1564-1566
The efforts that had been made by the English Council to benefit native
commerce had caused much apprehension amongst the Flemish merchants, who
had for many years practically monopolised the English export trade.
The English Company of Merchant-Adventurers had agitated and petitioned
the Queen and Council to discountenance the foreign merchants; and as a
result, a series of enactments was passed which gave considerable trade
advantages to Englishmen. Differential duties, compulsory priority given
to English bottoms for the export trade, the imposition of harassing
disabilities and penalties on foreign merchants established in London,
together with the great increase of piracy owing to the extensive
shipbuilding of recent years in England, had greatly disorganised Flemish
trade. During 1563 and early in 1564, several envoys had been sent from
Spanish Flanders to endeavour to obtain a reversal of the new commercial
policy, but without effect. This caused reprisals on the part of the
Spanish Government, which prohibited the introduction of English cloth
into Flanders and the exportation of raw material from Flanders to
England, as well as the employment of English ships for Flemish exports.
In retaliation, a more stringent order was issued in England forbidding
trade with Flanders altogether, and the establishment of a new staple at
Embden. The seizure of English goods and subjects in Spain itself was
the answer to this. Naturally, people on both sides suffered severely
by this commercial warfare.[196] Emissaries went backwards and forwards
between Flanders and England, partial relaxations were temporarily
arranged, conferences were held; but the main difficulty continued until
Antwerp was well-nigh ruined, and the Spaniards were obliged to humble
themselves in order to prevent a commercial catastrophe. The day, indeed,
had gone by now for hectoring England. The old Bishop of Aquila had died
bankrupt, abandoned, and broken-hearted—Cecil’s object-lesson of the
impotence of Spain—and a very different Ambassador had been sent, whose
main duty it was to keep Elizabeth friendly, and to end, at almost any
cost, the commercial war which was ruining Flanders.
Guzman de Silva arrived in London in June 1564. He was amiable and
courtly, flattered the Queen to the top of her bent, and was soon a prime
favourite. At his first interview at Richmond she showed off her Latin
and Italian, coyly led the talk to her personal appearance, blushingly
hinted at love and marriage in general, Cecil being all the while close
to her side.[197] As soon as the compliments and embraces were ended
and Guzman was alone, a great friend of Dudley’s sought him out with
a message from the favourite, informing him “of the great enmity that
exists between Cecil and Lord Robert, even before this book about the
succession was published; but now very much more, as he believes Cecil
to be the author of the book; and the Queen is extremely angry about it,
although she signifies that there are so many accomplices in the offence
that they must overlook it, and has begun to slacken in the matter.[198]
The person has asked me with great secrecy to take an opportunity of
speaking to the Queen (or to make such an opportunity), to urge her
without fail to adopt strong measures in this business; because if Cecil
were out of the way, the affairs of your Majesty would be more favourably
dealt with, and religious questions as well; for this Cecil and his
friends are those who persecute the Catholics and dislike your Majesty,
whereas the other man (_i.e._ Dudley) is looked upon as faithful, and
the rest of the Catholics so consider him, and have adopted him as
their weapon. If the Queen would consent to disgrace Cecil, it would
be a great good to them, and this man tried to persuade me to make use
of Robert.”[199] Guzman was cautious, for he knew what had happened to
his predecessor; but this will show that Dudley was determined to stick
at nothing to destroy, if possible, the man who, almost alone, was the
obstacle to his ambition. He was liberal in his professions and promises
to the Spaniard, whom he urged to ask for audience as much as possible
through him, instead of through Cecil. His friends assured Guzman that
he still expected to marry the Queen, and had an understanding with the
Pope; that the Catholic religion would be restored in England if the
marriage were brought about, and much more to the same effect.[200]
The reason for this new move on the part of Dudley is not very far
to seek. The defection of Condé and the collapse of the Protestants
in France had been seized upon by Cardinal Lorraine and the dominant
Catholics to force Catharine de Medici into a renewal of the negotiations
for a league with Philip to extirpate Protestantism. Already the meeting
had been arranged between Catharine and her daughter, the Queen of Spain,
at Bayonne, which was to cement the close alliance. Catholicism was
everywhere in the ascendant, and the clouds appeared to be gathering over
England; for there was no combination so threatening for her as this.
Hitherto Cecil had always counted upon the jealousy between France and
Spain to prevent the domination of England by either power; but with the
French Protestants prostrate and a close union between a Guisan France
and Catholic Spain, all safeguards would disappear, and Mary Stuart would
be able to count upon the support of the whole Catholic world, in which
case the position of Elizabeth and the Anglican Church was, indeed, a
critical one.
As we have seen, Dudley cared nothing for all this, even if he was able
to appreciate its gravity. If he could only force or cajole the Queen
to marry him, the religion of England might be anything his supporters
chose. He knew well that Cecil, with his broad and moderate views,
would try to conjure away the danger and disarm Catholic Spain, whilst
safeguarding religion, by again bringing forward the Archduke with some
sort of compact founded on the Lutheran compromise in Germany. But Spain
and the Catholics, though they might have accepted such a solution,
were not enthusiastic about it; and Dudley, by going the whole length
and promising Spain everything, thought to outbid Cecil and spoil the
Archduke’s chance, whilst diverting Spanish support from Mary Stuart to
himself.
In the autumn of 1563 the Duke of Wurtemburg, at the prompting of the
English agent, had approached the Emperor to propose a renewal of the
Archduke’s negotiation. Ferdinand was cool: nominally the first monarch
in Christendom, and a son of the proud House of Austria, he did not
relish being taken up and dropped again as often as suited English
politics, and he demanded all sorts of assurances before he would act.
The Duke of Wurtemburg secretly sent an agent to see Cecil early in 1564
without the Emperor’s knowledge, and satisfied himself that Elizabeth was
neither a Calvinist nor a Zwinglian, and would accept the confession of
Augsburg. This was satisfactory; but before anything more could be done,
Ferdinand died (July 1564). When he conveyed the news to Cecil, Mundt,
the English agent, proposed that he should be allowed to reopen the
question of marriage with the new Emperor Maximilian, through the Duke of
Wurtemburg. “He” (Mundt) “knows,” he says, “that the Queen is so modest
and virtuous that she will not do anything that shall seem like seeking
a husband. But as the matter is most vital to the whole Christian world,
he thinks that Cecil should not be restrained by any narrow and untimely
modesty; for he, holding the administration of the kingdom, ought to
strive to preserve the tranquillity thereof by insuring a perpetual
succession.”
Cecil and Mundt understood each other thoroughly; but the Secretary’s
answer was intended for the eyes of others, and was cautious. “With
regard to her Majesty’s inclinations on the subject of her marriage,
he can with certainty say nothing; than that he perceives that she
would rather marry a foreign than a native prince, and that the more
distinguished the suitor is by birth, power, and personal attractions,
the better hope he will have of success. Moreover, he cannot deny that
the nobleman who, with them, excites considerable expectation, to wit
Lord Robert, is worthy to become the husband of the Queen. The fact of
his being her Majesty’s subject, however, will prove a serious objection
to him in her estimation. Nevertheless, his virtues and his excellent and
heroic gifts of mind and body have so endeared him to the Queen, that
she could not regard her own brother with greater affection. From which
they who do not know the Queen intimately, conjecture that he will be
her future husband. He, however, sees and understands that she merely
takes delight in his virtues and rare qualities, and that nothing is more
discussed in their conversation than that which is most consistent with
virtue, and furthest removed from all unworthy sentiments.” It is not
surprising that Cecil has endorsed the draft of this letter, “written to
Mr. Mundt by the Queen’s command.”
Mundt worked hard, but there were many obstacles in the way. Wurtemburg
was in no hurry. The mourning for the late Emperor, and the plague which
raged in Germany, delayed matters for months. Once in the interval Cecil
wrote to ask Mundt whether it was true that the Archduke’s neck was awry.
Mundt could not deny the impeachment, but softened it like a courtier.
“Alexander the Great had his neck bent towards the left side; would
that our man may be his imitator in magnanimity and bravery. His body
is elegant and middle size, more well grown and robust than the Spanish
Prince.”[201]
In the autumn Elizabeth sent an envoy to condole with the new Emperor
on the death of his father, and simultaneously lost no opportunity of
drawing closer to Spain. She coquetted with Guzman, ostentatiously in
the face of the French Ambassador. She spoke sentimentally of old times,
when her brother-in-law Philip was in England. She was curious to know
whether Don Carlos was grown, and manly; and then apparently to force
the Ambassador’s hand, she sighed that every one disdained her, and that
she heard Don Carlos was to marry the Queen of Scots. Guzman earnestly
said that the Prince had been ill, and that such a thing was quite out
of the question; which was perfectly true. The Queen’s real object then
came out. “Why,” she said, “the gossips in London were saying that the
Ambassador had been sent by the King of Spain to offer his son Don Carlos
to me!” All this rather undignified courting of Spain succeeded very soon
in arousing the jealousy of France, as it was intended to do.
De Foix, the French Ambassador, had kept Catharine de Medici well
informed of affairs in England. Catharine was already getting alarmed at
being bound hand and foot to the Guises, the Catholics, and Philip. The
plan of marrying Mary Stuart to Don Carlos, or his cousin, the Archduke,
and the rallying of Leicester to Spain and the Catholics, threatened
to dwarf the influence of France, and make Spain irresistible. So the
Queen-mother began to hint to Sir Thomas Smith, the Ambassador, that a
marriage would be desirable between her son Charles IX., aged fifteen,
and Queen Elizabeth, aged thirty-one. Some such suggestion had been made
by Condé to Smith during the negotiations which preceded the evacuation
of Havre, but it had not been regarded seriously. It was probably no more
serious now, but it was the trump card of both Queens, and it served its
purpose.
In the meanwhile the plot of Leicester and the Catholics against Cecil
went on. The English Catholics came to Guzman, and represented to
him that it would be better not to come to any arrangement with the
Government about the commercial question, in order that public discontent
in England might ripen and an overturn of the present regime be made
the easier. But the Flemings were suffering even more than the English
from the interruption of trade, and Guzman had strict orders to obtain
a settlement of the dispute. So he told the Catholics that the Queen
had been obliged to hold her hand, and refrain from punishing Cecil and
Bacon, until she had come to an understanding with Philip, and with the
English Catholics, through him. She would cling to Cecil and his gang,
said Guzman, so long as she thought she had anything to fear from Spain.
“All people think 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.”[202] Dudley
was flattered and encouraged with messages and promises from Philip, and
laboured incessantly to get rid of Cecil, even for a short time.
In order, apparently, to forward Dudley’s chances of success as a suitor
for the hand of Mary Stuart, for which at this time Elizabeth pretended
to be anxious, she created him Earl of Leicester and Baron Denbeigh, on
Michaelmas day 1564. De Foix, the French Ambassador, intimated two days
previously his intention of being present at the splendid festivities
which accompanied the ceremony. This was a good opportunity for Cecil
to arouse suspicion of the new Earl, and distrust of the French. On
the 28th September, accordingly, the Secretary called upon Guzman, and
telling him that the French Ambassador would be present at the feast,
hinted that Dudley was very friendly with the French; to which the
Spaniard replied, that he had always understood that such was the case,
and that Dudley’s father was known to be much attached to them. Then
“Cecil told me that the Queen had commanded him to visit the Emperor with
Throgmorton, and although he had done all in his power to excuse himself
from the journey, he had not succeeded. I understand that the artfulness
of his rivals has procured this commission for him, in order, in the
meantime, to put some one else in his place, which certainly would be a
good thing. His wife has petitioned the Queen to let her husband stay
at home, as he is weak and delicate. They tell me that this has made
the business doubtful, and I do not know for certain what will be done;
nor indeed is anything sure here from one hour to another, except the
hatching of falsehoods, which always goes on.” Needless to say, Cecil had
his way and did not go.
Before many days had passed Leicester sent to Guzman disclaiming any
particular friendship with the French, “and said, after his own Queen,
there was no prince in the world whom he was so greatly obliged to serve
as your Majesty, whose servant he had been, and to whom he owed his life
and all he had.” De Foix, he said, had only been present at his feast,
because he brought him the Order of St. Michael from the King of France,
which he (Leicester) did not wish to accept. Guzman was rather tart about
the business, and reminded Leicester’s friend (Spinola) that on the same
day that the Queen had invited him (Guzman) to supper, De Foix had dined
with her; and when Spinola hinted that Philip might send Leicester the
Golden Fleece, Guzman was quite scandalised at the idea of conferring
the order on any one not a “publicly professed Catholic.” Altogether
it is clear that the Queen’s and Cecil’s clever management was already
setting the French and Spanish by the ears; and when they could do that
and make them rivals for England’s favour, she was safe.
The next day Guzman was entertained at dinner by Leicester, the Earl
of Warwick, Cecil, and others being present; and the Secretary in the
course of conversation assured the Spaniard that he was taking vigorous
measures to suppress the depredations on shipping, and to restore as
much as possible of the merchandise stolen. Already, indeed, Cecil’s
diplomacy was righting matters. An active correspondence was going on
about the Archduke’s match; the Queen assured Guzman that she had to
conceal her real feelings about religion, but that God knew her heart;
and even Cecil tried to soften the asperity of the Catholics towards
him. “Cecil,” writes Guzman to his King, “tells these heretical bishops
to look after their clergy, as the Queen is determined to reform them
in their customs, and even in their dress, as the diversity that exists
in everything cannot be tolerated.[203] He directs that they should be
careful how they treat those of the old faith: to avoid calumniating them
or persecuting or harrying them.” The result of this action was that
in October 1564, Guzman could write: “I have advised previously that
Cecil’s favour had been wavering, but he knows how to please, and avoids
saying things the Queen does not wish to hear; and, above all, as I am
told, can flatter her, so he has kept his place, and things are now in
the same condition as formerly. Robert makes the best of it. The outward
demonstrations are fair, but the inner feelings the same as before. I do
not know how long they will last. They dissemble; but Cecil has more wit
than all of them. Their envy of him is very great.”[204]
Sir James Melvil, a Scotsman brought up in France, was directed to go
to London in the autumn of 1564, to watch his mistress’s interests. To
him Elizabeth again suggested a marriage between Dudley and “her good
sister”; and in reply to his remark that Mary thought that a conference
between English and Scottish statesmen should discuss the question first,
at which conference the Earl of Bedford and Lord Robert could represent
England, Elizabeth told Melvil that he seemed to make a small account
of Lord Robert. He should, she said, see him made a far greater Earl
than Bedford before he left court. When Dudley was on his knees, shortly
afterwards, receiving the investiture of his Earldom, the Queen tickled
his neck, and asked Melvil what he thought of him. Melvil gave a courtly
answer, whereupon the Queen retorted that he liked that “long lad”
(Darnley) better. Melvil scoffed at such an idea, but his main object in
coming to England was to intrigue for the “long lad’s” permission to go
to Scotland. A few days after this, Leicester took Melvil in his barge
from Hampton Court to London, and on the way asked him what Mary thought
of the marriage with him, which Randolph had proposed to her. Melvil
answered coldly, as his mistress had instructed him to do. “Then he began
to purge himself of so proud a pretence as to marry so great a Queen,
declaring he did not esteem himself worthy to wipe her shoes; declaring
that the invention of that proposition of marriage proceeded from Mr.
Cecil, his secret enemy. For if I, says he, should have appeared desirous
of that marriage, I should have offended both the Queens and lost their
favour.”[205]
Melvil went back to Scotland with all manner of kind messages for his
mistress; and Cecil especially was gracious to him, placing a fine gold
chain around his neck as he bade him farewell. But when Mary asked her
envoy if he thought Elizabeth “meant truly towards her inwardly in
her heart, as she appeared to do outwardly in her speech,” he replied
that in his judgment “there was neither plain dealing nor upright
meaning; but great dissimulation, emulation, envy, and fear lest her
princely qualities should chase her from the kingdom, as having already
hindered her marriage with the Archduke. It appeared likewise to me,
by her offering unto her, with great apparent earnestness, my Lord of
Leicester.” Melvil says that Leicester’s humble and artful letters to
Mary, and the consequent kindness of the latter, aroused Elizabeth’s
fear that after all Mary might marry her favourite, and caused her to
consent to Darnley’s visit to Scotland.[206] “Which licence,” he says,
“was procured by means of Secretary Cecil, not that he was minded that
any of the marriages should take effect, but with such shifts to hold
the Queen (Mary) unmarried as long as he could, persuading himself
that Lord Darnley durst not proceed in the marriage without consent of
the Queen of England first obtained.”[207] Cecil’s task was again an
extremely difficult one. He had to keep up an appearance of leaning
to the Catholics and the House of Austria, and encourage the idea of
Elizabeth’s marriage with the Archduke, in order to prevent the alliance
of Mary Stuart with so powerful an interest; he was obliged to keep his
own restive Protestant friends in hand; to counteract at every step the
intrigues of Leicester against him, and to be ready at any moment to
cause a diversion if Leicester’s suit to the Queen looked too serious to
be safe.
The replies and recommendations of the bishops to the Council’s circular,
referred to in a previous note (page 160), had caused much apprehension
amongst Catholics; and the Queen herself, as well as Cecil, assured
Guzman that the bishops should do the Catholics no harm; whilst, on the
other hand, Cecil’s Protestant friends were urging him to adopt strong
measures to prevent the growth of the “Papists.” Cecil’s reply to one
such recommendation shows that he was just as ready to wound Leicester
underhand as Leicester was him. “He replied that he was doing what he
could, but he did not know who was at the Queen’s ear to soften her so,
and render her less zealous in this than she ought to be.”[208]
Cecil’s greatest difficulty, indeed, at this time, was from Leicester,
who had now quite enlisted Sir Nicholas Throgmorton against his former
friend. In order to enable Leicester with some decency to accept the
Order of St. Michael, Throgmorton suggested that the Queen might ask for
another Cross of the Order to be given to the Duke of Norfolk. When Cecil
learned this, he was obliged to remonstrate with the Queen, and point out
how undesirable it was in the present state of affairs to place two of
her most powerful nobles under an obligation to France. At a time when
Cecil was straining every nerve to keep on good terms with the House
of Austria, and conciliating the Catholics, in order to checkmate Mary
Stuart, Leicester had agents running backwards and forwards to France,
in the hope of bringing forward in an official form the farcical offer
of Charles IX.’s hand for the Queen, which offer he knew would come to
nothing, whilst rendering abortive the Archduke’s suit, upon which Cecil
depended to so great an extent.
The dexterity and cleverness of Cecil under these circumstances is shown
very markedly in the manner in which he changed in a very few months
the opinion of the Spanish Ambassador about him, as soon as his policy
rendered it necessary to gain his good opinion. “When I first arrived
here,” writes Guzman, January 2, 1565, “I imagined Secretary Cecil … to
be very different from what I have found him in your Majesty’s affairs.
He is well disposed towards them, truthful, lucid, modest, and just; and
although he is zealous in serving his Queen, which is one of his best
traits, yet he is amenable to reason. He knows the French, and, like an
Englishman, is their enemy. He assured me on his oath … that the French
have always made great efforts to attract to their country the Flanders
trade (_i.e._ with England). With regard to his religion I say nothing,
except that I wish he were a Catholic … but he is straightforward, and
shows himself well affected towards your Majesty … for he alone it is who
makes or mars business here.”[209]
Having thus gained the good-will of the Spaniard, Cecil was soon able
to persuade him that the Queen would never really marry Leicester, and
the relations between the latter and the Spaniards became cooler. The
Queen herself could not do enough to show her kindness to Guzman, and at
joust, tournament, and ball, chatted with him in preference to the French
Ambassador. By January 1565, Leicester, seeing that Cecil’s diplomacy had
gained the good-will of Spain, and that the Catholics were turning to the
side of the Archduke, unblushingly veered round to the French interest.
Guzman was obliged then to write that he was not at all satisfied with
him. He wished, he said, to please everybody; but was getting very
friendly with the French, who were making much of him. But there was more
even than this. The Queen and Cecil were trying their best to please
the Catholics. The Queen openly and rudely rebuked Dean Nowell at his
sermon on Ash Wednesday for attacking Catholic practices; whilst Cecil
was pushing the Vestments Order to the very verge of safety. Some of
the bishops invited him to a conference, and remonstrated with him on
the severity of the new regulations, which they openly stigmatised as
papistical. He told them sternly that the Queen’s order must be obeyed,
or worse would befall them. The churchmen of the Geneva school railed and
resisted, as far as they might,[210] what they called the Secretary’s
backsliding; whilst Leicester, ever willing to change sides, if he could
only checkmate Cecil, vigorously took the part of the Puritans, and did
his best to hamper the execution of the Vestments Order, and to prevent
the use of the cross on the altars.[211]
In February 1565, De Foix, the French Ambassador, shot the bolt that
had long been forging. He saw Elizabeth in her presence-chamber, and,
after much exaggerated compliment, read a letter of Catharine de Medici,
saying she would be the happiest of mothers if her dearly beloved sister
Queen Elizabeth would marry her son, and become a daughter to her. “She
would find in the young King,” she said, “both bodily and mentally, that
which would please her.” This was very sweet incense to Elizabeth, and
she sentimentally deplored that she was not ten years younger. De Foix
flattered her, and tranquillised her fears that she would be neglected or
abandoned, and the Queen agreed with him to keep the matter secret for
the present, and promised him a speedy reply.[212] As usual, Cecil drew
up for the Queen’s guidance a judicial examination of the advantages and
disadvantages which might be expected from the marriage. He is careful in
this lucid document not to commit himself to an individual opinion,[213]
but the formidable list of objections far outweigh the advantages; and
when the Queen the next day repeated Cecil’s arguments as her own, De
Foix lost patience, hinted that his mistress had been deceived, and would
withdraw the offer.[214] Elizabeth petted the ruffled diplomatist into a
good humour again, and said she would send Cecil to talk the matter over
with him.
Leicester had been bribed heavily by the French, and pretended to be
strongly in favour of the match, which he knew would never take place,
but might choke off the Archduke. But with Cecil it was very different.
He had no objection to the French suit being talked about: that might
make Spain and the Austrians more tractable; but if it was allowed to go
too far, the Emperor would take umbrage, and the Spaniards would balance
matters by marrying Mary Stuart to some nominee of their own. When,
consequently, Cecil saw De Foix, he was cool and argumentative, talked
much of the difficulties of the match; and on De Foix suggesting that
such a union with France would preserve England from danger, he replied
that England could defend herself, and had nothing to fear. By these
tactics he avoided a direct negative, delayed and procrastinated, whilst
his agents were busy in Germany smoothing the way for the Archduke. The
French matter was a strict secret, but the Queen could not avoid giving
some very broad hints about it to her friend Guzman. When he objected
that the young King would be a very little husband for her, she angled
dexterously but ineffectually to extort an offer of marriage from Don
Carlos. Catharine de Medici was just as eager as Elizabeth[215] that the
negotiations for the marriage with Charles IX. should not be dropped,
for she was getting seriously afraid now of the Catholic combination into
which she had been drawn, and industriously plied Smith with arguments
in favour of the match. But Smith knew as well as Cecil himself that the
whole matter was a feint, and dexterously avoided giving a favourable
opinion. The Huguenots, however, were in deadly earnest about it, and
Elizabeth and Catharine contrived to carry on the farce intermittently
until eventually Charles IX. was betrothed to a daughter of the Emperor.
Elizabeth was barely off with the old love than Adam Swetkowitz, Baron
Mitterburg, came on behalf of the new. Ostensibly his mission was to
return the late Emperor’s insignia of the Garter, but really every step
to be taken by him had been previously agreed upon through Throgmorton,
Roger Le Strange, Baron Preyner, Mundt, and the Duke of Wurtemburg. The
Spanish Ambassador, however, had been studiously kept in the dark until
shortly before Swetkowitz’s arrival, and was not in a hurry to pledge
his master in the Archduke’s favour, until he learned what arrangements
had been made about religion. On the contrary, he first approached
Leicester, who was ill in consequence of an accident, and secretly urged
him to press his suit before the Emperor’s envoy appeared. Leicester was
doubtful, but still not quite without hope. When Swetkowitz actually
arrived, Leicester understood that the current was too powerful for him
to oppose at first, and he became strongly and ostentatiously in favour
of the Austrian match. Swetkowitz first saw the Queen at the beginning of
June. Her people, she said, were urging her to marry, and she was anxious
to hear whether the King of Spain would favour the Archduke’s suit for
her hand. This Swetkowitz could not tell her; and he was referred to
Cecil for further discussion of details.
The conditions as laid down by Cecil[216] were prudent and moderate, but
certainly not likely to commend themselves to the King of Spain, or even
to the Emperor; for no power was to be given to the Consort, and the
question of religion was jealously safeguarded. It is evident that the
German thought that Leicester might be made instrumental in modifying
these conditions. He writes to the Emperor, “Since the principal promoter
of this transaction will be the illustrious Earl of Leicester, who is
most devoted to the Archduke, and is loved by the Queen with a sincere
and most chaste and honest love, I think your Majesty and the Archduke
would aid the business by addressing fraternal letters to the Earl.”[217]
But Leicester’s momentary adhesion to the policy of Cecil, Sussex,
and Norfolk, was only for the purpose of deceiving the Secretary, and
putting him off his guard. Whilst Cecil was proceeding in good faith
with Swetkowitz, and the latter, a Lutheran, was just as earnest in his
efforts to bring about the marriage, both the Queen and Leicester were
playing a double game. Probably Elizabeth’s marriage with her favourite
was never nearer than at this juncture, when she was carrying on a
serious negotiation with the Austrian, and was still making an appearance
of dallying with De Foix. The circumstances, indeed, were for the moment
all in favour of Leicester. Guzman was very cool about the Archduke and
the Lutheran envoy. The Queen was for ever trying to ascertain Philip’s
feeling about the Archduke, and at the same time dragging Leicester’s
name into her complicated conversational puzzles with the Spaniard. The
latter on one occasion, disbelieving her sincerity about the Archduke,
urged her to marry his friend Leicester, if she married a subject; and
only a day or two afterwards De Foix, who had by this time lost all hope
of success for Charles IX., and wished to checkmate the Austrian, also
went and pleaded Leicester’s suit. The Earl, thus having the good word
both of the Spanish and French Ambassadors, could afford to grow cool on
the Austrian match.[218] Cecil, and Sussex particularly, were scandalised
and apprehensive at this new instance of Leicester’s falseness, and
laboured desperately to bring the Archduke to England to force the
Queen’s hand. But the Emperor was slow and doubtful about the religious
conditions, and would not risk a loss of dignity.
Matters thus dragged on month after month, whilst Leicester’s chances
looked brighter and brighter. Among the principal reasons for the rising
hopes of Leicester were the events which had happened in Scotland during
the previous few months. After much apparent hesitation, Elizabeth
had in February granted to Darnley permission to join his father in
Scotland for three months. A few weeks later a messenger came from Mary
Stuart to the Spanish Ambassador in London, asking him whether he had
any reply to send to her. Guzman was cautious, for he did not quite know
the meaning of this; but said he would speak to Maitland of Lethington,
who was then on the way to London from the Border. Simultaneously with
this, Lady Margaret Lennox also approached Guzman. “She told me the kind
treatment her son had received at the hands of the Queen of Scots, and
that the French Ambassador had sent to her secretly offering all his
support for the marriage of her son. But she knows the French way of
dealing … and repeats that she and her children have no other refuge
but your Majesty (Philip), and begs me to address your Majesty in their
favour, in case the Queen of Scotland should choose to negotiate about
her son, Darnley, or in the event of the death of this Queen, that they
may look to your Majesty.” When Maitland arrived in London in April,
he saw Guzman in secret, and after some fencing and feigned ignorance,
offered his mistress’s adhesion and submission to Spain. His mistress,
he said, had waited for Philip’s answer about Don Carlos for two years,
but had now listened to some proposals for a marriage with Darnley, as
neither Elizabeth nor her own subjects wished her to marry a foreigner.
But before concluding the affair she wished to know if there was still
any hope of her obtaining Don Carlos, in which case she still preferred
that alliance. Guzman replied that, as Cardinal Lorraine had gone so far
in his negotiations for the marriage with the Archduke Charles, Philip
had abandoned all idea of opposing him by bringing forward his own son
Carlos. Maitland assured him that the negotiations of Cardinal Lorraine
were carried on against Mary’s wish, and in the interests of France;
but Guzman knew now that the match with Don Carlos was hopeless, and
said so. Maitland then spoke of the Darnley marriage, which, however, he
feared would be very dangerous if Elizabeth took it badly. All would be
well, he said, if the King of Spain would take Mary and Darnley under
his protection; but beyond bland banalities he could get nothing from
Guzman.[219]
Darnley’s demeanour in Scotland, and Mary’s behaviour towards him,
together with the rising hopes of the Catholics there, had alarmed Murray
and his friends; and Elizabeth and her Council were now also alive to
their danger. Cecil drew up one of his pro and contra reports with regard
to the influence that such a marriage would have on England,[220] which
was submitted to the Council, and a unanimous condemnation of the match
was adopted, and Throgmorton was sent in May post-haste to Scotland to
dissuade Mary from taking a step so threatening to Elizabeth. Randolph’s
letters to Cecil at the time showed that the danger was a real one.
Darnley, he says, is a furious fool, and Mary was infatuated with him.
To the Pope, to Philip, to Cardinal de Granvelle, and to Guzman, Mary
made no secret that her object was to unite the Catholics and claim the
crown of England; and Lady Margaret had from the first admitted that this
was her aim in promoting the marriage of her son. When Elizabeth’s eyes
were opened to the imminence of the peril, she did what she could to
stay the match. She, De Foix, and Throgmorton again pressed Leicester’s
marriage with Mary, Murray and his Protestant friends were encouraged to
resist, Lady Margaret was placed under arrest in the Tower, Darnley was
ordered to return to England, and the Queen promised Maitland that if
his mistress would marry to her liking she would acknowledge her right
of succession to the English crown. Meanwhile rumours came thickly from
Scotland that Mary was already married, Philip promised all his support
to Mary and Darnley if they would be his faithful servants, Murray and
Lethington were thrust into the background, Rizzio was ever at Mary’s
side, and her foolish young English lover, hated and contemned for his
arrogance, urged his infatuated bride to the religious intolerance that
led to her ruin.[221]
The remonstrances of Throgmorton and Randolph, and the letters of
the Queen and Cecil, were as powerless to move Mary now as was the
threatening attitude of her nobles and people, for she had decided to
depend entirely upon Philip, and to defy the Queen of England. In July, a
few days before her marriage, she sent a special messenger to Guzman with
letters for Philip, “begging for help and favour against the Queen of
England, who has raised her subjects against her, to force her to forsake
the Catholic religion.”[222] Murray, Argyll, and the Hamiltons, she says,
are in revolt, and if aid do not come from Spain she will be lost.
When Mary’s marriage was known for certain in London, the Archduke’s
suit was being laboriously discussed; but almost immediately afterwards,
the renewed hopes of Leicester already referred to were noticed. It was
felt that, now that Mary’s marriage to a subject had taken place, one of
Elizabeth’s principal reasons for contracting an alliance with a son of
the House of Austria disappeared, and a precedent had been set for her
marriage with a man not belonging to a sovereign house.
Swetkowitz therefore found that he had to encounter all manner of new
conditions and demands from the Queen, which drove him to despair, and
Guzman looked upon the Austrian’s chance as a very poor one indeed. The
Earl of Sussex and Cecil did their best to keep the matter afoot, whilst
Leicester and Throgmorton openly proclaimed the hollowness of the whole
negotiation. The old Earl of Arundel asked Guzman to dinner at Nonsuch
early in August, apparently for the purpose of dissociating the English
Catholics from the intrigues of both parties. He assured the Spaniard
“that the men who surrounded the Queen did not wish her to marry. I said
it was quite possible that some of them who thought they might get the
prize for themselves might wish to hinder it; but as for Secretary Cecil,
I thought that his disagreement with Robert (Leicester) might well lead
him to support the Archduke, if it were not for the question of religion.
He (Arundel) told me not to believe that Cecil wanted the Queen to marry.
He was ambitious and fond of ruling, and liked everything to pass through
his hands, and if the Queen had a husband he would have to obey him.”
This view of the matter is not improbable; but it is certain that Cecil,
in any case, would resist to the last the marriage of the Queen with
Leicester, under the patronage of either France or Spain. Such a marriage
would have imperilled the results of his strenuous labour, and would
have thrown England back into the slough from which the Queen and he had
rescued it.
When Leicester’s star was seen to be in the ascendant, and the Archduke’s
chance waned, Cecil and his friends once more revived the suit of the
King of Sweden. Splendid presents of sables and valuable plate came to
the Queen and her court; and Eric’s romantic sister Cecilia, Margravine
of Baden, again made ready for her much-desired visit to England, where
she arrived early in September. At the water-gate of Durham House, where
she lodged as the Queen’s guest, Leicester’s opponents were assembled in
force to bid her welcome. The Countess of Sussex, Lady Bacon, Lady Cecil,
and Cecil himself, all did honour to the Swedish King’s sister, and
Elizabeth was overwhelming in her cordiality for the first royal visitor
she had entertained since her accession; but the Princess wore out her
welcome, and nothing came of her visit, though it served its purpose of
again spoiling the appearance of Leicester’s chances for a time.
In the meanwhile, English money and men were supporting Murray and the
Protestant Lords against Mary and Darnley, who were sending emissaries
to the Pope, to Cardinal Lorraine, to Flanders, and to Philip, begging
for help for the faith. When Elizabeth was remonstrated with by Guzman,
De Foix, and Mauvissière, for helping rebels against their Queen, and
for her harsh treatment of Lady Margaret, she replied that she had been
shamefully deceived, but what she was doing was to endeavour to rescue
Mary from the hands of her enemies, into which she had fallen, and she
blamed Darnley and his Catholic friends more than Mary. The same excuse,
said Guzman, which she used when she helped the French rebel Huguenots.
At the end of September a special meeting of the full Council was held,
at which Cecil set forth the position with regard to Scotland, and the
policy it was proposed to adopt. He pointed out the many reasons that
existed for distrusting the French, who were very busy in Scottish
affairs since Mary’s marriage;[223] and he told the Council that Mary had
sent Darnley’s secretary, Yaxley,[224] to beg aid of Philip, in addition
to the letters sent through Guzman, and to the Pope. The interference of
the Catholic powers in Scotland, he said, was a menace to England; and it
was decided that all preparations should be made for war upon the Border,
as a measure of precaution, whilst an embassy was sent from England to
endeavour to effect a reconciliation between Mary and the Protestant
Lords.
Before any decided steps could be taken, however, Murray retired into
England, and arrived in London on the 22nd October. The Queen affected
anger, and received him sternly in the presence of her Council and of
the French Ambassador. Murray was dressed in deep mourning, and entered
humbly. Kneeling, he addressed the Queen in Scots. She told him to speak
in French, which he said he understood but imperfectly. Notwithstanding
this, she addressed to him a long harangue in French, for the edification
of De Foix and Mauvissière. “God preserve her,” she said, “from helping
rebels, especially against one whom she had regarded as a sister.” She
understood that their rising was in consequence of the Queen’s marriage
without the consent of Parliament, and of fear that their religious
liberty would be infringed. But if she thought he, Murray, had planned
anything against his sovereign, she would at once arrest and punish him.
Murray justified himself, and threw himself upon her generosity, and
Elizabeth replied that she would refer the whole matter to her Council.
All this scene was for the purpose of putting herself right with France
and Spain, and had been arranged on the previous night, when Murray was
closeted with the Queen and Cecil. Cecil’s own minute of the interview
agrees closely with that of Guzman, just quoted. “Her Majesty asked him
(Murray), in the presence of several persons, if he had ever undertaken
anything against the person of his Queen. He denied it firmly and
solemnly, saying, if it might be proved that he was either consenting
or privy to any such intent, he besought her Majesty to cause his head
to be struck off and sent to Scotland … he testified before God that in
all his counsels he had no other meaning but principally the honour of
Almighty God, by conserving the state of His religion in Scotland.… And,
to conclude, her Majesty spoke very roundly to him … that she would by
her actions let it appear that she would not for the price of a world
maintain any subject in disobedience against his prince.”[225]
Cecil’s characteristic policy is plainly seen in the Queen’s treatment
of Murray. He invariably endeavoured to keep Elizabeth legally in the
right, and usually with success. But still Murray and the Scottish
Protestants were now his main instruments for preventing the danger
approaching England over the Scottish Border. The old national lines of
division had grown fainter with the international league of Catholics
facing a league of Protestants. Mary Stuart had definitely thrown in her
lot with the former, in the hope of satisfying her ambition;[226] and the
Scottish spectre was perhaps more threatening to England at this moment
than ever it had been before. The obvious course was that which Cecil
followed—namely, to avoid an excuse for a national war or for foreign
interference, and to encourage the Scottish Protestants to stand for the
liberties they had won; whilst assuming as indisputable that they were
not in arms against their sovereign, but against their enemies and hers,
who had interposed between the Queen and her loving subjects.