly, as you know; but they [the conspirators] must be +very careful how they undertake the business, for if they make a mistake +they will all be ruined. You did well in referring them to the Duke of +Alba. You will limit yourself to this, in accordance with your orders, +which you will not exceed.” Philip distrusted Norfolk, who up to that +time had been a Protestant, and the Duke’s approaches to the French +completed the King’s coolness towards him. But before this letter of +Philip’s reached London the miserable Norfolk had collapsed. Leicester, +who had been a party to the plan, again took fright when he began to +understand the object behind it, and this time made a clean breast of it +to the Queen herself. + +Suddenly the blow fell. Mary Stuart’s prison was made closer, and Norfolk +and the conservative lords were peremptorily summoned before the Queen +at Windsor. The Duke, protesting his unalterable loyalty to Elizabeth, +travelled in deadly fear as far as London, and on the day of his arrival +at Howard House a messenger from the Earl of Northumberland came secretly +to de Spes. Making a private sign, which had been agreed upon as a +proof of genuineness, he said “that the Earl of Northumberland and his +friends in the North had agreed to liberate the Queen of Scotland and +establish the Catholic religion, returning to the amity and alliance with +your Majesty which they so much desire. The Earl wished to know if your +Majesty would approve of this, as he would undertake nothing that was +not in your interest.” To this de Spes dared not say more than that he +would write to the Duke of Alba about it. “The Duke of Norfolk,” he adds, +“is here preparing all his friends.” So far from doing this, Norfolk +was malingering in a panic, and two days later fled to Kenninghall, +whimpering in a pitiable letter to Elizabeth that he never meant any +harm. On his honour, he never dealt with the Queen of Scots further +than he declared to the Queen and some of her Council. Such lying and +prevarication was scorned by the irate Elizabeth. Ill or well, she wrote +in a rage, Norfolk must come to her instantly, and, trembling with +fear, the poor wretch went as slow as he dared to Windsor, there with +lachrymose repentance to be ordered into arrest with Arundel, Lumley, +Pembroke, and all the rest of his accomplices who were within Elizabeth’s +reach. + +It is clear that notwithstanding de Spes’s constant predictions of +immediate coming success, and his repeated assurances that Elizabeth +and her friends would be swept aside as a consequence of this plan, +Philip was never greatly deceived by it. Alba had told him that he was +powerless for the present, and he knew England sufficiently well to see +that unless a large and well-organised force was used at the critical +moment by him, an attempt to revolutionise England in his interests would +fail. The trail of deadly deliberation, moreover, palsied every act +of his life. At some time in August, 1569, when Mary Stuart’s appeals +were reaching him, he instructed Alba to obtain full particulars of the +military possibilities of the situation in England, in order that any +action he might decide to take later should be effectual. A half-dozen +or more envoys of various sorts, official and unofficial, had been +sent over one after the other to try by some means to effect a mutual +restitution of the seizures—Genoese financiers, Flemish diplomatists, +and even Protestant merchants—but all without effect. On receiving the +King’s orders, however, Alba instructed another embassy, surely the +strangest for such a purpose ever seen, to go to England and endeavour +to make terms with Elizabeth or bribe her advisers. The leader was +one of Alba’s most trusted Italian generals, Ciappino Vitelli, and he +was to be accompanied by fifty experienced military officers, with +a couple of official secretaries for appearance’ sake. That their +mission was not that which ostensibly appeared is clear from the fact +that at the same time Alba sent another unofficial envoy—the Genoese +merchant mariner Fiesco—to attempt to gain a restitution by the private +bribery of Leicester and Cecil. Cecil and the Queen laughed at the +idea of such an embassy as that of this fire-eating Ciappino coming +to settle a commercial dispute, and when the party arrived at Calais +for embarkation for England, Cobham, the Governor of Dover Castle, +sent word that only Ciappino Vitelli himself and a small suite would +be received. A still smaller number was allowed to proceed beyond +Dover, and another detachment was stayed at Canterbury; so that by the +time the gouty, obese, old Italian general was received by the Queen +at Kingston-on-Thames, not even de Spes being allowed to accompany +him to the presence, the military object of the mission was cleverly +frustrated. The plague was raging in London, and Ciappino never entered +the capital; and his interview with the Queen was mainly taken up by her +angry complaint of the insolence of the Duke of Alba. After many days +of quibbling, he was told that his powers were insufficient, and was +politely invited to get out of the country as quickly as possible, his +despatches to Alba being intercepted and read at Dover. + +It was indeed time that so dangerous a guest should be promptly asked +to depart; for this was the most critical juncture of Elizabeth’s reign +and her Crown trembled in the balance. All the lords were not so +pusillanimous as Norfolk. Both Dacre and Northumberland had formally +notified to de Spes that they were ready to take up arms in Philip’s +service. For many months the imprudent ambassador had been going beyond +his instructions and encouraging these nobles to expect effective aid +from Philip. If only a small number of arquebusiers were sent to them +from Flanders, said Northumberland and Westmorland, they would undertake +to release Mary, subdue the North of England, restore Catholic worship, +and make friends with Spain. “I feel sure,” wrote de Spes, “that they +will attempt the task; and it will be better effected by them than by the +Duke of Norfolk, as they are better fitted for it, and the Queen of Scots +will have greater freedom in the choice of a husband.” + +The questionable attitude of Westmorland and Northumberland caused +Elizabeth to summon them to her presence. They disobeyed and, raising +their standard, marched into Durham in force on the 14th November. +Destroying the communion table in the cathedral, they caused Mass to +be solemnly celebrated; and then pushing rapidly onward towards Ripon, +Wetherby and Tadcaster, they finally assembled on Clifford Moor. The Earl +of Sussex, the Queen’s Lieutenant in York, was for a time reduced to act +on the defensive; and now, if Alba had been prompt and Philip ready, it +is possible that the die might have been cast a winning number; and Mary +Stuart, rescued from Tutbury, whither she had been rapidly carried, might +have been made Queen of a Catholic Britain, under Spanish protection. +When news came to de Spes of the southward march of the lords and their +renewed prayers for aid from Flanders, he wrote to the King: “I have +on several occasions written to your Majesty of the goodwill of these +nobles, and I have given a letter in cipher to the gentleman they are +sending to the Duke of Alba to ask for aid. They beg for prompt reply, +as communications will soon be stopped.... It is certain that there has +never been so good an opportunity either of punishing those who have so +grievously opposed your Majesty’s interests, or of restoring the Catholic +religion, in which consists the maintenance of our old alliance and +friendship with this country.” To Alba de Spes wrote in jubilant strain +on the 1st December. “The rebels,” he said, “were twelve thousand strong +and were marching to release Mary and give battle to the Queen’s forces;” +but he ominously adds that none of their confederates have yet risen. +Ciappino Vitelli was still lingering at Colebrook, near Windsor, on the +pretext of gout, though messages were being sent to him from the Queen +that she considered his continued stay in England highly suspicious, as +indeed it was, considering that he told de Spes, who doubtless conveyed +it to the rebels, that they ought to march straight to London, where +nothing could withstand them, seeing the confusion at Court, whilst their +other friends would have a greater chance of moving. + +And de Spes, the man who, before all others, had led these unfortunate +lords to believe that Spanish aid would not fail them, was obliged, +now that the crisis had come, to assure the Duke of Alba that he would +“do nothing without orders from your Excellency.” The northern lords +could not wait for Philip’s leaden pondering, nor upon Alba’s need, +and, disheartened at the lack of response, they fell into disunion and +wasted the precious time besieging Barnard Castle until the approach of +Sussex with a newly organised army struck them with panic and they fled +to Scotland—Northumberland to be sold basely to the English and to the +scaffold; Westmorland, more unfortunate still, to seek lifelong exile +in Spanish lands—a pathetic, poverty-stricken pensioner upon Philip’s +irregular bounty, striving to earn his poor living by joining in plots +to hand his native country over to the King of Spain. The rebellion +in the North, for a time so threatening, was begun, as we have seen, +without due preparation and conducted without ability to an inglorious +termination.[187] But not a little of the blame for the miserable fiasco +must be laid at the door of de Spes, who for months had been holding out +hopes—as we see now, without authority—that an armed Spanish force from +Flanders would be ready to support the rising. Alas! English Catholics, +even after this first hard lesson, had yet to learn that Philip’s aid was +not so lightly given, or given at all, without ample assurance that he +alone should reap the harvest of success without incurring the penalties +of failure. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +1570-1578 + + Desperation of Alba—Fresh Catholic conspiracies—De Spes’s + complicity—Alba and the Ridolfi plot—Discovery—The + revenge of John Hawkins—De Spes outwitted—His expulsion + from England—Guaras appointed Spanish Agent—Reopening of + trade—Guaras’ intrigues with Mary Stuart and Don Juan of + Austria—The plot discovered—Imprisonment of Guaras—Fall of Don + Juan—Bernardino de Mendoza appointed ambassador in England + + +Alba was driven well nigh to desperation by the contemptuous treatment +extended to Ciappino in England and the evident determination of +Elizabeth to hold her ground with regard to the property she had seized. +Something must be done, and that quickly, he wrote to the King. If they +exclude our ships from English ports, even for shelter, intercourse by +sea between Spain and Flanders must cease, and we shall be absolutely +obliged to commence hostilities. “Your Majesty’s present urgent needs are +better known to you than to any one, and here the pressure is very great. +The past wars, the emigration of the people, the stoppage of trade, and +the general want of confidence here, all convince me that a rupture with +England at present would be most inopportune; but if the English force it +upon us, we cannot avoid it;” and the grim Duke, who had drowned Flanders +in blood, had tamely to propose to his master, as the only way now open +to them, that Elizabeth should be more mildly treated than ever, in the +hope that at least she would allow Spanish ships to shelter in her ports, +whilst the plundered Flemish merchants were allowed to go over to England +unofficially and make the best terms they individually could to rescue +their property. + +Nor was Philip much more stout-hearted than his general. Whilst the +northern nobles were yet in arms in Yorkshire, he wrote to Alba thus: +“English affairs are going on in a way that may make it necessary, after +all, to bring that Queen to do by force what she refuses to reason. Her +duty is so plain that doubtless God causes her to ignore it, in order +that by these means His holy religion may be restored in England and +the Catholics and good Christians rescued from the thraldom in which +they live. In case her obstinacy and hardness of heart should continue, +therefore, you will consider the best direction to be given to our +action. We here think that the best course will be to encourage with +money and secret favour the Catholics of the North, and to help those +in Ireland to take up arms against the heretics, to deliver the crown +to the Queen of Scots to whom it belongs by succession.... This is only +mentioned at present that you may know what is passing in our minds +here [_i.e._, in Spain], and that with your great prudence and a full +consideration of affairs in general, you may ponder what is best to be +done. What you say is very true; we are beginning to lose prestige by +delaying so long to provide a remedy for the great grievance done by this +woman to us.”[188] + +Mary Stuart, closely watched and in prison, alone never lost heart or +courage. Norfolk’s weak poltroonery, the disastrous collapse of the +northern lords, the slow hesitancy of Philip, were all met by her with +confident predictions of coming success, if only the King of Spain would +take her cause in hand. Letter after letter went from her and from the +restless Bishop of Ross in her name to Philip and Alba. “The Queen is +in good heart,” the Bishop of Ross assured de Spes, “and the principal +Catholics of this country have sent me word not to desist from the first +intention, for that, as soon as they learn that they will have foreign +help, and arrangements are made for it to reach them, they will rise and +stand out until this country is Catholic and the succession assured to +Queen Mary.” This was soon after the flight of the northern lords (18th +January, 1570), and at the same time a warm love correspondence was +passing between Mary and Norfolk, she with honeyed words, and at serious +risk to herself, urging him not to abandon the great plan that was to +make them both free and great,[189] though he was still a prisoner in the +Tower. + +Meanwhile the dangerous attempt at a Catholic rebellion in England and +the known confidence of the Queen of Scots had drawn the Protestants +of Europe together: a close union existed between Elizabeth and the +Lutheran Princes of Germany, whilst Hans Casimir and other mercenary +leaders were raising troops subsidised by England and the Huguenots +to renew the religious war in France. The privateers in the Channel +were more aggressive than ever, and Cardinal Chatillon still flaunted +his unecclesiastical equipment at the English Court. Hardly a letter +was written by de Spes at the time (1570) that does not contain some +suggestion for striking at Elizabeth’s power. The Queen of Scots might +be captured by a _coup de main_ and carried off to Spain, as she herself +suggested; the Bishop of Ross assures him that a few Spanish troops +landed in Scotland might easily overturn the new Regent Lennox;[190] a +small force sent to aid the Irish rebels would enable them to expel the +English; “and it looks as if the enterprise might be effected in both +islands at the same time, for in Ireland most of the nation will rise +as soon as they see your Majesty’s flag on the coast, and no resistance +would be made except in Dublin and the fortresses.” + +To all these suggestions of his intemperate ambassador Philip had still +no answer but to enjoin prudence and secrecy. Information, pledges, +assurances without end were requested, whilst Philip pondered and +considered. Everything was referred to the Duke of Alba for decision, and +Alba would not move without specific orders; whilst in this deadlock the +Spanish commerce was swept from the seas and the legendary power of the +Catholic King was made a mock and derision of the heretics. Once Philip’s +hands were nearly forced by the impatience of Mary’s friends. The more +extreme school of English and Scottish Catholics had been urging for +some time that a Papal Bull of Deprivation against Elizabeth should be +obtained, in order that Mary’s immediate claim to the Crown of England +might be regularised. Philip had gently put aside all such requests or +left them unanswered. He was not yet ready for Elizabeth’s forcible +deposition; for, as we have seen, his cumbrous methods forbade prompt +action, and he had no intention of ousting Elizabeth until he had made +himself quite certain that he, and he alone, would be master of England +under her successor. But the action of the Scottish and Guisan Catholics +in Rome, greatly to Philip’s annoyance, procured the Bull from the Pope +over Philip’s head; and de Spes’s chaplain, Father Berga, doubtless with +the full connivance of the ambassador, who was apparently incapable of +understanding high politics, persuaded John Felton to court martyrdom by +fixing the Pope’s Bull on the Bishop of London’s door on Corpus Christi +Day late in May, 1570. De Spes, in the innocence of his heart, wrote +off in jubilant strain to Philip, recording the event and foretelling +all sorts of great consequences from it. But the King had nothing but +condemnation and annoyance that his plans should thus be interfered with +by the meddling of priests, and de Spes had to read some very plain talk +from his master, whilst the share of his fugitive chaplain in the outrage +still further brought the ambassador and his master into the black books +of Elizabeth. + +The bold action of Felton, however, frightened the Government into a +milder attitude towards the moderate English Catholics, and the mustering +of a strong fleet in Spanish Flanders, for the purpose of conveying +to Spain Philip’s fourth wife, Anna of Austria, heightened the alarm. +Elizabeth was so much perturbed that she kept her room for days together, +bewailing the vengeance that she thought at last was about to fall upon +her for all her provocations of her brother-in-law. Cecil (now Lord +Burghley) appears to have been the great object of his mistress’s wrath. +To him, she cried, alone was due the trouble in which she found herself. +Here, thanks to Cecil’s policy, she said, was a great army and fleet +ready to attack her in the Channel, and Philip was causing another force +to be mustered in Spain under the traitor Stukeley to invade Ireland. +But this was only a momentary weakness, which even steadfast Burghley +himself shared to the extremity of preparing for timely flight with +such portable property as he could gather.[191] The unwonted fit of +despair did not last long. English forces were got together rapidly, the +English conservative and moderate Catholics were conciliated, and the +Duke of Norfolk was released from the Tower to only nominal arrest in +his own house; for if the conservative nobles of his party considered +themselves absolved by the Pope’s Bull from their oath of allegiance to +the Queen, then, indeed, might Elizabeth tremble. This was on the 4th +August, and, on the 23rd June previous, the Duke of Norfolk had made +in writing the most abject submission to the Queen, pledging himself +“freely, voluntarily, and absolutely, by my allegiance to your Majesty, +my Sovereign Lady, never to offend your Highness, but do utterly renounce +and revoke all that which on my part any wise hath passed, with a full +intention never to deal in that cause of marriage with the Queen of +Scots, nor in any other cause belonging to her.”[192] Even Mary herself +was now smiled upon by Elizabeth, and negotiations for a reconciliation +were opened with her; for the Spanish fleet was still in English waters, +and a peace between the warring parties had been patched up in France. + +With these numerous signs of yielding on the part of the Protestants, it +is not surprising that the Spanish partisans should pluck up courage. De +Spes, raging with wounded pride at the indignities continually heaped +upon him,[193] all of which, Philip told him, he must bear patiently, +never ceased to plot with the Bishop of Ross and Mary Stuart. On the 2nd +September he wrote to Philip details of another dangerous conspiracy +that had been broached to him by Mary through the Bishop of Ross. The +Catholics, he said, feeling themselves now absolved from their allegiance +to Elizabeth by the Pope’s Bull, were willing to rise. The sons of +the Earl of Derby and the gentry of Lancashire were ready to release +Mary—one of the Earl of Shrewsbury’s sons having also been brought into +the plan, which would make it easy, as Mary was in Shrewsbury’s keeping. +This combination looked askance at Norfolk as a doubtful Catholic and +a backslider, though it was joined by his kinsmen Arundel and Lumley, +as well as by the thoroughgoing Catholics, Southampton, Worcester, and +Montagu (Sir Anthony Browne). The plan now advanced was for a Spanish +fleet to go to the Stanley country, the Isle of Man, or the Lancashire +coast, and carry Mary Stuart thence to safety. The scheme, however, was +thrown away by the kidnapping and forcible abduction to England of Dr. +Story, the English Catholic Agent in Antwerp, who upon the rack had +torn from him all he knew, which was not much, of the communications on +the subject that had passed between Mary Stuart’s friends and the Duke +of Alba. The ostentatious but insincere negotiations going on between +Elizabeth and the Queen of Scots, and the redoubled vigilance of Cecil’s +Government, completed the impracticability of this scheme, and then once +more Norfolk took the lead. + +On the 15th October de Spes wrote to the King that approaches were being +made by the French to marry the young Duke of Anjou to Mary, this, of +course, being one of Catharine’s tricks to frustrate the Spanish attempts +to dominate Britain through the Queen of Scots. “It may be,” says de +Spes, “that the Queen [Mary] will consent, but it will not please the +majority of the English people, and it certainly does not please me. The +Catholics are not very much in favour of the marriage with the Duke of +Norfolk, as they are uncertain about his orthodoxy, although Arundel and +Lumley assert that he will be obedient to the Church. His desire to reign +may well lead him from bad paths to good ones. The Duke [of Norfolk] +himself has been very cool about this marriage, but he now seems to wish +to renew the project, particularly as he expects shortly to be quite at +liberty, in accordance with the Queen’s promise to him. If your Majesty’s +wishes are to be represented ... the Bishop of Ross will be a good +negotiator, and I could conduct the matter with him or with Ridolfi, who +has been in communication with them; and if it should be necessary for +the Duke of Norfolk to bind himself separately to other conditions, steps +may be taken at once in the matter. Pray your Majesty send me orders, for +it is certain that the release and marriage of the Queen of Scots carries +with it the tranquillisation of Flanders and the restoration of religion +in this country.” + +Philip, in answer to this and many similar hints, had nothing but vague +expressions of sympathy to send in reply, with fresh orders to his +ambassador to follow strictly the instructions of the Duke of Alba. For +months, until the Spanish fleet had passed harmlessly down Channel, the +hollow negotiations between Elizabeth and Mary went on, and a similar +pretence of conferences with regard to the reopening of trade with the +Duke of Alba, whilst Elizabeth checkmated the French advances to Mary +Stuart by herself suddenly displaying a desire to marry the boy Duke of +Anjou. “They think,” wrote de Spes early in February, 1571, “that with +this talk about the marriage of the Queen [Elizabeth] with the Duke +of Anjou we shall be afraid to offend them, and the pirates are more +welcomed than ever, whilst the Queen of Scot’s business is being delayed. +It is true that so far as the Catholics are concerned matters were never +more favourable than now. I did not dare to accept their offers, in the +face of the Duke of Alba’s instructions; but whenever his Majesty wishes, +a great service can be done to God, and at the same time the safety of +the Netherlands secured and the throne of Spain aggrandised. The position +of the King’s ambassador here does not add much to his dignity.... I +have suffered more than can be imagined.”[194] De Spes had his personal +grudge as well as his Catholic zeal now to spur him on to vengeance. The +irresponsiveness of his master and of Alba to the repeated suggestions +that armed aid should be sent to the English Catholics suggested for the +first time a viler method by which Elizabeth, the main obstacle to the +Anglo-Spanish alliance, might be removed. The above letter is different +from any that had preceded it, and was written privately, not to the +King, as usual, but to his Secretary, Zayas. A “great service might be +done to God whenever his Majesty wished.” It was no longer dependent, +apparently, upon the ability of Philip to send large armed forces, though +they might be needed later to hold the conquest. + +We will see from other sources what this new feature in the plan was. Two +days after de Spes wrote the above letter, on the 8th February, 1571, +Mary, who had learnt that the ambassador could do nothing, as he says, +but refer the conspirators to the Duke of Alba, wrote as follows to the +Bishop of Ross.[195] After saying that she would, as soon as she was +released, go to Spain and throw herself entirely upon the protection of +Philip, she proceeds: “I would advise to send some faithful man towards +the King of Spain whom he might trust, to make him understand the state +of my realm, and also of the friends I have here, their deliberations +and the means they may have to set themselves to the fields and saist +[_i.e._, obtain possession] them of me, if the said King of Spain will +embrace and sustain my cause and theirs. I think Ridolfi may best acquit +himself of this charge securely ... under colour of his own traffic.” +She continues by saying that Philip’s fears of Norfolk’s orthodoxy must +be banished. “I see no other means but to assure them of the Duke, for +that is the knot of the matter. My whole hope is in the Catholics of this +realm.” When the Bishop of Ross transmitted this proposal to Norfolk the +latter at once acquiesced in the despatch of Ridolfi to Flanders, Spain, +and Rome,[196] for the purpose of demanding aid to seize and depose +Elizabeth; and on the 10th March de Spes wrote to the King, “The Queen +of Scotland, the Duke of Norfolk, and the Catholic leaders have wisely +resolved to send a gentleman to your Majesty, who will see the Duke of +Alba first, but without the knowledge of the French. I have, after much +difficulty, obtained a copy of his instructions, and send them herewith.” + +On the 25th March Ridolfi was ready to start, and de Spes wrote to +Philip: “The Queen of Scots and the Duke of Norfolk, in the names of +many other lords and gentlemen attached to your Majesty’s interests, +and the promotion of the Catholic faith, are sending Rodolfo Ridolfi, +a Florentine gentleman, to offer their services to your Majesty, and +to represent to you that the time is now ripe to take a step of great +benefit to Christendom, as Ridolfi will set forth to your Majesty. The +letter of credence from the Duke [of Norfolk] is written in the cipher +that I sent Zayas, in case the letter is intercepted ...;” whilst to +Secretary Zayas, de Spes wrote at the same time: “The bearer is Rodolfo +Ridolfi, whom the Queen of Scots and the Duke of Norfolk are sending to +his Majesty.... It is necessary that he should have audience of his +Majesty with the utmost secrecy, as you will be able to arrange, on so +important a matter as this.”[197] Almost simultaneously Henry Cobham was +sent to Spain by Elizabeth in order ostensibly to negotiate direct about +the seizures, but really to ascertain how far Philip was helping the +Irish rebels, and de Spes does not conceal his glee that “these thieves +and pirates” will find, “though they send ambassadors and play their old +tricks,” and he (de Spes) “is still mixing his words with honey,” “all +this will not hinder what his Majesty will decide to do.”[198] + +Ridolfi arrived in Brussels at the beginning of April, and his mission +was discussed exhaustively by Alba and his Council. The long report which +Alba thereupon sent to Philip is a State paper of the highest interest, +because it not only sets forth fully the whole position, but for the +first time formulates clearly the plan of murdering Elizabeth as a +political measure. We have traced in previous pages how the provocation +had grown, how the powerlessness of the Spaniards to vindicate their +prestige and their interests had embittered them. In all the previous +suggestions for the substitution of Mary Stuart for Elizabeth on the +English throne, it is true that there could have been little doubt as +to what would have been the fate of the deposed Queen at the hands of +the victors; but in Alba’s minute to Philip the killing of Elizabeth +as a preliminary measure is recommended as a condition of Spanish +support. Alba sets forth with great prolixity the pros and cons of the +position, the saintly character of the objects, the liberation of the +captive Mary, and the restoration of the faith in England. Norfolk, he +says, will undertake to rise and hold his own country for forty days +after liberating the Queen of Scots if Philip will promise before the +expiration of that time to send him 6,000 arquebusiers. He has means, he +says, to seize the Tower of London and secure the person of Elizabeth, +and he and Mary will look alone to the King of Spain for guidance. Alba, +as usual, is full of doubts, limitations, and misgivings. Suppose after +the Spanish aid had been sent the enterprise were to fail! Not only +would the Queen of Scots and Norfolk lose their heads, but the Catholic +religion would be utterly crushed thenceforward in England, and Elizabeth +would throw herself entirely into the hands of France. Ridolfi, too, +seemed to Alba rather a talkative person for such a mission. He had to +pass through France: what if he opened his mouth too wide there, or in +Rome? Besides, the Pope himself was rather too fond of consulting French +Cardinals.... + +[Illustration: FERNANDO ALVAREZ DE TOLEDO, THIRD DUKE OF ALBA] + +And so on, and so forth, until at last Alba gives to Philip his final +recommendation. Ridolfi was to be warned that the French must have +nothing whatever to do with the affair, and he was to be sent on his +way to Rome and Madrid. The King is recommended to embark the 6,000 +men required for England in the fleet being prepared in Spain to bring +out the new Governor of Flanders, Medina Celi; but that on no account +should the aid be sent to England on the conditions proposed by Norfolk +and Mary, for fear of failure. “But in case that the Queen of England +should first have died, _either of natural death or otherwise_, or the +confederates had seized and secured her person without your Majesty +having had anything to do with it, then I should find no objection +whatever to it, for the affair would be quite on another footing.” +“Everything,” added Alba, “should be prepared secretly in Flanders, +but no move should be made until Elizabeth was dead, _naturally or +otherwise_. As soon as _that_ happened your Majesty ought not to miss +such a fine opportunity to attain the end desired—the restoration of our +holy Catholic faith and the future tranquillity of your dominions.”[199] + +Whilst Ridolfi, duly warned to be secret, went on his way to Rome, where +the Pope heartily blessed his mission, and thence to Madrid, where +he arrived in the last days of June, evil fell upon the project in +England. The Flemish Secretary of the Bishop of Ross, Charles Bailly, +had accompanied Ridolfi to Flanders, in order to bring back news of the +reception of Norfolk’s proposals by Alba. The latter had, of course, +not gone beyond general approval in his intercourse with Ridolfi, the +murder condition being reserved for Philip’s own consideration; but he +had said enough to prove conclusively that he regarded with sympathy, +and hoped to aid, a project intended to depose Elizabeth in favour of +Mary and Norfolk. Bailly wrote letters in cipher at Ridolfi’s dictation, +giving Alba’s provisional answers to the Bishop of Ross and two other +correspondents identified by numbers only. Bailly, who had been closely +watched by Cecil’s spies in Flanders, carried the letters to England +himself, and on the 15th April de Spes reports to the King that this man +had been stopped at Dover and his packets taken from him. The letters +he bore were in cipher, which of itself was suspicious; but in addition +to this, every movement of Ridolfi in Brussels was known to Elizabeth’s +Government, and the Secretary’s coming had been looked for. The packet of +letters was given into the custody of Lord Cobham, the Governor of Dover +Castle, until the Council in London should send instructions, whilst the +unhappy youth, Bailly, was sent to the Marshalsea in Southwark pending +inquiries. + +The Cobhams belonged to the party of conservative nobles, ready to turn +against Elizabeth the moment she was in danger, and by a trick of one of +the younger brothers, Thomas—they were notoriously a turbulent lot—the +precious packet of letters was spirited away to the Spanish ambassador in +London and a dummy packet substituted for it. When this was opened with +great anticipation before the Queen’s Council in London, to their dismay +they found nothing but a confused jumble written in the same cipher. But +they were not to be baulked. At least they had Charles Bailly safe under +lock and bars, and the rack might induce him to talk. He began by making +a grave mistake, writing letters—of course intercepted—to the Bishop +of Ross that, now that the real letters had reached their destination +without being deciphered, they had nothing to fear; that though they +tore him to pieces on the rack he would confess nothing; and he begged +the Bishop to tell him what answers he should give to his examiners. +The Bishop, claiming ecclesiastical and diplomatic immunity, was just +as imprudent as his secretary, urging him to stand firm and defy the +English and gain the lasting gratitude of Mary. The poor wretch knew +little of the details of Ridolfi’s mission, but he had written the cipher +letters he bore; and gradually the agony of torture wrung from him all +he knew.[200] Every day he sent fresh appealing letters to the Bishop of +Ross, with the only result at length of lodging the Bishop himself in the +Tower, threatened with the rack, notwithstanding his mitre and diplomatic +position. Bailly deposed that Alba had received Ridolfi favourably, and +had sent him on to Rome and Madrid to demand armed help in England for +the two persons whose identity had been concealed by numbers. + +For some time the authorities could get no further than this. Of course +they knew that the two persons unnamed were Mary and Norfolk, but they +needed legal proof, and gradually Cecil’s net was widened and swept into +gaol one after the other of the confidants and tools of the plotters. +In August a false follower of Norfolk brought to the Council a bag of +£600 with a cipher letter that had been entrusted to him by Norfolk’s +secretary to forward to Lord Herries, the leader of Mary’s Catholic +friends in Scotland. Curiously enough this sum of money had been received +from the French ambassador, so it is clear that Mary and Norfolk were +playing false and doing what Alba dreaded most, namely, bringing the +French into the business. But this fact made matters no better from +the point of view of the English Council, and suddenly the Duke of +Norfolk, the first noble in England, found himself in prison with all +his confidential servants. The torture did its fell work promptly, and +the secrets of the underlings were drawn from them, implicating the Duke +beyond redemption. The Bishop of Ross, seeing his most secret papers +deciphered, became almost loquacious in his fright, and went out of his +way to vituperate his unhappy mistress. + +Norfolk collapsed as abjectly as before. He had hoped at first, he said, +to wed Mary by Elizabeth’s permission. He was sorry and repentant for +having acted so falsely after he had promised not to do so, and would +never do it again. He had not really been a Catholic, he said, and now +submitted himself entirely to her Majesty’s mercy. He had never, he +solemnly avowed, intended to bring foreign troops into England, or to +touch the sacred person of his revered sovereign. It was all the fault +of the Bishop of Ross, of Mary, of anybody but himself, ... and so, with +such sorry lies as this, the most beloved and highest noble in England +whined for mercy and his bare life. Elizabeth was loath to sacrifice him, +for he was her cousin and the head of a powerful group of Englishmen, but +at length the Protestant influences around her were too strong for her to +resist, and Norfolk’s head fell on Tower Hill on the 2nd June, 1572. + +Before this happened, Philip’s Council in Madrid had exhaustively +discussed Alba’s recommendation that the murder of Elizabeth should +precede the sending of Spanish forces to England. They not only approved +fully of it, but laid down that the act should be committed, not in +London, but whilst the Queen was on a progress. Much sanctimonious talk +there was in the Council about the sacredness of the cause excusing the +means, and even the Pope’s Nuncio smiled upon the nefarious plan and +called it righteous. As for Philip himself, he was perfectly willing, +and said that the whole thing now turned upon the ability to get the +money together for the purpose, “and it would be a great pity to miss so +important a matter or so small an amount, as later it would cost so much +more.”[201] It is probably true, as was urged for them, that neither Mary +nor Norfolk consented in so many words to this openly avowed condition of +the Spaniards to make the prior murder of Elizabeth a condition of armed +aid being sent from Flanders. The proposal was certainly not contained +in the instructions carried by Ridolfi from Norfolk, though it is, in +my opinion, indicated in the letter from de Spes to Zayas of 25th March +quoted on an earlier page. It is first put clearly in black and white by +Alba himself, and warmly adopted by Philip and his Council. But though +Mary and Norfolk were not therefore necessarily parties to the proposed +crime, there can be no doubt in the mind of any reasonable person what +would have befallen Elizabeth if success had attended the attempt, and +Norfolk had carried out the pledge he gave to Alba to seize the Tower of +London and secure the person of the Queen. + +We have here, however, not to deal with the culpability of the English +actors so much as with that of the Catholic King, so full of saintly +professions and so devoutly pious himself, who in his helplessness +and desperation was willing at last, in order to extricate himself +from a political impasse, to consent to treason and murder as a means +to righteousness. In the letter Philip wrote to de Spes (4th August, +1571)—in ignorance, of course, of the collapse of the plot—he conveys +his intention to patronise the murder of Elizabeth in the following +characteristic words: “After carrying the whole question before +Almighty God, whose cause it is, and in whom we trust for the guidance +and direction of the affair better than human prudence can effect or +understand, since the object is entirely, purely, and simply directed +to His glory and service and the exaltation of His holy faith, I have +resolved to adopt the course which you will learn from the Duke of Alba, +to whom I write about it at great length. In conformity therewith and +the orders he will give to you, you will act in the business with the +discretion, dexterity, suavity and prudence which we expect of you, +keeping in close communication with the Duke (of Alba) and carrying out +his orders explicitly.”[202] + +As the damning facts were gradually wrung out of the miserable +accomplices in the plot, during the summer and autumn of 1571 the +position of de Spes became daily more impossible in England. His name +was constantly cropping up in the depositions, and every deponent had +some evidence to give of his activity in forwarding this conspiracy +to overturn the Government to which he was accredited. Even then, +semi-prisoner as he was, and himself in danger of punishment or +ignominious expulsion, he never ceased to plot; and his eagerness made +him and his master an easy prey to an amusing piece of successful +mystification that any person less blinded by hate than he would have +seen through at once. It will be recollected that John Hawkins’s trading +expedition to Central America had been treacherously attacked by a +superior Spanish force at St. Juan de Lua, Mexico, in October, 1568, +Hawkins with difficulty escaping with only two tiny ships. Property of +great value and over a hundred men had been captured by the Spaniards +and sent to Seville, the unfortunate sailors being delivered to the +Inquisition and condemned to slavery. John Hawkins was the last man in +the world to reconcile himself tamely to such a loss; and through a +Catholic friend of his, George Fitzwilliam, a kinsman of the Duchess of +Feria, he opened negotiations in Spain for the release of his sailors and +the return of his property, on condition that he deserted the English +service with the Queen’s fleet of fourteen armed ships, and joined that +of the King of Spain for the invasion of England in favour of Mary Stuart. + +Poor Mary, as usual, was easily hoodwinked, as indeed was Fitzwilliam +himself at first, and the Ferias eagerly listened to the suggestion of +apostasy of such a man as John Hawkins. Fitzwilliam returned to London +from Spain with an encouraging answer and tokens for the Queen of Scots, +in order that she might be asked to assure the Ferias and Philip of the +genuineness of Hawkins’s offer. Cecil, who was behind Hawkins in the +whole negotiation and enjoyed the position almost as much as the great +sailor, smoothed over the difficulties of access to Mary, who, only +too ready to believe in the honesty of others, sent him back to Spain +with all sorts of assurances, letters for Philip and the Ferias, and a +beautiful missal bound in gold for the Duchess of Feria, wherein she +had written “_Absit nobis gloriari nisi in cruce Domini nostri Jesu +Christi.—Marie R._” When Fitzwilliam came to him, de Spes was easily +drawn into the plan, and became enthusiastically certain of the _bonâ +fides_ of Hawkins. The more he sees of him, he says, the more convinced +he is of his honesty. He is a Catholic, and very ambitious; and only +once, and then but for a moment, did the gullible ambassador somewhat +distrust Cecil’s complaisancy in allowing Fitzwilliam easy access to Mary +Stuart, and to run backwards and forwards unimpeded between England and +the coast of Spain. + +Fitzwilliam again returned early in September to England entirely +successful in his mission, and Hawkins wrote full of glee to Lord +Burghley. The King and the Duke of Feria had jumped at Hawkins’s offer, +his sailors had all been released and embarked for England, and the +agreement between Hawkins and the Spaniards with orders for a great +sum of money to be paid to Hawkins had been sent to de Spes, who was +to forward the enterprise with all diligence. “The design is,” wrote +Hawkins, “that my power should join with the Duke of Alba’s power, which +he doth secretly provide in Flanders, as well as with the power which +cometh with the Duke of Medina from Spain, and so all together to invade +this realm and set up the Queen of Scots. They have practised with us for +the burning of Her Majesty’s ships; therefore there should be some good +care had of them; but not so as to appear that anything is discovered.... +The King hath sent a ruby of good price to the Queen of Scots, with +letters also, which in my judgment were good to be delivered. The letters +be of no importance, but his message by word is to comfort her and say +that he hath now none other care than to place her in her own. It were +good, also, that the ambassador (de Spes) did make request unto your +Lordship that Fitzwilliam may have access to the Queen of Scots to render +thanks to her for the delivery of our prisoners [_i.e._, in Spain] now at +liberty. It will be a good colour for your Lordship to confer with him +more largely. I have sent your Lordship a copy of my _pardon_ from the +King of Spain, in the very order and manner I have it. The Duke of Medina +and the Duke of Alba hath, each, one of the same _pardons_ more amplified +to present to me; although this be large enough! with very great titles +and honours from the King: from which God deliver me!... Their practices +be very mischievous, and they be never idle. But God I hope will confound +them and turn their devices upon their own necks.”[203] + +There was no limit to the credulity of de Spes. The great sum of money +passed from him to Hawkins, but though the fourteen ships that the latter +had promised to the King of Spain came not, for the discovery of the +Ridolfi treason upset for the time the whole plan of murder and invasion, +the ambassador never lost faith in Hawkins and Fitzwilliam. Norfolk was +condemned to death, Mary Stuart, herself in closer confinement than ever, +was in dire danger of the block, de Spes threatened and insulted hourly, +and his henchman, Luis de Paz, haled to prison, and Antonio de Guaras, +his close friend, not daring to leave his house for many months together, +and yet de Spes firmly believed that John Hawkins, an Englishman if +ever there was one, was only waiting the signal from the King of Spain +to desert with the English fleet and join his country’s enemies. At +length, on the 14th December, Elizabeth determined she would have no more +of de Spes. His complicity in the Ridolfi plot had been made absolutely +clear; his pernicious activity had been watched for three years, and +every effort had been made to drive him out of England without avail. +So, on the 14th December, 1571, the Lords of the Council summoned him to +Westminster. Lord Burghley spoke and told him that repeated requests had +been made to the King of Spain to withdraw him, and now the Queen wished +to know when he was going, as she did not want him in England. De Spes +replied defiantly that he knew nothing about her wants. When he received +proper instructions from his own Sovereign to go he would go, and not +before. + +A long statement of all his misdeeds in England was then read to him in +Spanish, to which he replied that much of it was false, and he desired +to send an answer to it. “Oh no!” quoth Cecil, “your King would have no +reply from Dr. Man, and our Queen will have none from you.” Then, after +a few more heated words, the ambassador was told roughly that he would +have to leave England in three days, and in the meanwhile he would be +in charge of Henry Knollys. Could he send a courier to his King? he +asked. No; that would take too long, he was told. To the Duke of Alba, +then? Certainly not; they cared nothing for the Duke of Alba, replied +Burghley. “It was impossible to leave,” objected de Spes, “until I send +and get money from Antwerp to pay my debts.” “We will lend you the money +you need,” replied Cecil; and at last de Spes had to make the best of +it. Lagging on the road as long as he could upon all sorts of pretexts, +his servants imprisoned and he himself threatened and insulted at every +step, the ambassador of Spain was at last hustled out of England, fuming +with rage and full of hare-brained projects by which, with the help of +Hawkins, the King of Spain might be avenged on the heretic Queen and +become the master of England. + +The Huguenots were now in unrestrained power in France, and Elizabeth, +as usual when she was in fear of Spain, was carrying on a desperate +flirtation with the Duke of Anjou, and surpassing herself in her +blandishment to Catharine de Medici. Simultaneously with the expulsion +of de Spes from England, the Spanish ambassador in Paris, Don Francés +de Alava, found France similarly uncongenial to him; for he had been +plotting against the Huguenots as de Spes had plotted against the +Protestants, and had fled in disguise to Flanders, so that Philip +found himself alienated both from England and France at the same time, +a position that always made him uneasy, especially now that not only +a marriage but a national alliance was in full negotiation between +Elizabeth and Catharine.[204] For the next six months the farcical +political courtship of the young Duke of Alençon, the boy brother of +Anjou and the King of France, was carried on furiously by the middle-aged +Queen of England as an antidote for the unappeasable anger of Spain. But +with her usual diplomacy, now that she had worked her will in everything, +Elizabeth thought best not to drive Philip into violent courses against +her. She had seized his million ducats and all the property of his +subjects in England, she had unmasked all his plots, had expelled his +ambassador, flouted his great viceroy Alba, her subjects had harried +Spanish ships on every sea, and helped unchecked the Dutch rebels who +defied him; but she did not wish to go to war with him if she could help +it, especially if she could gain all she wanted without doing so. + +When the Spanish ambassador in Paris was about to escape, Walsingham, the +English ambassador, had gone and congratulated him upon the great naval +victory over the Turks in the Mediterranean that King Philip’s brother, +Don Juan, had just gained at Lepanto; and then, after asking many curious +questions about Don Juan, Walsingham had said to Don Francés, as if in +joke, “This sounds like a marriage, does it not?” The Spaniard retorted +in the same tone, “Yes; let you and I manage it together.” With this +opening Walsingham became serious, and enlarged upon Elizabeth’s personal +obligations and liking for her Spanish brother-in-law, and the turpitude +of certain ministers in sowing discord between them. If it were not for +the obstacle of religion, he continued, the marriage hinted at might take +place. It was, of course, mere talk, and was intended to be no more; but +Walsingham spoke with a purpose, and knew that his mistress thought it +time to repair some of the broken ties that held her country to Spain. + +More marked and authoritative approaches were made simultaneously in +England itself. The man who had been instructed by Alba to keep an eye +on Spanish affairs unofficially when de Spes left England was Antonio de +Guaras, an Aragonese merchant living on Dowgate Hill, Thames Street. He +had been established in London for many years as a prosperous importer +of Spanish produce, and had a perfect craze for writing descriptions of +public events and taking part in public affairs; a zealous busybody, +whose flamboyant patriotism and Catholicism had made him the friend and +companion of successive Spanish ambassadors, especially of de Spes. In +the anti-Catholic excitement in May, 1569, his house had been raided by +the officers of the law deputed to destroy superstitious images, and a +considerable stock of church ornaments of this description seized. One +half of the stock was piled into a heap before Guaras’ door and burnt, +the other half being similarly treated by the Standard in Cheapside; +whilst the people, who only a dozen years before, under Mary, had been so +devoutly Catholic, cried in derision that they were burning the Spanish +gods.[205] Since that time, as Guaras had been the principal importer of +such wares from Spain, he had shown himself as little as possible in the +streets to avoid unpleasantness, though of course he, like so many other +Spaniards interested, had tried his hand again and again to make some +private arrangement for the ransom of the Spanish commercial property +seized by the English. + +The Flemish noble Zweveghem, and the Genoese merchant Fiesco, who had +both been negotiating in London about the seizures, were packed off at +the same time as de Spes, for Elizabeth and Cecil were bent upon making +the demonstration as political and public as possible; but though it did +not suit the economical Queen to disgorge what she had taken, she had +no wish to drive Philip to extremities, and the stoppage of the great +English cloth trade with Flanders and of the importation of Spanish +produce into England was causing serious distress in the country. So, +having thoroughly humbled the Spaniards, whose hands were fuller than +ever now with the capture of Brille by the Beggars and the rising of all +Zeeland, supported by ample English aid, Elizabeth thought that the time +had come for her to unbend a little to her sorely pressed brother-in-law. +Walsingham’s half joking colloquy with Alava in Paris, in January, 1572, +had been a straw cast into the air; the warning of the Dutch privateer +fleet out of Dover, though ostensibly to satisfy the remonstrances of the +Hamburg merchants, was another; and in March Guaras, a mere merchant, +hitherto so unpopular, suddenly found himself made much of by emissaries +from the Court. Friends of Cecil told him that the Queen was only too +willing to come to an amicable arrangement about trade, and any person +who brought it about would be doing a great service to God and to both +countries. What a pity it was that there was no person accredited in +London who could undertake it! Would Guaras convey these expressions to +Alba? If so, the interlocutor would approach Lord Burghley. + +After many hints of this sort Burghley himself sent for Guaras, and told +him that they were anxious to settle matters. “He spoke of your Majesty’s +person with due reverence, confessing to me that they had always hitherto +feared and suspected greatly that the Duke of Alba, being a declared +enemy, might oppose a settlement, but they had lately been informed that +the evil did not arise with him entirely, but from certain persons in +your Majesty’s Court, mentioning the late Duke of Feria, who, he said, +though ostensibly a good friend of the Queen, was in matters of State +her enemy.” Guaras, who loved to play the statesman, boasted somewhat +of his master’s greatness and of the benefit his friendship would bring +to England, but, of course, in diplomacy he was no match for Cecil, +who firmly put him into his place. Thenceforward for weeks the game +of advance and retire on the part of Cecil went on. Sometimes Guaras +would go home to Thames Street in the seventh heaven of delight, with +the idea that he was settling great national affairs where professional +diplomatists had failed; at other times he would stand for hours in +Cecil’s anterooms of Whitehall, only to be passed by silently with a cold +nod when the Minister came out. + +When at last it was agreed (8th April) that Zweveghem, the Flemish +Councillor, should come again to England and settle matters, Guaras, +much pleased at his success, entered his barge from Whitehall stairs to +return home with the friend who served as his intermediary with Lord +Burghley. As the boat pushed off into the stream, he says, “I saw the +Queen approaching the landing-place of the Palace in her barge, in which, +the day being fine, she had been taking the air in company with my Lord +of Leicester and many other gentlemen, and followed by a large number of +boats filled with people who wished to see her Majesty. We, being amongst +the press of people, stayed our boat to look upon her, and when I made my +bow like the rest, the Queen, as usual, saluted the people, and noticing +me, either because she recognised me or because I was a foreigner or some +one told her my name, to the surprise of every one, I being such a humble +person, she, calling out to me in Italian, my boat being somewhat distant +from hers out of respect to her, asked me very gaily and graciously if +I was coming from the Court and had seen Lord Burghley I knelt, as was +my duty, and replied, ‘Yes, Madam, at your Majesty’s service.’ As the +boats approached the landing-place her Majesty’s barge was delayed a +moment, when she smilingly seemed to desire to say something more to me, +whereupon I endeavoured to bring my boat alongside the Queen’s barge, and +she turned towards me and asked, ‘When were you with Lord Burghley?’ to +which I replied, ‘Madam, I have just left him,’ whereupon she waved her +hand several times, apparently with great pleasure, and said, ‘That is +all right,’ and her barge then proceeded, she bidding me farewell with so +many signs of pleasure and favour that people noticed it much, and I was +more surprised than any one to receive these favours from the Queen, to +whom I have never rendered any service.”[206] + +Elizabeth had no intention, however, of allowing the Spaniards, and +particularly Alba, to assume any airs of superiority on the strength of +her willingness to negotiate about trade. When Zweveghem saw her a few +days afterwards, sent by Alba to discuss terms, she thought that his +tone was too haughty, and that he seemed to assume that she was pleading +for an arrangement. Guaras, of course, had to bear the blame. It was +at once said that he had misrepresented matters to Alba, and there was +nothing but black looks for him. “Tell Guaras,” said Burghley, “that if +he wants to come and see me let him come, or stay away, as he likes.... +If the Duke of Alba, through Guaras, pretends to be willing for peace and +concord, whilst on the other hand through Zweveghem he treats the matter +in a different spirit, it is clear that, however good our intentions may +be, theirs are not equally so.” Alba was in no melting mood now, for +English men and arms were being poured into Zeeland, and the Huguenots +also were helping the Netherlanders against him. The Dutch privateers +were still sheltered in English ports, whilst Constable Montmorenci, and +one of the most splendid embassies that ever represented France, was in +England for the ratification of the offensive and defensive alliance of +the two countries that had been signed at Blois on the 12th April. By it +the Spanish Netherlands were to be partitioned, the ancient rivals were +never to quarrel again, the Huguenot Navarre was to marry the King of +France’s sister. Elizabeth might, perhaps, marry young Alençon, but in +any case she and Catharine, with the Huguenots, were bound together for +ever to resist the arrogance of Spain. All this was gall and wormwood +to Alba, and, busy as he was with his bloody work, it is no wonder +that he was now in no hurry to respond to the English approaches for a +settlement, and Guaras for a time found himself cold-shouldered. + +The affection between the French and English, however, was too pronounced +to last very long. The offensive and defensive alliance against Spain +had given to the Huguenots more power than quite suited Catharine, and +the Colignys and their friends of the “religion” were speaking too +boldly to please her. The Emperor (whose daughter the young King Charles +IX. had married), the Pope, and the Doge of Venice sent to remonstrate +with the Most Christian King for thus joining rebels and heretics +against good Catholics, whilst the Gondis, Biragos, and Guises were +whispering to Catharine that she was provoking Philip too far. So, as +the summer of 1572 wore on, the messages sent from France to England +grew cooler, and Charles IX. began to cry off the bargain for the joint +action with Elizabeth in the Spanish Netherlands. But still Catharine +pushed industriously the love-making of her favourite boy Alençon with +Elizabeth, in order that England and the Huguenots might not be driven +into open opposition to her. A pretty lad named La Mole, one of the +_mignons_, was sent to England in July, ostensibly to do the vicarious +love-making for Alençon, but really to discourage the idea of any act of +overt hostility on the part of France in the Spanish States,[207] and +thus practically to withdraw from the much-lauded treaty of alliance, of +which the ink was hardly dry. + +La Mole performed the philandering part of his mission entirely to +Elizabeth’s satisfaction. She was on her progress to Kenilworth, and +carried the young French gallant along with her from place to place, +exerting all her mature witcheries upon him, but keenly alive and not a +little apprehensive at the way in which she had been thrown over with +regard to the alliance. The danger to her was great, for she had been +drawn into a position of open hostility to the Spaniards in Flanders on +the strength of the alliance with France, and now found herself alone. +So she told everybody, and most people believed her this time, that she +meant to marry the French prince without fail, and when she bade goodbye +to La Mole at Kenilworth, he went on his homeward way loaded with sweet +messages for the Prince and rich presents for himself. + +He arrived in London on the 27th August on his way to France; and on the +same day there landed at Rye two couriers from Paris, one with letters +from Walsingham to the Queen, the other with official despatches to +the French ambassador. The latter were seized by the port authorities +and sent in haste to the Queen at Kenilworth; but secret though they +were kept, ill tidings fly fast, and soon there sped through England, +none knew how or whence, the dread news that the Papists had banded +together to slaughter Protestants throughout the world. On the fated day +of Navarre’s wedding in Paris—the day of Saint Bartholomew—the storm +had burst. Hounded on by the King himself and by his mother, slaughter +unchecked had swept across the capital. The noble Coligny had fallen +first, and then every citizen but those who wore the badge of Guise was +hounded to his death. Through France the tale of horror ran, across the +Channel to Protestant England fled thousands of Huguenots, dreading +the general massacre that portended; and when Elizabeth suspended her +pastime at Kenilworth to read the despatch that brought the news, her +brow clouded and her heart sank; for it seemed now that, at last, all her +clever tricks had failed and catastrophe loomed over her and England. For +the league of Bayonne had produced its baleful fruit at last.[208] The +alliance and friendship just so ostentatiously concluded with France was +but a fraud and a blind, the marriage talk with Alençon was all a lie: +Catharine and her son, after all, had made common cause with Philip and +the Guises, and England stood alone opposed to united Catholicism pledged +to wholesale massacre. + +In a day the orgy of St. Bartholomew had changed the political aspect. +The French, lately so caressed in England, were now regarded as monsters +of falsity. Elizabeth, in deep mourning, after long delay received the +French ambassador coldly, and contemptuously listened to his palliations +and explanations; for she knew that the Guises were now paramount in +France, and from them she had nothing but enmity to expect. But dismay +was not allowed to dominate the counsels of Elizabeth for very long. +When such a combination as this existed between the ancient enemies +Spain and France, England’s safety depended upon sowing discord between +them. This was never very difficult, for their interests nationally were +always antagonistic, and their antipathies were stronger than their +affinities.[209] At the first flush of the news Philip and the Spaniards +were overjoyed that so many heretics should be butchered, and Guaras from +London, writing to the Duke of Alba on the 30th August says: “God grant +that it may be true, and that these rebel heretics may have met with this +bad end”; and the national consequences were not lost upon him, even thus +early, for though he was but a meddling merchant, he had far clearer +ideas of policy than had de Spes. “Since the news came we hear no more of +English soldiers going over to Flanders. This last affair, indeed, will +give them something else to think about. If the news from Paris be true, +the league between these people [_i.e._, the English] and the French will +probably come to nothing, as the people are already murmuring that they +cannot trust Frenchmen.” + +Elizabeth, indeed, had been badly betrayed by the French. She had been +drawn into hostility to Philip in Flanders, and had been left in the +lurch. To her alone now could the Prince of Orange look for help, since +the French had deserted him; and though she had no intention of allowing +the Dutch Protestants to be crushed by Alba, Elizabeth saw that in future +all she did to help them must be done without an open national rupture +between England and Spain. Immediately, therefore, her tone changed. +Not only were the Dutch rebels ostentatiously disavowed by her, but the +somewhat bewildered Guaras found himself once more a _persona grata_ +at Court.[210] Early in October the Duke of Alba sent him his cool and +tardy reply with regard to the proposed negotiations for reopening trade. +When Guaras appeared at Windsor with the despatch he found Burghley all +smiles. “On that very day, he said, and on many other previous occasions +the Queen had said to him she wondered why Guaras did not come to Court +with the reply. They were much surprised to have received no answer to +the offer made by the Queen to withdraw the Englishmen from Flanders, +who, he said, only went there to resist the Frenchmen, who might try +to gain a footing.... When I told him I had a letter for the Queen he +seemed greatly delighted and asked me to show it to him. When he read +the superscripture he said, ‘Although it comes tardily and the Queen is +unwell, I will take it to her at once, because I know how pleased she +will be to know that you have come with the message.’”[211] + +Thenceforward for a time no one was more welcome at Court than Guaras. A +fortnight after the above letter was written the French ambassador, La +Mothe, remarked: “Guaras ... the Spaniard, is much better attended to +and more favourably received at this Court than he used to be. He has +great hopes of getting them to withdraw all the English from Flushing +and Flanders, as well as of arranging the disputes about commercial +intercourse.”[212] All was not plain sailing yet, for Alba was hard +and Elizabeth stood out firmly for religious toleration for Englishmen +in Spain, which claim from the first was scouted as preposterous by +the Spaniards, and in the end was almost the only point upon which the +English had to give way. But the constant more or less covert aid in +men and money sent from England to support Orange, and the fear that +if driven too far Elizabeth might at last yield to the arguments and +persuasions of the Dutch that she would assume the protection of Holland +and Zeeland, brought down even Alba’s pride; and early in the spring of +1573 trade was reopened, on terms greatly in favour of Elizabeth, since +her subjects again obtained an open market for their cloths, whilst she +kept practically the greater part of the property she had seized. + +Gradually Guaras, though in somewhat more humble fashion than de Spes, +immersed himself in intrigues on behalf of Spain, many of them doubtless +proposed to him in good faith, but others, as we know now, mere traps set +for him by Lord Burghley’s contrivance, into which he easily fell to his +own ultimate undoing. Several English captains were in close negotiation +with him for months for the betrayal to the Spaniards of Flushing, +Caunfer, and other strong places, for the murder of the Prince of Orange, +and other schemes. But it is evident that these advances through him +were received with doubt and caution by Philip and Alba, who probably +doubted his discretion, for when a group of English captains had to be +finally negotiated with for the capture of Flushing a special envoy, a +merchant seaman named Zubiaur, was sent to England for the purpose with +strict orders that Guaras should know nothing whatever of it; and even +whilst Guaras was acting as _chargé d’affaires_ of Spain a Portuguese spy +(Fogaza) in Spanish pay reported all his movements to the authorities at +Madrid. + +By the end of 1573 it was patent to all the world that Alba’s reign +of blood had failed. The stern old chief had been beaten indeed by +Elizabeth’s seizure of the treasure, and he never recovered from the +blow. Forced to raise money somehow, for Philip was bankrupt both in +credit and in means, Alba imposed upon rich Flanders and Brabant the +“tenth penny” that had ruined Castile. Then all the Netherlanders rose. +It was no longer a question of local government or even of faith, but of +moneybags; and Catholic and Protestant alike rebelled against spoliation +and the destruction of Flemish prosperity. Indignant remonstrances +went to Philip, and the Spanish Council even angrily condemned Alba’s +measure. “Neither the heads smitten off nor the privileges abolished have +aroused so much resistance as this,” wrote Alba: but he needed money for +the King’s service, and money he must have. Thus he found himself face +to face, not with a faction in revolt, but with an outraged and united +nation, and through 1572 the grim old Duke stuck to his guns. First he +crushed the south, sweeping the Huguenot auxiliaries aside and submitting +all those who raised the slightest protest to ruthless slaughter. + +Brabant and Flanders, bloodless, could fight against him no more, +but Holland and Zeeland were made of sterner stuff. Money and men in +abundance came to them from England, and all the silver ducats scattered +by Guaras and all Elizabeth’s protestations of friendship for her dear +brother in Spain could not stop them; until at last Philip grew angry +and impatient at the useless slaughter, and Alba, heartbroken, went +into disgrace, whilst a viceroy of widely different type came with the +olive-branch in hand to win back at least Catholic Brabant and Flanders +to Philip’s rule again by almost any concessions. There was, indeed, no +other way for Philip now, for he had come to the end of his resources, +and his troubles were not confined to the Protestant Netherlands. + +His brilliant young brother, Don Juan of Austria, in command of the +combined Christian fleet, had sailed from Messina in September, 1571, and +had broken the Moslem power in the Mediterranean that had for so long +been a thorn in the side of Spain. All Catholic Christendom lost its +head over Don Juan: his enthusiasm, his gallantry, his personal beauty +made him in the eyes of his contemporaries a very paladin of the Cross. +Philip, religious though he might be, was cold and reticent, appealing +little to the imagination of men. But this young Prince, his brother, +splendid beyond words and with some of the military ability of his father +the Emperor, might be the man destined by God for the final victory of +the Cross over all its enemies. Don Juan not only carried away others, +but was carried away himself. To follow up his victory by the conquest of +Constantinople and the Holy Land, and to become a new Constantine, seemed +to him and to the Catholics, who idolised him, an easily realisable +vision. If not that, then why not Christianise Africa, re-establish the +empire of Carthage with Don Juan as its sovereign? + +But all this meant vast sums of money, and to such suggestions Philip +turned an irresponsive ear. Clamour as Don Juan and his friends might, +no assistance could be got from Spain for his wild schemes; for King +Philip had other things to do than conquer vast new empires for his base +brother, whilst his own Netherlands were slipping from his grasp and +Elizabeth of England openly defied him. Then Don Juan, disobeying orders, +seized and fortified Tunis on his own account. All appeals for support to +Philip were sternly refused, and within a year the city was recaptured by +the Turk and the eight thousand Spaniards in it slaughtered. Don Juan in +despair remained in Italy, full still of high dreams if heroic conquest +for the faith. He was surrounded, as before, by advisers as flighty and +hot-headed as himself; and it occurred to some of them if he was not to +be allowed to become a Christian Emperor of the East, there was in the +West another empire in the hands of heretics, still awaiting its champion +who should restore it to the Church. + +Guaras wrote to Philip’s Secretary, Zayas, as early as November, 1574, +saying, “The Queen of Scotland founds all her hopes upon his Majesty +after God, and by a letter she has written to an influential friend, who +read it to me, it is certain that there is nothing she desires more than +to accept the proposition about Don Juan of Austria,[213] she having been +persuaded by this person and others that it would benefit Christendom +greatly. If it be his Majesty’s wish that this matter should be +considered, and communications have to be carried on with the Queen about +it, this cipher can be utilised for the purpose, it being so obscure and +without an alphabet that no one can decipher it.... If this happy event +could be brought about, she would be a saintly, chaste, and Catholic +Princess, the greatest lady on earth, for England, Scotland, and Ireland +are indeed a vast empire.... If his Majesty will graciously allow a +letter for her contentment in this business to be written, an opportunity +might occur for her rescue. If consent is given on our part this project +would undoubtedly be executed. She writes herself about it to the person +I have mentioned, and desires above all things that her son should marry +the elder Infanta, for which purpose she will consent that the man who +holds him should carry him to Spain.” + +Philip had heard stories similar to this before, and was not ready +yet for another plot depending upon the English Catholics. Requesens, +the new Viceroy of Flanders, did his best, but he was surrounded by +unconquerable difficulties from the first, legacies, most of them, from +the _régime_ of Alba. Many of the Flemish seamen were disloyal and the +Catholic clergy disaffected, whilst the mercantile classes were nearly +beggared and in deep discontent. But, withal, the Walloons and Southern +States were pacified, though Holland and Zeeland were as stubborn as +ever. Requesens’ principal difficulty, as usual, was want of money; and +the Catholic Flemings insisted that if they were to remain loyal to Spain +the unpaid, murderous rabble of foreign soldiers who were terrorising +friends and enemies alike must be withdrawn from Flanders. But Philip +could not pay them, and they would not budge without their wage, for the +rich houses of the burghers were always there for plunder. In the midst +of this _impasse_, when things were at their worst, Requesens died, in +March, 1576, and Philip, glad to get his brother away from Italy, ordered +him to hurry direct to Flanders and carry out the policy of pacification +at any cost or sacrifice. The troops were to be sent away, the burghers +conciliated, and, if possible, the Dutch won over by promises of large +concessions. + +To Don Juan, with his heart aflame with high ambitions, concessions +and conciliation of heretics were utterly repugnant; but the mission +seemed to open a sure road to the great plan we have seen hinted at in +Guaras’ letter of November, 1574. Pope Gregory XIII. was as ready as +Don Juan for such an enterprise, and sent his Nuncio to Philip to pray +him to allow his brother to swoop down upon England with the troops from +Flanders, release and marry Mary Stuart, and with her become sovereign +of a Britain Catholic and a faithful ally of Spain. Philip, as was his +wont when he disapproved of a plan, was vaguely benevolent, but he hated +priestly interference in his plans, and distrusted the Vatican where +the French priests had so much to say. Worst of all, Don Juan disobeyed +orders and came to Spain to press his plans for capturing England, and +the delay thus caused was fatal. Before he could reach the Flemish +frontier the Italian and Spanish troops had thrown off all restraint and +had sacked Antwerp. The Catholic Flemings and Walloons were forced to +make common cause with Orange, who assumed the lead in the Government, +and all Netherlanders stood shoulder to shoulder against the ravishers +and spoilers of their homes. When Don Juan came, therefore, he was told +that he would only be admitted on conditions to be dictated by the +States. Among these conditions was that the mutinous troops should not be +sent away by sea, for the plan to invade England with them was well known +by Orange, but should march out overland. Don Juan protested and raved +in vain. Philip coldly ordered him to accede to any terms consistent +with Spanish sovereignty over Flanders; and at last, in the early spring +of 1577, he made his “joyous entry” into Brussels with a heart steeped +in hate of the Flemings, whose firmness had destroyed his great dream +of capturing England for the Cross and marrying the imprisoned Catholic +Queen, like the hero of a fairy tale. + +In these fine plans Guaras was a zealous and a willing agent, and +Mary Stuart, as usual, an eager participant, all their intrigues +being perfectly well known to Cecil through his spies. Cecil, indeed, +had become quite friendly with Guaras,[214] and thus, without being +suspected, kept his eye on all his proceedings. The letters the merchant +wrote to Spain were frequently intercepted, and although the pride +of Guaras in his cipher was justified and most of the contents are +still undeciphered, sufficient was read to prove that he was plotting +ceaselessly with England’s enemies. Letters, too, were known to be +passing by means of Guaras between Mary Stuart and Don Juan; and even +the Flemish Catholic nobles, who had now for a time deserted the Spanish +cause and were appealing to Elizabeth for aid, were constantly warning +the English of the plans that were being so industriously forwarded by +Guaras. + +That Mary Stuart and Don Juan at this time understood each other +perfectly, though Philip, for reasons already pointed out, was +irresponsive to their appeals, is seen in an important letter written by +Mary to the conspirator Charles Paget long afterwards (May, 1586) at the +time when she was implicated in the plot that ended in her death. Paget +was instructed to discover through Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador in +Paris, whether Philip was then (1586) ready to attack England, which, she +says, “to me seemeth the surest and readiest way for him whereby to rid +himself altogether of the Queen’s malice against him. So as now he doth +find himself constrained to come to the same remedies which in Don John +of Austria’s time were propounded unto him, which I doubt he shall not +find presently in these parts of such strength and virtue as if he had +applied them in time and place.... I remember that Don John was always +stiff in this opinion that there was no other means in the world whereby +to set up again the King’s affairs in the Low Countries, and to assure +his States in all other parts, than in re-establishing this realm under +God and a Prince his friend; for, so much as Don John foresaw right well +that this Queen would not fail to break with him, and give him, as she +hath done, the first blow.”[215] + +Guaras had many hints and warnings which he failed to regard, both from +Cecil and the Queen herself. In his letter of 29th March, 1575, he gives +an account of one such hint. “The Queen was walking,” he says, “a long +way from the Palace of Richmond, where she is staying, surrounded by her +courtiers and nobles, when, catching sight of me from afar, she called me +by name and welcomed me.” He had to ask her permission to buy some cannon +in England for the Flemish Government, to which she gave him an amiable +reply, and he continued to walk through the park a few steps behind her +chatting with her alone. She was full of her witcheries and compliments +to Spaniards, with whom for the moment it suited to be friends, but +told Guaras that she was annoyed at the way her subjects in Spain were +treated by the Inquisition. She grew somewhat vehement about it and +said, “I promise ye my father would not have put up with it, and if the +matter is not amended I shall be obliged to arrest some of the King of +Spain’s subjects and treat them in the same way.” Having given this +hint, she grew gracious again and said: “You know full well, old wine, +old bread, and old friends should be valued, and if only to let these +Frenchmen see, who are wrangling as to whether our friendship is firm +or not, there is good reason to show undisguisedly the kindly feeling +which inwardly exists.” This, of course, referred to the attempts of the +French to interfere in Flanders, which always made Elizabeth smile upon +Spaniards;[216] and when Guaras handsomely returned the compliment the +Queen suddenly turned upon him, and shot the bolt she had been preparing +all along: “You say you wish to serve me, Guaras; will you tell me the +truth? They say that a certain Scottish prisoner of mine has sent you +a token of friendship in the form of a painted lion; is it true?” Poor +Guaras could only protest that he had never received any such token, +as he had not; but the hint, and the more pointed one about the arrest, +certainly did not abate his activity as a go-between for Mary and Don +Juan. + +So long as the danger of French interference in Flanders lasted Elizabeth +dared not do anything very unpleasant to Spain; but as soon as that +difficulty was banished by new negotiations for the marriage of Elizabeth +and Alençon, Guaras began to find his position less comfortable. In +November, 1575, Egremont Ratcliff, the brother of the Earl of Sussex, who +had been a fugitive in Flanders and Italy since the northern rebellion, +came to England, with a story of Don Juan’s plans in conjunction with +Mary Stuart, and in this, of course, Guaras was involved. His fresh +negotiations, too, early in 1576 for the betrayal by the English +Catholics of certain of the Zeeland fortresses to the Spaniards was +discovered. The Flemish Catholic nobles were now in England praying for +support against Philip’s soldiery, and Elizabeth was in mortal fear of +French aid being given to them on the one hand and of Don Juan’s reported +plans against England on the other, whilst Guaras in his correspondence +grew more and more bitter and violent as he saw the fruition of his hopes +gradually disappear before Elizabeth’s amiability to the Catholic Flemish +nobles and the united opposition now offered to Don Juan’s ambitions. + +But in the circumstances Elizabeth did not dare yet to proceed to +extremities with Spaniards; and one case amusingly shows that these high +political considerations somewhat bewildered administrative officers, +who could not follow such frequent changes of attitude. A Portuguese +ambassador, Giraldi, had been for some time in England endeavouring +to arrange some open questions relative to the depredations of the +Protestant privateers; and late in 1576 the Recorder of London, Sir +William Fleetwood, a zealous Catholic-baiter, with the Sheriffs, +considered it his duty to surround with his posse the house of the +Portuguese envoy for the purpose of catching and arresting unauthorised +persons there hearing Mass. They forced an entry after a stiff fight with +the Portuguese porter, Mr. Recorder Fleetwood being rather seriously +mauled in the affray, and loudly broke in upon the sacred service by +summoning all English people to come out in custody. Immediately the +foreigners present, indignant at the interruption, drew their daggers and +swords, and made as if to attack the officers, but were appeased by the +sheriffs until the ladies had withdrawn. Having allowed the members of +the embassy to depart, the officers then examined the other foreigners: +“and trulie they most despitefully against all civilitie used such lewd +words in their language against us, that if our company had understande +them there might have chanced great harm. ‘Sirs,’ I saide to them, ‘I see +no remedie but you must goe to prison, for most of you be free denizens.’ +And then I willed the officers to lay hand on them, and immediately every +man suddenly most humbly put off his cap, and began to be sutors and +sought favour; and so on their submission we suffered them to depart, all +save Antonio de Guaras, who was not willing to go from us, but kept us +company.” After sending the English subjects off to prison and scolding +some of their own constables for accepting “singing cakes” from the +priest at the altar, Fleetwood and Sheriff Barnes stood in the gallery +looking down upon the altar. “And then Antonio Guaras tooke me by the +hand to see the altar how trim it was. And I said to Guaras, ‘Sir, if +I had done my duty here to you and to the Queen upon All Hallowes Day +last I had taken two hundred, and as many more on All Souls.’ ‘Ho! Sir,’ +said Guaras unto me: ‘become of this religion, and surely you will like +it well, and I will be readie means to make you a good Christian.’ And +so we went near the altar, where neither he nor I touched any manner of +thing; and so we bade the priest farewell, who gently saluted us, and +I suddenlie looked back and saw the priest shake his head mumbling out +words that sounded like _Diable_ and _male croix_, or to that effect. +Then said I to Mr. Sheriff, ‘Let us depart, for the priest doth curse +us.’ And so we departed, and Antonio Guaras brought us to the utter gate, +where the Sheriff and I invited him to dynner with us; but he departed +back to hear the profaned Mass. The aforesaid Guaras at this business +said that he himself was an ambassador of a greater person than —— and +so did shake his head. ‘What!’ quoth I, ‘do you mean a greater personage +than our mistress?’ ‘Na, na,’ said he, ‘I mean not so.’ ‘No,’ quoth +I, ‘it were not best for you to make comparisons with the Queen our +mistress. Whose ambassador are ye, then?’ quoth I, ‘the Pope’s?’ And then +he departed further off in anger. This Guaras was a very busy fellow in +this action.”[217] + +Neither Giraldi nor Guaras was disposed to allow their diplomatic +privileges to be violated in this fashion, however; and in consequence of +their vehement complaints Fleetwood had to submit to a severe scolding +from the Council and was sent to the Fleet. But Guaras’ immunity was +not to last much longer. Elizabeth, before many months were over, found +herself assiduously courted by the French, and assured by Catharine +that Alençon would do nothing in Flanders but with the co-operation +of England—it was hoped as Elizabeth’s husband. Don Juan also, during +the time that he remained in negotiation with the States, was only +too anxious to win Elizabeth’s help, or at least neutrality; so that +when suspicion against Guaras became certainty she had no hesitation +in closing the toils around him. In January, 1577, Sir Amyas Paulet, +the English ambassador in Paris, reported that a dependent of Guaras, +a Spanish tailor, named Damian Dela, a resident in London, had passed +through Paris with some highly suspicious letters for King Philip. We +know now that the King was firmly against Don Juan’s plans to invade +England; but this, of course, was not known at the time, and Paulet +advised Burghley to put Guaras to the torture to discover what was going +on. This only made the English Government more vigilant; but in the +spring of 1577 Secretary Wilson was sent to Flanders to endeavour to +bring about an agreement between the States and Don Juan. The latter, +when jocosely twitted by Wilson on his wish to marry the Queen of +Scots, somewhat ungallantly ridiculed the idea as preposterous; but +whilst Wilson was in the Low Countries he managed to obtain through St. +Aldegonde possession of some intercepted letters from Guaras on the +matter. The cipher was difficult, and only some words could be read; +but they were enough to prove that Guaras was in constant communication +with Mary Stuart and Don Juan, and Wilson wrote to Cecil expressing his +surprise that an unofficial person like Guaras should be allowed to act +more scandalously than any accredited ambassador would be allowed to do. + +From that time, May, 1577, Guaras was watched almost night and day, and +most of his letters intercepted, though not many could be read. On the +28th September, 1577, he proposed to Zayas, King Philip’s secretary, +that he should be allowed to arrange for the kidnapping and conveyance +to Spain of some of the important Catholic Flemish nobles then in +England, or to promote a revolt in Ireland; and he continues by saying, +“I have received the enclosed letters from the Queen of Scotland. I have +perfectly safe means of sending and receiving letters for her, and the +world is praying that God may be preserving her for some great service +to the fear of this Queen and her friends. I am encouraging her with +letters of comfort until she can be served by acts.”[218] On the 4th +October Guaras wrote another inflammatory letter to Zayas, detailing +the plans which he said had been agreed upon by England and the Flemish +nobles to throw off the Spanish yoke for good by the aid of Elizabeth. +He passionately cries for prompt reprisals upon the English, but he +complains that his letters are read, and he fears his ciphers may be +discovered. + +At midnight on the 19th October, 1577, the Sheriff of London with an +armed force appeared before the house of Guaras in Thames Street. In the +Queen’s name entrance was forced and Guaras placed under arrest, all his +papers being seized, and he himself a few days later placed in solitary +confinement in Newgate. His clerk, in conveying the news to Zayas, +understood the gravity of the affair, for from the first the authorities +refused to acknowledge the prisoner’s diplomatic status. “God deliver us +from these troubles,” he wrote, “for I promise your worship that unless +some remedy be sent from Spain my master Antonio de Guaras will find +himself in dire trouble, as will all of us in his house, for we are sore +distressed. With all earnestness I supplicate you to let his Majesty +know, in the hope that delivery may be sent to us.” Guaras himself writes +from prison in hot indignation. He had, he says, placed the letters from +the Queen of Scots and King Philip in a safe place, and they had not been +captured, but he knows that much of his correspondence has been sent to +England by the Flemish nobles, and, reading between the lines, one sees +that the poor wretch is in mortal fear, though he passionately protests +his innocence whilst vituperating his captors. + +No consideration or mercy was shown to him, and now that he was under +lock and key all sorts of claims and accusations were made against +him.[219] To add to his trouble he, who for thirty years at least +had been looked upon as a wealthy merchant, was found to be well-nigh +penniless. Philip was always a bad paymaster, and the 500 ducats a year +he allowed to Guaras had been embargoed or stopped in Spain for some +time previously. The great sum of 20,000 crowns, promised to him for his +services in negotiating the reopening of trade, was never paid to him, +though for the rest of his life he was petitioning piteously for it. +Damian Dela, his tailor-steward, was arrested at the same time as his +master and lodged in Newgate, whereupon Recorder Fleetwood, examining him +in November, he revealed the sad condition of Guaras’ finances: “I finde +that he hath not a groat to bless him withal. His household stuff is not +worth forty shillings. He is in my opinion _Iro Pauperior_, and were it +not that libertie is sweet I know not where in his own country he should +have like entertainment.” By Fleetwood Guaras sent beseeching messages +for mercy to Burghley, “his only hope and trust”; but it was not the +Cecil way to befriend fallen men, and Guaras appealed to his former crony +in vain. + +Slowly the act of accusation against Guaras was elaborated. Such portions +of his letters as could be read were brought up against him,[220] his +servants, one and all, were interrogated, whilst he himself was almost +driven crazy by threats of the rack and the scaffold. The questions +administered to him in prison are amongst Lord Burghley’s papers and +at Simancas, and show the charges brought against him: “What letters +had passed between you and the Scots Queen?” “What do you know of their +contents and of the negotiations between her and Don Juan?” “How far did +Don Juan proceed in the marriage treaty with the Queen of Scots?” “In +the cipher between you and Don Juan, who were intended by the numbers +82, 29, and 38?” “What practices have been intended for disquieting the +realm, and who were the principal authors?”[221] and many other questions +of the same sort. In June, 1578, the case against him for conspiring +against the State in favour of Mary Stuart was held to be proven, and +the unfortunate man was lodged in the Tower, threatened now with death. +To all interrogatories Guaras had answered haughtily that he was the +diplomatic representative of the Catholic King, who would heavily avenge +any injury done to him; but Philip had other cares to occupy him than +to avenge a meddling merchant’s plots, of which he (Philip) had never +approved. + +It was more important now than ever that Elizabeth should be +conciliated. Don Juan, in despair at his hateful position and at the +cold irresponsiveness of his brother, had in February, 1578, cast all +considerations to the winds, had fortified himself in Namur, and had +defied the States to do their worst. Philip, by the rash impetuosity +of his brother, thus found it necessary to fight not only for the +maintenance of orthodoxy in his Netherlands dominions, but for his +sovereignty. The Archduke Mathias, one of his own kin, had been invited +by the Flemings to accept the Catholic Crown of Flanders, and on his +failure to unite the country, Alençon, the French Prince, had bidden +for the prize. If Elizabeth could be won over by Orange to help or +co-operate with the French in Flanders, then nothing could save Philip’s +sovereignty; and so, until the great Alexander Farnese, Don Juan’s +successor, with warcraft and diplomacy combined, was able gradually to +separate the Catholic Flemings from the Protestant Dutchmen, it behoved +Philip at any sacrifice to win again the good graces of Elizabeth, to +arouse her jealousy of French interference in Flanders, and hold her, +notwithstanding all that had passed, to the traditional alliance with +his House with the ancient object. Nor was Elizabeth loath to meet her +brother-in-law half-way this time, for a French domination in Flanders +she could never allow, and whilst on the one hand she conjured the danger +by befooling Alençon into the firm belief that she would marry him if he +would obey her, on the other she held out her hand to Philip. Wilkes, +the Clerk of the Privy Council, was sent off to Spain to vindicate the +Queen’s action in Flanders: to say how hard she had tried to bring about +peace, notwithstanding Don Juan’s impracticability, to beg for Don Juan’s +recall,[222] and to urge that some sort of peace should be brought about +with the States on the basis that Don Juan had violated, failing which +she will be obliged, as before, to aid those who are battling for freedom +of conscience. + +It was a bitter pill for Philip that he should have to brook Elizabeth’s +interference between his rebel subjects and himself, and he treated +Wilkes in very high and mighty fashion, on the pretext that his rank +was inadequate for such a mission. But he made amends by sending to +England, hard upon Wilkes’ heels, a scion of one of the noblest houses +in Spain as his ambassador. Soldier, author, diplomatist, and courtier, +Don Bernardino de Mendoza, a man with the pride of Lucifer and the +intolerance of St. Dominic, was entrusted with a mission of humility +to the Queen of all the “heretics.” No apology had ever been sent by +Elizabeth for the expulsion of de Spes, or for the seizure of the +treasure; Guaras was a close prisoner, daily threatened with torture, and +his claim to diplomatic privilege laughed at; yet the King of Spain was +obliged to swallow his pride, and send an ambassador who was almost a +suppliant to beg Elizabeth not to help his revolted subjects. + +The change of position between the two sovereigns since the beginning +of the Queen’s reign is nowhere so clearly seen as by a comparison of +the instructions of Mendoza with the attitude of Feria and his master, +described in the earlier pages of the present volume. Mendoza’s mission +was piteously apologetic. Don Juan and the Spanish troops should be +withdrawn. It was all a mistake about the abrogation of the edict of +toleration. The States should have all they demanded if they would only +be loyal and Catholic, and Elizabeth was appealed to earnestly not to +aid rebellion in her good brother’s States. Mendoza was directed to +“endeavour to keep her in a good humour, and convinced of our friendship, +banishing the distrust of us which she now appears to entertain, and for +which we have given her no good cause.” The English ministers were all to +be heavily bribed, and at any cost, the new ambassador was instructed, +English neutrality was to be secured. + +Mendoza passed through Paris on his way to England in February, and found +the French Court in dismay. Young Alençon had escaped his brother’s +vigilance, and, with a force of Huguenots and German mercenaries, was +on the Flemish frontier in full negotiation with the Prince of Orange +and the Protestants to assume the sovereignty as a rival to Mathias, the +nominee of the Catholics. Don Juan had just won the battle of Gembloux +against the united rebel States, and was known to be intriguing with +the Guises against Elizabeth, though not, as was thought in England, +with Philip’s connivance; and the Queen of England found herself in +perplexity between two fires. The Marquis d’Havrey, the Flemish Catholic +noble representing the States, was assuring her that unless she sent an +army over at once, under Leicester or his brother, to help them, they +must hand themselves over to Alençon and the Frenchmen, which she was +determined to prevent, cost what it might;[223] whilst, on the other +hand, she was told from all quarters that the Kings of Spain and France, +with the Pope, Don Juan, and the Guises, were all united and determined +to crush her for once and for all. Her problem was how to save Orange +and the Protestants in Holland from being overwhelmed, without dragging +England into a war with Philip; to prevent the French, even Huguenots, +from gaining a footing in the Low Countries, and to avert a Catholic +coalition against her. By what consummate diplomacy she contrived to +attain her ends will be seen in the next chapter, which recounts her +intercourse with Bernardino de Mendoza as Philip’s ambassador. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +1578-1584 + + Mendoza and Elizabeth—His haughty behaviour—The French in + Flanders—Elizabeth’s approaches to Philip—The Spanish designs + on Portugal—Renewed plots of Mary Stuart—Appeals to Philip + to aid her in England—Philip’s attitude towards Guisan + co-operation with him in Britain—The Jesuit mission—Mendoza + and the Catholic plot in Scotland—Elizabeth aids the + Portuguese pretender—Anger of Mendoza—His altercation with + Elizabeth—Progress of the plots—Collapse of Lennox—The + interference of Guise in the plans—The jealousy between English + Catholic exiles and the Scots—Development of the Anglo-Spanish + plans and intended exclusion of Guise—Arrest of Francis + Throckmorton—Discovery of the plot—Expulsion of Mendoza—Philip + faces the inevitable and slowly prepares for a war of invasion + + +On the 16th March, 1578, Mendoza sat on a low stool by Elizabeth’s side, +under the canopy in the Palace of Greenwich. He was a man already of +mature age, of stately port, strong and masterful as became a dashing +cavalry leader, but he spoke on this occasion, his first formal audience +of Elizabeth, in silken tones, as he tried his best to excuse Don Juan’s +breach of faith with the States. The Queen, on her side, had nothing +but complaints and protests. Her aim was to be made a party to the new +pacification, either as arbitrator or mediator, because, she said, that +she would have to provide the financial guarantee offered by the States. +But it was not Philip’s intention to allow her thus to come between him +and his subjects, and this point was always evaded, cleverly as she +urged it. But upon the main point she and Mendoza soon agreed. If Philip +would make the concessions to the States that he now promised, and they +refused to submit, she herself would help to punish them; and as for the +French, she would take care they were never masters of Flanders, with or +without Don Juan. It was noticed that as soon as the Queen said that she +would help to punish the States if they did not accept the terms promised +by Philip, Leicester hurriedly left the chamber, it was whispered to +write by special courier to Flanders that Havrey should at once return to +England and represent the rebel view of the situation. + +“I am glad to see you again,”[224] said the Queen, after the business +talk was finished, “although I have been told that the real object of +your coming is to plan many things to my injury; but even if you were +not a minister of my good brother, I do not think that you would do me +much harm.” Needless to say, Mendoza loudly proclaimed his devotion to +her, and for a time all went harmoniously between them. Alençon from +the frontier sent to Elizabeth lovelorn epistles of devotion, which she +looked at for a time with some distrust, believing that this might be a +trap whereby the French, as a nation, were endeavouring to gain a footing +in Flanders to her prejudice. Of one thing she was quite determined, +namely, that for every Frenchman who entered Flanders an Englishman +should enter too; and to all Mendoza’s remonstrances at the aid in men +and money that constantly flowed over to the Netherlands, Elizabeth +had the answer ready that they went as much in Philip’s interest as her +own, to prevent the country from falling into the hands of the French. +To Orange, whom she constantly upbraided for welcoming French aid, her +scolding reproaches meant little, for, as he said, he cared not whence +came the help by means of which he could fight the Spaniards, and if he +obtained, as he did, forces from Alençon and from Elizabeth too, he was +willing to put up with the Englishwoman’s hard words. + +She did not mince matters with Mendoza, either. “By God!” she shouted, +“if the edict of toleration is not re-granted to the States I will help +them against you whilst I have a man left in England.” Mendoza drily +remarked that she was helping them pretty effectually already, “and +that, grateful as I was for her kindness to me, I could not help telling +her that your Majesty had very long arms, and that if need arose their +strength would be felt in any country upon which they were placed. She +swallowed this,” says Mendoza, “with rather a wry face, and said she did +not consider these people to be rebels, as they were satisfied with what +your Majesty had granted to them before, and she would not allow either +the French to set foot in the States nor the Spaniards to oppress them.” +Thus surely but slowly Elizabeth worked her way; but with the inevitable +consequence of convincing Mendoza, as all other Spanish ambassadors in +turn had been convinced, that force against Elizabeth was their only +remedy, since in diplomacy she was more than a match for the cast-iron +methods of their master. + +To Mendoza’s intercession for the unhappy Guaras, with whom the new +ambassador had little sympathy as a plebeian and bungler in State +affairs, Elizabeth replied angrily that if he had been a subject of any +other King but Philip she would have hanged him long ago, as he had been +plotting against her with the Queen of Scots and English rebels. She +would get rid of him, she said, by and by, when she had squeezed some +more information from him. Once, in June, 1578, Guaras was brought out of +prison and told by the Council that he would have to leave the country +in ten days; but, instead of accepting the decision humbly, he raised an +altercation, again claiming diplomatic privilege, with the result that he +was promptly sent to solitary confinement in the Tower again, though both +Mendoza and Don Juan had received money from Spain to be spent in bribes +for his help and defence.[225] + +Generally speaking, the parties in Elizabeth’s Court were now sharply +divided in policy, and Mendoza promptly found who were his friends and +who his foes. Cecil and Sussex, particularly, with Controller Crofts +in a humbler way, were opposed to the open provocation of Spain by the +support of the Flemish rebels; Leicester and Walsingham, whom Mendoza +rarely mentions without the epithet “devilish heretic,” being determined, +if possible, to bring matters to a crisis between Elizabeth and Philip +whilst the war in the Netherlands paralysed the latter. Elizabeth herself +leant now to one side, now to another, always balancing counsel against +counsel. How suddenly and convincingly she could change is seen in her +attitude towards Mendoza directly she heard that Alençon and his French +force, mainly Huguenots, had crossed the frontier into Flanders early in +July, 1578, at the request of the States, and had thrown themselves into +Mons. Alençon had long been trying to convince the Queen that upon her +alone, and not upon his brother the King of France, would he depend in +everything, and his professions of love for her were unabated, but this +alarmed her. + +To some extent her distrust of Alençon had been overcome of late, +particularly as a large number of English troops and Germans in her pay +were in Flanders as an antidote to him; but only a few days after the +startling news of Alençon’s invasion reached England, Mendoza writes +(19th July, 1578): “The Queen has been very suspicious of me hitherto, +as she has been assured that I had come to perform I know not what, nor +what bad office; but she is beginning to be undeceived, and is turning +her eyes now more towards his Majesty. Some of the ministers, too, have +begun to get friendly with me, and I can assure you [Zayas] that if his +Majesty wishes to retain their goodwill, I see a way of doing it.... God +knows the trouble I have had in getting her and her ministers so far, +as they always want to see something substantial beforehand,[226] this +being the natural character of the people. I am told by a person in the +Palace that, even in the matter of giving me audience readily, the Queen +has been considerably influenced by the presents of gloves and perfumes I +gave her when I arrived.” + +It is true that Elizabeth was a glutton for presents, and her Councillors +had itching palms for Spanish gold, but there were other reasons just +then besides self-interest that made them smile upon Philip’s ambassador. +Not only was there a French army on Flemish soil, but from all sides +there came to England alarming news of some great Catholic combination +against Elizabeth; the Spaniards were known to be supporting the Desmond +rebellion in Ireland;[227] and at a day’s notice, until she had got +Alençon completely under her thumb by the farcical marriage negotiations +with him personally, she thought fit to smile upon Mendoza, and treat the +moderate English Catholics with unwonted mildness. “I never see the Queen +now,” writes Mendoza in September, 1578, “without her telling me how glad +she is for me to be here. She gives me audience freely, and, thank God! I +have her now in an excellent humour, whilst the Englishmen in general are +not bad friends with me, as they think I shall not do anything against +them in case of a disturbance.” + +On another occasion in September, 1578, when Elizabeth was sounding +Mendoza about sending an English ambassador to Spain, she said to him: +“If you were a knave, you should not have stayed here so long; ... if you +had been here years ago, things would not have reached such a condition +as they did, by reason of Don Gerau de Spes”; and when he went to see +her at Richmond on her return from an autumn progress, she became quite +coquettish with him. She thought, she said, he must have run away and +left her it was so long since she had seen him; and, though she was +somewhat aggrieved that she was to have no part in the pending peace +negotiations between Philip and the Flemings, she told him that “she +liked his manner of procedure.” “I did not inspire her with suspicion; +and if a favourable peace was made in the Netherlands by any means, she +was quite content not to have been a mediator, being quite satisfied with +my explanations.” Then, turning to him, she broached the subject really +uppermost in her mind, namely, her much-talked-of marriage with the young +French Prince. Did Mendoza think she ought to marry him? The courtly +ambassador was sure she would act wisely in any case; but he knew, as +she did, that all the French wished was to prevent her prosperity and +quietude. “I hope when you see the end you will approve of it,” said +Elizabeth, doubtless smiling in her sleeve; for she alone knew what she +intended the end to be, though Philip himself shrewdly guessed that “it +was all pastime, and she would never marry any man.” + +But through all this amiability to the Spaniard, English aid still +found its way abundantly across the North Sea to the Protestants in +arms; and Hans Casinir, with 20,000 soldiers, was in Elizabeth’s pay in +the States. Philip, much as his ambassador might humour Elizabeth and +bribe her ministers, was no nearer than before to the complete control +of English policy, which alone would serve his purpose. Don Juan had +died brokenhearted at his miserable failure on 1st October, and this +made matters somewhat easier for his brother Philip, as it removed the +principal obstacle to the reconciliation of the Catholic Flemings to the +Spanish rule. The absolute dissociation of the King of France from his +brother Alençon’s eccentric vagaries in Flanders, and Elizabeth’s clever +beguilement of the young man, also satisfied the King of Spain that once +more affairs were reverting to the old groove, in which he would have +against him not Catholics, but only the Protestant elements of which +Elizabeth was the main supporter. + +Again, therefore, he was able to face the problem of his “good sister’s” +overthrow. All his attempts previously in this direction had been +disastrous for his instruments and discomfiting for himself. He had +subsidised Mary Stuart, before and since her incarceration; he had +ineffectively supported the English Catholics to rebel; he had consented +to Elizabeth’s murder preparatory to his armed intervention in England; +he had countenanced Stukeley’s wild plans to capture Ireland, and +supported the Desmond disaffection in Munster; he had tried to bring +Elizabeth to her knees by stopping trade, with the result of nearly +ruining his own subjects—but all these means had failed. Philip’s +advisers for twenty years had never ceased to assure him that he must +boldly carry the war into his enemy’s camp if he would succeed—that to +win all he must risk something; but he had gone on still believing in the +infallibility of his own methods, which always aimed at binding others +whilst himself remaining vaguely pledged or not pledged at all. Philip +would only play when he held all the winning cards, and, much as his +ambassadors urged upon him a policy of force towards his sister-in-law, +he was determined to wait until Fate had dealt them to him. + +In August, 1578, only a few weeks before the death of Don Juan relieved +him from his worst dilemma in Catholic Flanders, his rash young nephew, +King Sebastian of Portugal, was killed in battle in Morocco. His heir +was the old childless Cardinal Don Henrique, and amongst the many +subsequent claimants Philip was the strongest. With the added power and +great wealth of Portugal, the King of Spain might conquer heresy yet +by force, and defy both England and France if needs be, for, with the +harbours of Spain, Portugal, and the Islands closed to them, French and +English ships would be unable to sail far from their own shores. The +danger at once drew Catharine and Elizabeth together, but they could +do nothing effectual yet, and all Philip’s plans were laid carefully +to seize the throne of Portugal when the aged king should die. It was +necessary, amongst other things, for him to provide that both Elizabeth +and Catharine, when that event happened, should have their hands full at +home, and the effect of his manœuvres is noticeable almost immediately. + +Mendoza had been instructed to use the greatest caution in all approaches +to him on behalf of the imprisoned Mary Stuart; but in January, 1579, +Zayas wrote to him, saying that negotiations had been opened by Beton, +Archbishop of Glasgow, Mary’s ambassador in Paris, and the Spanish +ambassador there. “If,” he said, “Philip would provide enough money to +raise four thousand troops, great things might be done for her and for +the Catholic religion. His Majesty is very well disposed towards it; but +nothing, as yet, has been decided, because, in good truth, the matter +could only be undertaken on very safe grounds, and with the assurance +that the effect would be produced, as otherwise it would be _oleum et +operam perdere_. Send us your opinion on it.”[228] The French intrigues +in Scotland at this period (1579) had somewhat aroused the apprehensions +both of Philip and Elizabeth, for Guise had sent young Lennox d’Aubigny, +the Franco-Scot Stuart, to woo his cousin James, and he had succeeded +beyond the wildest expectations. Philip was willing enough to foster +Guise’s ambitions to the extent of setting him against Catharine and +the Huguenots; but any attempt at Guisan interference in Great Britain +without his direction always alarmed him, so Mendoza lost no opportunity +of whispering to Elizabeth distrust of French aims in Scotland. + +At the same time, still further to divert Elizabeth from interfering +with his Portuguese plans, Philip allowed himself to be persuaded to +help James Fitzmaurice and the Pope’s Nuncio, Dr. Sanders, to land a +small Spanish and Italian force in Ireland in the summer of 1579. The +expedition was routed and pursued, Dr. Sanders dying miserably of want +and exposure; but when heartrending appeals from the Irish were sent to +Philip for further aid, he dared not make open war upon England for their +sake—that was no part of his plan yet. All he could consent to do was to +join with the Pope in defraying the expenses of a formidable expedition, +not under the Spanish but the Papal flag, sailing from a Spanish port, +with eight thousand soldiers to invade Ireland, and hold the Catholic +West for the Desmonds. The affair was mismanaged, and all the invaders +were slaughtered at Smerwick, Dingle Bay (November, 1580); but Mendoza +never heard the last of it from Elizabeth, who in future excused all +her interference in Flanders by pointing to this kind act of her “good +brother.” It was a hint to Elizabeth that she was vulnerable, not only in +Scotland by French intrigue, but in Ireland also, and that it behoved her +to look to her own safety before attacking others. + +Mendoza had much cold water to throw upon the suggestion of Beton and +the Spanish ambassador in Paris (with whom he was at feud) as to the +subsidising of a rising of Catholics in favour of Mary Stuart. He, true +Spaniard as he was, looked askance at any plan of the sort in which a +Frenchman had a part. But early in 1580 the matter entered a new phase. +Elizabeth, for the first time in her reign, found herself unpopular, in +consequence of the general belief that she really intended to marry the +young French Prince; the great Jesuit propaganda was busily making ready +to spread through England the young missionaries, who in the true spirit +of martyrdom had pledged their lives to bring back England and Scotland +to the Faith; the power of Morton in Scotland was waning fast, and Lennox +was in the ascendant. Everywhere the Catholic cause had taken new hope, +thanks in great measure to the encouragement of Philip, in order that +when the time came he might have a free hand in Portugal. + +But whilst the King of Spain was quite ready to utilise these priestly +and other auxiliaries for his ends, though most of them had no idea that +politics had any part in their propaganda, he himself would make no move +to capture England until he knew that he, and no one else, would enjoy +the benefit of success if success were attained. So long as the Pope and +Guise were the leaders of the movement, Philip gave it his blessing but +no more, and on the 11th February, 1580, the old Archbishop of Glasgow, +in Paris, seeing this, visited Vargas Mexia, the Spanish ambassador, and +made a distinct step in advance. The Duke of Guise and he, he said, had +persuaded Mary Stuart to place herself without reserve in the hands of +his Catholic Majesty; and the Archbishop produced a letter from Mary to +that effect, saying that she had arranged for her son to be captured and +sent to Spain, that Philip might marry him to his liking. Guise himself +came secretly to Vargas Mexia soon afterwards, and told him that he had +everything arranged now by the aid of the Scottish Catholics to overthrow +Elizabeth, and if Philip would subsidise the affair, he (Guise) would +undertake to prevent any French national interference.[229] As for Mary +herself, said the Archbishop, “she was determined not to leave her prison +until she left it to be Queen of England.” Philips attitude changed at +once on hearing this; and when a Catholic Scot, Fernihurst, was sent to +Madrid by the party, he gave him a cordial reply, leaving in Mary’s hands +the arrangement for the capture and deportation of James. But before +anything could be done, the overthrow of Morton in Scotland and the rise +of Catholic Lennox d’Aubigny to supreme power gave a far wider scope to +the plan. + +The great conspiracy of 1569-70 against Elizabeth had failed, owing +to lack of complete co-operation of the various Catholic elements: +the present attempt seemed to promise an organisation of greater +ramifications and more intimate combination. This was owing in great part +to a new feature now first introduced. Those who watched the debarkation +at Dover of the passengers from a skiff that had arrived from Calais +on the 12th June, 1580, saw leap upon the shore a swashbuckling young +captain, such as many who came from the Flemish war. He was a man of +five-and-thirty, clad in a buff military coat covered with gold lace, and +had a great, clanking rapier hung upon his hip, whilst a fine feather +flaunted in his wide-brimmed hat. With him came a soldier-servant of +humbler mien, and, after being duly searched and coming through the +ordeal successfully, the two travellers swaggered upon their way.[230] +The captain told the searcher who kindly procured him a horse that a +friend of his, an English jeweller living at St. Omer, would follow him +to England in a day or two. The jeweller, Mr. Edmunds, duly came, and +also went on his road to Gravesend, and so by tilt-boat to London, there +to be lost like his military forerunner in the crowds of the capital. +The captain came not to rest from the wars against the Spaniards in +Flanders, but to conquer England again for the Faith, for he was Father +Robert Parsons the Jesuit, and the jeweller Edmunds, who followed, sold, +not jewels alone, but his own life for the task to which he had been +dedicated by the Church, for he was Edmund Campion. + +These three young men were but the advance guard of an army of Jesuit +missionaries who soon flocked over from the seminaries of Rheims and +Rome to strengthen the resistance of the sorely tried Catholics of +England and Scotland. Wherever these zealous clerics reached, the power +of Elizabeth over her subjects was weakened. There were many Catholics +who had grown tired of persecution, and were willing to purchase peace +by open compliance with the Queen’s laws. More there were who would have +been fully content with even limited toleration for their observance. +But to these fiery young spirits toleration was a more deadly blow than +persecution, and although up to this time the secular priests had been +willing to concede to Catholics some appearance of outward conformity, +the attendance at Protestant service was now forbidden to those of +the old Faith. The result was almost at once a recrudescence of the +persecutions against Catholics in a crueller form than ever, with the +inevitable result of raising a stronger and more fanatical religious +spirit than had existed amongst the Catholics in England since the early +days of Elizabeth’s reign. + +[Illustration: ROBERT PARSONS, S.J. + +1546-1610] + +Needless to say, Mendoza soon got into touch with the new fighting +element in the struggle against Elizabeth. The ambassador’s feigned +politeness towards Elizabeth had been strained almost to breaking point +by the news of Drake’s terrible depredations in the Pacific; and he +had already fallen in his correspondence with his master into the same +heated tone of indignation as his predecessors had done, urging the King +to prompt reprisals upon these “insolent heretics.” When Drake himself +arrived with his vast booty, and was effusively received by the Queen, +Mendoza’s angry violence of word, and his open threats, earned for him +exclusion from the Queen’s presence. He was offered, indeed, a bribe +of 50,000 crowns to moderate his tone, but he replied in a rage, “that +he would pay more than that sum himself to punish so great a thief as +Drake.”[231] + +Almost daily Mendoza’s indignation with Elizabeth became more heated. +Amongst other causes of complaint was one that for the first time +brought him into an acrimonious squabble with Elizabeth herself, though +the occasion was a small one. The ambassador had been trapped into one +of the usual bogus plots, ostensibly to betray Flushing, but really +to cheat and betray him, and he had paid a large sum of money and +given much information to certain Dutchmen for the purpose. One of the +conspirators had left his son, a child, in Mendoza’s hands as a hostage, +and when the fraud was complete, on the 4th June, 1581, during the +ambassador’s absence, his house in the Strand was forcibly entered by +London constables accompanied by the Secretary of the Prince of Orange, +and the young hostage was taken from the custody of the Spaniards. The +household drew their swords and attacked the authorities, but before the +affray had proceeded far the ambassador himself appeared. Learning that +the officers were acting under the authority of the Council, he ordered +his servants to put up their weapons and angrily protested against this +violation of his domicile. + +Mendoza had avoided appearing at Court during the warm philandering with +Alençon and the French that was going on, fearing that Elizabeth might, +with her usual artfulness, get better terms from the French by pretending +that the Spaniards were seeking her. But this new insult overcame all +other considerations. In a violent temper Mendoza demanded immediate +reparation from the Queen. She must receive him at once, he said, and +apologise, or he would leave the country and lay the matter before his +master for redress. Elizabeth was anxious not to have an altercation with +him whilst the special French embassy as well as Alençon’s _mignons_ +filled her Court, and by flattery and cajolery she managed to defer the +unpleasant interview until the French embassy had gone. On the 17th June, +Elizabeth stood in the gallery of Whitehall overlooking the river, when +Mendoza, who had landed at the private stairs, was led to her by Hatton, +the captain of the guard. Fearing that the Spaniard might use angry +words, she took him into a window embrasure out of earshot of the only +two persons in the gallery, Sussex and Hatton, and at once anticipated +him by complaining bitterly that King Philip had helped these knaves +of Irish rebels by sending a large body of soldiers to them. Mendoza +said he must leave that subject for another time, and launched into +angry invective of the treatment to which he had been subjected. He +had, he said, been denied rights recognised even amongst savages to the +ambassadors of kings. He had expected to hear that she had hanged the +constables the next morning; but as she had not done so, he supposed they +had told the truth when they said they acted in her name. + +Calling Sussex and Leicester to her, she ordered that inquiry should be +made in the matter, and then once more started her Irish grievance, again +forcing Mendoza to take the defensive. He made the best of matters, and +retorted with Drake’s plunder and her constant aid to the Netherlanders, +ending by a scarcely veiled threat that unless she mended her behaviour +towards his master, especially in her attitude towards Portugal, his +vengeance would fall upon her. Elizabeth was rather cowed at this, and +said she did not want to quarrel with her good brother; the King of +France had done more harm in the matter of Portugal than she had. To this +Mendoza retorted curtly that if the King of France did evil that was no +reason why she should. Mendoza afterwards snubbed and hectored Cecil and +the Council, and left the Palace in no very pacific frame of mind. “If I +had not shown spirit,” he wrote to the King, in giving him an account of +the interview, “which is the thing that moves the Queen and her ministers +most, such is their insolence that probably I should never have been able +to get conference with them. This attitude alone has enabled me to hold +my own with them until now, thus gaining time for matters to develop +themselves.”[232] Notwithstanding his self-satisfaction, it is clear +that Mendoza got the worst of the interview with the Queen, for although +she was compliant on the unimportant point of the violation of domicile, +the boy was never restored, and she assumed the position of the injured +party about Ireland, as well as preventing Mendoza from making a formal +reclamation about Drake’s plunder. + +But soon there came a new grievance to exacerbate the irritation of the +Spaniards. Alba had been summoned from his retirement to conquer Portugal +for Philip on the death of the old Cardinal King. The many claimants +to the Crown were mostly timid and unready, whilst Philip’s power was +irresistible, and Alba marched through Portugal, with the King in his +wake, brushing aside such slight attempts as were made to stay him in the +interests of the only Portuguese claimant who showed fight at all—the +doubtfully legitimate Don Antonio, Prior of Ocrato, who had at first +been accepted by his countrymen as their Sovereign. He had fled before +Alba’s advance, and had been a fugitive for months past—some said in +Brazil, some in Azores, and some in France. Wherever he was, he carried +with him jewels of inestimable value, and such a man in the hands of +Philip’s enemies might be made a powerful weapon against the King of +Spain. Rumour was busy as to Don Antonio’s movements, and Mendoza’s spies +had much to tell, most of which was untrue. But it was noticed at the +end of June, 1581, that Elizabeth’s Portuguese-Jew physician, Lopez, +was very busy and important, posting backwards and forwards between +London and Dover, and soon Mendoza learnt that a party of Portuguese +had landed there, amongst whom one was treated with marked respect and +consideration. He was described as being “under the middle height, very +dark and thin, with a spare face, a grizzled beard, and greenish-grey +eyes.” + +This man Mendoza, from the description, at once recognised as Don +Antonio, the so-called King of Portugal, proclaimed by Philip a rebel +with a heavy price upon his head. Before even he had had time to verify +his suspicions, Mendoza peremptorily demanded audience of Elizabeth to +complain of her thus sheltering the Pretender. The Queen’s ministers, +through the Earl of Sussex, flatly refused him access to their mistress +for any such purpose unless he brought fresh special letters from Philip; +and as, he says, he was determined to have no more _pros_ and _cons_ with +intermediaries who simply talk nonsense and then repudiate what they say, +blaming the messengers, he wrote a haughty letter to Elizabeth herself, +threatening to leave England instantly unless audience was accorded to +him. Elizabeth was hunting at Eltham when the letter was handed to her, +and as she read it she changed countenance. Through Hatton, who was by +her side, she replied to the bearer, “that if the ambassador, for reasons +of health or other private causes, wished for his passports he could have +them; but that the Queen had not the slightest desire that he should +leave her Court, or that she should break with the King of Spain.” + +Two or three days afterwards, however, thanks to Cecil, Mendoza was led +up a secret stair into the Queen’s private chamber, where she was with +Leicester, Sussex, Hatton, and Walsingham. “I suppose,” began Elizabeth +as soon as she saw him, “you have come to give me some satisfaction about +Ireland.” “That, your Majesty,” he replied, “as I told you before, is +a matter concerning the Pope, not my master.” She had, he continued, +refused to receive him for nearly a year, pending her investigation of +the case. Elizabeth angrily swore that she had never sent him such a +message. Until he could bring her a fresh letter from Philip excusing +this Irish business, she would have no more to say to him; and she +thought that he had done his master a poor service in giving her the +answer he had done. “If I have done ill to my master, madam,” he replied, +“I have a head to pay for it; and although as the King’s minister I am +bound to render an account to him of my acts, I thank God that He has +granted me such a noble ancestry as alone would prevent me from failing +in my duty to my Sovereign, if for no other reason but to leave unsullied +the scutcheon of Mendoza.”[233] “She screamed out louder than before +at this, saying that I was to blame for everything that had happened, +to which I replied smilingly that she was speaking as a lady, those of +her sex usually displaying most annoyance at the things that were done +in their interest. It was no small service I had done her, I said, in +patiently awaiting her pleasure so long.” + +In the heated altercation that ensued, Mendoza seized an opportunity +of mentioning the real object of his visit, namely, the arrival of Don +Antonio. She prevaricated for a long time, and finally retorted that if +Don Antonio was in England, the rebel Earl of Westmorland was not only in +King Philip’s dominions but enjoyed a pension from him. She had not made +up her mind yet, she said, whether she should help the Portuguese or not, +but she was determined not to surrender any one to be killed; and if she +did not choose to give him up it would not be she, but Philip, who had +first violated the old treaties. Upon this Mendoza made a formal demand +for the surrender of Don Antonio in accordance with the international +agreement, and was curtly refused. + +Thus every day the breach between Elizabeth and her brother-in-law grew +wider, and Mendoza followed in the footsteps of de Spes and Guaras. Don +Antonio was welcomed at Court with royal honours, and was very soon +borrowing money on his jewels to fit out expeditions to the Azores, which +still held out in his favour. The Queen herself blew hot and cold. If +Antonio succeeded in capturing the throne of Portugal again, she wished +him to be beholden to her for it and not to the French, whilst she was +determined not to be drawn into open war with Philip for him unless she +could manœuvre the King of France into the same position. Philip wrote to +Elizabeth himself, begging her to expel or surrender the rebel Pretender, +and Mendoza continued to press her, often intemperately, on the subject; +but she always countered with Ireland, the refugee Desmonds, Ridolfi, and +the Earl of Westmorland; and usually succeeded in getting up a wrangle +with the heated ambassador, which placed him at a disadvantage. To +prevent Philip from proceeding to extremities against her, and to keep +the King of France from breaking away, the marriage dealings with Alençon +were carried by her to a point from which all observers believed she +could never extricate herself. But her tactics, risky as they really were +at this time, were successful in their main object, namely, in weakening +Philip’s power on every hand, and making it impracticable for him to +avenge himself by force. + +The English Catholic party had already felt the cruel consequences of +the renewed Jesuit activity. Campion, the most fearless of the young +missionaries, with two brethren, suffered cruel martyrdom with unshaken +constancy in December, 1581, and scores of other priests and laymen were +under sentence of death,[234] whilst throughout the country recusants +were hunted with merciless vigour, not, of course, for religion, said +Elizabeth’s officers, but as disobedient and disloyal subjects. Most of +the active Catholic nobles were now in exile, and it was clear that no +armed rising in England against the Queen’s Government was now possible, +except with very powerful help from abroad. But in Scotland matters +were entirely different. Morton had fallen, and the half-French Lennox +d’Aubigny, a Catholic, was the most powerful force in the country. His +French ancestry had caused the Spaniards to look askance at him for a +time; but the declaration of Guise to the Spanish ambassador in Paris, +that Mary Stuart in future would look alone to Philip for direction, +somewhat disarmed Mendoza, and, despairing of striking at Elizabeth by +other means, the ambassador turned to this quarter to aid him in his +vengeance. + +Philip had commanded him to continue to console and encourage the +imprisoned Mary, and in September, 1581, referring to his correspondence +with her, the ambassador opens a new chapter in his activities in +England. He has, he says, been trying in every way—of course, through +the Jesuit missionaries mainly—to convince the Scots how advantageous +it would be for King James if Scotland were formally to return to the +Catholic Church; but for fear of driving Elizabeth into the arms of the +French, if she knew it, he has had, he says, to work very cautiously and +secretly. He then goes on to say that he had just held a private meeting +with some leading English Catholics, especially the brothers Tresham, +and had urged upon them that the best way to cause trouble to Elizabeth +would be for Scotland to submit to the Holy See. Even if Philip’s other +cares allowed of his sending a large force to England, such a course +would be impossible owing to French jealousy. Yes, admitted the Treshams +sorrowfully, the English Catholics were now so downhearted and crushed +that a rising in England was impossible unless King Philip sent a great +fleet and army fit to conquer the country, which they saw he could not +do. The Irish, too, were not to be depended upon, and they agreed that +the only way to gain England now was by winning Scotland first for the +Church. + +The idea took root, and a meeting of six English Catholic peers and +several gentlemen thereupon took a joint oath of fidelity to devote all +their means and energies to this end. The confederates, with Mendoza’s +approval, despatched one of the senior Jesuit missioners, Father +Creighton, to Scotland to broach the matter to Lennox d’Aubigny, saying +that if James would embrace the Church the English Catholics would +rise, have him proclaimed heir of England, and release his mother, but +if he refused they promised to adopt another candidate as Elizabeth’s +successor. D’Aubigny was to be entertained with the notion that help +would be forthcoming from France and the Pope, as well as from Philip; +but this was only intended to be a blind, for Mendoza specially warned +the plotters that nothing should be said to Frenchmen about it, “in order +to prevent it from being hindered by the fear that it is a plan of your +Majesty alone.” “They agree with me in this, as they are all Spanish and +Catholic at heart, and do not wish to have anything to do with France.” + +Creighton went on his way to Scotland in disguise, and in the meanwhile +the relations between Elizabeth and Mendoza became more strained than +ever. Philip had instructed him in October to address the Queen strongly +about the unconcealed encouragement she was giving to Don Antonio. For +some time Mendoza asked for audience in vain. Elizabeth was at Nonsuch, +and all sorts of excuses were given for her declining to receive him. +Mendoza, chafing under what he calls “her insolent and outrageous” +treatment of him, at last sent a servant of his to Burghley, positively +to demand audience of the Queen when she arrived at Richmond. The reply +brought back in Burghley’s words was ominous. “Sir, I must tell you the +truth; the Queen is at present alone, unattended by Councillors, and as +Don Bernardino is to bring letters to the Queen from so great an enemy of +hers as his master, it is meet that he should be received accordingly.” + +They kept Mendoza fuming for several days longer before he was received; +and when he entered the presence chamber at Richmond, boiling over with +wounded pride, he found the Queen no longer the smiling coquette she +had formerly been with him. Seated upon a tabouret under the canopy, +with Sussex and Lord Admiral Clinton standing by her, she refrained from +rising and advancing to receive him, as was her wont, and welcoming him +with a greeting in Italian. Instead of that she sat frowning as he bowed +low before her, the first words she said being to complain that she was +suffering from a pain in her hip. Mendoza expressed his sorrow that he +should have to trouble her with business in such circumstances, but she +made no reply, and left him standing uncovered. “How about the letter +you say you have from the King?” she snapped at last, and he handed her +the King’s demand for Don Antonio’s surrender, which she read with a +clouded brow. “You know very well,” she said, “that Don Antonio has left +England; but I can tell you that if I had chosen to help him your King’s +fleets from the Indies would not be where they are now, and Portugal, +perchance, would not be so tranquil”—all this, as Mendoza says, with much +browbeating and vociferation. + +“What else have you to say?” asked the Queen tartly; and in answer +Mendoza, in high and mighty strain, began to talk about the power of +his master’s fleets, and how those who dared to attack them would get +well trounced. She had helped the rebel Antonio, he said, she had called +him “King,” she had let him sail from the Thames with English ships and +arms from the Tower to attack his sovereign, the London merchants had +lent him money on his jewels, and much more to the same effect. His +King, already offended by the way she had helped the Flemish rebels, was +doubly resentful now. What more could she do, asked Mendoza, even if she +were at open war? To all of which Elizabeth replied boldly. As for Don +Antonio, she had helped him and still would do so; but she knew not what +the ambassador meant by his other complaints. “This was said,” continues +Mendoza, “with the most terrible insolence; and as I saw her evil intent, +I replied that I had been here for over three and a half years; but as +it appears she had heard nothing in all this time of the complaints I +had constantly been making, and would find no remedy for them, it would +be necessary to see whether cannon would not make her hear better.” In +answer to this Elizabeth, for a wonder, replied calmly and in a low voice +that he need not think to threaten or frighten her, or she would put him +into a place where he could not say a word. In future he might negotiate +with her Council, but as she had no ambassador in Spain she would not +receive him herself. + +Mendoza thought probably that he had gone too far, as he certainly had; +for Philip, as we shall see later, had no intention, or indeed ability, +at this time (October, 1581) to attempt the conquest of England. He did +not desire to threaten, Mendoza said; he was in her power and of course +she could do as she liked with him, but whatever she did, thank God! +King Philip would avenge him. Elizabeth then ordered every one out of +the room but the two Councillors, to whom in angry tones she repeated +Mendoza’s threat about cannon, and her reply. “I smiled to hear her +relate this with so much fury and agitation, and remarked that I would +not waste time on that point. Monarchs, I knew, were never afraid of +private individuals, and above all she, who was a lady so beautiful that +even lions would crouch before her. She is so vain and flighty that her +anger was at once soothed on hearing this, and she began to relate how +thankful your Majesty ought to be to her for having refused help to the +Flemish rebels. All she had done was to prevent the French from taking +possession of your territory.” Thenceforward to the end of the long +interview Elizabeth played off the Spanish support of the Irish rebels, +the subsidising of the northern rebellion, and the intrigues of de Spes, +against Mendoza’s complaints of her help to Orange, the depredations of +Drake, and the reception of Don Antonio; and the exchange of grievances +ended by Elizabeth coldly saying that she would receive the ambassador +no more until the King sent her some satisfaction, to which he retorted +by saying that he would prefer to do business with the Council. As he +turned to go and was already some paces from the Queen he heard her +heave a deep sigh, and say in Italian, evidently intended to reach his +ear, “I would to God that each one had his own and was at peace.”[235] +Mendoza, humiliated and embittered at the course of events, which he +ascribed entirely to Leicester and Hatton, thenceforward became a more +virulent enemy of Elizabeth than ever de Spes had been. In the next +letter after the interview just described he prayed Philip to avenge +himself by seizing all English property in his dominions; but the King +had tried that game before to his cost, and dared not run the risk again, +nor would he listen to Mendoza’s earnest prayers to anticipate the +intrigues of Leicester to have him expelled from England by recalling him +himself. + +When, therefore, Father Creighton returned, in October, 1581, from his +mission to Scotland, Mendoza was ripe for any plan which promised injury +to Elizabeth. The Jesuit told him how he had been secretly conveyed +across the Scottish border, and had conferred with Lennox, Eglinton, +Huntly, Caithness, and Seton, who had warmly consented to Catholic +missioners being sent—“on condition that they brought money for their +own maintenance.” They would have King James approached, too, and told +that his one hope of obtaining the English succession would be for him to +embrace Catholicism and make friends with Spain. Neither Lennox nor the +King was to be frightened with the suggestion that the French were to be +thrown over: but Seton, who appears to have known James’s character well, +proposed that his greed and ambition might be worked upon by his being +shown how much more effectual a friend Spain would be to him than France. +Father Parsons was in London when Creighton arrived, and he and his +colleague Heywood were long closeted with Mendoza to discuss who should +be the pioneer missioners to Scotland. Creighton thought that Father +Parsons, himself, and Heywood should go, “as they would need to be very +learned and virtuous men.” Parsons, still in his captain’s garb, ran over +to Rheims to consult the Principal of the English Seminary, Dr. Allen; +and at Mendoza’s instance it was agreed that Parsons could not well be +spared from England, and that Dr. Allen should appoint fresh men for the +Scottish mission. + +The six English Catholic lords who had first arranged the matter with +Mendoza were now in prison: Catholics were being savagely persecuted +everywhere, and it was evident that the scheme for upsetting Elizabeth +by means of a Catholic movement in Scotland must be managed by Spanish +agents in France and Dr. Allen, “as the Queen and her heretics are served +here by such a multitude of spies that the Queen of Scots herself is in +great alarm.” But above all, says Mendoza, though the affair must be +managed in France, “the French must have no suspicion that your Majesty +has anything to do with it.” As may be supposed, Mary Stuart was a keen +participant in the scheme. In April, 1581, six months previously, she had +sent a message through Archbishop Beton to the new Spanish ambassador in +Paris, Tassis. “Things,” she said, “were never in better form in Scotland +than now for a return to ancient conditions, so that English affairs +could be dealt with afterwards from there. Her son was determined to +be a Catholic, and inclined to break with Elizabeth as soon as he could +be sure of substantial help.” This help Mary earnestly begged of Philip +through Tassis, and asked that it should be landed first in Ireland, +ready to cross to Scotland as soon as the treaty was signed. + +For some reason or another Mary conceived some distrust of Tassis, the +Spanish ambassador in Paris, and of Beton; and as soon as she heard of +the result of Father Creighton’s mission to Scotland, she wrote direct +to Mendoza to tell him that she had partly consented to join her son +with herself in the sovereignty of Scotland, which course had been +urged upon her by the French, but that she was still determined in all +things to follow the direction of the King of Spain in her affairs. +She had understood from the first that from France, divided as it was, +she had nothing effective to hope for. Her son and the Catholic Scots +might desire to keep alive the ancient alliance with France, but Mary +wanted more than that: she needed rescue from England, and this could +only be effected by a Power that was willing to go to war with England +if necessary for her sake, which she knew France, with its powerful +Huguenot element and Catharine de Medici at the helm, would never do. +Mary was suspicious, and grew even more so, of Guise’s interference in +her affairs, which she saw was not occasioned by the desire to benefit +her personally, but to increase his power by keeping hold of Scotland. +Mendoza, of course, threw cold water upon the suggestion that Mary should +recognise James as King on the recommendation of France, and by gaining +Mary’s entire confidence, gradually worked her affairs into his own hands. + +The priests sent to Scotland were meeting with great success; and James +himself told Creighton that, though out of policy he was obliged to +appear in favour of the French, in his heart he would rather be Spanish. +Parsons, whilst, fortunately for himself, he was abroad, though just +about to embark for England, had been proclaimed a traitor and a price +set upon his head; so that in future his sphere of activity was in +Scotland and on the Continent, where he continued to direct English +affairs with ever-increasing violence against the Queen and her faith. +It is characteristic of Spanish methods that, though even Mary protested +against it, all the priests sent by Dr. Allen to Scotland were to be +Englishmen, because it was feared that Scotsmen might have other ends +and incline to France. Above all, it was provided that the French should +have no idea that Spain was behind this purely religious propaganda. +Elizabeth’s Government, suspicious already of the Catholic _régime_ in +Scotland, was well aware that something was going on in which Mendoza was +concerned,[236] and keen vigilance was kept upon the Border. “So far as +can be seen, this business is proceeding most hopefully,” writes Mendoza +in December, 1581, “and is under God’s protection; for, whilst these +two priests were on the English Border one night, a great search was +made in every house in the neighbourhood, as the Queen had been informed +that some English priests would endeavour to go to Scotland, but God +ordained that they should escape almost by a miracle.”[237] Tresham was +in prison, but priests carried messages backwards and forwards between +him and Mendoza, so that the plot was kept going; and the fortitude of +the Catholic prisoners under torture in refusing to divulge the names +of their associates had drawn into the new combination a large number +of sympathisers, whilst Mary herself, gaining ever more confidence in +Mendoza personally, was urging him to assure King Philip that the time +was propitious for him to take some bold and decided action in her favour +in Scotland. + +This was the hopeful condition of affairs when Father Holt, a young +Jesuit sent by Parsons and Creighton from Scotland, arrived in London. +Tresham and the other English leaders being in prison, he had been +directed to a disguised English priest in London, who would take him to +the person who was to receive his message. Holt, like the rest of the +rank and file of the Jesuit missioners, had no suspicion that a political +object was behind their Scottish propaganda, and was astounded when +he was led to the house of the Spanish ambassador to give his report. +What he had to say was important. Everything, he reported, was going +excellently in Scotland. The lords were trying by every means to convert +the King; but they wished to obtain Queen Mary’s permission, if he +remained obstinate, “to force the King to open his eyes and to see the +truth.” Failing this, they would, if the Queen authorised them, depose +or transport James until Mary’s arrival in her realm. But, continued +Holt, they considered it necessary, if they were to succeed in their aim, +to be able to count positively upon foreign armed assistance to subdue +the heretics and provide against any interference from England. If they +had two thousand soldiers from abroad they would be sufficient for the +purpose. Where could they look, he asked, for such assistance? Not to +France or to the Guises, for several reasons, and they hoped that Queen +Mary would prevail upon the Pope and the King of Spain to send Spaniards +or Italians. He begged that Mendoza would convey this to Mary and to +Philip, and to have more English priests sent into Scotland for the +propaganda, “only they must bring money for their own maintenance.” + +To Mary Mendoza sent the message of the Scottish Catholics in a somewhat +softened form, in order not to arouse her maternal solicitude for James; +but to his own Sovereign, Philip, he wrote almost vehemently, praying him +to seize the opportunity for striking a fatal blow at Elizabeth. “With +the two thousand soldiers they ask for, he says, the Scots might defy +this Queen ... and the whole North of England would be disturbed, the +Catholics there being in a majority, and the opportunity would be taken +by the Catholics in other parts of the country to rise when they knew +that they had on their side the forces of a more powerful Prince than +the King of Scotland.”[238] There was no more concealment of Mendoza’s +opinion beneath a veil of assumed humility: he not only urged Philip to +ensure the victory of Scottish orthodoxy by force, but to aid a rising +of English Catholics over the Scottish Border. The opportunity looked a +tempting one, for it provided for the removal of the doubtful James, and +the plan might be carried out (if the Scottish lords were to be depended +upon) without giving to Elizabeth the legal right to interfere. + +The experienced Cardinal de Granvelle, who was governing Spain in +Philips absence in Portugal, was almost as enthusiastic in its advocacy +as Mendoza himself. “The affair is so important,” he wrote to Philip, +“both for the sake of religion and to restrain England, that no other +can equal it. By keeping the Queen of England busy we shall be ensured +against her helping Alençon (in Flanders) or daring to obstruct us +elsewhere.”[239] Mary Stuart was just as eager, but had wider views than +Granvelle, seeing clearly with her great penetration, if she was to be +Queen of Britain, the absolute need for organising the English Catholics, +whilst keeping the French out of the affair and not arousing unduly the +suspicions of Elizabeth. “In the event,” she wrote, “of the Scots having +the support requested, and the Queen of England attempting to interfere, +which might give an occasion for the English Catholics to rise, it +would be necessary to have this latter part of the business arranged +beforehand, but in such a way that they should not understand what is +intended, or have any idea until everything was ready to burst forth.” + +Holt went back to Scotland with a promise from Mendoza, which he +certainly was not authorised by Philip to give, that the two thousand +men asked for should be sent to their aid, and the English Catholics, or +such of them as were still at liberty, were conciliated by means of Lord +Henry Howard, who was very heavily bribed by Philip, and thenceforward +became the principal Spanish agent at Elizabeth’s Court. The plot looked, +indeed, a promising one under the sole guidance of Mendoza; and all were +in high hopes that Mary Stuart’s fortune was at last to take a turn, +when Father Creighton arrived in Paris directed to Tassis, the Spanish +ambassador, with a letter from the Duke of Lennox. “Understanding,” he +says, “from the missioners that the Pope and the King of Spain desire to +make use of him for the design they have in hand to restore the Catholic +faith in Scotland and release the Queen ... he is prepared to employ +his life and estate in carrying out the same, on condition that he is +supplied with all things set forth in the statement taken by Father +Creighton.” This letter was dated early in March, 1582, and reached +Tassis in May, having been brought to him by Creighton and Parsons.[240] +The plan was a perfectly new one to Tassis, as Mendoza in London had been +the sole intermediary purposely chosen by Mary and the originators of the +plot, in order to exclude any probability of French participation; and +Philip, to his surprise, was now informed of the affair by his ambassador +in Paris, as if for the first time. Why Lennox should have chosen to send +his adhesion to Paris instead of to Mendoza is not quite clear; but, +being naturally attached to Guisan interests, it is probable that he +wished to ensure that his French patrons should not be excluded. + +In any case, it does not need much knowledge of Philip’s character +to foresee that such inept management as this would upset the whole +business as far as he was concerned. The demands of Lennox, as stated +by Creighton, were ridiculous. The Scottish Lords had promised Mendoza +through Holt that if two thousand foreign troops landed they would be +able to effect the revolution, and this was a number that Philip could +have provided; but here was Lennox demanding twenty thousand men paid +for eighteen months and a large quantity of munitions of war of all +sorts. He must have, he says, twenty thousand crowns in money sent to +Scotland immediately for fortifications, &c., and a further subsidy to +raise Scottish troops; he asks that the troops should be of various +nationalities and placed under his command, and if the attempt failed and +he lost his Scottish estate in consequence, he wanted a guarantee from +the Pope and Philip that an estate of equal value should be given to him +elsewhere. He proposes himself to leave Scotland at the most critical +juncture, and to go to Paris to make final arrangements, as soon as he +hears that the Pope and the King of Spain are pledged to the enterprise. + +Tassis, not unnaturally, remarked to the priests that Lennox was asking +for a good deal, and he learned from them that the Duke of Guise had +been consulted, and thought that fewer men would do. Parsons then took +up the story, and was quite sure that the Catholics of England would +rise immediately the Scottish affair began; and it was soon evident, +even to Tassis, who had been previously quite in the dark about it, that +not only Guise but many other people, clerical and lay, had been drawn +into the business, since one of the Jesuits was to go to Madrid, others +to Rouen and to Rome; and the Nuncio, Archbishop Beton, and Dr. Allen +were also parties to the proposals. The idea that Lennox should be in +supreme command, and that French troops were to be included, alone would +have sufficed to render the plan abortive, apart from the other quite +extravagant conditions he imposed. Lennox wrote a somewhat similarly +foolish letter to Mary Stuart, saying that the Jesuit Creighton had +promised him fifteen thousand men; and that he, Lennox, was to go to +France to raise a large force of Frenchmen. Mary was furious at such +impracticable nonsense, and wrote to Mendoza begging him to restrain +the bungling priests, as she was trying to do, and once more to get +the matter into his own hands. “I am advising Lennox,” she writes, “to +stay in Scotland, and I disapprove entirely of his plan to raise men in +France. You may inform these Jesuits, too, that I will not on any account +allow anything concerning this matter to be done in my name ... and I do +not approve of sending any one on my behalf to negotiate direct with the +Pope and King Philip.” + +Mendoza also was full of scorn for such muddling, and the whole scheme +was thrown into confusion. Guise, as soon as he was informed by Lennox’s +letter brought by Creighton, travelled from Eu to Paris and met +Tassis secretly at Beton’s house. He, too, was full of far-reaching, +ill-digested plans, his main object evidently being to prevent Spanish +troops from being sent to Scotland, in order to avoid, as he says, French +jealousy, but really because he feared Philip’s power. His plan was to +raise a large mixed force to be sent by the Pope to Scotland, whilst +he, Guise, was to make a descent upon the coast of Sussex with a French +force. Philip met the new situation in his characteristic way. So far as +he was concerned, the plan became impossible the moment that Guise and +the French interest were included in it, and he wrote to Tassis, with +vague sanctimonious sympathy, deprecating overzeal and ordering that +nothing more should be done in the matter until further orders.[241] + +Father Parsons, by far the cleverest of the Jesuits, went to Madrid and +submitted Lennox’s foolish conditions to Cardinal de Granvelle and Sir +Francis Englefield, Philip’s English secretary. They both agreed that +the bases laid down by Mendoza and Mary were the only practical ones, +and Granvelle incidentally in his report on the matter throws rather +a curious light upon the diversity of views that we see now existed, +although he probably did not know it, between Philip’s views with regard +to England and his own. We shall see presently what was in Philip’s mind; +but that of Granvelle is sufficiently revealed when, speaking of the fear +of the Scots that the landing of foreign troops might endanger their +liberties, he says: “This is not what his Majesty wants, nor do I approve +of it; but that we should loyally help the King of Scots and his mother +to maintain their rights, and, by promoting armed disturbance, keep +the Queen of England and the French busy at small cost to ourselves in +comparison with what she will have to spend, and so enable us to settle +our own affairs better. If it had no other result this should suffice, +but much more when we consider that it may lead to the re-establishment +of the Catholic religion in those parts. When we strike there the Irish +will pluck up courage; and it is advantageous that the matter should be +taken in hand by the Duke of Guise, as it will ensure us from French +obstruction. Since we cannot hope to hold the island for ourselves, Guise +will not hand it over to the King of France to the detriment of his own +kinswoman.” He also hints at the possibility of Elizabeth’s coming to +terms with Spain and renewing the old alliance. + +This was certainly not Philip’s view at this time (1582). He had now lost +hope of conciliating England whilst Elizabeth was on the throne, and he +was gradually being convinced that nothing but a great national conquest +with purely Spanish arms would serve his turn. The policy of “loyally +helping the King of Scots,” and, above all, with the co-operation of +the French, would have been useless to him except as a means of gaining +for him uncontrolled command of English foreign policy, which, with +James an unknown factor and Guise as a confederate, was uncertain. The +idea of attacking England through Scotland, which some of his advisers +favoured, was one that never appealed very strongly to him after this +first fiasco of Lennox, and it introduced an element in the situation +which subsequently influenced him greatly, finally, indeed, deciding +his policy. This was the jealousy felt by Englishmen of Scots, and a +determination that nothing like a domination of England by a people whom +they considered inferior should be allowed. Scotland and France, it must +be recollected, had for centuries been looked upon by Englishmen as +their joint enemies, whilst Spain and Flanders had been their friends, +and it soon became a common saying amongst the English Catholics, of +whom Parsons was the mouthpiece, that England would welcome a thousand +times more a Spanish sovereign than a Scottish one. The first note of the +feeling is struck in Granvelle’s memorandum quoted above, where he says +that Englefield is very distrustful of the Archbishop of Glasgow, with +whom he has ceased to correspond, and he wishes that he (Beton) should +not be made cognisant with this business, “which he would immediately +divulge to the French.” + +Whilst these events were passing in France, the causes for irritation +between Elizabeth and Philip were becoming daily more grave. The Queen, +almost at her wits’ end, had managed to get rid of her importunate +suitor Alençon, in February, 1582, by means of a solemn promise to marry +which she never intended for a moment to keep. She had insisted upon +Leicester accompanying him to Antwerp, where the Prince was to join +Orange as the obedient servant of Elizabeth. To the Queen’s dismay, a +few days afterwards she learnt that Leicester had sanctioned by his +presence the investiture of the French Prince with Philip’s Crown of Duke +of Brabant, and it seemed now, even to her, that the cup was full and +that nothing could save her from the vengeance of the outraged Spaniard, +especially as she found that the King of France ostentatiously disavowed +her and his brother’s action. Elizabeth railed at Walsingham and +Leicester like a very fury, summoned Burghley from a sick bed to counsel +her, and ended by leaving her French lover in the lurch. + +Far from seeking immediate vengeance, however, Philip’s own perplexity +was such, in the face of this new dilemma, that he contemplated a step +which up to that time he had always repudiated with scorn. Writing +to Mendoza in May, 1582, he orders him to endeavour to exacerbate +Elizabeth’s jealousy of the French in Flanders for the purpose of +enlisting her aid as a mediator between his rebellious subjects +and himself. Orange had just been dangerously wounded by a Spanish +agent,[242] and it may have appeared to Philip that the moment was a +favourable one to bring about some settlement which, at all events, +might save his sovereignty. “It will be well,” he writes, “for you to +discover whether it is possible for the Queen herself to intervene +for the purpose of reconciling me with my subjects.” He is not very +sanguine, he says, of such an intermediary; “and she is much more likely +to continue her usual arts to incense my subjects against me, but it is +worth trying”; and to show how urgent was Philip’s need of a peaceful +settlement, he sent the large sum of 40,000 crowns to Mendoza to bribe +Elizabeth’s ministers to propose her mediation.[243] + +The presence of Alençon in Flanders as sovereign, even under her own +auspices, made Elizabeth anxious to learn at first hand what the +Spaniards thought of this new provocation, and a hint was sent to +Mendoza that she would receive him again with Philip’s Portuguese envoy, +who had come to announce his accession to the Crown. She was, during +the interview, very emphatic as to her perfect neutrality with regard +to Portugal, “just,” says Mendoza, “as if it were true, instead of an +evident lie.” Mendoza interposed by saying that no doubt that was her +intention, but there were, at that moment, perhaps unknown to her, +several ships being fitted and armed in the Thames for Don Antonio. +What did he mean? Elizabeth asked, and the ambassador gave her full +particulars. Up to this point Elizabeth had been polite, but when she +found that no complaint was made about Alençon, she plucked up courage, +and Hatton, a special enemy of Mendoza’s, who was behind him, seems to +have made some sign to the Queen, for her tone suddenly changed. “This +is no time to deal with that matter,” she cried angrily, and Mendoza +retired more wrathful than ever, and more determined to work his revenge. + +He had been praying for his recall for some time, for he was nearly +blind with cataract, and his soul rebelled against the humiliations he +had to suffer; but Philip had pressed him to stay on, for nobody could +manage the great conspiracy against Elizabeth so wisely and stealthily +as he. He would not abandon his post, moreover, until Mary Stuart had +consented to deal with a fresh ambassador, and he urged Philip to send +a special envoy, on the pretext of claiming the restoration of Drake’s +plunder, but really to succeed him if Mary would show confidence in the +new man. “If it be profitable that I should remain here I will willingly +sacrifice myself for a matter so closely touching the service of God +and the increase of His Church, as well as serving your Majesty, since +two hundred priests are risking their lives in the same cause, in face +of great hardships, hunger and poverty.” His stay in England, indeed, +was a true martyrdom, only endured because of his hope that in union +with Mary of Scotland he might be instrumental in overthrowing Elizabeth +and her Protestant ministers. They, for their part, repaid his hatred +with enmity as bitter. Leicester, Hatton, and Walsingham left no stone +unturned to make his post in England untenable. There was no English +ambassador in Spain, they said, and should be no Spanish ambassador in +England: the man was only a spy and a conspirator. It was he, said his +detractors, who had planned the assassination of the Prince of Orange, +and was the abettor and provider of the flock of black Jesuit crows who +were infesting England with their presence. Even the street boys in +London pelted and hooted him as he passed,[244] and he was practically +excluded from Elizabeth’s Court. But for every fresh slight offered to +him he became more ardent in his determination to make Mary Stuart Queen +of Catholic Britain. The correspondence between them was close, for Mary +refused to trust any other intermediary, and until the raid of Ruthven +and the flight and death of Lennox finally upset the Catholic _régime_ +in Scotland, the hope of bringing back again into workable shape the +plot that the priests and Lennox had embroiled was never abandoned by +them.[245] + +The fact of their correspondence was, of course, well known to +Elizabeth’s Government, and this made the ambassador’s treatment the +harder. Once, in May, 1582, he was driven, by orders from the anxious +King, to demand audience of the Queen, who replied that she would receive +him as a private person if he liked, but would see him no more as +ambassador until he brought an apology from Philip for aiding the Irish +rebels. To this he replied haughtily in a letter, threatening to leave +England at once and let muskets speak for him. When Elizabeth read the +letter she was perturbed, and softened somewhat. “God forbid,” she said, +“that she should ever break with the King of Spain, to whom she bore +nothing but goodwill, ... She hoped that Don Bernardino would not leave; +he could communicate with her in writing until the King’s explanation +of the Irish affair came.” Writing to Philip in November, 1582, Mendoza +says: “I have tried every means, overt and covert, to get into relations +with the Queen’s ministers, but they fly from me as if I were a rebel +subject of hers, and things have reached such a point that no one will +speak to me or even to my servants.” Even his heavily paid Court spies, +Lord Henry Howard and Sir James Crofts, avoided communication with him, +except when they needed money. + +The efforts of Guise and Beton to keep the Scottish Catholic intrigue in +their own hands also tended to isolate Mendoza. Both he and Philip, when +the news of the raid of Ruthven and the flight of Lennox reached them, +recognised that the enterprise through Scotland was hopeless for a time, +and endeavoured to confine Guise’s energies in future to France. He was +told how dangerous it would be for him to leave France with his enemies +the Huguenots in possession, and was flattered and encouraged by Philip +with the suggestion that the Crown of France might be his by Spanish aid, +if Henry and his brother Alençon died childless, as seemed probable: “for +it would be a public infamy if the most Christian Crown should fall, as +may be feared, into the hands of a man who was not a Catholic [_i.e._, +Henry of Navarre], besides the danger of this, it will be a standing +disgrace to a true Catholic like Guise himself.” Guise was proud and +delighted that so much deference was being paid him, but he could hardly +be expected to look at Scottish affairs entirely from Philip’s point of +view; and, whilst not losing sight of his vast ambitions in France, he +still endeavoured through Beton, Tassis, and Parsons, to keep his hand on +the realm of his cousin. + +When Lennox passed through London in January, 1583, on his way to exile +in France he sent his secretary to Mendoza—not daring to come himself—to +give him an explanatory account of Lennox’s ignominious collapse, and +to inform him of his plans to return to Scotland, with James’s full +connivance, and for an invasion by foreign troops in the Catholic +interest. In such plans both Mendoza and his master had now lost hope, +and though Lennox soon afterwards died, Guise himself, undeterred by +Philip’s flattering attempts at diversion, became the central pivot of +the intrigue, abetted by Beton, Tassis, and the Jesuits, who were still +curiously blind to the real trend of affairs. A new French ambassador, La +Mothe, was sent to remonstrate with Ruthven and the Scottish Protestants +for keeping their King in durance, and to warn Elizabeth not to interfere +in Scotland; and with him went young de Maineville on a separate mission +from Guise to the Scottish Catholics, for the purpose of reviving the +plot for landing a foreign force in Scotland. Beton and Tassis were, +of course, parties to the arrangement, much to the annoyance of Mary +and Mendoza, who thus saw all their carefully planned schemes thrown +into confusion. James in Scotland, as usual, lied to everybody, and +the Scottish Catholic party was disunited, so that Guise’s agent, de +Maineville, promptly saw that any present attempt to invade Scotland in +Mary’s interest would end in failure, and Guise changed all his plans. + +[Illustration: HENRI, DUC DE GUISE + +FROM AN ENGRAVING] + +On the 4th May, 1583, Tassis wrote to Philip that Guise, in view of the +changed position in Scotland, had decided to negotiate with the English +Catholics for a rising in England. “He has already carried the matter +so far that he expects to have it put into execution very shortly, and +intends to be present in person.” He asked for 100,000 crowns from the +Pope and Philip, to be ready in Paris when he wanted it, though Tassis +says that he does not expect that his Holiness will send much. He needed +this large sum, it appears, principally “for one object which I dare +not venture to mention here, but which, if it be effected, will make +a noise in the world.” This object was no other than the murder of +Elizabeth, which was to be the prelude of the revolution to place Mary +on the throne. Two days before this letter to Philip was written by +Tassis the Nuncio in Paris wrote to the Papal Secretary of State, the +Cardinal of Como, much more plainly. Guise and his brother Mayenne, he +says, had arranged for the murder of the Queen by one of her courtiers, +secretly a Catholic, who owed her a grudge for executing certain of his +relations. This man had made the proposal to Mary, and she had refused to +entertain it, but the Duke of Guise was less scrupulous and had promised +the assassin 100,000 francs for the work. He did not ask the Pope’s aid +for this, but for the invasion of the South of England, which he, Guise, +intended to effect immediately after the Queen had been killed. Neither +the Nuncio nor the Cardinal, nor even his Holiness, had anything but +praise for this saintly plan, and readily promised one-quarter of the sum +needed if Philip would find the other three-quarters. + +Guise’s ideas, as usual, were vague and scattered. Simultaneously +with this plan for murdering Elizabeth and invading Sussex, with the +connivance of the English Catholics, an utterly impracticable scheme, +he tried to keep the Scottish Catholics in hand by heavy bribes and to +convert James. All this sinister activity could not be quite hidden from +Elizabeth, who made a counter move by proposing terms for Mary’s release, +which in future would render her harmless. Mary at once asked the advice +of Mendoza, who was quite shocked at the idea, and wrote to her, as he +says, “with all possible artifice,” by all means to refuse her liberty; +but he tells Philip his real reason: “Nothing could be more injurious to +your Majesty’s interest and hopes of converting this island than that +the French should get their fingers into the matter through the Queen of +Scotland and turn it to their own ends.”[246] Philip agreed that it would +be best to keep Mary where they could lay hands upon her at any moment; +but, perhaps influenced by the opinion of Granvelle, quoted in an earlier +page, he asks for Mendoza’s further opinion on the association of Guise +in the contemplated revolution. Since he was a near relation of Mary’s, +and had the confidence of the Scottish Catholics and the Pope, would his +co-operation, in the opinion of Mendoza, be open to the same objections +as that of Frenchmen generally? To this Mendoza gave a cautious, +sagacious reply. There was no objection to Guise pulling the chestnuts +out of the fire, if he depended entirely upon Spain, but above all Mary +Stuart must be kept in England. + +Philip professed himself willing to provide a part of the money required +for Guise’s murderous attempt, but bargained for a larger contribution +from the Pope.[247] Before anything could be decided, however, the +ill-knit plan fell to pieces. Father Allen and most of the English +Catholic exiles were in deadly earnest, and thought that “all this talk +and intricacy was mere fencing.” The feeling, also, of national jealousy +of the Scots began to manifest itself strongly amongst them. “They +suspected a tendency on the part of the Scots to claim a controlling +influence in the new Empire, and, as the Scots are naturally inclined +to the French, they would rather see the affair carried through with +but a few Spaniards, whilst the English hate this idea, as their +country is the principal one, and they say that it should not lose its +predominance.”[248] This tendency of the English exiles gradually worked +upon Philip and his ministers, until French co-operation in the plans to +subjugate Britain, even under the auspices of the Guises, was eliminated +from the schemes, so far as Spain and the English exiles could influence +them. + +Not many weeks elapsed before this vague plot of Guise to murder +Elizabeth simultaneously with an invasion of Sussex had fallen through. +On the 30th May, 1583, the Nuncio in Paris wrote to the Cardinal of Como, +“I believe that the design upon the person of the Queen of England will +come to nothing”; and three weeks later Tassis wrote to Philip that the +murder plot “is, I see, for the present, quite at an end, and nothing +more is being said about it, so the funds referred to will therefore +not be required.”[249] The English Catholic exiles, led by Dr. Allen +and Father Parsons, soon tired of such an unbusinesslike conspirator +as Guise, and they came to Tassis, in Paris, with a scheme of their +own. They were already jealous of French and Scottish intervention in +English affairs. “They have received so much favour from your Majesty, +that they would rather have the help of Spaniards.” Dr. Allen and his +followers therefore stood aloof somewhat now from the Guise proposals, +and “convinced that they must look for a remedy only to the feeling of +England, they have made up their minds that they are simply wasting time +in depending upon what is arranged here in France, and they have decided +to lay the real condition of England before your Majesty, and beg you to +extend your pity to the poor, afflicted, distressed Catholics there.” + +Tassis was much impressed by Dr. Allen’s earnestness. Scotland was in no +condition, he said, to co-operate at present, even if it were advisable +for her to do so, which the English thought it was not. The King was +a mere boy, notably unstable and in the hands of heretics, though he +pretended to be secretly favourable to Guise’s plans; and the Catholics +of the North of England were ready to rise on their own account if Philip +would aid them with money and a few troops to be landed in Yorkshire or +Lancashire. “They are so confident of success, with the blessing of God, +in whose service the attempt will be made, that it is impossible for any +one to hear them without being convinced.” In this scheme the exiled +Earl of Westmorland and Lord Dacre were to join, and Dr. Allen was to +accompany the expedition as Bishop of Durham. The time fixed by Allen +and his friends for the attempt was in September or October of that year, +1583, in the hope that Philip’s fleet would by that time have defeated +Don Antonio’s expedition off the Azores, and be free to co-operate with +an English Catholic rising. Even an extreme Catholic party in Scotland +were desirous of working independently of France and the Guises, and +sent Lord Seton’s brother to Spain to appeal to Philip, avoiding all +communication with Guise and Beton. + +The Duke of Guise, determined not to lose hold of the business if +he could help it, tried to graft a plan of his own upon that of the +English Catholics, who were in such dead earnest and had no object in +view but the conversion of England. He was willing to abate his demands +considerably, and Tassis thought that if he were flattered enough he +would agree to whatever Philip ordered. Guise eventually managed to +upset the businesslike plans of Dr. Allen and his friends by forcing +upon them his undesired and impractical co-operation. Father Parsons, +who had recently returned from Spain, was to go to Madrid (July, 1583) +to represent to Philip the English view of the case and to crave Spanish +support; but before he left Paris in August, Guise managed to enlist him +as an advocate of his new combined plan, which he was to submit, not to +Philip, but to the Pope. Parsons travelled under the name of Melino—one +of his many aliases—and was instructed by Guise to say that if Philip +would send 4,000 good soldiers and contribute money to raise and pay +10,000 more, with arms for 5,000 Englishmen, the affair could be carried +through successfully. Parsons was to go to Rome first and earnestly beg +the Pope in Guise’s name to provide money liberally, and to leave the +whole management of the affair to the King of Spain. Ports, he was to +assure the Pope, had already been secured, especially that of Fouldrey, +on the Lancashire coast, and troops could be sent from Flanders to join +Guise’s force of 6,000 men to land in the South of England. The whole of +the North of England and Catholic Scotland was ready to rise, the nobles +prepared, and even James of Scotland had now freed himself from the +custody of the Ruthvens and smiled upon the enterprise. The Pope was to +be asked to issue a Bull approving of the expedition, giving indulgences +to all who aided it, and to appoint Dr. Allen Nuncio and Bishop of Durham. + +This was the message that Parsons, under the name of Melino, took to +Rome; and to any one who knows Philip’s methods it spells failure on the +face of it. When the King heard that Parsons had in Guise’s name settled +with the Pope what Rome’s contribution was to be, without reference +to him, he expressed his annoyance with unwonted energy, for he had +no intention of allowing his hands to be forced by priestly meddling +or French interference. He had, indeed, by this time, as we shall see +presently, gradually allowed himself to entertain the vast project for +the conquest and domination of England on his own account, towards which +he intended the Pope to contribute, not the comparative trifle demanded +by Guise, but the lion’s share of the expense. + +At the same time as Parsons went on his way to Rome, Guise despatched to +England Charles Paget, who, with Thomas Morgan, had been sent by Mary +Stuart to serve as assistants or secretaries to Beton, his mission being +to ascertain from the English Catholics what force they could join to +Guise’s invading army. Paget, although an Englishman, was ostensibly a +devout Guisan, but in strong opposition to the interference of Parsons +and the Jesuits in political affairs.[250] From the first he had been +a spy in Walsingham’s pay, and to him was owing the perfect knowledge +possessed by Elizabeth’s Government of the whole of the present intrigue. +The instructions given to him by Guise display more clearly than any +other document the utter incompatibility of the views respectively of +Philip and Guise with regard to England, and of themselves are sufficient +to account for the subsequent exclusion of Guise from all the Spanish +plans relating to it. Paget is instructed to discover which port will +be most convenient for Guise’s landing, and what strength will join him +there. Guise would come with 4,000 or 6,000 men, and desired a port +within fifty leagues of Dover. He wished to know what provisions and +arms would be ready for him, and much other information was sought. To +all of this Philip scattered on the margin when he read the dispatch +satirical exclamations at the unreadiness and uncertainty that these +inquiries demonstrated; but what finally convinced Philip that Guise +was no fit confederate for him was the concluding portion of Paget’s +instructions. “Assure the English Catholics, on the faith and honour +of Hercules [_i.e._, Guise], that the enterprise is being undertaken +with no other object or intention than to re-establish the Catholic +religion in England, and to place the Queen of Scotland peacefully on +the English throne, which of right belongs to her. When this is effected +the foreigners will immediately retire from the country, and if anyone +attempts to frustrate this intention, Hercules [Guise] promises that +he and his forces will join the people of the country to compel the +foreigners to withdraw.”[251] No wonder that Philip underscored these +lines, and that he thenceforward found the whole plan insufficiently +matured. Once more he primly deprecated undue haste, and gently put the +plan aside with vague professions of sympathy. + +Mendoza in England was less cautious than his master. His position, +as we have seen, was a humiliating one, as Elizabeth persisted in her +refusal to receive him as ambassador, and he was exposed to daily +slights from those who took their tone from the Queen. When Charles +Paget went to England on Guise’s errand in August-September, 1583, he +was directed to Francis Throckmorton for the purpose of obtaining the +information he sought; this man being probably the person referred to +in the correspondence already quoted, as having been willing to kill +Elizabeth a few months previously at Guise’s bidding. However that may +be, Throckmorton was an intimate of Mendoza, who had been informed of +all that had been discussed in Paris, and both he and Charles Paget, +whilst he was in England, were closely watched. Through his numerous +spies Walsingham was perfectly aware of all that had been so incautiously +handled by Guise; the whole of the invasion project had been known to +Elizabeth’s Government for months, and though Charles Paget, who was a +spy, was allowed to get clear away to France, no sooner was he gone than +the blow fell upon those in England with whom he had conferred. + +Francis Throckmorton was arrested, as was the new Earl of Northumberland +and his son, whilst the Earl of Arundel was summoned before the Privy +Council, and Lord Paget and Charles Arundell (of Wardour) fled to France. +Mendoza was deeply concerned at the arrest of his friend Throckmorton, +and wrote to Philip an account of it, cautiously worded, but sufficiently +inculpatory: “The Catholics are quite cowed.... Only one paper was +found upon Throckmorton, containing a list of the principal ports in +England, and particulars with regard to them, and the chief gentlemen +and Catholics resident in them. For this they carried him at once to the +Tower, and it is feared that his life is in danger, although he informed +me by a cipher note, written on a playing-card and thrown out of the +window, that he denies that the document is in his handwriting, the hand +being a disguised one. He told them that some person had thrown it into +his house for the purpose of injuring him, and he assures me that he +will endure a thousand deaths rather than accuse any one, which message +he begs me to convey to his Catholic friends.... I have written to the +lady in prison [_i.e._, Mary Stuart], encouraging her, and begging her +not to grieve over the matter to the detriment of her health, but the +business, it may be feared, may imperil her life if the negotiations in +France are entirely discovered.”[252] + +Tassis in Paris was even more despondent, and he feared, what proved to +be true, that the rack would soon draw from the prisoner all he knew. +Time after time Throckmorton was tormented, as were his brother-in-law +and two other relatives, and sufficient was torn from them, together with +the known correspondence, to furnish a good pretext at last for expelling +Mendoza from England with ignominy. On the 19th January, 1584, a formal +summons for him to appear before the Council was handed to him. “If these +gentlemen wish to see me in my private capacity,” he replied to Beal, +the Secretary, “let them come to my house as I went to theirs when I +wanted to see them. But if they are sitting in Council, I would wait upon +them, as an ambassador should; but I warn them that if I open my ears to +what they have to say, I shall not shut my mouth to answer them, as the +service of my master may demand.” He says he gave this answer because he +knew the intention was to expel him, and on the Councillors answering +that they wished to see him officially, he went to the Lord Chancellor’s +house to meet them. + +Walsingham spoke Italian better than the rest, and formulated the +Queen’s complaint. Mendoza, he said, had conspired with Guise to liberate +the Queen of Scots; he was known to be in communication with Mary, with +the French plotters, and with Throckmorton, and he must leave the country +within fifteen days. “It is strange,” sneered Mendoza, “that the Queen +should have summoned them and himself for such a trifle as this. What +you tell me are mere dreams, hardly worthy of an answer. These general +accusations are absurd, mainly extorted by the rack, and unsupported by +details.” Very different were the charges he brought against the Queen of +trying to injure his master, King Philip: and he launched out his usual +string of complaints, from the seizure of the Spanish treasure fifteen +years before to the present helping of Don Antonio against his rightful +sovereign. As for his leaving England, that, as his hearers well knew, +would delight him, and he would go the moment his master instructed him +to do so in answer to a despatch sent by the Queen requesting his recall. +The Councillors rose angrily at this and said that nothing of the sort +would be done: he must leave England at once: “and they explained their +past acts with impertinences that I dare not repeat to your Majesty, the +least of them being that I ought to be very thankful that the Queen had +not ordered me to be punished for what I had done.” + +The blood of the proud Mendozas, the noblest family in Spain, flared out +at this: “To my King alone in the world belongs the right of correcting +me, and to him alone under heaven am I responsible: so, say no more +on that point, unless ye are prepared to fight.” As for the Queen of +England punishing him, he laughed at the idea. He would be overjoyed to +be gone as soon as a passport was sent to him. She was a lady, and, as +such, the least grateful to those who served her best; but, as he had +failed to satisfy her as a minister of peace she would in future force +him to try whether he would succeed better as a minister of war. Thus +Mendoza flung down the gage to England and the Reformation. He had been +unpopular in London before, but now the rumour spread through England +that he had plotted to kill the Queen, and his life was in the greatest +danger from the popular indignation against him. He himself, seeing that +the Government refused him the aid of English ships to get away, and the +Dutch privateers still swarmed in the narrow seas, was convinced that +mischief was meant to him. But he held his head high and boasted more +than ever, as slight followed slight from Elizabeth’s ministers, of the +overwhelming greatness and power of his master, King Philip, who would +avenge with interest all the injuries inflicted upon him and Spain. “Don +Bernardino de Mendoza was not born to disturb countries, but to conquer +them,” he said in one of his messages to Elizabeth; whilst to Philip +himself he passionately wrote with a back-handed reproach: “All their +behaviour is on a par with this; and if God had not made you so clement +and God-fearing a prince, surely no vassal of yours would consent to +serve you in England, seeing the way in which the English treat us: for +so powerful an empire as that which God has granted to your Majesty +cannot endure such ill-treatment as this for any earthly reward.”[253] + +To add to his trouble, he was almost without money, for Philip was +the worst paymaster in the world, and he had to bring away with him +from England, not only his own great household but the English spies +and intermediaries who had served him. “The insolence of these people +[_i.e._, Elizabeth’s Government] has brought me to a state, in which my +only desire to live is for the purpose of revenging myself upon them; +and I pray that God may let it be soon, and will give me grace to be His +instrument of wrath, even though I have to walk barefoot across the world +to beg for it. I am sure his Majesty will give such an answer as their +insolence merits.”[254] + +And so, cursing and reviled, the proud ambassador, with rage in his +heart, was hustled out of England, and once more King Philip was face +to face with the apparently unsolvable problem of how to gain control +of English policy. Five ministers of his had begun hopefully with +methods of suave diplomacy, and one after the other had become dangerous +conspirators and promoters of treason. Elizabeth and her Government, +timidly at first and with many gyrations, had through a long series of +years injured with impunity the dearest interests of Spain. The seizure +of the treasure had caused the failure of Alba; the constant aid of +the Netherlands revolt had prevented the pacification of Flanders; the +sheltering of the pirates and privateers in English ports had almost cut +off communication between Spain and the Flemish dominions by sea; the +depredations of Drake, afloat and ashore, had well-nigh ruined Spain and +demonstrated her impotence to the world; whilst the assistance and asylum +given to the Portuguese Pretender had rendered incomplete Philip’s hold +over the new conquest upon which he based such great hopes. + +For five-and-twenty years Philip, against the impatient advice of +many of his ministers, had persisted in the belief that his own slow, +cautious, diplomatic methods would succeed in conciliating Elizabeth or +in substituting for her an instrument more amenable to his hand. The +expulsion of Mendoza, in January, 1584, marks the conclusion of the era +of peaceful effort. The ambassador left England breathing threats of war +and vengeance, and when Philip received the reports of his doings he had +no words but those of praise and approbation for them. “You have acted +with the same good sense and courage in the manner of your departure +as in all else that has happened during your stay in the country. I am +entirely satisfied with you, and with your good services, and will take +care that they are duly remembered.” + +Philip at last had made up his mind: henceforward it must be war to +the knife between himself and Elizabeth, and no keener instrument to +work the destruction of his enemy could be found than Mendoza, with a +bitter personal injury of his own to avenge. From his new post in Paris +the ambassador worked incessantly to compass the ruin of the _régime_ +in England that had wounded his pride; and for the rest of his active +life, until, blind and heartbroken with failure, the brilliant soldier, +diplomatist, and historian was shrouded in a monk’s gabardine, Elizabeth +had no enemy so indefatigable and rancorous as Don Bernardino de Mendoza. +Plans and plots for revolution in England, for the murder of Elizabeth, +and for the overthrow by treachery of the Protestant power in favour of +Mary Stuart, were the means upon which Mendoza mainly depended. + +Philip was willing, in his cool, cautious way, to smile upon such +attempts, when he could do so without committing himself prematurely +or too far. They might turn out well by chance, and he might reap the +harvest where others had sown the grain and nourished it with their +blood. But through it all thenceforward there was slowly maturing in +Philip’s mind, and preparing in his chancelleries, the great enterprise +to which he had been forced by the logic of events—the conquest and +domination of England by his own arms and for his own benefit. Such +a scheme necessitated patient plotting in every capital in Europe +before the material preparations could be even commenced. Of the secret +preliminaries, the laborious concentration, and the final disaster of the +great Armada in which Philip’s ambitions were wrecked the next chapter +will tell. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +1584-1588 + + English Catholics _versus_ Scottish—Santa Cruz’s proposal to + conquer England—Enlisting the Pope—Intrigues in Rome—Mary + Stuart and Philip—Drake’s raid on Galicia—Elizabeth assumes + the protectorate of the Netherlands—War at last inevitable—The + preliminaries of the Armada—The Babington plot—Philip’s + consent—His distrust—Discovery—Elizabeth’s fears of war—Her + approaches to Spain—Santa Cruz’s fresh proposals to invade + England—His great plan—The Scottish Catholics try again to + share the attack upon England—Failure of Huntly’s scheme—Guise + not allowed by Philip to interfere—Mendoza in favour of the + Scottish plan—Philip’s claims to the English crown—The peace + negotiations—Drake’s dash upon Cadiz—Parma and the Armada—Death + of Santa Cruz—Medina Sidonia—The Armada—The failure and its + causes—The end of the struggle to win England + + +When the news came of the arrest of Francis Throckmorton and his friends, +and the expulsion of Mendoza, in January, 1584, Allen and Parsons were at +Tournay busily discussing and arranging with Alexander Farnese, Philip’s +viceroy in Flanders, the details of the proposed invasion of England +in conjunction with Guise and a rising of English Catholics. At first +the English priests affected to believe that the arrests would have no +serious effects upon their plans. “If,” they wrote to Philip, “these +men had been cast into prison in consequence of our great business, +they would, as usual, have been put into the Tower of London; and we +feel sure, therefore, that up to the present our adversaries have not +discovered any particulars of our plans.”[255] On the contrary, they +continue, what has happened should only have the effect of encouraging +his Majesty to carry the matter through with greater celerity. “It is +nothing short of a miracle that a business known to so many friends for +two years past should have remained undiscovered so long; but it cannot +remain hidden much longer, so that unless aid comes from abroad at once +the Catholics in the island will be utterly ruined. We therefore cast +ourselves at the feet of his Majesty, and cry unto him for the love of +Jesus Christ that he will not abandon so many suffering souls, who with +their hands raised to heaven are looking eagerly for his help. The time +is favourable, and every day’s delay is filled with danger.” + +Alas! the zealous Churchmen, who were still at this time acting in +concert with the Duke of Guise, did not even yet understand the character +and aims of Philip. The King, keener sighted than the priests, knew +full well that the arrest of the English Catholics and the expulsion of +Mendoza meant not only the failure of the loosely-knit plan of invasion +with Scottish-Guisan co-operation, but a remodelling of the whole scheme +for subduing England to his will. He faced the new problem cautiously +and speciously, as was his wont, for he could not afford to alienate +the Papacy by avowing political ends, nor dared he at first openly +to fly in the face of Guise. Mendoza was summoned to Spain to confer +with his master, for Mendoza was always haughtily oblivious to any +but purely Spanish means and ends, and to him was confided the entire +direction of the English enterprise from the Spanish embassy in Paris, +to which he was appointed. But ere he arrived at his post the English +Jesuits, recognising, at last, that the Scottish-Guisan plan was really +frustrated, had trimmed their sails in the direction most likely to +attain the ends they aimed at—namely, that which would best please their +Spanish paymaster. + +The Vatican, always jealous of Spanish overreaching, still clung to +the inclusion of Guise and the attack upon England across the Scottish +border;[256] and Beton and other Scottish Catholics naturally followed +a lead which offered such prospects for the aggrandisement of their +country. But Allen and Parsons were already undeceived, for they had been +in close touch with Spanish feeling in Flanders; and when the former +was summoned to Paris by Beton and Guise in April, 1584, in order that +they might convince him that the Scottish plan was the best, they came +to high words, and Allen penned a vigorous defence of his own and the +Spanish view. The English Catholics, he said, would never rise and join a +force coming from Scotland, owing to the hatred and jealousy between the +peoples; the King of Scots’ religion being more than doubtful, moreover, +will make people believe that he is trying to conquer England for himself +rather than for the Church, and the very Catholics will fight against him +and his foreign Catholic allies. A landing in Scotland also, said Allen, +would give Elizabeth and her Government time to prepare and mass their +forces on the Border, whilst a descent on the Welsh or northern English +coasts would find the people ready to welcome their deliverers and secure +their footing before the Queen could organise resistance.[257] + +Before he surrendered his post to his successor, Mendoza, Tassis, the +outgoing Spanish ambassador in Paris, also wrote a weighty memorandum to +Philip enforcing the same view, whilst recommending him to send money +to the King of Scots to keep him in hand;[258] and thus not many weeks +passed from the failure of the combined Guisan and Jesuit plan before the +English Jesuit and Spanish elements perfectly understood each other, and +agreed that Spain must act alone in England. In May, 1584, Tassis wrote +to Philip that Allen and Parsons were both in Paris: “Still of opinion +that the enterprise should be directed against England itself, and on no +account should it be attempted elsewhere.... Scotsmen here, impatient +at the delay, are discussing the possibility of carrying through the +business by other aid than that of your Majesty; and, although Allen +and Parsons are trying to keep in with them as much as possible, they +[_i.e._, Allen and Parsons] say that the English need no other patron +than your Majesty, and they not only look to you for a remedy, but they +say that even if you make the Queen of Scotland their Sovereign they +hope you will not leave them hastily, or until everything is settled +permanently. They also say they would be glad for your Majesty to keep +some [English] ports in your hands, the better to assure matters.”[259] +This was the thin end of the wedge; and, knowingly or not, the ideas of +Allen and Parsons must even thus early have agreed with Philip’s humour +at the time. + +James Stuart, by his tergiversation, had made himself quite impossible, +from Philip’s point of view, as a successor to his mother on the +throne of Catholic England. Philip’s own descent from John of Gaunt +was undoubted, and already had been quietly mentioned as giving him a +claim to succeed to the Crown in default of other Catholic heirs. If +England had to be conquered by sheer force and by Spanish arms, Philip +was determined to make a complete job of it, and to suffer no more +backsliding such as had happened after the death of his wife Mary; so +that the suggestion of the Jesuits that the attack should be a frontal +one on England itself, and that the Spaniards should retain their +hold upon the country even after Mary Stuart had been substituted for +Elizabeth, met a ready but cautious echo from the King himself. + +Some months before this, when, in August, 1583, the Marquis of Santa +Cruz, the great Alvaro de Bazan, had scattered off the Azores the +mercenary French and English fleet in the service of the unfortunate +Portuguese Pretender, Don Antonio, and the Spanish squadrons, flushed +with victory, were ready for more fighting, the famous admiral wrote in +exalted strains to the King, praying for his permission to make him King +of England. “Your Majesty,” he wrote, “is now so well prepared, and with +an army so victorious, that I supplicate you not to miss this chance; +for believe me, sire, I have the will to make you King of England and of +other realms as well, whence you might with confidence hope to subdue +Flanders.” Philip was hardly ready for the step yet; for he had the hard +task before him of hoodwinking the Vatican as well as parrying French +opposition and Guisan interference, but he wrote to his great admiral: +“These are things of which we can hardly speak just yet, for they must +depend upon time and circumstances; but in any case I will order the +preparations you propose to be made, biscuits to be provided, the +building of galleons hastened, and men sent to Flanders to be ready.”[260] + +The first necessary step was to secure the financial support of the +Pope without letting him know the real object of the proposed invasion. +Gregory XIII. was cautious and unambitious, though not unwilling to +signalise his pontificate by some great effort against heresy, but, +like most Italians, with no desire to aggrandise Spain politically. He +was surrounded by Cardinals representing different interests: Medici, +D’Este, Gonzaga, Rusticucci, Santorio, and others favouring the French +view, which looked with hope towards the conversion of James Stuart and +an arrangement with Elizabeth to recognise him as her heir, the real +object being, of course, the exclusion of Spanish influence from England. +Cardinal Sanzio watched the interests of the House of Guise, while the +Secretary of State, Caraffa, Sirleto, Como, Dr. Allen (somewhat later), +and the Spanish ambassador, the Count of Olivares, worked craftily and +incessantly to forward Philip’s wishes. It will be recollected that when +Father Parsons, under the name of Melino, went to Rome at the instance of +Guise in the autumn of 1583, to beg the Pope’s assistance in money for +the combined Anglo-Scottish project, Gregory XIII. had readily promised +what was asked of him, much to Philip’s annoyance. When, therefore, +Olivares, in Philip’s name in the spring of the following year, 1584, +sounded the Pope upon the much vaster project of invading England with a +great force direct, the Pontiff blandly replied that he would contribute +what he had promised to Guise through Parsons, and at the same time +recommended to Philip the Guisan plan of an invasion of Scotland as a +preliminary of the conquest of England for the faith. + +It was not so easy, replied Philip, to liberate the King of Scotland, nor +was it safe for the Duke of Guise to stir from his house in France unless +in great force. If he were to try the Scottish plan he would probably be +lost, which would be an irreparable blow to the Catholic cause in France. +Then Philip gently pushed James Stuart into the background. He shall be +helped with money, of course, and the English Catholics shall be kept in +good heart, but the affair is a great one, and will take time and much +money if it is to be done with a certainty of success; above all, the +Pope must “contribute very largely, and must find ways and means, through +his holy zeal, to do much more than any one has yet imagined.”[261] + +The stars seemed to favour the Spanish plan. Young Alençon died in June, +1584, and the next heir to the Crown of France was the Huguenot Henry +of Navarre. Guise, with his high hopes and the people of Paris at his +bidding, was thenceforward more easily brought into obedience to Philip; +for upon Spanish forces alone could he depend to aid the French Catholics +to resist the accession of a Protestant sovereign. Civil war, indeed, +loomed up in France, and from it the Duke of Guise might hope to emerge +a king; and in December, 1584, the Catholic league of Philip and Guise +was signed at Joinville, by which the King of Spain was left a free hand +in English affairs in return for his support of Guise in the rapidly +approaching struggle in France. Philip was thus assured, first, that the +Huguenots would be too busy to help Elizabeth in her hour of need, and, +secondly, that Guise would be too full of his own ambitions in France to +interfere with his in England. + +The death of Gregory XIII. and the accession of Felice Peretti as Pope +Sixtus V. also seemed to favour the Spanish objects. Sixtus was full +of vast projects for the spread of orthodox Christianity; he was a man +of great ability and boundless ambition, who had waited long for his +chance and was determined to make the most of it now it had come, so +that Olivares had in future a more ready listener than before to his +exhortations on behalf of the Catholic King. But though Sixtus yearned to +do great things for the Church, he was determined, as his predecessor had +been, not to work for purely Spanish aims to the prejudice of France; and +for the next two years a keen war of wits was waged between Olivares and +the Pope, the Spaniard seeking to obtain the million ducats subsidy to +the English enterprise without pledging his master to any definite course +in England after the conquest. + +In the meanwhile the long delay was driving Mary Stuart and the English +Catholics to desperation. The Queen had been taken from the mild custody +of Lord Shrewsbury, and was now kept a close prisoner in the hands of +very different gaolers. Her one hope was in Philip and Mendoza; but as +month followed month whilst her treatment became harsher and no succour +came—for the vast plans of Philip could only be carried out, if at all, +with infinite preliminaries—the unhappy woman became almost vehement in +her prayers that the movement should be made before it was too late. +In November, 1584, she wrote to Mendoza: “Let the end be what it may, +and whatever becomes of me, no matter what change may be made in my +condition, pray use all diligence in forwarding the execution of the +great enterprise without any regard for the personal danger I may incur. +I shall look upon my life as well spent if by its sacrifice I can help to +relieve the multitude of oppressed children of the Holy Catholic Church.” +Both she and Mendoza believed at this time that her life was in danger +unless the Spanish attack was delivered in time to avert the supposed +evil intention, and the ambassador, writing to Philip, added his own +supplications to those of the Queen that no more time should be lost. + +What Mendoza dreaded even more than Mary’s murder by the English, was +the possibility of her escape by their means, as she would then owe her +life to heretics, and would thereafter presumably be an untrustworthy +instrument against them. “If, on the contrary, she perish, as may be +feared, it cannot fail to bring scandal and reproach upon your Majesty, +because as you are, after her, the nearest Catholic heir of the blood +royal of England, some false suspicion might be aroused at your having +abandoned the good Queen to be ruined by the heretics, in order to open +the door to your Majesty’s own advantage.”[262] This idea of Philip’s +claim to the English succession was industriously kept alive by Allen, +Parsons, and Hugh Owen, who had been appointed a committee to advise the +Duke of Parma in Flanders with regard to the English enterprise, until +the breaking out of the civil war in France, and the open support given +to the Dutch rebels and Huguenots by Elizabeth, changed the centre of +intrigue from Flanders to Rome; and Allen and Parsons were sent thither +to work in favour of the Spanish plans. + +For the scheme was surely growing now into a vast expedition, ostensibly +to place Mary Stuart upon the throne of England, but really to make +Philip master of the country, with or without the nominal sovereignty. +Deeply though France was plunged in civil war, with Guise in arms +tyrannising over the King, the French interest was still strong, and, +both at Rome and elsewhere, would struggle its hardest against anything +like a Spanish domination of England. Nor were the Italians in love with +the idea of a conquest that would make Philip supreme in Europe, and +consequently all the skill, boldness, and cunning of Spanish diplomacy +was concentrated in Rome to obtain by false pretences from the Church the +vast sums required for the conquest of England. With the weak attempts +of the French Government itself to avert the danger Philip could easily +deal. The French ministers proposed to Mendoza in June, 1585, that Spain +and France jointly should invade England in favour of Mary Stuart. +Philip understood the object at once, and in his usual way, with much +sanctimonious verbiage, asked for a multitude of pledges and particulars, +as if he entertained the proposal, whilst he continued his own stealthy +preliminaries in Rome for the purely Spanish enterprise, for which +others might pay but he alone must direct.[263] When the leader of the +French party in the Vatican, Cardinal D’Este, soon after this tried to +persuade the Pope that the best and safest course for the Church would +be to aid Guise to direct the English enterprise and make James Stuart +King of Britain after his mother’s death, another line had to be taken +by Philip. Then Olivares boldly told the Pope that D’Este, like so many +of his house, was a bad Catholic, who sought to bring about the victory +of heresy in France and the consequent downfall of the Guises. Let the +Pope secure the triumph of Guise and the faith in France first, urged +Olivares, and the English enterprise could be undertaken afterwards. + +Sixtus V. was willing, nay anxious, to allow the conquest to be +undertaken by Spain alone, recognising that the French Catholics could +not now safely be allowed to exhaust their strength in a foreign war; but +he always hoped that James’s constant assurances of Catholic sympathies +might be sincere, and that Mary Stuart might be duly succeeded by her son +under Catholic auspices. Guise also was constantly plied with arguments +by Mendoza on Philip’s orders, directed to divert him from all ideas +of England. “Warn him [Guise] against making any agreement with his +enemies,” wrote Philip, on the 17th August, 1585, “and open his eyes with +regard to the English enterprise. Point out to him the danger he runs +if he allows himself to be cajoled into leaving his home and country +before he has humbled his rivals and converted or expelled the heretics, +and how much deceived he might find himself when he wished to return to +France from such an attempt.... Tell the French first to put an end to +the heretics in their own country, and afterwards we can deal with them +elsewhere.”[264] + +The sinister activity of Philip’s agents in Rome and the vapouring of +the English Catholic refugees in Spanish Flanders, had in the meanwhile +aroused the distrust of Elizabeth and her Government. Ever since Philip +had captured Portugal and obtained thus the command of the Atlantic, the +Puritan element in the English Court, led by Leicester and Walsingham, +had promoted attempts, through Don Antonio and otherwise, to strike a +crushing blow at the Spanish naval power in Europe. Drake’s depredations +in the Pacific had been a terrible loss to Spain, both in a moral and +material sense, and the English seamen were eager to return to the +charge, in order to anticipate and frustrate the evil which most of them +believed was being plotted against their country by the quiet, stealthy +little elderly man far away in the mountains of Castile. Elizabeth and +Cecil detested to face responsibility; and although the Queen was willing +to accept the benefit of accomplished facts, she usually set her face +against assuming an attitude of open hostility to Spain when she could +avoid it. Leicester had at last, in the autumn of 1585, induced her +to accept, with much misgiving, the practical protection of the rebel +Dutch States, and this was naturally assumed by Philip as an act of open +war. Thenceforward any means for injuring the English were considered +legitimate by the King of Spain. + +In the spring of 1585 a large number of English ships had been induced, +on a promise of immunity from molestation, to carry cargoes of grain to +the northern ports of Spain, where famine was impending. One of these +ships, the _Primrose_, was discharging her cargo off Portugalete, near +Bilbao, when, as the English sailors averred, the Lieutenant-Governor +of Biscay and a force of men disguised as merchants boarded the ship +and suddenly called upon the Englishmen to surrender. Though taken +by surprise, the crew turned upon the intruders and threw them all +overboard, though some were subsequently rescued by the English, amongst +them the Lieutenant-Governor himself; whereupon the _Primrose_, carrying +her prisoners with her, immediately set sail to England, with the news +of the treachery, the official orders found upon the person of the +half-drowned Lieutenant-Governor being to the effect that the ships were +all to be captured to help the expedition contemplated for the invasion +of England. At all events, the rest of the English ships were captured, +Philip’s own pretext for the act being that it was in reprisal for the +daring abduction by the _Primrose_ of the Lieutenant-Governor.[265] + +No sooner did the news reach England than the country burst into a chorus +of indignation, and the sailors and Puritans, who had so long urged +an active policy against Spain on the sea, found that all Englishmen +were now with them.[266] It was no longer to be a timid support of the +Portuguese Pretender, or a surreptitious sheltering of Dutch and Huguenot +privateers, but an avowed public movement, and London and the western +ports of England came openly with subscriptions, to which the Queen +contributed largely, for a joint-stock fleet under Drake, to avenge the +capture of English ships, and to injure Spanish shipping wherever it +could be found. This was open war; and through the summer and autumn of +1585 Philip’s spies in England continued to send him alarming news of the +great preparations for a naval expedition against him under the dreaded +Drake. Sometimes it was said to be another attempt to place Don Antonio +on the Portuguese throne, sometimes it was the Spanish silver fleet that +was to be met and plundered on its way home, and so forth; but whatever +it was it boded ill to Philip’s ships, with Drake in command of his +foes. Retaliatory embargoes were placed once more on Spanish property in +England, and the two countries thenceforward were practically at war. + +The enthusiasm in England knew no bounds; and when Drake and his sea-dogs +Fenner, Wynter, and Frobisher sailed out of Plymouth with twenty-one +stout craft and many pinnaces well armed, on the 14th September, 1585, +every one in England knew that Philip’s secret plotting was to be met by +open action. Capturing the Spanish ships, they met, Drake and his company +in a few days, came to anchor off the Bayona Isles in Galicia, and landed +a force of men. “What want ye here,” asked the terrified townsmen, far +from succour. “We come,” said Drake, “for the Englishmen ye have in your +prisons, and for the English merchandise ye have stolen.” The people +could only give them fair words and presents of country produce, for +the English ships had not been captured there. Burning a chapel and its +contents, the English force then sailed to the great harbour of Vigo, +where they looted all they could lay their hands upon. Here again the +people came to parley, and Frobisher, who spoke good Spanish, was the +spokesman of the English. “We want our countrymen and our stolen goods +restored to us,” he said; and the Spaniards were ready to promise this +or anything if the valuables just seized by the English were returned. +Banquets and palavers followed, but they were full of distrust, and +nothing came of them; for Drake saw that his enemies were but delaying +until help should arrive. So, capturing all he could catch in Vigo +Bay, he sailed away on his West India voyage, intending to assail the +Spanish colonial power in its three principal western centres. Philip +was astounded at the boldness of the attack, the first upon Spanish +soil itself, not, as he was careful to explain, because of the material +damage suffered, which was small, but for the “insolence” of the thing; +but withal, it took six months of frenzied effort before Alvaro de Bazan +could muster a Spanish fleet fit to pursue the bold Devonshire sailor, +who was devastating the West Indies. + +The departure of Leicester and a strong English army to Holland, at the +end of 1585, finally brought England and Spain nationally face to face +in the field. We have witnessed the slow process by which Philip and +Elizabeth, both haters of war, had been drawn into this position. For +the former it was vital that England should be amenable to his direction +in foreign policy, or the cause for which he lived was doomed, and the +decadence of Spain as a dominant power in Europe was certain; and, with +his patient, inflexible belief in the fated triumph of his methods, he +had striven through twenty-eight years to secure his object by peaceful +means. He had failed, and it was to be war after all. Not now against +a Queen whose throne was unstable, but against a popular sovereign and +a nation which, since he had seen it, had been born to a new sense of +power, a consciousness of potential grandeur, and a determination to +live its own life without interference from its neighbours. But though +Philip’s plans were thus changed late in the struggle and he saw himself +faced by new forces, he, at least, never doubted of the result. For him +the idea of failure, in a cause that in his eyes was that of God Himself, +was impossible. With a limited mental scope, which shut out all views +but one, he was incapable of understanding that there were two sides to +every question, or that Elizabeth was actuated in her resistance to his +advances by anything else than an impious desire to do evil for evil’s +sake. A small spice of imagination would have enabled him to see that she +was fighting for her own and her country’s life and greatness, as surely +as he was fighting for his; and perchance the knowledge might have made +harmony, or at least neutrality, possible. But, given Philip’s character +and Elizabeth’s circumstances, it was inevitable, after the autumn of +1585, that the antagonists should come to close grip, and that one or +the other should be reduced to impotence for harm. + +Philip was convinced of this at last, and with his leaden-footed +deliberation he set about making success as certain as he knew how to +make it. He was laborious, unsparing of himself and others, a man of +great personal ability, sagacious and wise within his limitations; but +his ingrained distrust of other men—part of his father’s teaching—led +him to take upon himself the care of every detail in all his enterprises +and deprived his officers of initiative and independence. From his cell +in the Escorial, far away and difficult of access from the coast, he +insisted upon pulling the wires which controlled the smallest actions of +his subordinates, and we shall see how in the crowning effort of his life +these fatal characteristics cast a blight over the vast enterprise, upon +which depended the fate of Christendom for centuries. + +[Illustration: CARDINAL ALLEN] + +There were many difficulties to overcome before the material preparations +could even be commenced. First there was Sixtus to persuade, which was +not an easy task. Olivares and Allen worked hard in Rome to convince him +that Philip was moved solely by religious zeal, and not by a desire for +revenge or aggrandisement, in projecting the expedition. “I have plied +him,” wrote Olivares, “with every argument ... but in addition to his +natural tenacity and his buckler of precedents, I have been much hampered +with the news of your Majesty’s preparations which pour in from all +quarters.” The Guisan and Italian Cardinals, too, were for ever undoing +one day what Olivares and Allen with Caraffa had effected the day before. +The Scottish and Welsh Catholic clergy in Rome, too, especially Dr. Owen +Lewis, Bishop of Cassano, and even many of the English secular clergy, +were strongly opposed to what they feared would mean a Spanish domination +of the island; and between the opposing factions and his disinclination +to part with the vast sum of money demanded of him, Sixtus was not +easy to bend to Philip’s will. At length, after much friction and many +quarrels, Olivares was obliged to be content with the Pope’s promise of +a million ducats towards the subjection of England; but no persuasion or +pressure could move Sixtus to provide any part of this sum until after +the Spanish army had secured a footing on the island. A more delicate +matter even than this was the question of the sovereignty of England +after the death of Mary Stuart. Sixtus now usually agreed—though he +often wavered on the point—that James Stuart was not to be trusted; and +in compliance with Philip’s argument that a successor to Mary should be +chosen before she was placed upon the English throne, in order to prevent +her from forcing her son as her heir afterwards, the Pope was at length +brought to agree to leave the choice of the future Sovereign of England +to the King of Spain, though he pleaded hard that the person chosen +should be an Englishman.[267] + +Whilst Olivares in Rome, with imperious boldness, was managing the Pope, +Mendoza in Paris, with equal skill, was keeping Guise in hand, pointing +out the great destiny that awaited him in France, and the shame of +allowing a heretic King to succeed to the “most Christian” Crown. At the +same time he maintained a close correspondence with Mary Stuart and the +disaffected section of English Catholics who were represented as yearning +for the coming of King Philip’s liberating fleet. Mary was sore and angry +at what she thought an unjustifiable delay on the part of Philip, and was +incessant in her prayers, through Mendoza, that she should be liberated +before it was too late. Most of her intermediaries were false, and her +secret correspondence was known to Walsingham and Elizabeth, but with +Mary’s unhappy trustfulness she never failed to seize upon any chance, +however dangerous, by which her great ambition might, perhaps, be served. + +In the middle of May, 1586, Charles Paget, who was still one of Mary’s +agents in Paris, came to Mendoza, bringing with him an English priest +named Ballard, who had been sent by a number of Catholics, especially +in Lancashire and the North, to represent to him that: “God had infused +more courage than ever into them, and had convinced them that no time +was so opportune as the present to shake off the oppression of the Queen +and the yoke of heresy that weighs upon them, as most of the strongest +heretics are now absent in Zeeland. They say that I have never deceived +them, and they beg me to tell them whether your Majesty had determined +to help them to take up arms when they decided to do so.”[268] Mendoza +had but a general expression of sympathy to reply to this; for though +the great fleet of conquest projected in Spain was already the talk of +Europe, to Philip’s officers it was still supposed to be an inviolate +secret. This inquiry of the English Catholics, however, was not John +Ballard’s real reason for coming to see Mendoza. He handed him a letter +from four English Catholics who had access to Elizabeth’s Court, in which +they promised to kill the Queen either by poison or by steel if they were +assured of Philip’s help after the deed was done. Mendoza ciphered the +letter himself and sent it to Philip’s secretary, but as John Ballard +did not broach the subject verbally Mendoza’s disinclination to give any +pledges kept Ballard in Paris beating about the bush in doubt for many +weeks. Parsons, who was a good hater, asserted ten years afterwards[269] +that the whole scheme of Ballard and Gifford was promoted by Paget +and Morgan, Mary Stuart’s correspondents in Paris, for the purpose of +frustrating the purely Spanish attack upon England, to which they are +represented as being bitterly hostile, and that Walsingham was informed +of the plot with the same object. Paget was, and continued to be, a +pensioner of Spain, and Morgan, who was entirely trusted by Mary, was +also richly rewarded by Philip, at her request; but there is no reason +to doubt the positive assertions of Parsons that both of them belonged +to the anti-Jesuit party, to which, indeed, most English as well as +the Scottish and Welsh Catholics adhered; and that by every means they +endeavoured to frustrate what Allen and the Jesuits tried so hard to +promote—a Spanish domination of England. + +Whilst Ballard waited in Paris the reply of Mendoza, the latter received +important letters from Mary Stuart, who at last had been able, by +Morgan’s contrivance, to reopen correspondence with the outer world, +little dreaming, poor soul, that the facilities provided were only a trap +of her enemies. This was the first time she had communicated with Mendoza +since his arrival in Paris a year before, and William Paget, the brother +of Charles, was her messenger. He was to make certain proposals to him +for Philip’s aid to “our designs”; but by far the most important part of +the message came afterwards. The continued heresy of her son James had, +she said, well-nigh broken her heart, and in order to secure the triumph +of the Church “I will cede and make over by will to the King your master +my right to the succession of the English Crown, and ask him to take me +in future entirely under his protection, and also the affairs of this +country. For the discharge of my own conscience I could not hope to place +them in the hands of a Prince more zealous in our Catholic faith or more +capable in all respects of re-establishing it in this country.... I am +obliged in this matter to prefer the public welfare of the Church to the +aggrandisement of my posterity.” + +Thus Mary finally embraced the Jesuit view which looked forward to +a Spanish sovereignty over England to the detriment of her son and +Scotland, and in opposition to many of her friends and adherents in +England and France.[270] To the King of Spain this renunciation of her +son by Mary was of profound significance. His own English descent had +never been lost sight of, but here his claim was rendered legitimate +apart from his ancestry; and Mendoza, though when he received Mary’s +letter he had just been couched for cataract and was temporarily blind, +caused a reply to be written to the Queen warmly commending her saintly +resolution. She saw, he said, how evil her son was disposed, and the +French had done little enough for her, whereas Philip had always +befriended her. “Moreover,” he wrote to Philip, “failing the Queen of +Scots and her son, your Majesty is the direct legitimate heir to the +Crown of England. Cecil, the Lord Treasurer, was in the habit of saying +that the Duchy of Lancaster had been unlawfully usurped from your +Majesty.”[271] No wonder that Philip replied to this in what was for him +an unusually effusive strain: “She [Mary Stuart] has greatly risen in my +estimation in consequence of what she says, and has much increased the +devotion I have always felt for her interests, not so much because of +what she says in my favour, though I am very grateful for that also, as +because she postpones her love for her son, which might be expected to +lead her astray, for the service of our Lord, the good of Christendom, +and the salvation of England. Tell her all this from me, and assure her +that if she perseveres in the good path she has chosen I hope that God +will bless her by placing her in possession of her own. You will add that +I shall be happy to undertake the protection of her person and interests +as she requests.”[272] + +This move of Mary’s made it necessary for Philip to handle the question +of the succession with more caution than ever in Rome, for if once the +French and Italian Churchmen thought that he meant to seize the Crown +of England for himself, half Europe would have been ready to oppose +him. So Olivares was ordered to “keep constantly before the eyes of his +Holiness the advisability of choosing some firm Catholic, who on the +exclusion of the King of Scots should take his place, and it is equally +important to keep his Holiness to the point, binding him to agree to my +nomination of a fit successor to the Queen of Scots in England.” The +reply from Philip gave Mary new hope. She had been deeply discouraged at +the repeated failures of attempts to rescue her and overthrow Elizabeth, +and the long delay of any effective aid from Philip had well-nigh driven +her to despair. But now, surely, a new era of success was opening to her. +Rumours reached even her in her prison of the great preparations being +made in the Spanish and Portuguese ports for some vast naval enterprise; +whilst the open war between Elizabeth’s troops and the Spaniards in +Zeeland seemed to Mary to make certain and near the hour when Philip’s +arms should avenge the injuries done to him by finally crushing the +heretic Queen and substituting Mary for her. Many times in the last six +months, she wrote to Mendoza, she had turned a deaf ear to proposals +of English Catholics for her deliverance: “But now that I hear of the +good intentions of the Catholic King towards us I have written to the +principal leaders of the Catholics here a full statement of my views +on all points of the execution of the enterprise. To save time I have +ordered them to send to you with all speed one of their number, fully +instructed to treat with you, in accordance with the promises given to +you in general terms, and to lay before you all the requests they wish to +make to the King. I assure you, on their faithful promise given to me, +that they will carry out their undertakings, even at the risk of their +lives. I therefore beg you to give full credit to their messenger as if I +had sent him myself. He will tell you the means they have for getting me +away from here, which I will attempt to effect on my own account if I am +assured of armed aid.”[273] + +Almost simultaneously with this the group of English Catholics who had +sent Ballard to Mendoza in May were able to supply the ambassador with +the details and assurances he had requested to prove the seriousness +of their intention. Their envoy on this occasion was Gilbert Gifford, +brother of the Dean of Lille, and, according to Parsons, a strong +opponent of the Spanish-Jesuit party. He unfolded to Mendoza the +existence of a vast conspiracy in England, in which most of the Catholic +nobles were implicated. The Earl of Arundel, son of the late Duke of +Norfolk, and most of his kinsmen, with a score or so of other noblemen +and gentry whose names Mendoza sent to Philip, were ready to rise in +force whenever they were advised that the Spanish fleet was approaching. +Sir William Stanley, in command of a large body of Irishmen intended for +Flanders, would delay his departure if possible, revolt against the +Queen, and join the invaders; the English force in Ireland under Bele +would do likewise, whilst Claude Hamilton and a force of Scots would join +the Catholics of the North on the signal being given. The very heretics +themselves, they said, were ripe for revolution, tired of the burden +of taxation; but, above all, a young man named Babington and some six +confederates[274] had determined to kill Queen Elizabeth, in accordance +with the suggestion previously made by them through Ballard. They only +asked that Spain should support them when the deed was done. No Frenchmen +should be concerned in the business, but promptitude was now vital, for +every hour increased the risk of discovery; and they prayed Philip to let +them know at once what he would do to rescue England. + +Mendoza jumped at all these proposals, for, according to Gifford, +the greatest men in England were pledged to the rising—as apart from +Babington’s murder plot; even the moderate Catholics being pledged to +it. Two letters went off at once from the Spaniard to the heads of +the enterprise, “praising the proposal as it deserved, as it was so +Christian, just, and advantageous to our holy faith and to your Majesty’s +service, worthy of spirits so Catholic as theirs and of the ancient +valour of Englishmen.” If they succeeded in killing the Queen, promised +Mendoza without authority, they should have the assistance they required +from the Netherlands, and the assurance that King Philip would succour +them. “I promised them this on my faith and word, urging them to hasten +the execution.” Directly they had despatched the Queen, wrote Mendoza to +them, let them seize Don Antonio and the Portuguese with him and lodge +him in the Tower; get Sir William Stanley to seize the Queen’s fleet, +unless Lord Admiral Howard was a trustworthy party to the plot, and let +them be sure to kill Cecil, Walsingham, Hunsdon, Knollys, and Beal at the +same time as the Queen. + +Mendoza’s hatred of Elizabeth outran his discretion, and in conveying all +this to Philip he wrote: “Of all the plots they have hatched these many +years past none have been apparently so serious as this. They have never +before proposed to make away with the Queen, which is now the first step +they intend to take. As she so richly deserves her punishment, it may be +believed that God has heard the groans of the afflicted Catholics and +desires to bring it upon her thus swiftly. Let Him dispose as He will; +but if, for our sins, He shall ordain that it do not succeed there will +be much Catholic blood shed in England. Up to the present your Majesty is +pledged no further than the risk of 100,000 crowns, which have been given +to the priests sent thither, and if secrecy be kept we need only watch +what comes of it. If the Queen falls the country will submit without +bloodshed, and the Netherlands war will be at an end.” + +Philip was horrified when he received this letter, and scribbled upon its +margin, in that appalling scrawl of his, scornful comments which showed +that his cold, secretive nature rebelled against the rash enthusiasm of +his usually discreet Mendoza. How could such a secret be kept, he asked, +if all these people were chattering about it? How could the schismatics, +or outwardly conforming Catholics, be trusted? They were mere heretics +and no better; and how imprudent of Mendoza, his ambassador, to send to +the conspirators two such compromising letters as those mentioned! Philip +had heard too often in the past of such plots as this, and he had thrown +away already too much money in subsidising such adventures. Nothing but +conquest, he was convinced, would serve his turn now; and to that end he +was bending all his energies night and day, penning the Pope closer into +the corner, inflaming more than ever the French ambitions of Guise, and +fomenting trouble in France; and, above all, collecting stores, arms, and +ships from all his vast dominions to crush Elizabeth for good and for all +in the interests of the Church and Spain. + +But, withal, Philip was not a man to throw away a chance if he could +gain it with a minimum of responsibility, and he blended his somewhat +caustic remarks upon the lack of secrecy and caution displayed with +saintly approval of the plan to murder his sister-in-law. “As the affair +is so much in God’s service,” he wrote to Mendoza on the 5th September, +“it certainly deserves to be supported, and we hope that our Lord will +prosper it, unless our sins are an impediment thereto. It appears to be +based upon a solid foundation and to have the support of many Catholics, +but it is difficult to keep a secret entrusted to so many people, and it +causes me anxiety that it should be so widespread, and even schismatics +let into the secret.... But the importance of the matter is great, and +perhaps the time has arrived when God will strike for His own cause.” +Philip left in no doubt his own attitude with regard to the matter. The +Spanish aid should be ready, but should not be sent until the murder of +Elizabeth had been effected. Let the “principal executions” be done, he +urged, without a moment’s delay. “Everything depends upon the one act +which is to be the commencement. When this is done they may with one +voice acclaim it, and the way will be clear, whilst if the intention is +discovered before its execution each one will be destroyed separately and +union will be impossible. As all hangs upon this, and the cause is God’s +own, we must hope that He will prosper it.” + +Gifford was sent on his way to England with the King’s message, and soon +the heavy hand of Walsingham fell upon the conspirators, who had all +through been living in a fool’s paradise, betrayed, as was Mary herself, +by the instruments they thought so trusty and faithful. Philip had +been right in his distrust; once more conspiracy subsidised by Spanish +intrigue and money had failed, more disastrously this time than ever +before; and the King of Spain, whilst deploring in conventional terms the +dire fate of most of those upon whom he had depended for an auxiliary +movement in England on the approach of his fleet, accepted the reverse +with stolid philosophy. In one respect, indeed, it was to some extent a +relief to him. There is no doubt that he greatly esteemed Mary Stuart for +her steadfast Catholicism, and would have placed her upon the throne of +England if his attempt at conquest had been successful during her life; +but there was always lurking in the background the fear that after her +accession she might be drawn by French intrigue or maternal solicitude +to adopt her son as her heir, in which case Philip’s vast efforts and +expenditure might have been in vain. But with Mary a condemned prisoner, +whose head might fall at any moment, it was the present rather than the +future sovereignty of England that was now to be decided, and slowly, +with the aid of Parsons and Allen, the claims of Philip to the English +succession were advanced tentatively even in England itself, though not, +as we shall presently see, with any intention of his personally assuming +the sovereignty after Elizabeth was disposed of. + +The question of Mary Stuart’s complicity in Babington’s murder-project is +one that does not directly concern us here, but there can be but little +doubt that, even though it was not conveyed to her in so many words, +she was well aware of the whole plan.[275] At least Mendoza, who should +have known, believed that she was; for on the collapse of the conspiracy +he wrote to Philip: “I am of opinion that the Queen of Scotland must +be well acquainted with the whole affair, to judge by the contents of +a letter she has written to me.... Doubtless it is God’s will to give +England to your Majesty by the strong arm only, since He has allowed so +much Catholic blood to be lost, as will be shed by the discovery of this +business. Nothing has been said yet about my letters, but even if they +were discovered and printed they are so worded that another construction +could be placed upon them.” Mendoza was too sanguine in this respect. His +letters were read and his conversations with the messengers repeated. +There was no need on the part of Elizabeth and Walsingham to go out of +their way to put harmless constructions upon his words, which, indeed, +were plain enough, and a shout of execration went up all over England at +an ambassador who thus connived at the murder of a sovereign and a lady. + +Already the alarming reports of spies had aroused the worst fears of +Elizabeth and her people. The Queen, particularly, dreaded the vengeance +which seemed hanging over her. For years she had defied Philip and had +beaten him in the game of diplomacy, depending for her immunity upon the +continued war in the Netherlands and upon Philip’s distrust of France. +But she saw that France could not help her now, whatever her extremity, +for the Guises were in arms and the wretched fribble upon the throne +was but a straw borne hither and thither upon the tempest, whilst the +Huguenots were grimly awaiting the hour when they themselves would +have to fight for freedom and for life. The war in Zeeland, moreover, +was now only maintained by English help, and when the dreaded Spanish +descent upon England was made Elizabeth would have to abandon the Dutch +Protestants to their fate, and the last bulwark of Reform would be +submerged by the flood of Spanish popery. + +Once more Elizabeth played the outworn game that had served her turn +so often before. Andrea de Loo and many other intermediaries hurried +backwards and forwards at the instance of Burghley between London and +Flanders, impressing upon the Duke of Parma the English Queen’s earnest +desire to come to terms with her “good brother.” Let the Pacification of +Ghent, which had been accepted in the time of Don Juan, be re-enacted and +all might be settled; let a conference meet, in which mutual grievances +might be arranged, and England and Spain should live happy together ever +after. But Parma for a time gave stiff answers to all this, much as he +knew that Flanders needed peace, for Philip kept him in the dark as to +his real intentions, and he dared not act without precise instructions +from the King. Other attempts were made to reopen the trade negotiations +through Portuguese agents with a view to a general agreement, but Philip +was irresponsive now; for after half a lifetime of hesitation he had +finally made up his mind. England must be conquered by the sword wielded +by his hand alone; and although he might feign to talk of peace to suit +his purpose, there was in his slow-moving, inflexible mind thenceforward +no peace possible with England until Elizabeth and her Government had +been crushed. + +Another spirited attempt was made by Elizabeth to reach Philip direct. +Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa, the famous explorer and Governor of Patagonia, +had been captured at sea by one of Raleigh’s ships. Usually such men +were held for heavy ransom, but Sarmiento was received by the Queen at +Windsor with every witchery she knew how to exert, and was impressed with +her sorrow that such unhappy relations existed—God knew from no fault +of hers—between her people and the Spaniards. Would Sarmiento convey a +letter to his King, accepting his liberation as a reward for his doing +so? Naturally nothing would suit Sarmiento better, and Raleigh carried +him with all distinction to Durham House as his honoured guest, plying +him with assurances of Sir Walter’s desire to serve the King of Spain by +putting a stop to all this piracy, of which the Queen herself and Lord +Treasurer Burghley disapproved. Besides this, he (Raleigh) would sell a +fine ship of his to Philip for 5,000 crowns, would prevent any more aid +being given to Don Antonio, and would, indeed, become Philip’s humble +servant in England. This was, doubtless, nothing but one of the usual +mystifications to divert Philip; but the Queen herself gave a cordial +verbal message to Sarmiento for the King, saying that she was really +anxious to let bygones be bygones and make a durable peace. Sarmiento +left London in November, 1586, and gave his message to Mendoza in Paris, +but on his way to Spain was unlucky enough to be captured again, by +Huguenots this time, near the Pyrenean frontier, and all Elizabeth’s and +Raleigh’s influence was exerted to secure his prompt release. By all +means accept Raleigh’s offer to prevent further aid being given to Don +Antonio and to stop piracy, wrote Philip; but to the suggestions for +direct peace negotiations he made no reply. + +In the meanwhile the arsenals and harbours of Philip’s realms were +ringing with preparations for the great enterprise. The peace conference +so much desired by Elizabeth might meet in Flanders and talk, but no +pause was made in the feverish activity in the Spanish preliminaries for +war. Old Santa Cruz had waited patiently after the King’s gentle rebuff +to him in 1583,[276] until the circumstances detailed in the foregoing +pages had rendered war with England inevitable early in 1586, when he +wrote to the King from Lisbon a letter full of fiery zeal, recalling his +former offer to conquer England when his victorious fleet was ready, and +deploring the shame that had fallen upon Spain since by reason of the +continued insults and injuries inflicted upon it by the heretics, much +to the material gain and moral prestige of the Queen of England. They +had, he said, plundered a million and a half of ducats in the last five +months, and had defied the King of Spain successfully at all points. +Everything was now propitious, urged the admiral, for dealing a final +blow at these daring heretics, and he prayed the King to arise in his +wrath and smite his enemy before the occasion passed. “I am not moved to +this,” he proudly added, “by a desire for fresh battles or the ambition +for new victories, but by no other motive than the service of God and +your Majesty.” + +This time the hero’s appeal found the King ready, for all his peaceful +diplomacy had failed to bring England to his side; and Santa Cruz was +requested to submit to the King a plan for carrying out the enterprise +he proposed. It took Santa Cruz two months, as he says, to draw up from +his papers and the experience of forty years at sea a complete scheme +for the irresistible descent upon England; and the estimate with which +he furnished Philip stands to-day, after three centuries and a quarter, +an unexampled monument of foresight, skill, and boldness. Nothing was +forgotten in this prodigious estimate: naval and military requisites, +arms, stores, clothing and material, down to the minutest detail, are +set forth, with estimates of price and with surprising clearness; the +salaries to be paid to men of every rank are given; the weight and bulk +of every article, the best place where it may be obtained, the rations +to be provided, and the discipline to be observed on land and sea, +are all written in due order, and to such a lover of formal papers as +Philip the estimate of Santa Cruz must have been a pure delight from the +bureaucratic point of view. + +Not so, however, with regard to the concentrated magnitude of the +demands, greater than had ever been made for such an enterprise before. +Santa Cruz wanted for the invasion of England 150 great ships, 40 +store hulks, 320 small craft of 50 to 80 tons burden, 40 galleys and 6 +galleasses, or 556 sail in all, besides 40 skiffs and 200 landing rafts. +There were needed 30,000 sailors and nearly 64,000 soldiers, with 1,600 +cavalry horses, all to be shipped from Spain, and this enormous multitude +was to be provisioned beforehand for eight months with food and water. +Deducting the ordinary cost of armaments in Spain, the extra estimated +expense to be incurred by the enterprise was placed by Santa Cruz at +3,800,000 ducats.[277] The sum in money was much greater than Philip had +ever had to provide in Spain for any one enterprise before, and it took +him aback now. The Pope, it is true, had promised a million ducats, but +not a soldo would he pay beforehand, and the Italian States might be +coerced into contributing; but the bulk of this vast sum in ready money +had to be wrung somehow out of already exhausted Castile, and, anxious +as Philip was to make assurance doubly sure, he knew that this was +impossible; so Santa Cruz’s estimates had to be modified. + +The opportunity for the invasion, nevertheless, was one that could +hardly be expected to recur. The cup of Elizabeth’s provocations was +full to the brim, and her anxiety to open peace negotiations proved her +own apprehensions. France, for almost the first time, was paralysed and +could not interfere. Leicester’s ineptitude in Holland had even turned +the feeling of the Dutch against their protectors, whilst many of the +English troops and their leaders, such as Roland York, Sir W. Stanley, +and Colonel Semple had deserted to the Spanish side and had delivered +to Parma the fortresses occupied by them. The Turk, moreover, was for +the time harmless, and Don Antonio was already a discredited and waning +force. So, although Philip did not approve of Santa Cruz’s plan that +the whole army should be embarked in Spain, he gave orders that the +arsenals and dockyards should work night and day, and through Spain and +Portugal, Sicily, Naples, and Lombardy there rang the echoes of warlike +preparations such as they had never known before; whilst the recluse of +the Escorial, shutting himself away from all other tasks, took counsel +how he might effect his purpose with the means at his disposal. + +It is not to be supposed that the French and Scottish faction would sit +tamely by and see without an effort the whole enterprise of England +fall into the hands of Spain. The conversion of James Stuart was still +a fervent hope with many who dreaded to see a Spanish king supreme in +Britain; and the English Jesuit faction had to fight hard against the +Welsh, Scottish, French, and many English Catholics at home and abroad. +James Stuart himself and the Scottish Catholic nobles were fully alive +to the danger that threatened. The Scottish nobles, with the secret +connivance of James, made a bold attempt to associate themselves with +Philip’s invasion, and to bring Guise again into the combination. Huntly, +Morton, Claude Hamilton, Crawford, and Montrose, in the summer of 1586, +sent one Robert Bruce with three blank signed papers to the Duke of +Guise in Paris, where the letters over the signatures were written at +Guise’s dictation and addressed to Philip,[278] begging him to listen to +the verbal proposals of their envoy, Bruce. Guise and Beton introduced +Bruce to Mendoza, and the gist of the proposals was that Philip should +send to the Scottish Catholics 150,000 crowns to raise and arm soldiers, +whom they would maintain for a year, and they also asked that a foreign +force of 6,000 men should be sent to Scotland to secure the triumph +of the Catholics, in consideration of which they promised to place at +his disposal one or more ports in the south of Scotland to serve as a +shelter and a base of operations against England. Mendoza understood, as +indeed did all experienced fighting-men, the immense importance of the +latter suggestion; for Santa Cruz from the first had insisted upon the +need of seizing harbours in the Channel in case of contrary weather; and +Bruce was sped on his way to see Philip with all the support that the +ambassador could give him. + +But Philip had had enough of Guisan meddling, and he had no intention of +allowing the supreme effort he was making to be used for the benefit of +any one but himself, and least of all for that of shuffling James Stuart. +As usual, he did not say no plainly, for he had no wish to alienate the +Scottish Catholics, or to arouse suspicions of his motives anywhere. +So, gently suggesting doubts and difficulties, he referred the question +to Mendoza and Parma for report, sending Bruce back to Paris with “fair +words” and a letter to Guise “praising the zeal which moves you to strive +so sincerely for the promotion of our holy Catholic faith.” Mendoza was +directed to keep the Scots in hand, to suggest that they should ask +the Pope for the money they needed, and to flatter Guise as much as he +thought necessary; all of which meant that Philip would not bind himself +to Scot or Frenchman in the execution of his project, though, if on their +own account and at their own risk they cared to divert his enemy, he had, +of course, no objection to their doing so. But the offer of one or two +safe ports in Scotland near the English border was one not lightly to be +refused—its acceptance, indeed, might have changed the whole course of +history—and Mendoza, an experienced soldier, wrote in October, 1586, to +Parma strongly urging that the offer of the Scottish Catholics should +be sympathetically entertained, in order that a diversion might thus be +effected in the North simultaneously with the Spanish invasion of the +South of England; though here commended that full inquiries should be +first made to ascertain to what extent Huntly and his friends could carry +out their pledges. + +Parma, however, was almost as cautious as his uncle. He was, in fact, +resentful that Philip was keeping him in the dark as to his ultimate +plans, and was determined not to move a step in any direction beyond his +written orders until he knew what the King was really aiming at; whether +to frighten Elizabeth into peace, which Parma more than suspected, or to +crush her finally by war. So to Mendoza’s almost vehement advocacy of +the Scottish diversion Parma replied coolly, saying that the proposal +would fail unless it formed part of the combined plan and was executed +in co-operation simultaneously with the invasion. Mendoza grew more +and more in love with Bruce’s proposal, which would, he said, give +harbours of refuge for the Spaniards in the North Sea and divide the +Queen of England’s forces; and here began the first whispers of Parma’s +half-hearted loyalty,[279] which amongst the vanquished officers of the +Armada afterwards swelled into a tempest of indignant recrimination. + +Mendoza’s inquiries of Bruce had satisfied all his doubts, and to +Philip he wrote beseechingly on the 24th December, 1586, in favour of +the scheme. Some of the passages in his extremely able letter,[280] +read by the knowledge of the subsequent disaster of the Armada, sound +almost prophetic. “It is of advantage to the English,” he wrote, “that +they should be attacked by a force which needs great sea fleets for its +transport and maintenance, both on account of the immense sums of money +which must be spent upon such an expedition, and the vast quantities of +material and the length of time necessary for preparation, as well as +the many opportunities which occur during this delay for impeding the +progress of such armaments. Such expeditions, moreover, are liable to +much greater disasters than land armies, for in most cases the mere death +of the leader suffices to frustrate them ... and in the event of the loss +of a great fleet the owner is deprived at one blow of forces, ships, +and guns—things difficult to replace readily.” It is clear now, with +our later knowledge, that the old warrior-diplomatist—the last of the +disciples of Alba, as he calls himself—was right in his appreciations, +and that Philip made a fatal mistake in not following the advice of such +men, instead of indulging in his fatal itch for retaining in his own +hands all executive monopoly and all ultimate profit in his plans. + +But the advances of Huntly were not entirely rejected, for not only +Mendoza, but Parma too, as time went on, saw their importance, and +although the idea of invading England over the Scottish border was +again vetoed, Bruce was sent back to Scotland after many months of +impatient waiting in France and Flanders, carrying with him ten thousand +crowns to freight ships in Scotland ostensibly for Dantzig, but really +for Flanders, to embark there an auxiliary force to aid the Scottish +Catholics in their intended rising.[281] Bruce went on his way late +in the summer of 1586, with his doublet padded with gold, but when he +arrived in Scotland the whole scheme was embroiled and frustrated with +the usual ineptitude. It was too late in the season for the ships to be +obtained. James Stuart was also consulted by the Scottish lords as to his +joining the Spanish attack upon England to avenge his mother, with the +result that was to be expected. Bruce and his companion, Foster, turned +traitors when the plan was seen to be impracticable, and once more, and +for the last time, Philip settled down to the inevitability of conquering +England by himself alone, and for himself alone. + +It was more important now than ever it had been that he should succeed +in doing it, for Henry III. of France was without a son, and was in bad +health. If Henry of Navarre, a Huguenot, became King, and France ceased +to be a Catholic country and in alliance with Protestant England, the +Catholic domination of Europe would be at an end, and the sun of Spain +must sink rapidly. The conquest of England, indeed, must be effected, +and the country made Catholic before Henry III. died, or all, it seemed, +would be lost; and Philip, after thirty years of paltering, was now in +a desperate hurry. There was still another reason why Philip’s zeal for +the conquest of England should be further inflamed at this time. Mary +Stuart was condemned to death, and in the bitterness of her heart she +wrote the beautiful letter[282] to Mendoza (23rd November, 1586), in +which she entrusted to Philip alone the task of avenging her and the +cause for which she died, of providing for her servants, and, above all, +of inheriting her rights to the succession of the Crown of England, +which bequest she afterwards confirmed by a formal will. There was no +longer any legal bar between Philip and the sovereignty, and no further +fear of a doubtfully Catholic successor being adopted by Mary after her +accession. With the fall of the head of the Queen of Scots the spirits +of the English Jesuit party rose, for they knew now that James and his +countrymen would not be allowed to lord over Englishmen if once Philip +held the country in his grasp. + +The subtle web of intrigue that had been spun for so many years past, the +threads of which we have to some small extent endeavoured to unravel, had +so far been favourable to Philip. He had patiently suffered numberless +indignities and injuries at the hands of Elizabeth and her people; he +had seen England and his own Dutch provinces drift ever further away +from him; but he had never ceased to plot patiently in order to dispose +affairs aptly for his vengeance when the propitious hour should strike. +The Guises had been alternately flattered and frowned at, until their +great ambitions in France seemed to hang upon Philip’s will, and they +dared not stir without his countenance. Henry III. had been by the same +means rendered equally powerless to help England or to hinder Spain. The +Scottish Catholics had been subsidised and cajoled, as had James Stuart +himself, into a benevolent neutrality towards Philip with blended hopes +and fears of the English succession. Mary Stuart had been so handled as +to lead her to make Philip by will the heir to the English Crown; and +gradually all the strings which were intended to pull down the edifice of +the Reformation were gathered into the hands of the gouty old monastic +monarch in his granite cloister-palace on the bleak Castilian sierra. +Each interest, as we have seen, had been silently and separately dealt +with, and tricked into the position that best suited Philip’s ends; +for he would take no risks that he could avoid, and aspired to imitate +natural forces in the slow, insensible accumulation of power, which at +the supreme moment might be launched by the master with irresistible +effect. + +When, at length, the stealthy plotting had reached fruition, and +Elizabeth saw herself isolated, with Henry III. and James VI. paralysed; +when the Pope and the Cardinals understood that the Church and its +cherished hoards were to be instruments of Spanish political ends; when +the Guises found that they and their kin were to be excluded from all +share in the great prize of England; and even the English Catholics of +the more patriotic and moderate sort awoke to the knowledge that their +religion and their scorn of the Scots were being used to forward a +conspiracy against the independence of their country; then each separate +interest struggled as best it might to free itself from the toils in +which the diplomacy of Philip had involved it. Allen, with his seminary, +and the English Jesuits under Parsons, had gone over to the Spanish side +bag and baggage, but the English Carthusians and seculars under Dr. Owen +Lewis, and the large Scottish Catholic element in Rome under the Bishop +of Dunblane, aided the Guisan Cardinals in combating the idea of a purely +Spanish domination of England, and the contest went on bitterly and +without cessation, especially after the death of Mary Stuart had made the +fears more imminent. + +Before that had happened, Philip had instructed Olivares to sound the +Pope cautiously, and, if possible, to obtain a brief from him, declaring +Philip entitled to the throne of England after the Queen of Scots, “as +I cannot make war upon England for the purpose merely of placing upon +the throne a young heretic like the King of Scots.” The Pope’s fears +were to be lulled by the declaration that Philip had no intention of +annexing England to the Crown of Spain, but of passing the sovereignty to +some suitable Catholic candidate, perhaps to his daughter, the Infanta +Isabel. Olivares, Allen, and Parsons knew at this time (January, 1587) +that the Vatican was uneasy about the whole business, and they prayed +the King to say nothing about his own claim openly until the Armada had +been successful. But when, a month or two later, the news of Mary’s +death came, Philip was obliged to some extent to show his hand to the +Pope, and the brief was ordered to be secretly asked for as a measure of +precaution. Above all, Philip urged, not a word must be said about his +claims to Guise or the Frenchmen. + +Unfortunately, much had already been said about them, even by Mendoza; +and Guise and Catharine de Medici, and James of Scotland himself, were +all trying their utmost to prove how very Catholic the latter was, and +what an excellent King of England he would make. Philip ordered that his +claims upon England were only to be broached with the utmost caution to +the English Catholics. In May, 1587, the King wrote to Mendoza: “You +must only speak of my rights to well-disposed native Englishmen in order +that they may be informed of the truth, and convey it to others of their +nationality, that it may thus spread and gain ground amongst them. But +do not mention the matter to Frenchmen and others, who will only take +it up for the purpose of frustrating it.”[283] To add to his authority +in the matter, Philip urged successfully that Allen should be made a +Cardinal, and he was well primed by instructions from Spain how to push +the succession question with the Pope. Religion, of course, was to be +the pretext. The King of Scots was a heretic, and unfit to succeed. For +the good of the Church a Catholic of unquestionable orthodoxy should be +chosen, and he must be powerful enough to keep England in the straight +path. All this, of course, could only tend to the conclusion that Philip +or his daughter alone would serve; and very gradually and cautiously this +view was made familiar to Catholics, to be struggled against fiercely by +all those who were not absolutely under the Jesuit and Spanish influence. +Parsons was indefatigable in writing letters, addresses, and memoranda in +favour of this view, and the absolute quiescence of the moderate English +Catholics when at last the Armada appeared in the Channel, and their +loyalty through the crisis, was largely due to the unwise forcing of the +idea of a Spanish Sovereign over England by the Jesuit propaganda. + +Elizabeth was no less active than the other threatened interests in her +efforts to escape from the position in which she found herself. Still +hoping against hope that the old policy of advance and retire might again +be successful, she and Burghley strove heroically to arrange some form +of peace congress with Parma through Andrea de Loo. It was not easy, for +neither side was in a yielding mood in matters of procedure; but Philip +said that he saw no harm in entertaining the advances, which he knew +from the first he did not intend to have any result other than to lull +Elizabeth into a false security, whilst his preparations advanced. The +Burghley party in Elizabeth’s Court had all the Puritans against them, +and, more strongly still, the blue water school of sailors, who for years +past had shown by their deeds that the Spaniards were no match for them +at sea. “Why wait to be attacked on our own coasts,” was their constant +argument, “when we can go and crush our enemies before even they can +leave port?” + +The English ships had finer lines and lower bows than the Spaniards. They +could sail several points nearer the wind; and the need for ocean attack +and defence had developed an entirely new school of seamanship, depending +upon celerity of movement, broadside armament low down, by which the +hulls of the enemy might be riddled between wind and water, whereas the +Spanish ships depended still largely upon bulk, needful for the carriage +of cargoes from the Indies, and the old tradition descended from the +Mediterranean galleys of heavy armaments fore and aft. The attack in +the Spanish system consisted only in grappling with the foe and pouring +soldiers on board of him, the vessel being less of a fighting entity than +a conveyance to bring the fighting-men on each side into contact, as +galleys had been. Under Drake the English sailors had developed an ideal +entirely distinct from this, namely, to avoid grappling, and by superior +handiness of the craft to cripple the hulls of the enemy, and make them +unseaworthy and incapable of manœuvring. Again and again the English +sailors had proved that the new methods were effective; and whenever +there was a chance of meeting the Spaniards at sea, they eagerly sought +it. + +It was this combination of sailors and the Puritans or Liberals, led +by Leicester, that sought once more to force Elizabeth’s hand in the +midst of the negotiations for the peace conference with Parma early in +the spring of 1587. The Portuguese spies in England continued to report +to Mendoza the great preparations being made for a naval expedition, +by Drake, in Plymouth and the Thames. Elizabeth and Burghley deeply +distrusted a policy of daring aggression, and hesitated much to allow an +attack upon Spain, though Leicester’s influence and Drake’s confidence +ultimately carried the day. The secret of the destination of Drake’s +fleet was well kept. The pretence was cleverly maintained to the last +that it was one more attempt to aid Don Antonio—this time, it was said, +to go to the Indies; and Mendoza, who reported almost daily to Philip +what he heard, was hoodwinked all through. Drake arrived in Plymouth +from the Thames on the 23rd March, in a hurry to get away, for fear +the Queen would alter her mind and order him back. He had obtained her +commission—“to prevent or withstand any enterprise against her Highness’s +dominions, and especially to prevent the concentration of the King of +Spain’s squadrons”—and he was authorised to “distress the ships as +much as possible, both in the havens and on the high seas.” Drake knew +that as soon as he left Court attempts by the moderate party would be +made to spoil and hamper his plans, for his Vice-Admiral, Borough, a +Queen’s officer, had been sent with him only to serve as a clog upon his +actions, and Elizabeth was still full of faith in the insincere peace +negotiations. Sure enough, only a few hours after he hurriedly sailed +from Plymouth, a royal order came thither from London, happily too late, +“to forbear to enter forcibly any of the said King’s ports or havens, or +to offer any violence to his towns or ships in harbour, or to do any act +of hostility on land.” Drake took very good care that these timid orders +never reached him until too late to stay his hand, and went on his way as +usual, in defiance of Borough’s warning. + +Slowly, and with infinite difficulty, stores, arms, and material were +being collected in Spain. The roads were bad, communications laborious, +and Philip’s centralising methods clogged the wheels of progress. Old +Santa Cruz was labouring early and late, in Lisbon, making ready such +great ships as could be collected in the Tagus; whilst in the ports of +Andalusia the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the great magnate of the Province, +had seized for the King all the merchant ships and stores; and was +actively getting ready to sail from Cadiz and join Santa Cruz in Lisbon +in the early summer, and, together with other vessels expected from Italy +and the Biscay ports, attempt the conquest of England. Thus matters stood +in April, 1587. Santa Cruz was almost in despair, for he profoundly +disliked the modification of his plans adopted by Philip, by which the +bulk of the army under Parma was to cross in small boats to England when +the Armada should arrive off the North Foreland to protect its passage +from Dunkirk to the Thames, and the command was to be divided, Santa +Cruz to be supreme at sea and Parma on land. The ships in Lisbon were +still unready, and the crews and soldiers were joining in mere driblets +from distant parts of Spain. The provisions, too, for all his host came +in slowly, and much of the stores rotted before they could be used. The +ships from the eastern ports of Spain and from Naples and Messina were +lagging; for delay was inevitable when every detail had to be directed by +one overworked old man far away. + +Then suddenly, on the 18th April, 1587, the people of Cadiz saw in the +offing a fleet of thirty white sail. “Some contingent of the Armada,” +thought the Duke of Medina Sidonia, busy with his stores inside the +harbour. It was nothing so welcome as that; for it was the terrible +Drake himself, with his stout ships, bent upon mischief, notwithstanding +Elizabeth’s timid wavering and her Admiral Borough’s warning. Looking +up the harbour of Cadiz, Drake could see a forest of masts, many a tall +ship, he knew, that was intended for the subjugation of his country. +They were, for the most part, store ships, nearly a hundred of them +altogether; and though they were crammed with provisions and material, +neither their guns nor their crews were on board. Into the harbour +dashed Drake, sinking the big galleon at the entrance that served as a +guardship, and disdaining the fire of the protecting forts, and soon he +had all the harbour at his mercy. The very name of Drake appalled the +Spaniards, and without impeachment he turned adrift and set on fire some +twenty-five of the principal ships. Soon the great crowd of galleons was +a blazing ruin, and in the three weeks that followed Drake deliberately +annihilated in the harbour of Cadiz the results of a year’s work and vast +expenditure. Then, on the 1st May, 1587, he leisurely sailed away, secure +in the knowledge that, come what might, no invasion of England by Spanish +ships was possible for that summer. + +In the Tagus, at Lisbon, there still lay the fifty great galleons, +under Santa Cruz, which were to form the principal fighting force of +the Armada, and as Drake stood off the mouth of the river, they looked +tempting. He was more than half inclined to sail in and serve them as he +had served the Cadiz ships; but he did not know whether they had their +great guns on board or not. Whilst he was ascertaining this by his spies +the peremptory orders came to him from the Queen that he was to provoke +the King of Spain no more: the great fighting ships of Spain, with no +crews or guns on board, were left unattacked, to Drake’s abiding regret, +and the chance of making the invasion of England by Spain impossible +altogether was missed through Elizabeth’s belief that by her usual +methods she might avoid war, even at this eleventh hour. The damage done +by Drake was in great part irreparable. Not only were many stores and +ships destroyed in Cadiz, but for weeks afterwards the English fleet lay +off the coast of Portugal, capturing great numbers of vessels loaded +with pipe staves,[284] for the water and wine casks of the Armada. These +could not be quickly replaced, and their loss led to the short and bad +water supply in the fleet, which was one of its worst calamities. When +Drake sailed away, Spain was crippled for a time; and the capture of the +rich Indies galleon, _San Felipe_, completed the discomfiture of King +Philip, who had no alternative now but to order Santa Cruz to make ready +his ships in Lisbon, in a hurry, not now to invade England, but to +prevent Drake from intercepting and plundering the silver fleet, whose +safe arrival in Spain would alone enable Philip to proceed with his plan +of invasion in the following year. The injury inflicted by Drake’s raid +was a terrible one to Philip, but he plodded on, still convinced of the +goodness of his methods and the ultimate certain victory of his cause. + +[Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH + +FROM THE PAINTING BY MARC GHEERAEDTS AT THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY] + +To Parma, in Flanders, the news of Drake’s attack brought anguish and +discouragement beyond words, for he was less blinded by fervour than his +uncle was, and was brought nearer to his practical difficulties. He was +a great commander and saw plainly the weak points of Philip’s scheme for +the Armada, so far as it was communicated to him. A divided command and +strictly limited authority were repugnant to him, a sovereign Prince +and practically supreme in Spanish Flanders; and from the first he was +determined that no blame for the failure which he feared would attend +the attempt should be laid at his doors in consequence of his exceeding +the strict letter of the King’s written instructions. He had strained +every nerve to muster and equip his troops to be ready for the expected +arrival of Santa Cruz with his fleet in the summer of 1587, and now he +found himself with a large force of men, and short of money, provisions, +and stores for their maintenance. But he was a general of resource, and +utilised his army to capture the Sluys and invest Ostend and so improve +his position before the English Peace Commissioners, the Earls of Derby +and Hertford, Lord Cobham, Sir James Crofts, and Drs. Dale and Herbert, +went over in the autumn of 1587, in the chimerical hope of making peace +with Philip. Leicester, Walsingham, and the sailors wondered aloud how +her Majesty could be so blind as to believe that peace with Philip was +possible now. Exhortations and prayers reached Elizabeth, from those who +knew Philip’s intentions well, that she would allow another bold stroke +to be dealt upon the enemy’s heart; but her parsimony and belief in her +methods made her turn a deaf ear to all such urging, and England still +stood unready in the face of danger so imminent and dire. + +Whilst Parma was still spinning matters out with the English Peace +Commissioners on fine-drawn points of etiquette and procedure, in order +to give time for really illuminating instructions to reach him from +Philip, and Elizabeth was living still in her fool’s paradise, the plan +of the Armada was finally settled; for Philip, dead against the advice +of his seamen, had determined to send out the expedition at all risks, +in the autumn of 1587, as soon as Santa Cruz returned from convoying the +silver fleet. The letter in which he conveyed his plan to Parma on the +4th September, 1587, is worth quoting at some length.[285] The Armada, +under Santa Cruz, was to sail up the Channel, avoiding, if possible, +any decisive engagement, until it had reached the Straits of Dover and +had joined hands with Parma. “We calculate that by the time you have +invested Ostend you will have 30,000 men ready for the main business, +whilst 16,000 Spanish infantry, a part of them veterans, will go in the +Armada from here, the whole force of soldiers and sailors in the fleet +reaching 22,000 men. I have decided that as soon as the Marquis of Santa +Cruz returns with the flotillas to Cape St. Vincent ... he shall leave +them in charge of the galleys, and himself go straight to Lisbon, where +he will take command of the fleet which will there await him, and, with +God’s blessing, sail direct for the English Channel. On his arrival +he will anchor off Margate, having given notice to you at Dunkirk of +his approach. You in the meanwhile will be quite ready, and when you +see the passage assured by the arrival of the fleet off Margate or at +the mouth of the Thames, you will, if the weather permits, immediately +cross over in the boats you will have ready. You and the Marquis will +then co-operate, you being in command on land, and he at sea; and, with +the help of God, will carry through the main business successfully. +Until you have crossed, the Marquis is not to be diverted by anything +from assuring your passage. His taking possession of Margate will cut +the communications of the enemy, and prevent him to some extent from +concentrating his forces. When you have landed (the Marquis giving you +six thousand selected Spanish infantry as ordered),[286] I am inclined +to leave to the Marquis’s discretion what he should do with the fleet, +whether to stay and ensure the passage of our people from Flanders to +England and intercept any foreign aid that might be sent to the English, +or to go and capture some port and divert the enemy’s strength; or else +he might go and seize English ships lying in various ports, to deprive +them of maritime forces, upon which their strength mainly depends. You +will settle this point between you, the Marquis carrying out your joint +decision, whilst you will hasten to the front to conduct the enterprise +on the lines laid down. I trust to God, in whose service it is done, that +success may attend the enterprise, and that yours may be the hand to +execute it.” + +The advice of all his best soldiers and sailors had failed to move Philip +on one point because he knew that it meant delay, and he was ready now to +risk everything rather than wait any longer. “We are quite aware of the +risk incurred by sending a heavy fleet in the winter through the Channel +without a sure harbour; but the various reasons which render this course +necessary are sufficient to counterbalance the objections. As it is all +for His good cause, God send good weather. The most important of all +things is that you should be so completely ready when the Marquis arrives +at Margate that you may be able to do your part at once without delay. +You will see the danger of any tardiness, the Armada having to wait there +with you unready; as until your passage is effected they will have no +harbour for shelter, whereas when you have crossed he will have the safe, +spacious river Thames. Otherwise he will be at the mercy of the weather, +and if, which God forbid, any misfortune should happen to him you will +understand what a state it would put us into. All will be assured, please +God, by your good understanding; but do not forget that the forces +collected and the vast monetary responsibility incurred make it extremely +difficult for any such expedition to be organised again, if they [the +English] escape us this time; whilst the obstacles and divisions which +may, and certainly will, arise next summer, force us to carry through +the enterprise this year or fail altogether. I hope this will not occur, +but that great success may attend us by God’s grace, since you are to +be the instrument, and I have bountifully supplied you with money. I +have told you how all our prestige is now at stake, and how entirely my +tranquillity depends upon success being achieved, and I now once more +earnestly enjoin you to justify the trust I place in you. Pray send me +word that there shall be no shortcomings in this respect, as I shall be +full of anxiety till I hear from you.” + +Thus, like a desperate gambler, Philip at last, after all these years +of waiting and planning, was ready to stake everything—fleet, army, +resources, prestige, and the cause for which he had lived—with the +chances of success and the warnings of experience dead against him. For +years past his expert advisers had been telling him how much superior in +staunchness and seaworthiness the English ships were to his, that the +new naval construction and armament, by which the artillery fire was +delivered low and from the broadside, gave an enormous advantage to the +handy English craft, which, by reason of their finer lines and weatherly +qualities, could avoid fighting at close quarters. Santa Cruz, Parma, and +Mendoza had pointed out to him the rashness of taking a vast, unwieldy +fleet in the late autumn, the worst period of the year, up the Channel +without a harbour of refuge in case of contrary winds or tempest; again +and again he had been told that his ships were still unready, his stores +and arms unconcentrated, and his army but partially mustered in various +provinces of Spain and Italy. All this he knew, and yet in the face of +disorganisation, incapacity, and corruption in his administration, of +almost insuperable material difficulties in collecting and supplying +such an enormous fleet as that contemplated, the growing alarm and the +opposition of all Christendom to his designs, he trusted, in the absence +of all the mundane elements of success, to the special intervention +of Providence in his favour. Patience and diplomacy had brought the +possibility of success within his reach, but patience and diplomacy can +be worked by the methods of a chess-player in a monastic cell, whilst +armies and fleets must be raised, organised, and led by practical men on +the spot, and this was where Philip failed. All power and initiative must +be his, whilst he sat upon his office chair, annotating, checking, and +dictating from morn till night, but never coming within hundreds of miles +of executive action. + +In obedience to Philip’s fervent exhortations Parma did his best, +keeping his army of German, Italian, and Walloon mercenaries in good +heart and readiness whilst the sham peace preliminaries went on. Most of +the English Commissioners themselves were soon satisfied that nothing +would come of their mission, for months were wasted in discussing and +wrangling over such questions as the place of meeting, the sufficiency of +powers, and the points to be discussed, though Croft, representing the +moderate Catholic party in England, strained his loyalty to the utmost +to conciliate Parma.[287] But still the Armada came not, though the +winter of 1587 wore on and Parma’s painfully gathered thirty thousand +men-at-arms were rapidly melting away, demoralised by short commons and +dying by thousands of the plague. Not even Parma’s extremity could move +Santa Cruz to take a course that he knew would end in disaster. When +he returned to Lisbon from convoying the silver fleet, he told Philip +flatly that it would be certain disaster to take the Armada out at such +a season of the year, the ships and men, moreover, being unready. Scorn +and derision were poured upon the old admiral by the nobles and soldiers, +as well as by the bureaucrats who were at the King’s elbow, though the +sailors who had met the English on many seas knew that Santa Cruz was +right. “Once let us grapple with the heretics,” cried the vapouring +men-at-arms, “and all will be well; the sailorman’s task is but to bring +us face to face with the foe and we shall know how to deal with him.” +Philip rarely reproached those who served him, but even his almost +inexhaustible patience gave way, and his curt, cold words of reproach to +Santa Cruz for his tardiness in serving him broke the old hero’s heart, +and in February, 1588, there passed to his grave the one man in Spain who +perchance might have rescued from otherwise inevitable catastrophe the +Armada and the mighty freight of hopes it bore. + +Philip was, indeed, nearly at his wits’ end, though personally he +never lost faith in ultimate success. Sixtus was growing more and +more sarcastic, and unwilling to pledge himself further to a policy +which he now understood was making religion the stalking-horse of +politics. Olivares might rail insolently at the Pontiff as a garrulous +old curmudgeon, Cardinal Allen and Father Parsons, by word and pen, +might, and did, urge with bland eloquence the saintliness of the +enterprise and the holy aims of the Catholic King; but all Europe now +was aware and apprehensive of Philip’s overwhelming schemes—not against +England alone, it was feared, but against all those who questioned the +political supremacy of Spain. By every courier went frantic appeals +and remonstrances from Parma to Philip, as week after week passed and +no Armada appeared in the Straits of Dover. The army was getting out +of hand, he said, and, what with plague and discontent, would soon +disappear altogether, whilst of money he had none, and even his credit +was exhausted. + +In December, 1587, Philip, apparently in desperation, thought that +Parma, failing the coming of the Armada, might have made a dash +across the Straits on his own account, and have captured England by a +_coup-de-main_, whilst the peace preliminaries were being discussed. +Parma, who was a practical soldier, was furious at such a suggestion, +as well he might be. Writing to the King on the 31st January, 1588, +he asks how could he be expected to do what he had the King’s strict +orders to avoid doing. He had laid down clearly, he said, the necessary +conditions of success; namely, that the flat boats and skiffs, too small +for fighting and unfit to weather a freshet, much less a storm, should +be ensured an absolutely unimpeded passage across, whilst the French +should be kept busy at home, and the Dutch rebels rendered powerless +for harm. “Your Majesty ordered me to undertake this business, and be +fully prepared, though the time given to me was short and my resources +were limited. I have done my best to perform the impossible in order +to please you and carry out my duty.... Affairs have been unduly drawn +out, both men and money have been delayed beyond the time indicated, and +particularly the Spanish troops, who are the sinew of the whole business, +and who have, after all, come in less number than agreed upon, and so +dilapidated and maltreated as to look unfit for service for some time to +come. The Italians and Germans have dwindled in consequence of having to +march quickly in very bad weather, and they are so badly housed to keep +them near the ports that many are missing; and our men are dying and +falling away rapidly. I have strained every nerve to keep them near the +coast to be ready for the arrival of Santa Cruz with the Armada ... and +now I see that everything has turned out wrong and contrary to my hopes. +Secrecy, which was of the utmost importance, has not been maintained. +From Spain, Italy, and elsewhere come full details of the expedition. +The King of France, as well as the League, has raised enormous forces, +and they, being Frenchmen, are certainly not likely to be in our favour. +Holland and Zeeland have armed as promptly as usual, and have prevented +the few ships of our fleet in Antwerp from getting out, whilst the +English themselves are preparing for their defence with great energy.... +If the Marquis had come in good time the crossing might then have been +easily effected, by God’s help, as neither the English nor the Hollanders +and Zeelanders were then ready.” + +Then Parma passionately protests against Philip’s attitude. Let the King, +he says, tell him plainly what he wishes him to do. He will do it at +all risks and at any cost; but to give him orders to do one thing and +expect him to do another in quite impossible circumstances is unfair. +The position has changed, he continues, and the force brought by the +Armada must be an overwhelming one to clear the seas or the troops from +Flanders cannot cross. “The delay in the coming of the Armada is causing +the total ruin of Flanders, and is hardly less disastrous to the rest +of the States. The country can bear the burden but a short time longer. +The greatest trouble of all is my lack of money. The cost of maintaining +the boats, the keep of the soldiers, the subsidy to Guise and Lorraine, +and the contract with the German mercenaries, is all so great that your +Majesty must provide me with a great sum of money. If I run short, as +indeed I am doing, your Majesty may be certain that evil will befall and +all the past expenditure and effort will be wasted.”[288] + +Two months after this, when the death of Santa Cruz had cast a still +deeper gloom over the prospects of the Armada, Parma, now quite +disillusioned, and convinced that the great enterprise would fail, urged +Philip earnestly to allow him to turn the feigned negotiations for peace +into real ones. “I should fail in my duty,” he wrote, “if I did not +tell your Majesty that the general opinion is that if the English are +proceeding straightforwardly, as they profess, and their alarm at your +Majesty’s preparations and great power really inclines them towards you, +it would be better to conclude peace with them. We should thus end the +misery and calamity of these afflicted States, the Catholic religion +would be established in them, and your ancient dominion restored. Besides +this, we should not jeopardise the great fleet which your Majesty +has raised, and we should escape the danger of some disaster causing +you to fail in the conquest of England whilst losing your hold of the +Netherlands. It is thought that it would be much best to try to settle +and pacify everything during your own happy reign, so that all might +prosper by the grace of God and your Majesty’s goodness. Nothing more +honourable and beneficent could happen to us, no step would be more +heartily welcomed by your vassals, or more effectually check your rivals, +especially the heretics, than a good and honourable peace. We should thus +avoid the danger of disaster. If the enterprise were in the condition +we expected it to be, and secrecy had been kept, we might, with God’s +blessing, have looked more confidently for a successful issue. But things +are not as we intended. The English have had time to arm by land and sea, +and form alliances with the Danes and the German Protestants.... They +are well aware of our plans, and we shall have plenty of work to do in +effecting a landing and advancing afterwards, especially if our force is +inadequate.”[289] + +And thus, point by point, the greatest soldier of his time lays bare +in letter after letter the weakness of Philip’s position and the +hopelessness of success in the circumstances. But to all Parma’s +remonstrances and advice the King had but one cold, precise reply. The +expedition was to go in God’s own service, and it would be duly carried +through by His help. That being the case, Parma could only stand more +stiffly than ever upon the absolute fulfilment of his conditions, without +which he knew that failure and disgrace would befall him. The sea must be +kept clear of enemies before he would embark a man for England, and he +must have six thousand Spanish veterans from the Armada or he would not +undertake the conquest. To Philip’s embarrassments there seemed no end. +His greatest military officer thus predicted disaster, and would take no +responsibility beyond the letter of his instructions, and Santa Cruz, his +greatest seaman, had assumed the same attitude for similar reasons. + +But the death of Santa Cruz in February plunged the King into deeper +difficulty than ever; for although it allowed him to control the details +of the command more completely than Santa Cruz would have allowed him +to do, he had no officer of sufficient rank, authority, and experience +to replace the dead admiral. Seamen he had, many of them fine mariners +from the Biscay coast, who had commanded the great flotillas from the +Indies, and had faced with varied fortune the English plundering craft +any time these twenty years; but the tradition lingered that the seaman +was a mere drudge to carry the nobler soldier into the fight, and the +quarrelsome, haughty soldier nobles scorned to serve under a man who +was a seaman only. The men in nominal command of the great ships were +nearly always military officers whose orders the shipmasters obeyed. So +although Oquendo, Bertondona, and Recalde, with a half score of others, +were as splendid sailors as ever ploughed the seas, the supreme command +of the Armada could not be given to such as they. The Spanish nobles were +jealous of each other, each standing upon his dignity in a way that to +modern men looks ridiculous, but which to them was a matter of the first +concern in life. + +The man to be appointed to command, since the King himself could not go, +must be of rank so exalted as to overtop the rest, and yet so amenable +to Philip’s control as to allow the fleet to be commanded practically +by the King from his writing-table. The only man in Spain who seemed to +unite in himself these two qualities was appointed by Philip to lead the +fleet upon which depended the fate of Spain and Catholic Christendom, +and he was of all men the least fit to carry to success such a forlorn +hope as the Armada—the Duke of Medina Sidonia, the magnate and admiral +of Andalusia, who had been so busy collecting ships and stores in Cadiz +and his other ports. He was a dignified noble of early middle age, well +meaning and not without administrative ability in normal circumstances, +though utterly unequal to deal with critical conditions. His high rank +was sufficient to ensure the obedient respect of the other nobles and to +hold the sailor commanders in awe. But, as he plaintively protested to +the King, in dismay, when he was first informed of his appointment, he +was utterly inexperienced in practical warfare both on land and sea. He +knew nothing of navigation, he was always wretchedly seasick as soon as +he lost sight of land, and he was quite unable to bear the expense which +such a command entailed. His wife and friends were more emphatic still, +and ridiculed the idea that such a poor creature as this should assume +a responsibility so tremendous. Perhaps Philip was not sorry to have a +weak and timid commander who would not dare to depart a hair’s breadth +from his orders. At all events, his mind was made up; and Medina Sidonia, +with a shrinking heart and unwilling spirit, was forced to go to Lisbon +to replace the great Santa Cruz as the Captain-General of the Invincible +Armada.[290] + +The Tagus was crowded with ships when, in March, 1588, Medina Sidonia +took command. Eleven huge galleons, contributed by Portugal, headed by +the flagship _San Martin_, was to be the squadron of the high admiral. +The Andalusian squadron of fifteen vessels was to be led by Don Pedro +de Valdés; and the famous Biscay seamen Oquendo and Martinez de Recalde +were to lead other squadrons, and Diego Flores yet another. There were +thirty-one armed store-ships, all carrying their quota of fighting-men +as well as sailors, seven-and-twenty pinnaces and sloops, and four +armed galleys, such as in the Mediterranean formed the Spanish fighting +force. In all 114 ships lay there before the white city of Lisbon on +its amphitheatre of hills. Gallant and strong they looked with their +carved and gilded prows, their fluttering silken banners, and the soaring +crucifix upon the highest pinnacle of their bows. But, alas! the dry-rot +of Philip’s system was at the very heart of the enterprise. The soldiers +came still in driblets and unwillingly. Arms were accumulating in one +part of Spain, whilst the men to bear them were mustered in another. +Stores went astray or remained bogged and derelict many miles from their +destination; wine ran short and water went bad upon the ships. The long +delay had caused the bottoms to foul and the seams to gape; and the +overburdened Duke of Medina Sidonia could but clamour more piteously +than Santa Cruz had done for more supplies, more men, more arms, more +money, more everything, unless disaster were to fall upon the expedition. +The Irish and English Catholics on the quays of Lisbon, and the priests +and friars who flocked everywhere, made light of difficulties. Was it +not God’s own fleet, going upon His errand, and could He be beaten? Was +not England tired to death of their heretic Queen and her ministers? and +was not a whole nation waiting with open arms to welcome those who came +as friends and deliverers? And the haughty, confident Spanish nobles, +courtiers, and soldiers, fretting in idleness, scoffed and reviled the +timid councils of the Duke of Medina Sidonia. But the sailormen shook +their heads sadly. They knew that Biscay storms and Channel gales could +not be controlled by swords and pikes, and that at sea Drake and the +West-country ships could sail several points closer to the wind than +could their lumbering round-bowed galleons that looked so mighty. + +No day passed without some fresh demand from Medina Sidonia; and at +last Philip himself, long-suffering as he was, began to lose patience, +for the spring was wearing on, and Parma, in despair, was, as we have +seen, praying him either to abandon the enterprise or send him means +for keeping together his dwindling army. At length, in April, it was +impossible to hide any longer the open complaints of the soldier nobles. +Medina Sidonia’s insatiable demands, they said, were prompted by sheer +cowardice, with a view to preventing the sailing of the expedition +altogether. Already he had under his command the strongest force that +ever sailed the seas—130 vessels of an aggregate tonnage of 58,000 +tons, 2,431 cannon, and 30,000 men, between soldiers and sailors. All +was ready. The orders to the fleet had been given long since—orders that +prescribed a code of conduct for the rough seamen and men-at-arms such as +would have befitted a convent school. There was to be no bad language or +loose talk, no dicing or card-playing, no evil living. Prayers and Masses +were to be sung daily, and every man, high and low, was to be confessed +and absolved; for all were going on a sacred crusade against the foes of +God and the faith. The friars and priests, both on the ships and ashore, +exhorted ceaselessly all these reckless soldiers and half-savage sailors, +until, with hearts aflame, they too began to scowl at the tardy Duke, who +alone seemed to hold them back from their heaven-sent mission. + +At length, at the end of April, peremptory command came from Philip that +the Armada must sail at once. The old orders to Santa Cruz were repeated. +The fleet must go straight up the Channel to the North Foreland, +avoiding an engagement if possible, until the main body of the English +fleet should be met, as he thought it would, off Margate, where it was +to be defeated or held in check, and then Parma and his army were to +be protected on their way across to the Thames. All difficulties and +dangers in such a plan were ignored or smoothed over by Philip. The +warnings of years had been lost upon him. He still counted upon his big +ships outmanœuvring and gaining the wind of the English craft; he still +believed that the old grappling tactics were possible, in the face of +Drake’s new strategy and the superior build of the English ships. And he +broke faith with Parma too. Parma had never wavered in his condition. He +would not cross the sea until he was reinforced by six thousand Spanish +veterans from the Armada; and yet in these last instructions to Medina +Sidonia it was left to his discretion whether these veterans should be +sent. Thus all the elements of discord existed before the great fleet +sailed. An almost monkish discipline was enjoined on the fleet by the +King, and it is clear that Philip himself had worked his spirit into a +state of fervour which made him believe that sanctimoniousness would +compensate for the absence of practical provisions for success. Saints’ +names alone formed the watchwords, Jesus for Sunday, the Holy Ghost for +Monday, the Holy Trinity for Tuesday, and so on; whilst the ships’ boys +were to chant the Salve and good-morrow at daybreak and the Ave Maria at +sunset on every vessel. + +On the 25th April, 1588, the sacred banner was delivered to the Duke by +Philip’s Viceroy, the Archduke Albert, in Lisbon Cathedral; and thence +with raised crosses, swinging censers, flaming candles, and chanting +priests it was borne before the whole kneeling hosts of the Armada in +the great square of the city. And then, sped by prayers and psalms of +rogation, the Armada, with its cargo of hopes and fears, tried for a +month in vain to get out of the Tagus, with a boisterous westerly gale +blowing full into the mouth of the river. But at length, at the end of +May, 1588, the fleet got clear out to sea; the Duke complaining to the +last of his subordinates and of his ships to the King, and praying that +God would avert disaster. Contrary winds still held the fleet back for a +fortnight more on the coast, and then, on the 19th June, a great storm +came and scattered the ships like chaff. Some, with the Duke, fled in +dire danger to shelter in Corunna, some even were blown within sight +of the Scilly Isles, and many ran into the Biscay and Galician ports. +Confusion, utter and complete, overcame the host. Many of the ships were +crippled, spars broken, sails split, and planks started. Provisions were +spoilt; the long delay had consumed stores and water; and again Medina +Sidonia appealed to the King to abandon an enterprise which seemed so +ill-starred, and again he clamoured for more stores, more men, more +money, more arms. + +On the 24th June, in despair, he wrote to the King as follows: “When +your Majesty ordered me to take command of this fleet I gave many +reasons why I ought not to undertake it.... I saw that it was going +against a powerful nation, which had the help of its neighbours, and +that the task would require a much larger force than that collected at +Lisbon; I therefore declined the command.... Since then the ships have +suffered much, and the fleet is now greatly inferior to that of the +English; the crews are weakened by sickness, and numbers fall ill daily +in consequence of bad food.... The provisions are rotten, the water +is stinking, and our stores will not last two months under the most +favourable conditions.”[291] Then he goes on to say that all the power of +Spain, all the King’s hopes, credit, and prestige, are entrusted to this +Armada, and its loss would mean irretrievable ruin. “It would be unwise,” +he says, “to run such a risk even with equal forces, but much more so +with such an inferior force as we have now, the men inexperienced, and +the officers, on my conscience I assure your Majesty, hardly any of them +knowing or capable of doing their duty.... Believe me, your Majesty, we +are very weak; pray do not allow any one to persuade you otherwise.” The +timid Duke was full of forebodings, but Don Pedro de Valdés and other +officers were writing at the same time to the King, impatiently scoffing +at the delay, and Philip sternly, almost angrily, ordered Medina Sidonia +to carry out his instructions without further parley—to patch up and +collect his vessels again and sail up the Channel, with God’s blessing, +to conquer the heretics who were holding the fair land of England. + +And thus Philip the Prudent cast to the winds all the dictates of +prudence. Parma, at all events, could not be accused either of ineptitude +or of cowardice, and yet he had twice solemnly warned his uncle to +abandon his plan, now that all Europe knew of it and was prepared to +frustrate it. If Philip had determined (as indeed he had) to run all +risks and depend upon the special interposition of Providence in his +favour, it was surely the height of folly to entrust the task, upon the +success of which the whole future of his cause depended, to two unwilling +commanders, both of whom deliberately foretold failure. It was, perhaps, +impossible for him to dismiss Parma at short notice; but the letter +from Medina Sidonia quoted above would amply have justified either his +recall or the abandonment of the enterprise for which he, the commander, +foretold defeat. Like Villeneuve at Trafalgar, Medina Sidonia was a +beaten man before he met his enemy; but Philip, blind to all worldly +considerations and steadfast in his faith in himself and his cause, +elected to strike his supreme blow against Elizabeth with an obsolete and +faulty weapon wielded by a feeble hand. + +With plentiful prayers and the blessings of Churchmen, with abundant +copies of Father Parsons’s allocutions to his countrymen on the +blessings of Spanish rule, and Cardinal Allen’s exhortations in favour of +the old faith, the Armada sailed. The victuals were scanty and bad, the +water was putrid, the craft overcrowded and fever-haunted; the admiral +was faint-hearted and prophesied disaster; but the crank ships, with +strained spars and gaping seams, though they looked so brave and loomed +so high, sailed out of Corunna on the 12th July, 1588, doomed beforehand +to disaster, which only a miracle from on high could avert from them. How +the disaster fell there is no space here to relate; but a week’s running +fight up the Channel, and one hopeless battle at bay, struck the first +irreparable blow at the fable of Philip’s irresistible power, and the +prestige that clung still around the name of the Emperor and his son. + +We have followed the process by which circumstances and the personal +character of the chief actors in the great drama had driven Philip, after +thirty years of diplomacy in trying to win England to his side without +any concessions on his part, into a violent course at last. The result +of his over-caution for so many years had been that he was forced to be +reckless after all or fail entirely; the outcome of his fatal desire to +win all for himself without risking anything was that when the crisis +came he had to risk everything on a losing hazard. Elizabeth was more +fortunate in the issue than her brother-in-law, but hardly more wise. +Almost to the day when the Armada sighted her coasts she was beguiled +into a belief that her negotiations with Parma might avert war, though +Walsingham and the sailors were almost in despair at what they saw was +the terrible risk she ran. She was far more hard-fisted and parsimonious +than Philip, too, when once it was brought home to her that she and +her people would have to fight for the independence of England. Her +men, unlike those at the bidding of Philip, were full of initiative and +boldness, though they had to cope with material obstacles almost as great +as his. All was unready in England when the peril loomed near, and even +if the Queen had been as liberal as she was stingy, sufficient stores +could not in the circumstances have been improvised and concentrated. + +But every one in England, high and low, did his best. There was but +little of the vapouring self-confidence that led the Spanish soldiers +into the disillusionment which destroyed their nation’s potency; but the +predictions and assurances with regard to England of Parsons and the +English Jesuits and Spanish pensioners, were all signally falsified. The +moderate English Catholics, who quite conceivably might have welcomed +the adoption of an English Catholic successor to Elizabeth under Spanish +patronage, were indignant at the Jesuit-Spanish plan to foist Philip’s +daughter upon the throne after deposing Elizabeth and submitting the +country to conquest. The treatment meted out to Englishmen in Spain by +the Inquisition had given even to Catholics no desire to live under a +rule which made such an institution a branch of Government. So, when the +time of trial came, the Howards, Catholics though they were, and often as +they had been parties to Philip’s plans, fought against him as stoutly +as the veriest Puritan of them all. A generation had passed away since +Philip had personally felt the pulse of England. Allen, Englefield, and +Parsons had not, for many years before the Armada sailed, seen with +their own eyes the growing spirit of patriotism which under Elizabeth +was binding Englishmen as such together, independent of their creeds; +and the Jesuit Churchmen and pensioned laymen who advised Philip that +the English people would welcome the men on the Armada with open arms +as liberators were as the blind leading the blind, for they were not in +touch with nor understood the England that had arisen since their time. + +For the rest of Philip’s life, ten years, a more pressing task even than +that of winning England by finesse or force claimed his every effort. The +murder of Henry III. made a Protestant King of France; and to prevent +the country from joining the Reformation Philip and Spain would have +to fight until the last dollar was spent and the last Spanish soldier +was dead. Again, the Infanta was his candidate for the Crown of all or +a portion of her mother’s land; and, as in the case of England, the +forces of patriotism in the end overrode the differences of creed, and +all Frenchmen coalesced to oppose foreign aggression. Henry IV. “went to +Mass,” it is true, and that France remained a Catholic country through +his efforts was the only great triumph of Philip’s strenuous life. + +From the time when the Armada, or such of the ships as escaped the +wild Atlantic gales, crept home, plague-stricken, battered wrecks, and +the cry of mortal anguish went up from all Spanish hearts at the cruel +disappointment of their hopes, Philip, it is true, continued to strive +against the woman who had beaten him. These efforts I have described +elsewhere: but with no hope of conquering England by frontal attack was +one little expedition after another with infinite difficulty and friction +fitted out thenceforward in Corunna. For that Philip knew well the time +had passed, notwithstanding the continued exhortations of the Churchmen +and pensioned refugees. Thenceforward it was his plan to incite Irish +Catholics to revolt, to render Elizabeth unsafe and uneasy, in order to +prevent her from aiding Henry of Navarre in France; to look forward to +the time when her death, by natural or unnatural means, should give him a +chance of manœuvring a sovereign apt for his purpose upon the throne of +England. With the failure of Philip’s thirty-five years’ struggle to gain +the control of England for his ends under two sister Queens, the downfall +of his own system and the decay of Spain were absolutely inevitable, +though the tradition of its potency died hard and was maintained long +after its reality had fled. + +It is bootless to consider what would have been the result if Philip’s +methods had been less rigid, and if he could have fought his enemies with +their own weapons; for if such had been the case he would not have been +Philip, and the situation that made the long struggle incumbent upon him +would never have been created. But, though on his agonising death-bed +in his poor cell at the Escorial, in the autumn of 1598, he knew that +Elizabeth still defied him, and the Dutch Protestants repudiated his +rule, that wherever the yoke of Rome was shaken off it could be imposed +no more, he still held firmly to his faith beyond all earthly evidence, +that God in His good way and time would send triumphant victory to the +cause for which He and Philip had fought in partnership—the supremacy of +Catholicism and the preponderance of Spain amongst the nations. + + + + +FOOTNOTES + + +[1] Moryson to the Council, 7th October 1552. Record Office. + +[2] Thirlby, Hoby, and Moryson to the Council. State Papers, Germany. + +[3] Sir Philip Hoby to Cecil. Hatfield Papers and Haynes. + +[4] Papiers d’État du Cardinal de Granvelle, vol. iv. + +[5] The envoys to the Emperor. Papiers d’État de Granvelle, vol. iv. + +[6] The Emperor to the envoys. Papiers d’État de Granvelle, vol. iv. + +[7] The Imperial envoys to the Emperor. Papiers d’État, vol. iv. + +[8] The Emperor to the envoys, 20th July. + +[9] Contemporary account by Antonio de Guaras. Edited by Garnett. + +[10] Ambassades de Noailles, vol. ii + +[11] Renard to the Emperor. Papiers d’État de Granvelle, vol. iv. + +[12] He had, in fact, several children by the Lady Doña Isabel de +Osorio, with whom he had lived since his young wife’s death. The fact +that Granvelle puts the word in the plural proves that this was quite +recognised. + +[13] In the private letter which the Emperor wrote to his son on the +subject he says: “if the choice falls upon a foreigner, I think the +English would rather have me than any one else, as they have always +been well disposed towards me. But I can assure you that even greater +dominions” (_i.e._, than England) “would not seduce me nor divert me from +the very different intention which I hold. If, therefore, they should +send and propose this marriage to me, I have thought that it would be +better to suggest you, and the matter could then be carried through +successfully. The benefits and advantages which would accrue are so +great and notorious that they need not be particularised. I only place +it before you for your consideration. Let me know at once what you think +of it, so that we may act accordingly; but keep it strictly secret.”—MS. +Simancas. Printed in the _Retiro, estancia y muerte del Emperador Carlos +V._ + +[14] Granvelle to Renard. Papiers d’État, vol. iv. + +[15] Although Renard at this interview of 6th August did not, according +to his own statement, bring forward Philip’s name to the Queen, public +rumour was already busy with it. Noailles three days afterwards wrote +to the King of France saying that the Imperial ambassadors had proposed +Philip to the Queen: “and it was not now so sure that she would +marry Courtenay. It is thought that the effect of his presence has +greatly damaged his reputation, although he is quite handsome and well +bred.”—“_Mais la nourriture que vous, Sire, pouvez penser qu’il á pris +ayant été toujours fermé dés son enfance dans des murailles lui a laissé +si peu de gravité et d’experience qui je crains beaucoup qu’il soit +pour se conduire á telle fortune, Combien que la commune de toute cette +province la lui desire._”—Ambassades de Noailles. + +[16] The Princess in question was the daughter of Eleanor, sister of the +Emperor, and now the widow of Francis I. of France. + +[17] Renard had seen Bishop Gardiner, the Queen’s principal minister, the +day before, and had tried to draw some declaration from him, although he +was known to be in favour of the Courtenay match. The Bishop said that +he would not suggest any name to the Queen; but if she asked his advice +as to marrying a foreigner, he would tell her that, for the good of her +country and her own safety, it would be better to marry an Englishman, as +the very name of foreigner was hated by the English. “As for the Prince +of Spain,” continued Gardiner, “if she married him, the people would +never tolerate the Spanish character; which even the Flemish subjects of +the Emperor detest; besides which, the marriage would mean for England a +perpetual war with France.”—Papiers d’État de Granvelle, vol. iv. + +[18] Philip wrote to his father, “If the marriage should be proposed for +your Majesty, that would be the best course. But if your Majesty persists +in the view you state to me in your letter and you think better to treat +of the marriage for me, you know already that as an entirely obedient +son I have no other will than yours, and above all on an affair of this +importance. I therefore leave it to your Majesty to act as you deem +best.”—MS. Simancas. _Retiro estancia y muerte del Emperador_, etc. + +[19] A curious account of these preparations will be found in Machyn’s +Diary. + +[20] Ambassades de Noailles, vol. ii. Noailles, in describing the scene +to the King of France, says that when de Geneda entered the boat that +was to convey him down the Thames on his way to Spain, he announced that +Prince Philip would visit Queen Mary in the following March on his way to +Flanders; and Noailles advises the King of France to muster his ships in +the Channel to prevent the Prince’s passage. + +[21] Antonio de Guaras. + +[22] Antonio de Guaras, who was present in the Abbey. It was noticed by +the Imperial ambassadors that Princess Elizabeth, who at the ceremony +took the place due to a Royal Princess, with Anne of Cleves, exchanged +significant glances with Noailles whenever she met him. In the course +of the day she complained to the French ambassador of the weight of the +coronet she was wearing. “Patience!” was his reply, “it will soon produce +a better one.”—Record Office, Brussels Transcripts, i. p. 436. + +[23] The details of these interesting interviews are in Renard’s Letters, +Record Office, Brussels Transcripts, vol. i. + +[24] Renard to the Emperor, 31st October. Record Office, Brussels +Transcripts. Mary had apparently waited until the Acts had passed +declaring her mother’s marriage legal. This was effected on the 28th +October. + +[25] The Emperor to his son, 21st January, 1554, asking him to ratify the +treaty, notwithstanding the hardness of the conditions. MSS. Simancas, +Estado 808. + +[26] Queen Jane and Queen Mary. + +[27] Queen Jane and Queen Mary. + +[28] Record Office, Brussels Transcripts, vol. i. 979. + +[29] Documentos Ineditos, vol. iii. + +[30] Queen Jane and Queen Mary. + +[31] Ambassades de Noailles, Instruction à Lamarque, vol. iii. + +[32] Documentos Ineditos, iii. + +[33] Renard to the Emperor, 8th March. Record Office, Brussels +Transcripts, vol. i. + +[34] Renard to the Emperor, 8th March. Record Office, Brussels +Transcripts, vol. i. + +[35] Ibid. + +[36] As showing the excited condition of the public mind even yet with +regard to the marriage, it may be mentioned that the day before this +scene was passing, on the 6th March, two bands of about 300 London +urchins collected in a field—probably Moorfields—and engaged in strenuous +combat against each other; one band representing the Queen’s and +Philip’s forces, and the other those of the King of France and Wyatt’s. +Noailles, in his account of the affair—though Renard does not mention the +detail—says that the unfortunate boy who was made to represent the Prince +of Spain was captured and hanged, very nearly fatally. The leaders of +the fight on both sides were well whipped and imprisoned by the Queen’s +orders.—Ambassades de Noailles, iii. 130. Renard’s Letter, 9th March. +Record Office, Brussels Transcripts, and Queen Jane and Queen Mary. + +[37] Muñoz’s narrative, Sociedad de Bibliofilos. + +[38] Muñoz’s narrative. + +[39] On this and on all occasions that English fashions of the time +are described by Spaniards, mention was made of the enormous number of +ornamental buttons that English gentlemen wore on their garments. + +[40] Muñoz’s narrative. + +[41] Muñoz’s narrative. + +[42] In fact they shipped a large number of horses. + +[43] Muñoz’s narrative. Sociedad de Bibliofilos. + +[44] Record Office, Brussels Transcripts. + +[45] Renard to the Emperor. Record Office, Brussels Transcripts. + +[46] Renard to the Emperor, 9th June. Record Office, Brussels Transcripts. + +[47] Noailles to the King, 17th June, 1554. Ambassades. + +[48] Renard to the Prince, 13th March, Record Office, Brussels +Transcripts. + +[49] Papiers d’État de Granvelle, vol. iv. + +[50] The only warrant for the seasick story is that contained in a letter +from Bedford and Fitzwalter in Spain to the Council, saying that the +Prince “was wont to be very sick upon the sea,” and proposing that some +preparations should be made at Plymouth for his landing there in case of +need. But, in fact, Philip had a smooth voyage, and remained at anchor on +the _Espiritu Santo_ in Southampton harbour for nearly twenty-four hours +before he landed, and was in perfect health. + +[51] The bulk of the Spanish fleet was not allowed even to enter the +harbour of Southampton for provisions and water, which only after much +unpleasantness and discourtesy they were able to obtain at Portsmouth. + +[52] Whilst they all praise the sumptuous fittings of the rooms, not a +single Spanish narrator says a word of the story told by the malicious +Venetian, that Philip was shocked by the words “Fidei Defensor” being +embroidered on the hangings. + +[53] Enriquez’s narrative. Sociedad de Bibliofilos. + +[54] Philip’s courtiers sneered that Browne took the King’s horses to his +own stables to recover from the voyage, in order that he might have a +chance of keeping them altogether. + +[55] Muñoz’s and Enriquez’s narratives. Sociedad de Bibliofilos. + +[56] Narrative by Car, who was a servant to Pescara. Printed in Milan, +1554. See the author’s “Year After the Armada.” + +[57] All foreign visitors to England in the sixteenth century remarked +upon the great profusion of plate used for household purposes at the time. + +[58] Enriquez’s narrative. + +[59] Philip had sent a Spanish magistrate, Alcalde Bribiesca, to England +before him, to dispose of cases in his own following. The English were +bitterly jealous of this, and refused to acknowledge any jurisdiction for +him. + +[60] Enriquez’s narrative. The narrator was a kinsman of the Duchess. + +[61] This reminds one of Queen Elizabeth’s dancing, which was praised as +“high and disposedly.” + +[62] Queen Jane and Queen Mary (Camden Society), Foxe’s Acts and +Monuments, and other contemporary chronicles. + +[63] John Elder’s Letter, Camden Society. + +[64] John Elder’s Letter, Camden Society. + +[65] MSS. Simancas, Estado 808. + +[66] Queen Jane and Queen Mary. + +[67] Ambassades de Noailles, vol. iii. 311. + +[68] Letters from both Mary and Pole to the King of France advocating the +conclusion of Peace are in Ambassades de Noailles, vol. iii. 323-4. + +[69] Queen Jane and Queen Mary. + +[70] Queen Jane and Mary, and Holingshed. + +[71] We get at this time (October, 1554), whilst the royal couple were at +Hampton Court, a glimpse of their life together. “As for newes you shall +understand that the King’s and Queen’s Majesties be in helth and merry, +whom I did see daunce togethers uppon Sunday night at the Court, where +was a brave maskery of cloth of gold and silver apparailed in mariners +garments, the chief doer whereof I think was my lord Admiral.”—Francis +Yaxley to Sir W. Cecil, Landsdown MSS. (Cotton), vol. iii. 44. + +[72] Venetian Calendar. + +[73] Ibid. + +[74] In the Venetian Calendar, 21st September, 1554, there is a dignified +letter from Pole to Philip reproaching him for allowing him, a Prince of +the Church, an Englishman exiled for Mary’s sake half a lifetime, and +a Legate of the head of the Church, thus to knock at the door of his +country unheeded by a Catholic King. + +[75] Mason to the Queen and King, 9th November, Foreign Calendar. + +[76] Ibid. + +[77] Enriquez’s narrative (Sociedad de Bibliofilos) and John Elder’s +letter, Camden Society. Queen Jane and Queen Mary. + +[78] John Elder says that, as an instance of Pole’s good repute, that +when he (Elder) was in Rome it was a common saying there, not only +amongst Englishmen, but amongst Italians as well, “_Polus Cardinalis +natione Anglus pietatis et literarum testimonio dignus, non qui Polus +Anglus, sed qui Polus angelus vocetur_.” + +[79] Enriquez’s narrative. + +[80] John Elder’s letter. + +[81] Papiers d’État de Granvelle, vol. iv. + +[82] Enriquez’s narrative. + +[83] Enriquez’s narrative. + +[84] Michaeli says that ten thousand people listened to the sermon. + +[85] Signor Claretta has published (Pinerolo, 1892) an interesting series +of documents from the Turin Archives giving full particulars of the visit. + +[86] The assertion of so many historians that she came to Whitehall at +Christmas, 1554, is erroneous. She did not come till the end of April, +long after Savoy’s departure. + +[87] At this time (late in 1554) a large number of Spanish shopkeepers +and artisans had established themselves in London under the erroneous +belief referred to in an earlier page, that the marriage of Philip meant +their entering into possession of the kingdom. This had been so much +resented by the Londoners that not only were attacks upon these people +constant, as recorded by Enriquez and others, but on the 12th October +Mary had been obliged to issue a decree commanding all Spanish tradesmen +to shut up their shops. This, of course, was a new source of complaint +with them. + +[88] Foreign Calendar. + +[89] Queen Jane and Queen Mary. + +[90] Papiers d’État de Granvelle, vol. iv. + +[91] On occasion of a grand tilting at Whitehall on the 25th March twenty +gentlemen made a brilliant show, and Philip distinguished himself so +much that the Queen became anxious and apprehensive, sending to beseech +him, as he had run so many courses and done enough, not to encounter any +further risk for her sake. He also attended another grand tilt at the +weddings of Lords Maltravers and Fitzwalter in the following month. + +[92] Venetian Calendar. + +[93] “Acts and Monuments.” + +[94] Elizabeth’s Italian master was arrested in connection with one of +these publications, called “A Dialogue.”—Michaeli, Venetian Papers. + +[95] Michaeli’s advices, Venetian Calendar. + +[96] Michaeli on this visit mentions that he saw Queen Mary, “who was +looking very well; for, placing herself every morning at a small window, +she likes to see the procession pass, which at her desire, goes round +the palace court, she most courteously bowing her head in acknowledgment +to all persons who salute her ... as she did twice with extraordinary +cheerfulness and graciousness to the Portuguese ambassador and myself, +we having gone into the court to accompany the King to Mass, and joined +the procession on the invitation of the Lords of the Council. Her Majesty +expects and hopes during this week to comfort the realm by an auspicious +delivery, but the greater part of her women think that she will go +beyond.” + +[97] Renard to the Emperor, 27th June, 1555.—Papiers d’État de Granvelle. + +[98] Michaeli, Venetian Calendar. + +[99] Ambassades de Noailles, vol. v. 136. + +[100] Ambassades de Noailles, vol. v. 98. + +[101] Ambassades de Noailles. + +[102] Michaeli to the Doge, 3rd September, 1555.—Venetian Calendar. + +[103] It must be recollected that Philip’s tolerance and moderation with +regard to the extreme persecution of heresy in England was purely a +matter of policy, as his after life clearly proved. At a later period, +moreover, he actually claimed for himself the credit of the religious +persecution. Cabrera de Cordoba quotes a letter from him to his sister +Juana, in which he says, “I, having diverted the realm [England] from the +sects and brought it into obedience to the Church, and having always been +in favour of the punishment of the heretics, which is now being carried +out so smoothly in England” (Cabrera, “Vida de Felipe II.”). + +[104] State Papers, Domestic, September, 1555. + +[105] Ambassades de Noailles. + +[106] This, of course, was late in 1555, before the truce of Vaucelles in +February, 1556. + +[107] Michaeli to the Doge, Venetian Calendar, 28th April, 1556. She had +been asked many times to go to Flanders to stay with Philip’s aunt, Mary +of Hungary. + +[108] The process of these conspiracies may be followed step by step in +the Letters of Noailles (Ambassades), Michaeli (Venetian Calendar), and +Wotton (Foreign Calendar). + +[109] Michaeli, Venetian Calendar. + +[110] In a pathetic and submissive letter (Cotton, Titus B. 2, 57, +British Museum) Mary beseeches Philip to allow her to defer the matter +until he comes to England. Her doubts on the matter seem to have been +partly inspired by jealousy of her sister, who if she married Emmanuel +Philibert in Flanders would be near Philip, for she adds: “If you will +not defer it I shall be jealous of your Highness, which would be worse +for me than death—I have already begun to feel uneasy.” + +[111] Noailles and Michaeli. + +[112] The particulars of this treaty will be found in the author’s +Calendar of Spanish State Papers, Henry VIII., vols, vi., vii., and viii. + +[113] Sorzano to the Doge, May, 1557, Venetian Calendar, detailing a +conversation with Henry on the subject. + +[114] The Earl of Bedford, writing to Cecil on the 21st August, says that +“the Count of Egmont with two thousand Spaniards and Schwartzreiters +and as many of us made a ride into France of twenty-two miles, and +found no great resistance, nor should have done though we had gone much +further.”—Haynes’ State Papers. + +[115] The vast monastery palace of the Escorial owed its origin to such +a promise on the part of Philip II. when he saw to his sorrow that his +troops had destroyed and sacked a church and cloister dedicated to St. +Laurence at St. Quintin. To appease the saint, he promised on the spot +to build the grandest monastery to St. Laurence in the world, and he +kept his word. For the greater part of his life the building of this +stupendous pile upon the sterile Guadarrama steppes was an obsession of +the King. + +[116] Lord Grey de Wilton to the Queen.—Domestic Calendar. + +[117] An interesting account of the defence and loss of Guisnes is given +by Lord Grey himself (Camden Society). + +[118] MSS. Simancas, Philip to Feria, January, 1558.—Estado, 811. + +[119] Howard suspected the influence that had been exerted against him, +and charged Feria with it. The Spaniard assured him that he had been +misinformed; and in order to mollify him Philip wrote to the Queen asking +her to give Howard some Court appointment instead of the Admiralty. +Clinton was by Philip’s influence also placed in the Council, of which +Howard was not a member, but became so, as well as Lord Chamberlain, +shortly afterwards. + +[120] Feria to the King, 12th February, 1558 (MSS. Simancas, Estado 811). +Philip replied that he could not send the 10,000 crowns required at once, +as he was very short of money, but would send it as soon as he could get +it in Spain. + +[121] MSS. Simancas, Estado 811, Feria to the King, 10th March. + +[122] Philip had written to Feria a day or two before saying that the +English orders for powder, &c., in Flanders were so excessive that if +they were made public the dealers would at once put up the price to his +detriment, and he begged that the amount might be reduced. In Rymer’s +“Federa” there is a list of the munitions which Gresham was to obtain +in conjunction with the Italian banker Bonvisi, who had advanced a loan +to Mary: “3,500 hackequebutts, 1,000 pistolets, 500 pondera (lbs.) de +Mauches, 100,000 pondera (lbs.) petre salse (saltpetre), 3,000 corselets, +2,000 mourreyens, 3,000 iron cappes, 8,000 lances and pikes.” + +[123] Feria, writing to the King on the 6th April, says in reference to +this: “Gresham writes that he has found much difficulty and has only +taken up £10,000. I do not know how this comes to pass, for Paget and +the rest of them told me at first that the loan for £100,000 was already +arranged with the merchants I wrote about, and I naturally thought +that as it had been settled between them and me that Gresham should go +straight to your Majesty that the affair would be carried through at +once.... He took letters from the Council to your Majesty, and the Queen +instructed him to go straight to you. Now it seems from what he writes +that he has not been to Brussels, and he deserves punishment at your +Majesty’s hands, as I have told the Queen.”—MSS. Simancas, Estado 811. + +[124] Foreign Calendar. + +[125] MSS Simancas, 10th March, 1558, Estado 811. + +[126] MSS. Simancas, Estado 811. + +[127] In the letter written by Philip to Feria in reply to that quoted +above he says that he has written to Clinton ordering him to go to +Flanders at once to receive Philip’s orders as to what he is to do with +the English fleet, “in order that the money it is costing should not be +spent fruitlessly.”—MSS. Simancas, Estado 811. + +[128] MSS. Simancas, Estado 811. + +[129] Feria’s suggestion, to which this is a reply, runs thus: “I wrote +to your Majesty that I did not see Madam Elizabeth when I came here +because my principal means of carrying through what I wanted was the +goodwill of the Queen, and I was anxious not to run counter to her in +anything, especially as your Majesty had given me no instructions to +the contrary. I afterwards sent a message of apology to Madam Elizabeth +by the Admiral’s wife [_i.e._, Lady Clinton], who was brought up with +her and is much in her favour. I said that after she left [London] I +had received orders from your Majesty to pay my respects to her in your +name. I told Paget to excuse me to her also, but I do not think he did +so. On the contrary, the Admiral’s wife told me that he asked Madam +Elizabeth whether I had visited her, and when she said no he expressed +much surprise. Figueroa and myself think the matter should not be left +thus, and that it would be best for me to go and see her before I leave. +She lives 20 miles away. I shall be glad of your Majesty’s instructions” +(MSS. Simancas, Estado 811, Feria to the King, 18th May). + +[130] A good instance of this is given in the appointment of the +commander of 1,000 English pioneers who had been raised for Philip’s +service. Feria wished to send Major Randolph in charge of them. The +Councillors appointed another man and said that Randolph was to be +appointed to a post on shore in connection with the navy. Feria insisted, +and a long quarrel resulted, Feria insisting that Philip should write +peremptorily to the Queen about it. + +[131] This was certainly not the case. Suriano, the Venetian ambassador, +writing from Brussels on the 12th November, on Feria’s hasty voyage to +England, when Mary was known to be dying, says drily: “He is in great +favour with the Queen and he likewise fancies himself popular there [in +England], but may God grant, in case of her Majesty’s death, that he do +not experience to his detriment the perverse nature of those people, and +their most inveterate hatred of foreigners and above all of Spaniards” +(Venetian Calendar, 12th November). The fable of Feria’s great power in +England persisted for years, probably owing to his marriage with Sir +William Dormer’s daughter Jane, which brought him into relationship with +the Sidneys and a powerful group of English noble families. Dr. Man, the +English ambassador in Spain in 1567, writes to Cecil (Cotton MSS., Galba +ciii.) that he had heard a Spanish gentleman say at table that the “Count +de Feria was so beloved in England that in case he would he might have +made himself King of England. Which although it be an untruth yet it +argueth a confidence the Spaniards have of some great part the Count is +yet able to make in England.” In fact, Feria, whose hatred of Elizabeth +was intense, was extremely unpopular for his arrogance and presumption in +England. + +[132] MSS. Simancas, Estado 811. + +[133] Philip was already in peace negotiations with the French; and the +English Commissioners were holding out strongly for the restitution of +Calais as a condition. + +[134] Venetian Calendar, 29th October, 1558. + +[135] The letter from Feria, dated 14th November, detailing this +interview with Elizabeth was abstracted by Gonzalez many years ago with +other papers of the period and translated into English. Unfortunately +since then the letter appears to have been lost. At least I could not +find it when I transcribed the other letters of the period relating to +England in the Spanish Royal Archives at Simancas. The letter, however, +was printed in Kervyn de Lettenhove’s “Relations Politiques,” &c. + +[136] From Father Clifford’s contemporary “Life of the Duchess of Feria” +(published), for the inspection of the original manuscript of which I am +indebted to its present possessor, Lord Dormer. + +[137] Spanish Calendars of Elizabeth (Hume). + +[138] Spanish Calendars of Elizabeth, vol. i. (Hume). + +[139] The English correspondence on this matter is of much interest. It +is in Forbes’s State Papers. + +[140] Philip to Feria, 14th February, 1559.—Spanish Calendars of +Elizabeth (Hume). + +[141] Elizabeth was all the time in negotiation with the Reform party in +France through Guido Cavalcanti for a separate peace, if possible, on +better terms than could be got in conjunction with Spain. She was quite +willing to leave Philip in the lurch, if necessary, though the Catholic +advisers of Henry II. had entirely different views. The correspondence is +in Forbes’ State Papers of Elizabeth. + +[142] Hatfield Papers, part i, p. 151. + +[143] Spanish Calendar of Elizabeth (Hume). + +[144] “Queens of Old Spain,” by Martin Hume. + +[145] 12th July, Spanish Calendar, vol, i. + +[146] The Bishop of Aquila to Feria, 7th March, 1560.—Spanish Calendar, +vol. i. + +[147] This pretended _rapprochement_ may be followed in detail in +Quadra’s letters in the Spanish Calendar. The intrigue was mainly +engineered by Lady Mary Sidney. + +[148] Spanish Calendar, vol. i. + +[149] Quadra wrote a letter to the Emperor on the 26th June, before +he received Philip’s instructions, worded in a way that was purposely +intended to deceive. Whilst saying that the Scots were not favourable +to the Archduke’s suit unless he brought enough money to keep himself +and also that he was strong enough to assert Mary’s claim to the English +Crown, he hinted that it was to France and not to Spain that she was +looking for a husband. No word is mentioned about Don Carlos.—Spanish +Calendar, vol. i. 340. + +[150] Serious allegations of intrigues against the Queen had been made +against the Bishop by a former secretary of his to Cecil. Shan O’Neil was +known to have frequented his house; English Catholics were known to be +attendants at Mass in the embassy chapel, and many other complaints were +made besides the harbouring and connivance in the escape of the fugitive +Italian. The Bishop himself was placed under arrest and subsequently +deprived of the use of Durham House as a result of the investigation of +these charges.—Spanish Calendar, vol. i., and Domestic Calendar of the +same date, 1563. + +[151] And not alone to Philip. The merchants of Antwerp wrote +beseeching letters to Cecil, and also to Gresham, asking for their +influence to procure the re-establishment of commercial intercourse. +The correspondence on the subject, extending over many months, is in +the Spanish Calendar, vol. i., and in the Flanders Papers of the date +(1564) at the Record Office, for the most part abstracted in the Foreign +Calendar. + +[152] Some of the arguments he is directed to use sound strangely +incongruous as coming from Philip. “You may say that they cannot fairly +refuse the request about the [Catholic] churches, for even the Turk +allows Christians who live in his country to worship God in their own +way.”—Spanish Calendar, vol. i. 353. + +[153] The meaning of this is that Dudley and his Catholic friends were +saying that the suspension of commercial intercourse was favourable to +them, as it was driving Englishmen to desperation, and would lead to a +revolt against Cecil. + +[154] Guzman was warned by his master that he must be very wary how he +listened to treasonable suggestions, either from the English and Irish +Catholics or from Dudley’s friends, as in either case they might be +traps. If Dudley would get Cecil disgraced, Philip would be delighted, +but the hand of Spain must on no account be seen in it.—Spanish Calendar, +vol. i. 371. + +[155] Spanish Calendar, vol. i. + +[156] When Elizabeth visited the University of Cambridge on her autumn +progress, she declined, in consequence of want of time, to attend a +theatrical performance offered to her by the students. Before she reached +her next stopping-place she was persuaded to alter her mind, and she +returned to witness the play. To her annoyance the imprisoned Catholic +bishops were lampooned upon the stage with much sacrilegious buffoonery, +whereupon “the Queen was so angry that she at once rose and entered +her own chamber, using very strong language, and the torchbearers, +it being night, left them in the dark, and so ended this scandalous +representation.”—Spanish Calendar, vol. i. 375, Guzman to the Duchess of +Parma. + +[157] The Duchess of Aerschot had written to her from Flanders to this +effect at the end of 1564. + +[158] The King to Guzman, 6th June, 1565.—Spanish Calendar, vol. i. 433. + +[159] Randolph to Cecil, 29th April, 1565.—Scottish Calendar (Bain). + +[160] Cardinal Pacheco to Philip.—Spanish Calendar, vol. i. + +[161] Labanoff, vol. vii. + +[162] Spanish Calendar (Hume), vol. i., 16th July, 1565. + +[163] Scottish Calendar, vol. i. (Bain). + +[164] Scottish Calendar (Bain), 15th September, 1565. + +[165] Ibid. + +[166] Labanoff, vol. i. + +[167] Spanish Calendar, vol. i. 497, Philip to Guzman. + +[168] Diary of Sir James Melville of Hall Hill. + +[169] How serious the situation was for Elizabeth, and how wide the +ramifications of the Catholic intrigue at the time, may be seen by a +letter written shortly after this by the English spy Rogers to Cecil. +Arthur Pole, who was a prisoner in the Tower, had surrendered in Mary’s +favour his claim to the Crown of England, and if he could escape from +his prison was to come to Scotland to support her with others of his +kin. Darnley himself, trying to outbid Mary, had boasted that forty +gentlemen and more in England were ready to serve him. Letters passed +fortnightly between the Countess of Lennox in the Tower and her son, +whilst every month an emissary of the northern Catholic gentry came in +disguise to Darnley from Carlisle. A regular plan, moreover, was prepared +for the capture and fortification of Scilly in the Catholic interest, +and the representative of the Irish rebel Shan O’Neil was made much of +by Darnley, who, amongst other presents, sent to Shan two hundred crowns +with which to buy whiskey. The hopes that Mary and Darnley built upon the +English Catholics and Spain were therefore well founded, if they had been +well handled.—Scottish Calendar, vol. ii. 293. + +[170] Guzman to the King, Spanish Calendar, vol. ii., 16th February, 1568. + +[171] One of the English spies in Madrid, Hogan, said that it was really +Feria who had got Man into the trouble. + +[172] Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. + +[173] Spanish Calendar, vol. ii., 9th August, 1568. + +[174] “I told him that, as for arranging anything of the sort between +the Cardinal and the Duke, I regarded such a statement as a silly joke, +the vain babble of the idle. I could assure him that to say that such +a treaty had gone through my hands was absolutely false. If I had done +such a thing against the Queen I should deserve heavy punishment from +your Majesty, and even from the Queen herself, such action being entirely +opposed to my instructions. I had never in my life had any communication +with the Cardinal, and I was quite sure the Queen would not believe +such nonsense.”—Spanish Calendar, vol. ii., 65. The English did not +seem to understand fully at this time Philip’s distrust of all French +interference, even that of the Guises. + +[175] This letter is not in Labanoff, but it is probably similar to that +sent to Charles IX. from Carlisle on the 26th June. + +[176] Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. 71. + +[177] Paget House had been the palace of the Bishops of Exeter, and was +the first of the great houses on the river side of the Strand outside +Temple Bar, on the site of what is now called the Outer Temple. It had +been granted by Henry VIII. to Lord Paget. + +[178] Very shortly after this, 30th October, when he had got into touch +with Mary’s imprudent agent, the Bishop of Ross, de Spes wrote to the +King: “I am of opinion that this would be a good opportunity for taking +Scottish affairs in hand successfully, and restoring the Catholic +religion in this country; and if the Duke [of Alba] were out of his +present anxiety and your Majesty wished, it could be discussed.”—Spanish +Calendar, vol. ii. 81. A week later de Spes wrote: “It appears as if +the time was approaching when this country may be made to return to +the Catholic Church, the Queen being in such straits and short of +money. I have already informed your Majesty of the offers made by the +brother-in-law of Viscount Montagu, on condition that they may look for +the protection of your Majesty.” + +[179] Almost simultaneously de Spes went to the French ambassador in +London (La Mothe) and proposed joint action between them first to oust +Cecil from his office, and secondly to stop trade with England entirely +both from France and the Spanish dominions, the ostensible object being +that, if this were done, Elizabeth and her subjects would be obliged to +become Catholic to avoid ruin. De Spes even proposed that the French +should pull the chestnuts out of the fire for him by stopping trade +first. La Mothe, in writing his account of the suggestion to Catharine, +calmly points out the evident absurdity of both proposals. De Spes +apparently had no notion of the incompatibility with Philip’s objects of +joint action of France and Spain in England.—Correspondance de la Mothe +Fénélon, vol. i. + +[180] These letters are in the Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. + +[181] How dangerous the position was at the time is seen by a letter +(3rd December, 1568) from Sir Francis Knollys, who had charge of Mary at +Bolton, to Cecil, in which he says that he has less fear that the attempt +to release Mary by subterfuge as Cecil thought, than by force, and begs +for more troops to resist attack from without. “We all agree herein, that +this is an inconvenient and dangerous place for this Queen to tarry in.” + +[182] Whilst this letter was being written, Cecil and the Lord Admiral +(Clinton) with a great train of followers and the alderman of the City +came to Paget House and demanded to see de Spes. Cecil angrily told him +that he had advised the Duke of Alba to seize English property, for which +disloyal act the Queen placed him (de Spes) under arrest, dismissing his +Spanish servants, and handing the charge of the house to Henry Knollys, +Arthur Carew, and Lord Knyvett. De Spes answered defiantly, and the +breach became wider than ever. Proclamations and counter proclamations, +or printed broadsheets, were issued by the English Council and by de Spes +respectively, each claiming that justice was on their side with regard to +the seizures.—De Spes to the King, 8th January, 1569, Spanish Calendar, +vol. ii. + +[183] The King to de Spes, 18th February, 1569.—Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. + +[184] “Memoirs of Sir James Melville of Hall Hill.” + +[185] Norfolk, on his trial, said that Leicester had also suggested the +marriage. + +[186] De Spes to the King, 5th August, 1569.—Spanish Calendar. Nonsuch +House was in the occupation of the Earl of Arundel. De Spes, who had +not been admitted to the Queen’s presence for many months, had hopes at +this time of being received again to discuss the eternal question of the +seizures. But another hitch had occurred, as the Queen refused to receive +him without new credentials from Philip himself. It had been intended +to take him from Oatlands, where the Queen was, to Nonsuch, after the +audience, and there a meeting of the conspirators was to confer with him. +This plan, however, was upset by the delay in granting him the audience +with Elizabeth. + +[187] The details of the Northern Rebellion may be followed closely in +the Calendars of State Papers of the period (Spanish, Domestic, Border, +and Scottish); in the Sadler Papers; in the Bowes Papers (Memorials +of the Rebellion of 1569, by Sir Cuthbert Sharpe). Wright’s Elizabeth +Papers, &c. + +[188] Philip to Alba, 16th December, 1569.—Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. + +[189] These letters are in Labanoff and in the Hardwick State Papers. + +[190] The Regent Murray had just been murdered. + +[191] Antonio de Guaras to Secretary Zayas.—Spanish Calendar. + +[192] Haynes State Papers. + +[193] He was made to vacate Winchester House “because it had too many +doors”; and on the 10th August two of the City aldermen came to him with +an order to proceed to Saint Albans to meet a Committee of the Council, +who wished to discuss his proceedings with him. He went as requested, +but refused to discuss anything until the Queen would receive him, which +she had refused to do since his disgrace. He was confident even now that +they would soon expel him with ignominy. He was no longer an ambassador, +said Leicester, but a spy, and the sooner he was gone the better.—Spanish +Calendar, vol. ii. + +[194] De Spes to Secretary Zayas, 6th February, 1571.—Spanish Calendar, +vol. ii. + +[195] The letter is in the Cotton MSS., Caligula, c. 11, p. 469. + +[196] Depositions of Ross and Barker.—State Trials. + +[197] Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. + +[198] Cobham arrived in Madrid in May, when Alba’s memorandum on +Ridolfi’s mission was in Philip’s hands. As was usual in English affairs, +Feria was one of those asked to report on Cobham’s mission. He and his +colleagues recommend that Cobham should be curtly dismissed, and the +English again referred to Alba for the discussion of the trade dispute, +and this course was taken. An extremely interesting letter was written by +Feria to the King’s Secretary, Zayas, which is full of bitterness that +his former advice as to England had not been taken. Amongst other things, +Feria writes: “I understand that our object is to keep friendly with +England because it is not at present possible to undertake the subjection +of that country and Ireland. We were lords of it once and left it. The +friendship will be difficult to maintain if the Sovereign be not a +Catholic and our hold upon the Netherlands less firm. The Queen sees our +weakness and assails us with inventions and fears that she will marry in +France. She will no more marry Anjou than she will marry me.... If Cobham +is not dealt with in dignified fashion I fear that our efforts to avoid +war will only bring it upon us, and we shall find suddenly some day that +we have lost the Catholics, and even they will take up arms against us. +When the Queen once understands that the Catholics depend upon our King +she will not dare to break with us. There is no other way out of it. For +the last two years we have trodden the path of feebleness; let us now try +the other road.”—Feria to Zayas, 10th May, 1571, Spanish Calendar, vol. +ii. + +[199] MSS. Simancas, Estado 823. Portions of the document are reproduced +by Mignet. + +[200] The whole of the depositions will be found in the Hatfield Papers +Historical MSS. Commission, and the circumstances are related in the +Spanish Calendar. + +[201] Simancas MSS., Minuta de Consejo, Estado 823. It will be seen on a +subsequent page that the money, 200,000 crowns, was found. + +[202] Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. Even after Philip knew that the plot +had failed and that Norfolk was in the Tower, he did not abandon his +hopes—for he was tenacious when once he had laboriously made up his mind. +In the instructions given to the Duke of Medina Celi in November, 1571, +when he was going to succeed Alba in the Netherlands, the King writes as +follows: “As regards England you will proceed in conformity with what was +communicated to you here and the Duke of Alba’s information, although +I do not think there will be much to do at present, as the Queen has +got scent of the business and has arrested the Duke of Norfolk and the +principal people concerned. She has also made the Queen of Scotland’s +prison straiter, and de Spes writes to me on the 21st October that they +are all in great peril, for which I am very sorry, though I still have +confidence that God, whose cause it is, will help us to forward the +matter as we wish. You will therefore hold yourself ready, in case the +Duke of Alba write to you at sea, to take any step with this end: in +accordance with Clause iv. of your instructions. I have thought well +to repeat it in this letter, _which for greater security you will burn +before you embark_” (the words in italics have been added in the King’s +own hand). Medina Celi is told that 200,000 crowns, half in gold, will +be handed to him for the English business, and must not on any account +be used for any other purpose, “but for this English affair, which I +sincerely hope that God will guide in some unexpected way for the good of +His cause.”—Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. 349. + +[203] Scottish State Papers, Mary, vol. vi. + +[204] That Elizabeth intended the expulsion of de Spes, and her +refusal to continue negotiations about the seizures, to be a political +demonstration to show her power and impress her new friends the +French, is seen by her conversation at this time (December, 1571) with +Cavalcanti, Catharine de Medici’s confidential envoy. The King of Spain, +she said, thought that he could separate her from the alliance with +France at any time; but however accommodating he might show himself in +the negotiations about the seizures, and however ready to agree to terms +favourable to the English, she would never trust Spaniards again, seeing +the trouble they had prepared for her in Ridolfi’s plots with the Pope. +The King of France might see how little she cared for the King of Spain +by the way she had ordered his ambassador to be gone without delay. She +wished Cavalcanti could have seen him actually on the road, but with some +pretext about wanting money he was here for a day or two longer. She +could assure him, however, that he should not stay in her country, and +she cared not whether another came or not.—Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. + +[205] “Recueil des Depeches,” &c., de la Mothe Fénélon, vol i. 375, and +Spanish Calendar. + +[206] Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. + +[207] The French Huguenot force that had entered Flanders to aid the +rebels had just been utterly routed by Alba’s son, Don Fadrique, and +Charles IX. saw that unless he could dissociate himself from the +unsuccessful attempt he might be dragged down by the fall of the Huguenot +party. + +[208] The story of the reception of the news of St. Bartholomew in +England may best be followed in the Correspondance Diplomatique de La +Mothe Fénélon. + +[209] How soon division was introduced is seen by the action of +Catharine, who saw only a few weeks after St. Bartholomew the mistake +she had made in allowing the Catholic party to go too far, and once more +began to court the Huguenots and Elizabeth, and also by the suspicion +evinced by La Mothe, the French ambassador in London, of Guaras’ renewed +favour at Elizabeth’s Court. Writing on the 9th November, he says that +Alba is making all sorts of tempting offers to Elizabeth through Guaras +to draw her away from French friendship and send an ambassador to Philip. +“Guaras is intriguing for this with such good presents that I am told +that he has given more than 10,000 crowns to one personage alone, who has +some authority here. He has done so much that the Lords of the Council +have been busy for several days trying to come to some arrangement +with the King of Spain, and Guaras is often at Court.”—Correspondance +Diplomatique, vol. v. + +[210] Guaras went to Kenilworth before the reception of the news of St. +Bartholomew to carry letters to Elizabeth from King Philip notifying +the appointment of Medina Celi to Flanders. Only a few days after the +tidings of St. Bartholomew the French ambassador wrote to Charles IX: +“It seems to me that these people are bent in any case in hatching some +new plan with Antonio de Guaras on the pretext of the letters from the +King of Spain and Medina Celi he carried to the Queen at Kenilworth. The +purport of the letters was simply to notify the coming of Medina Celi +to Flanders; but these people, in consequence of what has happened at +Paris, wish to make them serve for a further purpose.”—Correspondance +Diplomatique de la Mothe Fénélon. + +[211] Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. + +[212] Correspondance Diplomatique de la Mothe Fénélon. + +[213] This was not the first time that the suggestion of a marriage +between Mary and Don Juan had been made. A letter written by Lord +Burghley to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Keeper of the Queen of Scots, written +soon after the discovery of the Ridolfi plot, says that Elizabeth does +not complain of Mary’s attempts to escape to Spain or elsewhere, nor is +she offended by the proposal to marry young James to the Infanta. “Nether +that she sought to make the King of Spayne beleve that she wold geve +ear to the offer of Don Jon of Austria.” The real cause of Elizabeth’s +anger, says Lord Burghley, is Mary’s conspiracy to raise a revolution in +England.—Talbot Papers (Lodge). + +[214] One of Burghley’s spies, Lane, a Catholic, ventured even to +reproach the minister for talking so much to Guaras on foreign policy. +It appears that Burghley’s hare-brained son-in-law, Lord Oxford, and +another English noble were in secret negotiation with Guaras to do some +service to the Spaniards in Flanders, Guaras to find the necessary +money on Oxford’s pledge. Lane advises Burghley to put a spoke into the +wheel. Lane says that unless Guaras is employed in some way—preferably +in Ireland on Government affairs—he may develop pernicious activity +elsewhere.—Hatfield Papers, vol. ii., June, 1573. + +[215] Hardwick State Papers. + +[216] At this time (March, 1575) Orange, despairing of efficient aid from +Elizabeth, was wooing the French. His daughter was to marry Alençon, +who was to join Condé and a French army to assist the Flemings against +Philip. This at once made Elizabeth turn to Spain. Not only was she, +as we see, polite to Guaras, but she sent Henry Cobham to Spain as an +ambassador in August to assure Philip that on no account would she allow +any French domination of Flanders. A fleet of Spanish transports, too, on +the way to Flanders were received with effusion now in the English ports +by the Government though not by the English sailors.—Spanish Calendar, +vol. ii. + +[217] Fleetwood to Lord Burghley.—Wright’s State Papers. + +[218] Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. + +[219] Fleetwood, in one of his letters to Cecil (Wright’s State Papers), +gives particulars of one such. A son of Alderman Lee came and said that +his brother, although a Catholic, was in perpetual prison in Spain, the +reason being that Guaras having bought a ship called the _Clock_, had +given to Lee £160 to man the ship and attack Flushing. Lee having failed +to carry out the plan to his satisfaction, Guaras had had him kidnapped +and imprisoned in Spain. Guaras, he said, had thirty or forty spies in +his service, who used to sit or walk in his hall downstairs at night +without a candle, until, one by one, they were led up to Guaras’ room by +Dela to report what they had discovered. Guaras’ house at Dowgate, Thames +Street, was on a portion of the site covered by Cannon Street Station, +and was bought by the Drapers’ Company on his conviction.—Domestic +Calendar. + +[220] Hatfield Papers, vol. ii., and Spanish Calendar. + +[221] Guaras had the incredible imprudence to write a violent, +treasonable letter to Don Juan from Newgate itself, dated 14th November. +Though he is a prisoner, he will continue to perform his work by the aid +of friends. All has been seized, but he now sends his son, who is as +zealous as himself, to Spain through France. The draft in Spanish was, of +course, taken from the prisoner when he was transferred to the Tower, and +is now in the Record Office.—Flanders Correspondence, iii. 101. + +[222] Her great complaint against Don Juan is founded on his plots with +Mary Stuart, as disclosed by the intercepted letters of his secretary, +Escobedo. “Not that she is afraid of him, but she does not wish knowingly +to foster a serpent in her bosom. If the King asks for proof, let him +read Escobedo’s letters set down in the book above mentioned, and +consider his practices through his agents with her enemy the Queen of +Scots.”—Mr. Wilkes’ instructions, Foreign Calendar, 1577-78. + +[223] In May, 1578, she sent Walsingham and Cobham to Orange to warn +him against the French connection, and to Don Juan, to say that if the +French entered Flanders she would send 20,000 men to help the Spaniards, +and if they were not enough, every man in her country should go.—Spanish +Calendar, vol. iii. + +[224] Mendoza had come to England some years previously, on one of the +many abortive attempts to settle the question of the seizures. + +[225] The unhappy Guaras remained in prison, treated with the greatest +severity, until May, 1579. Mendoza appears to have pressed his case +rather languidly, unwilling to embitter national relations further for +the sake of so plebeian and insignificant a person as Guaras. A wealthy +brother of the latter, named Gombal de Guaras, came to London early in +1579 to try whether bribery could release the prisoner. Mendoza was +furiously angry at this interference, and had nothing but scorn for +Gombal’s boastful tactics on ’Change. Gombal spent large sums of money +to forward the release, and notwithstanding Mendoza’s assertion that +Guaras would have been released earlier but for his brother’s boasts +and turbulence it is doubtful whether the poor man would ever have got +out at all without his expenditure. All sorts of hard conditions were +imposed upon Guaras on his release. All his debts had to be paid and +his maintenance in prison; he had to leave England at once without +communicating with anybody, and was never again to return. He left +England a ruined man, and died in 1584 at his birthplace, Tarrazona, +and later his heirs prayed unsuccessfully for repayment of the money he +had disbursed in England.—Spanish Calendar, vol. ii., and Españoles é +Ingleses en el Siglo XVI., por Martin Hume (Madrid, 1903). + +[226] Philip, in reply to the suggestion to bribe the English ministers, +orders Mendoza to send a schedule of the sums to be paid to each. When +he has quite satisfied himself that they will have value for the money +the latter shall be sent. “It is necessary, however, that before doing +anything, we should have this information, so as not to cast our seed on +stony ground, nor give money to people who will cheat us and laugh at us.” + +[227] The reason given by Elizabeth for sending Guaras back to prison +was that she had heard anew that he had been serving as the agent of the +Irish rebels. + +[228] Spanish Calendar, vol. ii. + +[229] Vargas Mexia at once saw the immense importance of this declaration +and wrote to Philip (13th February): “Such is the present condition +of England, with signs of revolt everywhere, the Queen in alarm, +the Catholic party numerous, the serious events in Ireland, and the +distrust aroused by your Majesty’s fleet, that I really believe that +if so much as a cat moved, the whole edifice would crumble down in +three days beyond repair. If your Majesty had England and Scotland +attached to you, directly or indirectly, you might consider the States +of Flanders conquered, in which case you could lay down the law for the +whole world.” The adhesion of Guise as Philip’s servant made all the +difference.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. It was certainly not the case +that Guise and Beton had _persuaded_ Mary to take this course. It is far +more likely that she persuaded them, as she had seen for many years, +as has been proved in the chapters of this book, that her only hope of +effectively establishing her claim was to obtain Spanish support. Up to +this time the Guises had rather obstructed this than otherwise, as they +looked to Mary’s elevation to serve their own ambitions, which were not +identical with those of Philip. The Duke of Guise in question was Mary’s +first cousin, Henry of Lorraine, aged at this time thirty years. + +[230] If we are to believe Camden, who was a fellow-student of Parsons’ +at Balliol, this guise was not altogether strange to him. “He was,” he +says, “a violent, fierce-natured man of rough behaviour.... When he was +young the fellow was much noted for his singular impudency and disorder +in apparel, going in great barrel hose, as was the fashion of hacksters +in those days, and drawing also deep in a barrel of ale.” Another +contemporary of his, Archbishop Abbot, who was a Fellow of Balliol, +describes him as being “a man wonderfully given to scoffing, and with +that bitterness which was the cause that none of the company loved him.” +He was Bursar of Balliol—and of course a Protestant—until 1573, when he +got into trouble over his accounts, and for this and other reasons he +resigned his Fellowship. He lived abroad thenceforward until he returned, +as here described, as Provincial of the Jesuits for England, having +entered the Society in 1575. + +[231] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[232] A few months later, when Mendoza sought audience of the Queen, to +remonstrate by Philip’s orders with her about her aid to Don Antonio, +Leicester and Hatton strongly opposed an audience being granted, whilst +Cecil, who always advocated a conciliatory course with Spain, insisted +upon Mendoza being received. “Leicester, whilst he was at supper lately, +said that he would either turn me out of here or lose his life and +property in the attempt; whilst Hatton, in the presence chamber in the +hearing of the household, cried that he would do his best to get me +expelled, for the Queen trembled every time I asked for audience. When he +was asked by a friend whether this was because I spoke rudely to her, he +replied: No, it was not that, for no ambassador was more courteous and +respectful, but I communicated things in such a way that she trembled +when she heard me.”—Mendoza to the King, 1st October, 1581, Spanish +Calendar, vol. iii. + +[233] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[234] Mendoza, writing to Philip on the 1st October, 1581, dwells upon +the terrible sufferings of the Catholics, and incidentally reveals how +entirely now he had identified himself with those whom the Queen’s +Government held to be disaffected. Not even the gifts of friends to the +imprisoned Catholics, he says, may be given to the individuals, but are +divided amongst all the prisoners. “They are incarcerated with crowds of +thieves, and are left to die of hunger amongst them, in order that their +torment may be the greater. If any one goes to visit them he is at once +arrested, and consequently most of the gifts are sent through me and are +distributed by my servants, the Catholics alone receiving them. In like +manner I take charge of the money sent by the Catholics who have fled +abroad, and of the sums given by others for the Seminaries of Rheims and +Rome.”—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[235] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. 188. + +[236] Herll to Leicester, 7th November, 1581.—Domestic Calendar. + +[237] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[238] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[239] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[240] Creighton had been directed to go to Rouen on the way to Paris, +in order that he might consult Parsons, who was then there to be in +touch with England. The Duke of Guise was near by, at his Castle of Eu, +and Lennox’s letters to him by Creighton were also delivered at the +same time. Even Father Parsons at this period had not penetrated the +antagonism of the views of Philip II. and Guise, though he subsequently +became the leader of the purely Anglo-Spanish party opposed altogether to +the interference of the French influence and the inclusion of James VI. +in the plans for the subjugation of England. At this time and for a short +time afterwards Parsons was in close touch with Guise. + +[241] “The two Jesuit fathers who spoke to you about the Scotch affair +must have been very zealous, but their having carried the matter so far +as they did and communicating it to so many people may make it difficult +to keep secret. In order that it may be kept as quiet as possible, you +will detain the priest if he has not already started to come hither. You +can tell him, as if on your own account, that in order to keep the affair +quiet nothing more should be done till you hear from me. You may reply +to the Duke of Lennox to the same effect, dealing with the matter in a +way which will not lead them to think that you are throwing difficulties +in the way for the purpose of refusing the aid they ask for, but only in +order that it may all be managed on such solid foundations as to ensure +success, for which we should all strive, as it is so greatly in the +interests of God and the public welfare.”—Philip to Tassis, 11th June, +1582, Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. Philip’s message to Guise through +Tassis, in September, is in the same tone: “You will tell him I would +gladly have helped in the submission of Scotland, and still would do so +if I saw really good grounds for anticipating success and a willingness +on the part of the Pope to contribute such money as the case demands, as +he has promised me several times. You may dexterously hint at coolness in +that quarter, so that he may see that the affair is not falling through +by any fault of mine.”—Ibid. To those who know Philip’s style this +represents a determination to desist from participation. + +[242] Mendoza had entertained several proposals for killing Orange, and +it was asserted that he had been an accomplice in the present attempt. He +was very indignant at the odium that this accusation brought upon him, +but it is extremely likely to be true. He and Mary Stuart had nothing but +praise for the crime in their letters.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[243] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[244] Dr. Hector Nuñez writes to Burghley in August, 1582, that Mendoza, +passing through Fenchurch Street in his carriage, was stoned and hooted +by a group of boys playing at soldiers, and had to take refuge in Lime +Street, where the Lord Mayor, Sir James Harvey, lived.—Hatfield Papers, +part ii. + +[245] Mary wrote to him when she was deploring the confusion in their +plans caused by the muddling of the Jesuits and Lennox: “There are, as +you have pointed out, many objections to carrying out this enterprise +from France, and I wish it to be conducted entirely by you, sure, as +I am, of your faith and prudence.... I must therefore beg of you most +earnestly to continue here, and thus gain for yourself the honour of God +and man if the enterprise be successful, as you yet give me hopes that it +will be. The principal thing is for you to remain in England, but if that +be impossible, then in France.”—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[246] Roman Transcripts, Record Office, vols. xvi. and xvii. + +[247] This was an ordinary course with Philip when he disapproved of a +plan proposed to him: to pretend acquiescence, but to propose that the +Pope should find the money, which he knew he would not do. + +[248] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[249] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[250] Parsons, although always an enemy of Paget, was, up to the +period in question, as we have seen, an adherent of Guise and the +Scottish plans; but he appears to have changed immediately after his +return from Rome. Allen, who was older and more experienced, probably +indoctrinated him with the Anglo-Spanish view. Tassis, writing on the +15th November, 1583, says that Parsons “persists that upon no account +should the enterprise he commenced in Scotland. He is strongly of +opinion that the design upon England should be persevered in and the +heart struck at first: and he says that Allen is told this, by persons +on the Border itself, who prove it by irrefutable arguments.” Amongst +these arguments is one that was constantly used afterwards, viz., that +no matter what the nationality of the foreign troops, if they came to +England _viâ_ Scotland, they would be looked upon as French and opposed +accordingly.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[251] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. (Paris Archives Nationales). + +[252] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[253] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[254] To Idiaquez.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[255] Roman Transcript, Record Office, vol. xvii. Allen and Parsons to +the Pope and Philip, 16th January, 1584. + +[256] The Cardinal of Como to the Nuncio in Paris, 9th April, 1584.—Roman +Transcripts, Record Office. + +[257] Allen to the Nuncio in Paris.—“Letters and Memorials of Cardinal +Allen.” + +[258] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[259] Tassis to Philip, May 27th.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[260] Bazan to the King and the reply. Fernandez Duro, “La Armada +Invincible.” + +[261] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[262] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[263] Philip to Mendoza, 5th July, 1585.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[264] Philip to Mendoza, 17th August.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[265] Philip to Mendoza, 23rd July, 1585.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[266] It appears, from a letter written by the Marquis of Santa Cruz +in 1586, that all the English ships were released in a week or so +without any damage being done to them, whereas the embargo upon Spanish +property in England was not raised at all. Santa Cruz represents that +the English were the aggressors; probably some religious point was made +the pretext for the attempt to take possession of the _Primrose_ by +the Lieutenant-Governor of Biscay. The Spaniards insist that none of +the ships were embargoed until the _Primrose_ had sailed away with her +“captors.” + +[267] The correspondence of Olivares detailing his negotiations with +Sixtus is in the Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[268] Mendoza to Philip, Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[269] Parsons to Idiaquez, 30th June, 1597. Transcript printed in +“Letters and Memorials of Cardinal Allen.” The original cannot now be +found in the Simancas Archives. + +[270] That she knew this is seen in the letter where she implores +Mendoza to keep the matter secret, or she will lose her French dowry. +It is curious, however, that in the same letter she prays for rewards +for Morgan and the Pagets, whom Parsons represents as being strongly +anti-Spanish. + +[271] Mendoza to Philip, 26th June, 1586.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[272] Philip to Mendoza, 18th July, 1586.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[273] Mary to Mendoza, 27th July, 1586.—Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[274] It was asserted by Mendoza that Raleigh was one of these, which is +incredible. + +[275] If the postscript to her letter to Babington of 17th July, 1586 +(Record Office, “Mary Queen of Scots,” vol. xviii.), be genuine, as I +believe, there can be no doubt of this, but her letter to the French +ambassador, Chateauneuf (17th July), is also compromising (Labanoff). + +[276] See p. 420. + +[277] These were Castilian ducats worth 11 reals (2s. 5½d.), or £467,444, +which would represent in present value nearly £3,000,000. + +[278] These letters (copied by me in the Paris Archives) are in the +Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. + +[279] Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, had married a Portuguese +princess, and his children had a better right to the Crowns of Portugal +and England than Philip had. The English Catholic refugees in Flanders +were already suggesting that the young Prince of Parma should marry +Arabella Stuart and reign over England when it had been conquered. +Farnese himself was approached by different English parties, even by +the moderate conforming Catholics in Elizabeth’s Court during the +negotiations, with a view to divide him from the Spaniards on this +question of the succession. The Spanish officers, after the defeat of +the Armada, failing to understand the tactical reasons that kept Farnese +inactive, openly accused him of treachery. There is no doubt that Farnese +was hurt, and justifiably so, at the contemptuous disregard for his +children’s rights, but he was certainly loyal to Philip. + +[280] Spanish Calendar, vol. iii. 681. + +[281] Philip afterwards ordered that the aid should be confined to a +money subvention, but Parma determined, if possible, to send the armed +contingent, though the whole scheme fell through. + +[282] Spanish Calendar, vols. iii. and iv. + +[283] Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. + +[284] To prove the importance of this point, one of Mendoza’s arguments +in favour of the proposal of Huntly and the Scottish Catholics to attack +England across the Border by land instead of by an invading fleet, was +the great cost of the pipe staves, which he said had already been 150,000 +ducats. + +[285] Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. 135. + +[286] This had been, and continued to be, an absolute condition of +Parma’s, without which he would not move at all. We shall see how the +promise was treated. + +[287] There is, unfortunately, no space here to give details of the +endless pourparlers that went on. Much of the correspondence from the +English Commissioners is in the Flanders Papers in the Record Office, and +in British Museum Cotton MSS. Vespasian CVII., whilst Parma’s letters on +the subject to Philip are abstracted in the Calendars of Spanish State +Papers, vol. iv., under the editorship of the present writer. + +[288] Spanish Calendar, vol. iv. + +[289] Parma to Philip, 20th March, 1588.—Spanish Calendar. + +[290] The letters of Medina Sidonia and Philip have been printed in +Spanish by Captain Fernandez Duro in “La Armada Invincible.” + +[291] “La Armada Invincible.” + + + + +INDEX + + + A + + Alava, Don Francés, Spanish ambassador in France, 320-23 + + Alba, Duchess of, in England, 84-86, 88 + + Alba, Duke of, 53, 67, 68, 73, 85, 117, 142, 148, 150, 197, 218, 226, + 231, 232. + In Flanders, 258, 265, 266, 268, 271, 272, 275, 277-78, 282, + 283-88, 297-316, 319, 324, 327, 330, 333. + Retires from Flanders, 334. + In Portugal, 372 + + Alençon, Duke of, 321, 326, 327, 342, 345, 350, 352, 358, 361, 370, + 376, 388, 395-96, 399, 422 + + Allen, Dr. (Cardinal), 383, 385, 391, 404, 405, 406, 416, 418, 419, + 425, 432, 457, 458, 459, 471, 484, 485 + + Alvarez, Dr., Portuguese ambassador, 270-71 + + Anna of Austria, Philip’s fourth wife, 300 + + Antonio, Don, Portuguese Pretender, 371-73, 375, 379, 380, 396, 405, + 411, 413, 420, 427, 429, 441, 447, 450 + + Armada, the evolution of the, 420, 421, 425, 427, 431, 432, 447, 448, + 449, 450, 451, 452, 453, 458, 462. + Orders given to, 466-70, 475-78, 479, 480-82. + The catastrophe, 483-84 + + Arundel, Earl of (Fitzallan), 14, 37, 40, 62, 67, 174, 281-82, + 284-88, 290, 302, 303 + + Arundel, Earl of (Howard), 409, 439 + + Arundell, Charles, 409 + + Ashton, 136 + + + B + + Babington plot, 434-44 + + Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 163 + + Bailly, Charles, 310-12 + + Ballard, Father, 434, 435, 439, 440 + + Barker, 306 + + Bayonne, the interviews at, 230, 231, 232 + + Bazan, Alvaro de (Santa Cruz), Admiral, his plan to conquer England, + 420, 428, 447, 448, 449, 451, 462, 465, 466, 467, 469, 471, 474, + 476 + + Beal, clerk of the Council, 441 + + Bedford, Earl of, 54, 56, 57, 66_n_, 145, 149, 162 + + Berga, Father, De Spes’s chaplain, 300 + + Bertondona, Martin de, Spanish seaman, 58, 476 + + Beton, Archbishop of Glasgow, 239, 363, 364, 366, 383, 384, 391, 400, + 405, 418 + + Beton, James, 267, 270 + + Blanks, the Conspiracy of the, 450 _et seq._ + + Bonner, Bishop of London, 113, 115, 123 + + Borough, Admiral, 461, 463 + + Bothwell, 256 + + Boxall, Secretary, 161 + + Browne, Sir Anthony (Viscount Montagu), 43, 68, 303 + + Bruce, Robert, 450, 451-55 + + + C + + Cadiz, Drake’s raid upon, 460-64 + + Caithness, Earl of, 382 + + Calais, loss of, 151, 157, 168 + + Campion, Edmund, Jesuit, 367 + + Carew, 46 + + Carlos, Don (Philip’s son), 54, 135, 213, 224, 225, 228, 236, 238, + 239, 240 + + Castelnau, de la Mauvissière, French ambassador to Scotland, 250 + + Cateau Cambresis, Peace of, 191, 195, 196 + + Catharine de Medici, 197, 210, 211, 226, 229, 231, 287, 303, 320, + 326, 330, 345, 362, 384, 458 + + Catharine Grey, 196, 241 + + Catholic League, the, 195, 226, 228, 230, 327, 328, 422 + + Catholics, English, under Elizabeth, 200, 227, 228, 233, 246-47, 261, + 271, 280-83, 285-88, 289-92, 293-95, 298-316, 361, 367-68, 376, + 388, 405, 409, 416, 417, 434, 435, 439, 440, 485 + + Cavalcanti, Guido, 320_n_ + + Cecil, William (Lord Burghley), 9, 99, 149. + Elizabeth’s minister, 183, 187, 195. + Checkmates Dudley, 209, 226, 227, 247, 260, 273, 274, 278, 280, + 282, 301, 317, 319, 324, 336, 345, 348, 358, 371, 374, 379, 395, + 427, 437, 441, 459, 460 + + Charles, Archduke, a suitor for Elizabeth’s hand, 199, 202, 216, 219, + 224, 229, 238, 239 + + Charles V. His attempts to gain the friendship of England, 2-19. + His advice to Mary, 17-18. + His abdication, 132 + + Charles IX. of France, 327, 352, 358 + + Chatillon, Cardinal, Huguenot leader, 268, 299 + + Cheyne, Sir Thomas, 145 + + Ciappino Vitelli, Alba’s general, 292, 294 + + Clarencius, Mrs., Queen Mary’s nurse, 40, 78, 179 + + Clinton, Lady, 184 + + Clinton, Lord, made Lord Admiral, 157, 162, 163, 167, 170, 225, 278, + 379 + + Cobham, Lord, English councillor, 14, 15, 43, 310 + + Cobham, Lord (junior), 465 + + Cobham, Henry, Elizabeth’s envoy to Spain, 307 + + Cobham, Thomas, 310 + + Coligny, Admiral, 149, 268, 329 + + Como, Cardinal of, 401 + + Condé, Prince of, 226 + + Cordell, Master of the Rolls, 163, 179 + + Cordova, Pedro de, 86 + + Council of Trent, proposal by Dudley for England to join in, 203-10 + + Courtenay, Earl, of Devon, 19, 20, 22, 24, 32-33, 38, 41, 43, 46, 48, + 49, 62, 113, 115, 116, 139 + + Cranmer, Archbishop, 41, 141 + + Crawford, Earl of, 450 + + Creighton, Father, Jesuit, 378, 382, 383, 384, 385, 386, 388, 389, 390 + + Crofts, Sir James, 358, 399, 465, 470 + + Cumberland, Earl of, 285 + + + D + + Dacre, Lord, 285, 293, 404 + + Dale, Dr., Peace Commissioner, 465 + + Daniel, 136 + + Darnley, Henry Stuart, Lord, 218, 221, 226, 235-37, 238-40, 241-54, + 256 + + Dassonleville, Councillor, in England, 173, 184, 278-79 + + De Foix, French ambassador, 230, 231 + + Dela, Damian, 345, 348 + + Derby, Earl of, 61, 67, 80, 85, 302 + + Derby, Earl of (junior), 465 + + Desmond Rebellion, 359, 362, 364, 370, 375, 398 + + De Spes. _See_ GERAU DE SPES + + D’Este, Cardinal, 421, 426 + + Don Juan of Austria, 334-40, 345, 349-51, 352, 355, 357, 362 + + Drake, Sir Francis, 369, 371, 381, 397, 413, 427, 429, 430, 460-64, + 465, 479 + + Dudley, Lord Henry, 16, 41 + + Dudley, Sir Henry, 136, 139 + + Dudley, Lord Robert, 199, 202, 221, 223, 224, 225, 226. + Plots against Cecil, 227 + (Earl of Leicester), 352, 355, 358, 371, 382, 395, 397, 427, 430, + 449, 460 + + Dunblane, Bishop of, 457 + + Durham House, 43, 170, 199, 217, 446 + + + E + + Edward VI., 2, 3, 4. + Illness and death of, 8-12 + + Eglinton, Earl of, 382 + + Egmont, Count, his embassy to England, 43, 44, 45, 48, 49, 51, 55, + 67, 76 + + Elizabeth, Princess, of England, 19, 20, 38, 39, 41, 46, 48, 49, + 61, 64, 109, 110, 113, 115, 116, 122-24, 135, 136, 138-41, 156, + 164-65. + Visited by Feria, 166, 174. + Acknowledged Mary’s heir, 175. + Her accession, 181. + _See also_ ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF ENGLAND + + Elizabeth, Queen of England. Perplexity of Feria, 181-82. + Her first measures, 183. + The problem of her marriage, 182, 186. + Her reception of Philip’s offer, 192-93. + Deceives Quadra, 203-10. + Her policy towards the Dutch Protestants, 221. + Her statecraft, 224. + Fresh approaches to Spain, 226-30. + Her danger from Mary Stuart, 235-55. + Her fear of Philip’s designs, 258 + Her retort to Alba’s proceedings in the Netherlands, 258. + Her anger at Dr. Man’s expulsion from Spain, 259-62. + Seizes the treasure, 275. + Embargoes Spanish property, 275-80, 292. + Her alarm, 301. + Her reception of Guaras, 325. + Friendly with the French, 326-27. + Alençon’s courtship, 327-28. + Her talk with Guaras, 341. + Receives Mendoza, 354-60, 370, 374, 379-81, 385-91. + Draws nearer to Spain, 395, 396. + Proposal to murder her, 401-3. + At war with Philip, 431. + Plot to murder her, 434-35, 439-41. + Tries for peace, 445, 459, 466, 470. + The Armada, 480-84 + + Elizabeth of Valois, third wife of Philip, 197, 226 + + Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, 7, 108-11, 116, 140, 148, 186 + + England reconciled to the Papacy, 102-8 + + Englefield, Sir Francis, 392, 485 + + Enriquez, Pedro de, his account of England, 84, 86, 87, 88, 90, 102, + 111, 112 + + Eric of Sweden. Offers to marry Elizabeth, 165, 176, 186. + A suitor for Mary of Scotland, 219 + + + F + + Farnese, Alexander, Duke of Parma, 350, 424, 445, 451, 452, 453_n_, + 462, 465, 470, 471, 472. + Advocates peace, 475, 479 + + Felton, John, 299-300 + + Fenner, Captain, 429 + + Feria, Count (Duke of), 55, 67, 73, 86, 151, 153. + His dealings with Mary and her Council, 153-172. + Leaves England, 172, 173. + Returns to Mary’s death-bed, 177. + Visits Elizabeth, 166, 178. + Philip’s ambassador to Elizabeth, 181. + His bewilderment at the changes, 182-84. + His interviews with Elizabeth, 185. + His action in Madrid, 259, 265, 307_n_, 317, 324, 351 + + Feria, Countess of (Jane Dormer), 179, 202, 316 + + Fiesco, 292, 323 + + Figueroa, Viceroy, Imperial ambassador, 67, 79, 80, 165 + + Fitzwalter, Lord (Earl of Sussex), 54, 56. + _See also_ SUSSEX + + Fitzwilliam, George, 316-18 + + Fleetwood, Sir William, 343, 347 + + Flores, Diego, 478 + + Fowler, a Lennox adherent, visits Guzman, 235-37 + + Francis II. of France, 197 + + Frobisher, Captain, 429 + + + G + + Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Winchester, 26_n_, 36, 40, 42, 45, 46, + 61, 71, 75, 94, 95, 103-5, 107, 115, 130-31 + + Geneda, Don Diego, 33, 135 + + Gerau de Spes, Spanish ambassador, 264. + His violent character, 265-67. + Begins plotting at once, 268-69, 270, 271. + Causes seizure of English property and stoppage of trade, 275. + His indiscretion, 276, 277, 278. + Under arrest in England, 278-79. + Plots with Mary Stuart, 280-83, 284-92, 293. + The Ridolfi plot, 297-315. + Hoodwinked by Hawkins, 316-18. + His expulsion from England, 319, 375 + + German mercenaries for England, 156, 168, 169 + + Gifford, Gilbert, 439, 440, 443 + + Giraldi, Portuguese envoy to England, 343-44 + + Granvelle, Cardinal de, 4, 21, 99, 387, 388, 392-93, 394 + + Gregory XIII., Pope, 309, 338, 401, 405, 406, 421, 422, 423 + + Gresham, Sir Thomas, 112, 160, 161, 268 + + Grey, Lady Jane. _See_ JANE + + Grey de Wilton, Lord, 145, 151 + + Guaras, Antonio de, 35-36, 267, 322-26, 330-33, 336-46. + Arrested, 347-49, 357, 359, 375 + + Guaras, Gombal de, 357 + + Guise, Francis, Duke of, 142, 143, 148. + Captures Calais, 151. + Death of, 235 + + Guise, Henry, Duke of, 365, 366, 384, 389_n_, 390-92, 393, 394, 399, + 401-3, 405-7, 409, 417, 418, 422, 425, 426, 450, 451, 458 + + Guises, the, 200, 210, 211, 232, 234, 352-53, 445, 457 + + Guzman de Silva, Diego. Spanish ambassador to England, 222. + His first interviews with Elizabeth, 225-32. + His negotiations with Mary Stuart, 235-54. + His interviews with Elizabeth about the expulsion of Dr. Man, + 260-61. + Begs Philip to recall him, 262. + Presents his successor, 264. + Elizabeth’s grief at his departure, 264-65. + Leaves England, 265, 268 + + + H + + Hamilton, Lord Claude, 440, 450 + + Hastings, Lord, 43, 99 + + Hatton, Sir Christopher, 370, 371, 373, 382, 396 + + Havrey, Marquis d’, 352 + + Hawkins, John, 273, 274, 281. + His trick on de Spes, 316-18 + + Hawkins, William, 273 + + Heath, Archbishop, Lord Chancellor, 141, 155 + + Henrique, Cardinal, King of Portugal, 362, 372 + + Henry VIII., 2, 32 + + Henry II. of France, 6, 95, 115, 139, 142, 188, 194. + Death of, 197, 200 + + Henry III. of France, 399, 425, 455, 456, 457, 486 + + Herbert, Dr., Peace Commissioner, 465 + + Herries, Lord, 257, 312 + + Hertford, Earl of, 465 + + Heywood, Father, Jesuit, 383 + + Hoby, Sir Philip, English envoy, 8 + + Holt, Father, Jesuit, 386, 388 + + Horn, Count, 67 + + Horsey, Governor of the Isle of Wight, 274 + + Howard, Lord Henry, 388, 399 + + Howard, Lord William (Lord Effingham), 43, 44, 61, 63, 64, 67, 76, + 77, 135, 148, 157, 191, 225, 254 + + Howard, Lord Admiral (Charles 2nd Howard of Effingham), 441 + + Huguenots, the, 200, 210, 211, 226, 230, 232, 268, 273, 320, 326, + 327-29, 353, 358 + + Hunsdon, Lord, 441 + + Huntly, Earl of, 382, 450, 454 + + Hurtado de Mendoza, Diego, 33 + + + I + + Isabel, the Infanta, 458 + + + J + + James VI. of Scotland, 363, 366, 377, 378, 382, 384, 386, 387, 400, + 419, 422, 426, 433, 436, 438, 450, 454, 457, 458, 459 + + Jane Grey, 11, 13, 16, 19, 41 + + Jane the Mad, 56, 120 + + Jerningham, Master of the Rolls, 163 + + Jesuit propaganda in England, 365, 367, 368, 378, 382, 385, 398, 400, + 419 + + Juana, Princess, Philip’s sister, 54, 56, 225 + + + K + + Kildare, Countess of, 85 + + Kingston, Sir Anthony, 136 + + Kirkaldy of Grange, 255 + + Knollys, Sir Francis, 277_n_, 441 + + + L + + Landau, Charles V. at, 2, 3 + + La Mole received by Elizabeth, 327-28 + + La Mothe Fénélon, French ambassador, 275, 287, 330, 400 + + Leicester, Earl of. _See_ DUDLEY + + Lennox D’Aubigny (Duke of Lennox), 363, 366, 377, 378, 382, 389-92, + 398, 399, 400 + + Lennox, Margaret, Countess of, 218. + Intrigues with Guzman, 235-37, 238-40, 241, 247, 253 + + Lethington, William Maitland, Laird of (Scottish Secretary), 213, + 214, 215, 218, 234-40, 285 + + Lewis, Dr. Owen, Bishop of Cassano, 433, 457 + + London. + Rejoices at Mary’s accession, 14-17. + Mary’s entry into, 19. + Mary’s coronation at, 32, 34. + Wyatt’s appeal to, 15, 47. + Fears of the Spanish match, 34, 43, 52, 64, 86-90. + Philip’s State entry, 90-92, 93. + Ill-feeling towards Spaniards, 114, 120 + + Loo, Andrea, de, 445, 459 + + Lopez, Dr., 373 + + Lopez de Padilla, Gutierre, 54 + + Lorraine, Cardinal, 216, 226, 231, 232, 234, 238, 244, 265 + + Lumley, Lord, 285, 286, 290, 302, 303 + + + M + + Man, Dr., English ambassador in Spain, his expulsion, 259, 265, 270 + + Marnix, Jacques de (Tholuze), envoy to England, 9 + + Martinengo, Abbé, Papal Legate for England, 209 + + Martin, Sir Roger, Lord Mayor, 271 + + Mary Tudor, Queen of England, 8, 10, 11-16. + Her accession, 17. + Her reception in London, 19. + Her acceptance of Philip, 23-29. + Her anger with Courtenay, 32-33. + Her coronation, 34. + Pledged to Philip, 40. + The public announcement of her marriage, 45, 47, 48. + Anxiety for Philip’s safety, 51. + Her meeting with Philip, 76-78. + The marriage, 80-82. + Entry into London, 90-92, 95. + Receives Pole, 102, 109-10. + Difficulties with Elizabeth, 116-19. + Hopes of an heir, 119-21, 122, 123. + Philip’s absence, 130, 140-41. + Joy at Philip’s return, 144. + Declares war on France, 147. + Her grief at the loss of Calais, 153, 157. + Her poverty, 158-59. + Her decline and death, 171, 175-80 + + Mary of Hungary, Regent of the Netherlands, 3, 6 + + Mary, Queen of Scots, 39, 141, 187, 193, 197, 200, 211, 213, 224, + 234, 236-40. + Marries Darnley under Philip’s patronage, 243-45. + Her designs against Elizabeth, 247-54. + Rizzio, 256. + Mary a prisoner, 256, 257. + In England, 262, 268, 269. + Her communications with de Spes, 277-88, 293. + The Ridolfi plot, 297-315, 316, 317. + Intrigues with Don Juan through Guaras, 336, 339-40, 345, 349. + Fresh plots, 365-66, 377, 383-84, 401-3, 410, 423, 434. + Bequeaths Crown of England to Philip, 436. + Her part in the Babington plot, 444 + + Mary of Lorraine, Regent of Scotland, 200 + + Mason, Dr., English Councillor, 14, 15, 16, 99, 100 + + Maurice of Saxony, 2 + + Maximilian of Austria, 38 + + Mayenne, Duke of, 401 + + Medina Celi, Duke of, 55, 73, 85, 315_n_, 317, 331_n_ + + Medina Sidonia, Duke of, 462. + To command the Armada, 477, 479, 481. + Prays Philip to abandon the enterprise, 482 + + Melville, Sir James, 254, 285_n_ + + Mendoza, Bernardino, Spanish ambassador to England, 351, 353-54, + 355-60. + Plots with the English Catholics, 368-70, 377-83, 386-98. + His unpopularity in London, 398. + His connivance with Throckmorton’s plot, 408. + Expulsion from England, 410-12. + In Paris, 422-25, 433. + Connives at the Babington Plot, 434-45. + + Metz, the Emperor’s defeat at, 5 + + Montmorenci, Constable, 148 + + Montmorenci, Jean (de Courrières), envoy to England, 9, 43 + + Montrose, Earl of, 450 + + Morgan, Thomas, 406, 435 + + Morley, Lord, 285 + + Morton, the Regent, 365, 366, 377 + + Morton, Earl of (Stuart), 450 + + Moryson, Sir Richard, addresses the Emperor, 1-4 + + Murray, James Stuart, Earl of, 245, 251, 255, 256, 284, 285, 287 + + + N + + Navarre, Henry of, 326, 328, 399, 422, 455, 486 + + Navas, Marquis de las, 54, 59, 67, 85 + + Noailles, Antoine de, French ambassador, 19, 20, 33, 41, 42, 43, 46, + 49, 62, 79, 93-94, 115, 119, 134, 135. + His plots, 136, 141, 146, 147, 151 + + Nonsuch House, 288 + + Norfolk, Duke of (Thomas Howard), his plots with Mary Stuart, 281-83, + 284-88, 289-92, 293-95, 297, 301, 306, 311-15 + + North, the Rising in the, 293-95, 297 + + Northampton, Marquis of, 62, 226 + + Northumberland, Duke of, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19 + + Northumberland, Earl of, 254, 277, 281, 285, 290, 293, 293-95 + + Northumberland, Earl of (junior), 409 + + Nowell, Dr., Dean of St. Paul’s, 3. + Elizabeth rebukes him, 231 + + Nuñez, Dr. Hector, 398_n_ + + + O + + Oquendo, Admiral, 476, 478 + + Olivares, Count, Spanish ambassador in Rome, 421, 423, 426, 432, 433, + 438, 457, 471 + + Orange, Prince of, 332-33, 352, 356, 369, 381, 395 + + Osorio, Isabel de, Philip’s mistress, 22_n_, 27 + + Owen, Hugh, 424 + + + P + + Pacheco, Don Juan, robbed in England, 84 + + Paget, William, Lord, 20, 24, 37, 40, 61, 99, 158, 163, 167 + + Paget, Lord (junior), 409 + + Paget, Charles, 339, 406, 408, 409, 434, 435 + + Paget, William, 436 + + Paget House, 238, 269, 278 + + Parry, Elizabeth’s controller, 184 + + Parsons (or Persons), Father Robert, 367, 383, 385, 389, 400, 404, + 405, 406, 407, 416, 417, 419, 421, 425, 435, 457, 458, 471, 483, + 485 + + Paul IV., Pope (Caraffa), 121, 141, 142, 150 + + Paulet, Sir Amyas, 345 + + Paz, Luis de, 219, 236 + + Peace negotiations with Parma, 445, 459, 465, 466, 470 + + Peckham, Sir W., 136 + + Pembroke, Earl of, 14, 61, 71, 80, 82, 97, 145, 225, 290 + + Pembroke, Countess of, 85 + + Pescara, Marquis of, 55, 67 + + Petre, Sir W., Secretary of State, 14, 24, 37, 40, 97 + + Philip II., 6. + To marry Mary, 21-31, 37, 38. + The conditions of his marriage, 42, 44-46, 50. + His coming to England, 52-65. + His presents to Mary, 54. + His demeanour in England, 65, 66. + Arrival and first sight of Mary, 66-80. + State entry into London, 90-92. + Receives Pole, 101-105. + His attitude towards Elizabeth, 116-17. + Leaves England, 125-26. + His influence on English policy, 129, 133. + His attempts to draw England into war, 143. + Visits England, 144. + Obtains armed English aid, 145. + England joins him in the war, 147. + His last farewell to Mary, 148. + The war and the English, 151-60, 162-63, 164. + His friendship with Elizabeth, 166. + He proposes to Elizabeth, 188-91. + His new policy, 195. + Alliance with France, 198-99. + Its inefficiency, 200. + His intrigue with Lord R. Dudley, 203-10. + His reception of Scottish approaches, 215. + His policy in the Netherlands, 220. + Patronises Darnley, 235-40, 241-54. + His determination to crush the Netherlands, 258. + Adopts a stronger policy towards England, 263. + Seizure of his treasure, 272-77. + Stops trade, 278-79. + Intrigues with Mary Stuart, 280-83, 288. + Accepts Ridolfi plot, 308, 313, 314. + His claim to Portugal, 362, 372. + His attitude towards Guise’s plots, 402, 407, 408. + Resolved upon war at last, 415, 421, 426. + His claim to the Crown of England, 436, 437. + His doubts of the Babington plot, 441-43. + Plans the Armada, 448-49, 450, 451-56, 457-58, 459, 466-74. + His obstinacy and the result, 483. + His failure, 487 + + Pickering, Sir William, 168 + + Pole, Arthur, plots with Quadra, 217, 255_n_ + + Pole, Cardinal Reginald, 19, 34, 95, 98, 99. + In England, 100-4, 114, 125, 130, 141, 143, 146, 155, 170. + His death, 179 + + Portugal, Philip’s claim to, 362, 371, 372, 396 + + _Primrose_, the attack upon the, 428 + + Protestant conspiracies against Mary, 136, 146. + _See also_ WYATT + + + Q + + Quadra, Bishop Alvaro. + Philip’s ambassador in England, 196, 198, 199, 200. + Hoodwinked by Dudley, 202-10. + Scottish approaches to, 213 _et seq._ + His death, 219 + + + R + + Raleigh, Sir Walter, 440_n_, 446, 447 + + Randolph, English agent in Scotland, 249, 255 + + Randolph, Major, 170_n_ + + Ratcliff, Egremont, 342 + + Recalde, Martinez de, 476, 478 + + Religious persecution, 96, 113-15, 123, 128 + + Renard, Simon. + Imperial ambassador, 9-18. + Proposes Philip for Mary, 21-31, 33, 37, 48, 49, 50, 51, 61, 62, + 63, 65, 71, 113, 114, 122, 128 + + Requesens, Viceroy of Flanders, 334, 337 + + Ridley, Bishop, 41 + + Ridolfi, Rodolfo, 281, 297, 304, 306-11, 318, 375 + + Rizzio, 256 + + Robsart, Amy, Lady R. Dudley, 202, 203 + + Rochester, Sir R., 154, 163 + + Rome, the Armada intrigues in, 421, 426, 457 + + Ross, Bishop of, 285, 287, 289, 298-99, 302, 304, 310, 311 + + Ross, 306 + + Rutland, Earl of, 164 + + Ruy Gomez, Philip’s favourite, 55, 67, 72, 78, 92 + + + S + + St. Bartholomew, 328-30 + + St. Quintin, battle of, 148, 150 + + St. Quintin, English at the battle of, 149, 159 + + Sanders, Dr., Papal Legate in Ireland, 364 + + Sarmiento de Gamboa, 446-47 + + Schefyne, envoy to England, 9, 11 + + Sebastian, King of Portugal, 362 + + Semple, Colonel, 450 + + Seton, Lord, 382 + + Shan O’Neil, 217, 256 + + Shrewsbury, Earl of, 14, 16, 61, 67, 97, 302, 423 + + Sidney, Sir H., 202, 203, 210 + + Sidney, Lady Mary, 199, 202 + + Sixtus V., Pope, 423, 426, 432, 433, 438, 457, 459, 471 + + Spaniards, discontent of, 83-90, 102, 111, 112, 120 + + Spinola, Benedict, Genoese banker in London, 272, 273, 274 + + Stafford, Thomas, his abortive rebellion, 146, 147 + + Stanley, Sir William, 439, 441, 450 + + Story, Dr., 303 + + Strange, Lord, 43, 82 + + Stukeley, English traitor, 301, 362 + + Supremacy, Act of, 194 + + Sussex, Earl of, 61, 153, 157, 293, 342, 370, 371, 373, 379 + + + T + + Tassis, Spanish Ambassador in France, 383, 384, 389, 392, 400, 401, + 403, 405, 410, 418 + + Throckmorton, Francis, 408, 409, 416 + + Treasure, the seizure of Philip’s, 271-77, 321-26, 331, 332 + + Tremayne, 136 + + Tresham, 377 + + + U + + Uniformity, Act of, 194 + + + V + + Valdés, Pedro de, 478, 483 + + Vargas-Mexia, Spanish ambassador in France, 364-65, 366_n_ + + + W + + Walsingham, Sir Francis, 328, 358, 397, 407, 409, 410, 427, 434, 441, + 443, 444 + + Wentworth, Lord, Governor of Calais, 151 + + Westmorland, Earl of, 97, 147, 174, 293, 375, 404 + + Wilkes, English envoy to Spain, 350-51 + + Williams, Sir John (Lord Williams of Thame), 67, 68 + + Wilson, Dr., 345 + + Winchester, the marriage at, 72-84 + + Winchester, Marquis of, 86, 97 + + Winchester House, 287, 302_n_ + + Worcester, Earl of, 303 + + Wyatt’s rebellion, 47, 48, 49, 61, 62, 90 + + Wynter, Admiral, 273, 429 + + + Y + + Yaxley, Francis, sent to Philip by the English and Scottish + Catholics, 248-54 + + York, the Conference of, 269, 284 + + York, Roland, 450 + + + Z + + Zayas, Secretary, 305, 306, 313, 336, 346, 347, 359, 363 + + Zweveghem, Flemish envoy, 324, 326 + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78876 *** |