MARY'S SUITORS, AND THE MACHINATIONS OF HER ENEMIES.
Mary had now continued a widow for about three years, but certainly not
from a want of advantageous offers. It was in her power to have formed
almost any alliance she chose. There was not a court in Europe, where the
importance of a matrimonial connexion with the Queen of Scotland, and
heir-apparent to the English throne, was not acknowledged. Accordingly,
ambassadors had found their way to Holyrood Palace from all parts of the
Continent. The three most influential suitors were, the Duke of Anjou,
brother of Mary's late husband, Francis II., and afterwards King of
France, on the death of his other brother, Charles IX.--the Archduke
Charles of Austria, third son of the Emperor Ferdinand--and Don Carlos of
Spain, heir-apparent to all the dominions of his father, Philip II. None
of these personages, however, were destined to be successful. The death of
the Duke of Guise, and the greater influence which consequently fell into
the hands of Catharine de Medicis, made some alteration in the Duke of
Anjou's prospects, and diminished his interest with Mary. Besides, it was
considered dangerous to marry the brother of a late husband. The Archduke
Charles found, that his proposals to the Scottish Queen excited so much
the jealousy of his elder brother, Maximilian, that it became necessary
for him reluctantly to quit the field. It is not improbable that Don
Carlos might have been listened to, had not Mary found it necessary, for
reasons which will be mentioned immediately, to give up all thoughts of a
Continental alliance. Had she married Carlos, she might have saved him
from the untimely fate inflicted by parental cruelty in 1568.
Of all the sovereigns who at this time watched Mary's intentions with the
most jealous anxiety, none felt so deeply interested in the decision she
might ultimately come to, as Elizabeth. To her, Mary's marriage was a
matter of the very last importance. If she connected herself with a
powerful Catholic prince, her former claims upon the English throne might
be renewed; and her Scottish armies, assisted by continental forces, might
ultimately deprive Elizabeth of her crown. Even though Mary did not
proceed to such extremities, if she had a Catholic husband, and more
especially if there were any children of the marriage, all the Catholics
of Europe would rally round her, and her power would be such, that her
requests would be tantamount to commands. So far as Elizabeth's own
interests, and those of the kingdom over which she reigned, were involved,
she was called upon to pay all due attention to the proceedings of so
formidable a rival as Mary. But the English Queen's selfish and invidious
policy far over-stepped the limits marked out by the laws of
self-defence. Having determined against marriage herself, she could not
bear to think that the Queen of Scots should be any thing but a "barren
stock" also. It made her miserable to know that her power should end with
her life, whilst Mary might become the mother of a long line of kings. She
hoped, therefore, though she did not dare to avow her object, to be able
to exert such influence with Murray and the Scottish Reformers, that Mary,
by their united machinations, might find it impossible ever to form
another matrimonial alliance; and with this view her first step was to
inform "her good sister," that if she married without her consent, she
would have little difficulty in prevailing upon the Parliament of England
to set aside her succession.
Driven hither and thither by so many contrary opinions and contending
interests, it was no easy matter for the Scottish Queen to come to a final
determination upon this subject. Although, in her own words, "not to marry
she knew could not be for her, and to defer it long many incommodities
might ensue," she at the same time saw that there were insuperable reasons
against a foreign alliance. The loss of her best and most powerful
continental friend, the Duke of Guise, was one of these; another was, the
avowed wish of Elizabeth and the English nation; and the third, and that
which weighed most forcibly, the earnest entreaties of her own subjects.
The great proportion of the inhabitants of Scotland were now Protestants;
and to have attempted to place over them a foreign Catholic Prince, would
have been to have incurred the risk of throwing them at once into the
arms of Elizabeth, and of losing their allegiance for ever. Mary was
therefore willing to make a virtue of necessity, and to allow herself to
be guided very much by "her good sister's discretion." This concession to
the English Queen was far from being agreeable to Catharine de Medicis and
the French Court. It seemed to be paving the way for a cessation of that
friendship which had so long existed between France and Scotland.
Catharine, altering her policy, began to treat Mary with every mark of
attention. She paid up the dowry she received from France, which had
fallen into arrears, and requested Mary to exercise as much patronage and
influence in that country as she chose. Elizabeth, however, had already
suggested a husband for her; and, to the astonishment of every body, had
named her favourite minion, Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Though the proposal
of one of her own subjects, and one too, whom she had raised from
comparative obscurity, was regarded by Mary as little else than an insult,
she agreed, that two commissioners upon her part, Murray and
Maitland--should meet two of Elizabeth's, the Duke of Bedford and
Randolph, to discuss the expediency of the match. At the conference, which
took place at Berwick, it was stated for Mary, that she could never
condescend to marry a newly-created English Earl, having so long a list of
princes of the blood-royal of the noblest houses of Europe among her
suitors; and it was added, boldly, that Elizabeth seemed somewhat
deficient even in self-respect, when she could think of recommending such
a husband for a Queen, her kinswoman. It is not at all likely, that either
Elizabeth, or the Earl of Leicester, expected or wished any other answer.
Elizabeth could hardly have done without her favourite; and the Earl would
have fallen into irretrievable disgrace, had he dared to confess a
preference for any mistress over the one he already had.
It was soon after this conference that Randolph, by Elizabeth's
directions, repaired to the Queen at St Andrews, to ascertain from her own
lips what were her real sentiments on the subject of marriage. He found
her living very quietly in a merchant's house, with a small train. She had
been wearied with the state and show of a Court, and had determined to
pass some weeks in her favourite retirement of St Andrews, more as a
subject than a queen. She made Randolph dine and sup with her every day
during his visit; and she frequently, upon these occasions, drank to the
health of Elizabeth. When Randolph entered upon matters of business, Mary
said to him playfully,--"I sent for you to be merry, and to see how like a
bourgeoise wife I live with my little troop; and you will interrupt our
pastime with your great and grave matters? I pray ye, Sir, if ye be weary
here, return home to Edinburgh; and keep your gravity and great embassade
until the Queen come thither; for, I assure ye, you shall not get her
here, nor I know not myself where she is become. Ye see neither cloth of
estate, nor such appearance that you may think that there is a Queen here;
nor I would not that you should think that I am she at St Andrews, that I
was at Edinburgh." Randolph was thus, for the time, fairly bantered out
of his diplomatic gravity. But next day, he rode abroad with the Queen,
and renewed the subject. Mary then told him, that she saw the necessity of
marrying, and that she would rather be guided in her choice by England
than by France, or any other country after Scotland. She frankly added,
that her reason for paying this deference to Elizabeth, was to obtain an
acknowledgment of her right of succession to the English crown. She was
making a sacrifice, she said, in renouncing the much more splendid
alliances which had been offered her; and she could not be expected to do
so without a return on the part of Elizabeth. Fearful that the crafty
Randolph might make a bad use of this open confession, she suddenly
checked herself;--"I am a fool," she said, "thus long to talk with you;
you are too subtle for me to deal with." But Randolph, finding her in a
communicative mood, was unwilling that the conversation should drop so
soon. Some further discourse took place, and Mary, in conclusion, gave
utterance to the following sentiments, which do honour both to her head
and heart. "How much better were it," said she, "that we two being queens,
so near of kin and neighbours, and being in one isle, should be friends
and live together like sisters, than, by strange means, divide ourselves
to the hurt of us both; and to say that we may for all that live friends,
we may say and prove what we will, but it will pass both our powers. You
repute us poor; but yet you have found us cumbersome enough. We have had
loss; ye have taken scaith. Why may it not be between my sister and me,
that we, living on peace and assured friendship, may give our minds, that
some as notable things may be wrought by us women, as by our predecessors
have been done before. Let us seek this honour against some other, rather
than fall to debate amongst ourselves."[81]
Mary, however, was by this time convinced of Elizabeth's want of
sincerity, and formed, therefore, a matrimonial plan of her own, which,
she flattered herself, would be considered judicious by all parties. It
will be recollected, that, during the troubles which ensued soon after
Mary's birth, Matthew, Earl of Lennox, having drawn upon himself the
suspicion, both of the Protestant and Catholic parties in Scotland,
retired into England, where Henry VIII. gave him his niece in marriage.
The Lady Margaret Douglas was daughter of the eldest daughter of Henry
VII., the Princess Margaret, who, upon the decease of her first husband
James IV., had married the Earl of Angus, of which marriage the Lady
Margaret was the issue. Lennox, belonging as he did to the house of
Stuart, was himself related to the Royal Family of Scotland; and his wife,
failing the children of Henry VIII., and the direct line of succession by
her mother's first husband James IV., in which line Mary stood, was the
legal heir to the crown of England. The first child of this marriage died
in infancy. The second, afterwards known as Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley,
was born in 1546, and was, consequently, about four years younger than
Mary. This disparity in point of years, though unfortunate in another
point of view, was not such as to preclude the possibility of an alliance
between two persons, in whose veins flowed so much of the blood of the
Stuarts and the Tudors.
Henry VIII. had, along with his niece, bestowed upon Lennox English lands,
from which he derived a yearly revenue of fifteen hundred marks. His own
estates in Scotland were forfeited, so that he thus came to be considered
more an English than a Scottish subject. He had long, however, nourished
the secret hope of restoring his fortunes in his native land. His wife,
who was a woman of an ambitious and intriguing spirit, induced him, at an
early period, to educate his son with a view to his aspiring to the hand
of the Scottish Queen. On the death of Francis II. she went herself to
Paris, for the purpose of ingratiating herself with Mary, and securing a
favourable opinion for Darnley. Mary, probably, gave her some hope that
she might, at a future date, take her proposals into serious
consideration; for it appears, by some papers still preserved in the
British Museum, that few rejoiced more sincerely at the Queen's safe
arrival in Scotland, than Lady Lennox. She is said to have fallen on her
knees, and, with uplifted hands, thanked God that the Scottish queen had
escaped the English ships. For this piece of piety, and to show her the
necessity of taking less interest in the affairs of Elizabeth's rival,
Cecil sent Lady Lennox to prison for some months.
Seeing the difficulties which stood in the way of all her other suitors,
Mary, in the year 1564, began seriously to think of Darnley. A marriage
with him would unite, in the person of the heir of such marriage, the
rival claims of the Stuarts and the Tudors upon the English succession,
failing issue by Elizabeth; and it would give to Scotland a native prince
of the old royal line. It was difficult to see what reasonable objections
could be made to such an alliance; and that she might at all events have
an opportunity of judging for herself, Mary granted the Earl of Lennox
permission to return to Scotland, in 1564, after an exile of twenty years,
and promised to assist him in reclaiming his hereditary rights. Elizabeth,
who was well aware of the ultimate views with which this journey was
undertaken, and had certainly no desire to forward their accomplishment,
made nevertheless no opposition to it. With her usual sagacity, she
calculated that much discord and jealousy would arise, out of the Earl's
suit, in favour of his son. She knew that the House of Hamilton, whose
claims upon the Scottish crown were publicly recognised, looked upon the
Lennox family as its worst enemies; and that the haughty nobility of
Scotland would ill brook to see a stripling elevated above the heads of
all of them. Besides, the principal estates of Lennox now lay in England;
and in the words of Robertson, "she hoped by this pledge to keep the
negotiation entirely in her own hands, and to play the same game of
artifice and delay which she had planned out, if her recommendation of
Leicester had been more favourably received."
In the Parliament which assembled towards the end of the year 1564, Lennox
was restored to his estates and honours. Such of his possessions as had
passed into the hands of the Earl of Argyle, were surrendered with
extreme reluctance; and the Duke of Chatelherault, dreading the marriage
with Darnley, continued obstinate in his hatred. The Earl of Murray too,
aware that this new connection would be a fatal blow to his influence, set
his face against it from the first. Maitland, on the contrary, who felt
that he had been hitherto kept too much under by the prime minister, did
not anticipate with any regret the decline of his ascendancy. The
Secretary, and most of the other members of the Privy Council, were
assiduously courted by Lennox. He made presents both to the Queen and them
of valuable jewels; but to Murray, whose enmity he knew, he gave
nothing.[82] That Murray's weight in the government, however, had not yet
decreased, is apparent, from his procuring an enactment, to gratify the
Protestants, in the parliament of this year, making the attending of
mass, except in the Queen's chapel, punishable with loss of goods, lands,
and life: and the Archbishop of St Andrews having infringed this act, was
imprisoned, in spite of Mary's intercession, for some months.
Early in 1565, Darnley obtained leave from Elizabeth to set out for
Scotland. His ostensible purpose was to visit his father, and to see the
estates to which he had been recently restored; but that his real object
was to endeavour to win the good graces of Mary, was no secret.
Elizabeth's wish being to involve Mary in a quarrel, as well with some of
her own nobility, as with England, there was much art in the plan she laid
for its accomplishment. She consented that the Earl of Lennox should go
into Scotland to recover his forfeited estates, and that his son should
follow him to share in his father's good fortune; she even went the length
of recommending them both to the especial favour of the Scottish Queen;
but of course said not a word of any suspicions she entertained of the
projected alliance. As soon as it should appear that Mary's resolution was
taken, she would affect the greatest indignation at the whole proceedings,
and pretend that they had been cunningly devised and executed, hoping
either to break off the match altogether, or to make Mary's nuptial couch,
any thing but a bed of roses. Thus was the Scottish Queen to be
systematically harassed, and made miserable, to gratify the splenetic
jealousy, and lull the selfish terrors, of her sister of England.
Darnley, in the midst of a severe snow-storm, travelled with all
expedition to Edinburgh. Upon his arrival he found that Mary was at
Wemyss Castle in Fife, whither, at his father's desire, he immediately
proceeded. The impression which it is said he made upon the Queen, at even
his first interview, has been much exaggerated. Chalmers, alluding
principally to Robertson's account of this matter, acutely remarks, "The
Scottish historians would have us believe, that Mary fell desperately in
love with Darnley at first sight; they would have us suppose, as simply as
themselves, that the widowed Queen, at the age of twenty-two," (it should
have been twenty-three), "who knew the world, and had seen the most
accomplished gentlemen in Europe, was a boarding-school Miss, who had
never till now seen a man." Mary received Darnley frankly, and as one whom
she wished to like; but she had been too long accustomed to admiration, to
be prepared to surrender her heart at the first glance. It was not Mary's
character to allow herself to be won before she was wooed. She was, no
doubt, glad to perceive that Darnley was one of the handsomest young men
of the day. She said playfully, that "he was the lustiest and best
proportioned long man she had seen." She might have said a good deal more;
for all historians agree in noticing the grace of his person, the easy
elegance of his carriage, the agreeable regularity of his features, and
the animated expression of his countenance, lighted up, as it was, by a
pair of dazzling eyes. He excelled too in all the showy and manly
accomplishments so much in vogue among the young nobility. His riding and
dancing were unrivalled; and to gratify Mary, he avowed, whether real or
affected, a great fondness for poetry and music. Melville says quaintly,
"He was of a heigh stature, lang and small, even and brent up; well
instructed from his youth in all honest and comely exercises."[83]
It was not, however, Darnley's exterior in which Mary and her subjects
were principally interested. The bent which nature and education had given
to his mind and character, was a much more important subject of
consideration. With regard to his religious sentiments, they seem to have
sat loosely upon him; though his mother was a Catholic, he himself
professed adherence to the Established Church of England.[84] In Scotland,
he saw the necessity of ingratiating himself with the Reformers; and he
went, the very first Sunday he spent in Edinburgh, to hear Knox preach.
But Darnley's great misfortune was, that, before he had learned any thing
in the school of experience, and in the very heat and fire of youth, he
was raised to an eminence which, so far from enabling him to see over the
heads of other men, only rendered him giddy, and made his inferiority the
more apparent. He was naturally of a headstrong and violent temper, which
might, perhaps, have been tamed down by adversity, but which only ran into
wilder waste in the sunshine of prosperity. He was passionately fond of
power, without the ability to make a proper use of it. It is not unlikely
that, had he continued a subject for some years longer, and associated
with men of sound judgment and practical knowledge, he might have divested
himself of some of the follies of youth, and acquired a contempt for many
of its vices. But his honours came upon him too suddenly; and the
intellectual strength of his character, never very great, was crushed
under the load. Conscious of his inability to cope with persons of talent,
he sought to gather round him those who were willing to flatter him on
account of his rank, or to join him in all kinds of dissipation, with the
view of sharing his ill-regulated liberality. Of the duties of a courtier,
he knew something; but of those of a politician, he was profoundly
ignorant. The polish of his manners gained him friends at first; but the
reckless freedom with which he gave utterance to his hasty opinions and
ill-grounded prejudices, speedily converted them into enemies. He had only
been a short time in Scotland, when he remarked to one of the Earl of
Murray's brothers, who pointed out to him on the map the Earl's lands,
"that they were too extensive." Murray was told of this; and, perceiving
what he had to expect when Darnley became King, he took his measures
accordingly. Mary, whose affliction it was to have husbands far inferior
to herself in mental qualifications, beseeched Darnley to be more guarded
in future. That he was somewhat violent and self-sufficient, she did not
feel to be an insuperable objection, considering, as she did, the
political advantages that might accrue from the alliance. She hoped that
time would improve him; and besides, she did not yet know the full extent
of his imperfections, as he had, of course, been anxious to show her only
the fairer side of his character. Melville speaks of him, even when he
came to be most hated, as a young prince, who failed rather for lack of
good counsel than of evil will. "It appeared to be his destiny," says he,
"to like better of flatterers and evil company, than of plain speakers and
good men; whilk has been the wreck of many princes, who, with good
company, might have produced worthy effects." Randolph himself allows,
that for some weeks, his "behaviour was very well liked, and there was
great promise of him." He had been about a month at Court before he
ventured to propose himself as a husband to Mary; and at first she gave
him but small encouragement, telling him she had not yet made up her mind,
and refusing to accept of a ring, which he offered her.[85] This was not
like one who had fallen in love at first sight. But the Queen invariably
conducted herself with becoming self-respect towards Darnley, permitting,
as Miss Benger remarks, rather than inviting, his intentions.
Darnley, thus finding that, though the ball was at his foot, the game was
not already won, saw it necessary to engage with his father's assistance,
as powerful a party as possible to support his pretensions. Sir James
Melville was his friend, and spoke in his favour to Mary. All the Lords
who hated or feared Murray did the same; among whom were, the Earls of
Athol and Caithness, and the Lords Ruthven and Hume. A still more useful
agent than any of these, Darnley found in David Rizzio, who, as the
Queen's French Secretary, and one whose abilities she respected, had a
good deal of influence with her. Rizzio knew that for this very reason he
was hated by Murray, and others of the Privy Council. He was, therefore,
not ill pleased to find himself sought after by her future husband, for he
hoped thus to retain his place at Court, and perhaps to rise upon the ruin
of some of those who wished his downfal. An accidental illness which
overtook Darnley, when the Queen, with her Court, was at Stirling, about
the beginning of April 1565, was another circumstance in his favour. At
first, his complaint was supposed to be a common cold, but in a few days
it turned out to be the measles. The natural anxiety which Mary felt for
Darnley's recovery, induced her to exhibit a tenderer interest in him than
she had ever done before. She paid him the most flattering attentions, and
continued them unwearyingly, though her patient was provokingly attacked
by an ague, almost immediately after his recovery from the measles.[86]
It is worth noticing, that while Mary was thus occupied in attending to
Darnley, the Earl of Bothwell returned to Scotland from his involuntary
banishment. His former misdemeanours were not yet forgotten, and he was
summoned by the Queen and Murray to take his trial in Edinburgh; but not
liking to trust himself in the hands of his ancient enemies, he again left
the country for six months. He did not depart before giving utterance to
several violent threats against Murray and Maitland, and speaking so
disrespectfully of the Queen, that Randolph says she declared to him, upon
her honour, that he should never receive favour at her hands.[87]
The Queen of Scots being now resolved to bestow her hand on Darnley, sent
her Secretary, Maitland, to London, to intimate her intentions, and to
request Elizabeth's approbation. This was the very last thing Elizabeth
meant to give. The matter had now arrived exactly at the point to which
she had all along wished to bring it. She had prevailed upon Mary to
abandon the idea of a foreign alliance; she had induced her to throw away
some valuable time in ridiculous negociations concerning the Earl of
Leicester; she had consented, first that the Earl of Lennox, and then that
his son Darnley, should go into Scotland; and she did not say a single
syllable against it till she had allowed Mary to be persuaded, that no
marriage in Christendom could be more prudent. It was now that the
cloven-foot was to betray itself; that her faction was to be called upon
to exert itself in Scotland; that the cup was to be dashed from Darnley's
lips; and that Mary was to be involved in the vortex of civil dissension.
The historian Castelnau, whom Mary at this time sent as her ambassador to
France, and who there obtained their Majesties' consent to the marriage,
mentions, that when he returned through England, he found the Queen much
colder than formerly, complaining that Mary had subtracted her relation
and subject, and that she was intending to marry him without her
permission, and against her approbation. "And yet I am sure," adds
Castelnau, "that these words were very far from her heart; for she used
all her efforts, and spared nothing to set this marriage a-going."[88]
Elizabeth seldom did things by halves. She assembled her Privy Council,
and, at the instigation of Cecil, they gave it as their unanimous opinion,
that "this marriage with my Lord Darnley appeared to be unmeet,
unprofitable, and directly prejudicial to the sincere amity between both
the Queens."[89] Upon what reasons this sage determination was founded,
the Privy Council did not condescend to state. It is not difficult,
however, to do so for them, the more especially as an official paper is
still preserved, drawn up by Cecil himself, in which the explanations he
attempts serve to disclose more fully his own and his Queen's policy. He
did not think this marriage "meet or profitable;" because, in the first
place, it would have given great content to those who were anxious that
Mary's succession to the English crown should not be set aside; and in the
second place, because, by representing it as dangerous, a plausible
pretence would be furnished to all Mary's enemies to join with Elizabeth
in opposing it, and harassing the Queen of Scots. Cecil proceeds to point
out explicitly how the harassing system was to be carried on. _First_, It
was to be represented, that in France the houses of Guise and Lorraine,
and all the other leading Catholics; and in Scotland, all who hated the
Duke of Chatelherault and the Hamiltons, and Murray and the Reformers, and
were devoted to the authority of Rome, approved of the marriage. _Second_,
It was to be spread abroad that the Devil would stir up some of the
friends of Mary and Darnley, to alienate the minds of Elizabeth's
subjects, and even to attempt the life of that Sovereign; and, under the
pretext of preventing such evils, the most rigorous measures might be
taken against all suspected persons; and, _Third_, Tumults and rebellions
in Scotland were to be fomented in all prudent and secret ways.[90]
To report to Mary the decision of her Privy Council, Elizabeth sent Sir
Nicolas Throckmorton into Scotland. He arrived at Stirling on the 15th of
May 1565, and, in an audience which Mary gave him, he set forth
Elizabeth's disliking and disallowance of what she was pleased to term
"the hasty proceeding with my Lord Darnley." Mary, with becoming dignity
and unanswerable argument, replied, that she was sorry Elizabeth disliked
the match, but that, as to her "disallowance," she had never asked the
English Queen's permission,--she had only communicated to her, as soon as
she had made up her own mind, the person whom she had chosen. She was not
a little surprised, she added, at Elizabeth's opposition, since it had
been expressly intimated to her, through the English resident, Randolph,
that if she avoided a foreign alliance, "she might take her choice of any
person within the realms of England or Scotland, without any exception."
Her choice had fallen upon Lord Darnley, both from the good qualities she
found in him, and because being Elizabeth's kinsman and her's, and
participating of the English and Scottish blood royal, she had imagined
that none would be more agreeable to her Majesty and the realm of England.
Convinced, by so decided an answer to his remonstrance, that Mary's
resolution was fixed, Throckmorton wrote to Elizabeth, that she could not
hope to stop the marriage, unless she had recourse to violence. But
Elizabeth had too much prudence to take up arms herself; all she wished
was, to instigate others to this measure. Accordingly, Throckmorton, one
of the wiliest of her diplomatic agents, received orders to deal with the
Scottish malcontents, and especially the Earl of Murray, whom he was to
assure of Elizabeth's support, should they proceed to extremities. Murray
was likewise invited to enter into a correspondence with Cecil, an
invitation with which he willingly complied;[91] and to give the whole
affair as serious an air as possible, a fresh supply of troops was sent to
the Earl of Bedford, Elizabeth's Lieutenant of the Borders; and her
Wardens of the Marches were commanded to show no more favour to Mary's
subjects than the bare abstaining from any breach of peace. The Earl of
Northumberland, who was attached to the Lennox family, was detained in
London; and Lady Lennox herself, was committed to the Tower. Lady
Somerset, who pretended a sort of title to the English succession in
opposition to Mary, was received very graciously at the Court of
Westminster. Means were used to induce Secretary Maitland to associate
himself with Murray, and the other discontents; and, all this time, that
no suspicion of such insiduous enmity towards the Scottish Queen might be
entertained on the Continent, the good opinion of France and Spain was
carefully courted.
Elizabeth next wrote letters to Lennox and Darnley, commanding them both,
as her subjects, to return to England without delay. Randolph was desired
to wait upon them, to know what answer they were disposed to give. He got
little satisfaction from either;--Lennox firmly, and Darnley
contemptuously, refused to obey the mandate of recall. Randolph then
waited upon the Queen to ascertain her mind on the subject. Mary felt
keenly the contemptible jealousy and envy with which she was treated by
Elizabeth; and received the English resident with greater reserve than she
had ever done before, "as a man new and first come into her presence that
she had never seen." Randolph asked, if she would give Lennox and Darnley
permission to depart for England. Mary smiled at the question, which was
an artful one, and said,--"If I would give them leave, I doubt what they
would do themselves; I see no will in them to return." Randolph answered
with insolence, that they must either return, or do worse; for that, if
they refused, and were supported by Mary in that refusal, the Queen his
mistress had the power and the will to be revenged upon both them and her.
The Queen of Scots merely replied, that she hoped Elizabeth would change
her mind, and so dismissed Randolph.
Satisfied of the integrity of her purpose, Mary was not to be easily
driven from it. She sent Mr John Hay to the English court, to state once
more her anxious wish to avoid giving any just cause of offence to
Elizabeth, but at the same time to repeat, that she could not but consider
as strange and vexatious, any opposition to a marriage, to which there did
not seem to be one plausible objection. He was desired also to complain of
the "sharp handling" which had been given to Mary's aunt, the Lady
Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. But her chief anxieties arose from
the state of matters nearer home. The Duke of Chatelherault, and the Earls
of Murray, Argyle, and Glencairn, had now openly declared themselves
adverse to the marriage; and Lethington and Morton were suspected of
giving it only a very doubtful support. There was, in consequence, a great
change at Mary's court. They who had formerly most influence kept away
from it altogether; and a new set of men, little accustomed to state
duties, such as Montrose, Fleming, Cassils, Montgomery, and others, came
into favour. It was now that Mary found Rizzio, who was active, and well
acquainted with all the details of public business, and was, besides,
liked by Darnley, of the greatest use to her; and being deserted by her
more efficient, but too ambitious counsellors, she gladly availed herself
of his services.