ELIZABETH (i), 1558-61--A PASSAGE PERILOUS
[Sidenote: 1558 Accession of Elizabeth]
On November 17th 1558, the sun had not yet risen when Mary passed away;
within a few hours, Elizabeth had been proclaimed Queen. No dissentient
voice was raised in England. Heath, Mary's Chancellor and Archbishop of
York, announced her accession to the Houses of Parliament; the proclamation
was drawn up by Sir William Cecil, the Council's Secretary under Edward
VI. From one quarter, and only one, could a colourable challenge come. In
the legitimate course of succession by blood, the claim lay with Mary
Stewart, Queen of Scots and now Dauphiness of France. But the Will of Henry
VIII., authorised by Parliament, was paramount. That Will had given
priority to the two children of his body who had both been declared
illegitimate--not born in wedlock--by the national courts. The Papal
pronouncement in an opposite sense in Mary's case would have made nugatory
any attempt on the part of a Catholic to question her rights; but that
difficulty did not apply in the case of Elizabeth. As a matter of practical
politics, the Scots Queen might waive her claim; as a matter of high
theory, no personal disclaimers could cancel the validity of her title; as
a matter of English Constitutional theory, Elizabeth's legal title rested
on the superior validity of a Parliamentary enactment as compared with the
divine right of inheritance. And in the minds of the entire English nation,
there was unanimity as to the acceptable doctrine. But the rejected
doctrine remained to fall back on if discontent should arise.
[Sidenote: The claim of Mary Stewart]
The English people might settle the antagonistic claims of Mary and
Elizabeth to their own satisfaction: but the rivalry also of the very
strongest interest to the European Powers. was actually queen of Scotland;
prospectively she was also queen of France. If to these two crowns she
united that of England, the hegemony of the empire thus formed would
inevitably fall to France, and France would become the premier European
Power. That position was now occupied by Spain, [Footnote: See _Appendix
A_, ii.] which, in the face of such a combination, would lose its naval
ascendancy, and be cut off from the Netherlands both by sea and land. For
Philip therefore it was absolutely imperative to support Elizabeth at ail
costs.
[Sidenote: Strength of Elizabeth's position]
Here then lay the strength of Elizabeth's position, which she and her
chosen counsellors were quick to grasp. The only alternative to Elizabeth
was the Queen of Scots; her accession would mean virtually the conversion
of England into an appanage of France. Of Elizabeth's subjects none--
whatever their creed might be, or whatever creed she might adopt--would be
prepared to rebel at the price of subjection to France; the few hot-heads
who had ventured on that line when Mary Tudor was at the height of her
unpopularity had found themselves utterly without support. For the same
reason, do what she would, Philip could not afford to act against her--more
than that, he had no choice but to interfere on her behalf if Henry of
France acted against her. He might advise--dictate--threaten--but he must,
as against France, remain her champion, whether she submitted or no. As
long as she kept her head, this young woman of five and twenty, with an
empty treasury, with no army, a wasted navy, and with counsellors whose
reputation for statesmanship was still to make, was nevertheless mistress
of the situation. Mary Stewart's claim presented no immediate danger,
though it might become dangerous enough in the future.
There were two things then on which Elizabeth knew she could count; her own
ability to keep her head, and the capacity for loyalty of the great bulk of
her subjects. If either of those failed her, she would have no one but
herself to blame. The former had been shrewdly tested during her sister's
reign, when a single false step would have ruined her. The latter had borne
the strain even of the Marian persecution--nay, of the alarm engendered by
the Spanish marriage, which showed incidentally that fear of domination by
a foreign power was the most deeply rooted of all popular sentiments; a
sentiment now altogether in Elizabeth's favour, unless she should threaten
a dangerous marriage.
But the cool head and the clear brain, and unlimited self-reliance, were
necessary to realise how much might be dared in safety; to distinguish also
the course least likely to arouse the one incalculable factor in domestic
politics--religious fanaticism; which, if it once broke loose, might count
for more than patriotic or insular sentiment. And these were precisely the
qualities in which the queen herself excelled, and which marked also the
man whom from the first she distinguished with her father's perspicacity as
her chief counsellor.
[Sidenote: Cecil]
Throughout the last reign, Cecil had carefully effaced himself. In matters
of religion, though he had been previously associated with the Protestant
leaders, he had never personally committed himself to any extreme line, and
under the reaction he conformed; as did Elizabeth herself, and practically
the whole of the nobility. He had walked warily, keeping always on the safe
side of the law, never seeking that pre-eminence which in revolutionary
times is apt to become so dangerous. He was not the man to risk his neck
for a policy which he could hope to achieve by waiting, and he was quite
willing to subordinate religious convictions to political expediency. On
the other hand, he never betrayed confidences; he was not to be bought; and
he was not to be frightened. Further, he was endowed with a penetrating
perception of character, immense powers of organisation, and industry which
was absolutely indefatigable. It was an immediate mark of the young queen's
singular sagacity that even before her accession she had selected Cecil to
lean upon, in preference to any of the great nobles, and even to Paget who
had for many years been recognised as the most astute statesman in England.
[Sidenote: Finance]
Secure of her throne, Elizabeth was confronted by the great domestic
problem of effecting a religious settlement; the diplomatic problem of
terminating the French war; and what may be called the personal problem of
choosing--or evading--a husband, since no one, except it may be the Queen
herself, dreamed for a moment that she could long remain unwedded. To
these problems must be added a fourth, less conspicuous but vital to the
continuance of good government--the rehabilitation of the finances, of the
national credit. A strict and lynx-eyed economy, a resolute honesty of
administration, and a prompt punctuality in meeting engagements, took the
place of the laxity, recklessness, and peculation which had prevailed of
recent years. The presence of a new tone in the Government was immediately
felt in mercantile circles, and the negotiation of necessary loans became a
reasonable business transaction instead of an affair of usurious
bargaining, both in England and on the continent. Finally, before Elizabeth
had been two years on the throne, measures were promulgated for calling in
the whole of the debased coinage which had been issued during the last
fifteen years, and putting in circulation a new and honest currency. It
seems to have been owing to a miscalculation, not to sharp practice, that
the Government did in fact make a small profit out of this transaction.
[Sidenote: Marriage proposals: Philip II.]
Philip of Spain and his representatives in England had not realised the
true strength of Elizabeth's position, and certainly had no suspicion that
she and her advisers were entirely alive to it. On this point they had
absolutely no misgivings. They took it for granted that the English queen
must place herself in their hands and meekly obey their behests, if only in
order to secure Spanish support against France. Philip began operations by
proposing him self as her husband, expecting thereby to obtain for himself
a far greater degree of power than he had derived from his union with her
sister, while inviting her to share the throne of the first Power in
Europe. But Elizabeth and Cecil were alive to the completeness of the hold
on Philip they already possessed; and Elizabeth, the daughter of Anne
Boleyn, would have utterly stultified her own position by marrying her dead
sister's husband, since it would be necessary to obtain a papal
dispensation, acknowledge the Pope's authority, and recognise by
implication the validity of her father's marriage with Katharine of
Aragon. To the ambassador's amazed indignation, the Queen with the support
of the Council, decisively rejected the honour. Paget, who had in the last
reign stood almost alone in commending the Spanish match, would have
repeated his counsel now; but he had been displaced, while Cecil and his
mistress were entirely at one.
The Queen's argument that the marriage, however attractive to herself or
desirable politically, was, from her point of view out of the question, was
unanswerable. The Spaniards had to cast about for some other candidate for
her hand, whose success would still be likely to attach England to the
chariot-wheels of Spain; besides seeking another bride for their own King.
When Philip's hand was definitely declined, three months after Elizabeth's
accession, the most pressing danger arising out of the Marriage question
was at an end. Thenceforward, dalliance with would-be suitors became simply
one of the tactical tricks of Elizabeth's diplomacy, employed by her
perhaps not less to the torment of her own advisers than to the
perturbation of foreign chancelleries; seeing that whether she knew her own
mind or not, up to the last she invariably took very good care that no one
else should know it.
[Sidenote: The Religious Question]
One of Philip's main objects was as a matter of course to secure England,
through its queen, for Catholicism; and there is very little doubt that at
this time the majority of Englishmen--at any rate outside the dioceses of
London, Norwich and Canterbury--would have acquiesced much more readily in
the maintenance of the old forms of worship than in institutions modelled
after Geneva. Elizabeth however, with her trusted advisers, leaned neither
to the one nor to the other. They were guided by considerations not of
creed but of politics. They had realised that the repudiation of the
authority of the Holy See, and the assertion of the supremacy of the
sovereign in matters ecclesiastical, were essential. If they were
determined not to submit to Papal claims, they were equally disinclined to
submit to the claims of a Calvinistic Ministry, posing as the mouth-pieces
of the Almighty, demanding secular obedience on the analogy of Samuel or
Elijah. As to creed, what the statesmen saw was that the utmost latitude of
dogmatic belief must be recognised; provided that it was consistent with
the supremacy of the secular sovereign, and with a moderately elastic
uniformity of ritual. The personal predilections of Elizabeth might be in
favour of what we call the Higher doctrines, or those of Cecil might lean
to the Lower; but neither was willing to impose penalties or disabilities
for opinions or practices which did not tend either to the anarchism of the
Anabaptists, or to the Sacerdotalism of Rome on the one hand or Geneva on
the other hand; both were even disposed to remain in official
unconsciousness of such individual transgressors as could conveniently be
ignored.
[Sidenote: A Protestant policy]
While the Spanish ambassador, De Feria, like his master, had almost taken
it for granted that if Philip offered to marry Elizabeth he would be
accepted, he was from the first greatly perturbed as to the attitude of the
new Government towards the religious question. That Cecil was going to be
chief minister, and that he was, in the political sense, a Protestant, were
both manifest facts. All the extreme Catholics, and some of the moderate
ones, were displaced from the Council; those who were left might prefer the
Mass to the Communion, but only as King Henry had done. The new members
were definitely Protestants. Heath, Archbishop of York, Mary's Chancellor,
though personally esteemed, gave place to Nicholas Bacon (as "Lord
Keeper"), whose wife and Cecil's were sisters, and measures were being
taken to secure a Protestant House of Commons when Parliament should
meet. The number of lay peers was increased by four Protestants; among the
twenty-seven bishoprics, Archbishop Pole had omitted to fill up several
vacancies, while a sudden mortality was afflicting the episcopal
bench. Around the queen, Protestant influences were immensely
predominant. It is quite unnecessary to turn to an injudicious letter from
Pope Paul to find a motive for the anti-Roman attitude which from the very
outset was so obvious to De Feria. [Footnote: _MSS. Simancas, apud_
Froude, vii., p. 27. De Feria to Philip.] Whatever prevarications or
ambiguities Elizabeth might indulge in to him, it is quite clear that,
whether she liked it or not, she felt that her position required an
anti-Roman policy, if her independence was to be secured and the prestige
of England among the nations was to be restored.
[Sidenote: 1559 Parliament: The Act of Supremacy]
The methods of the new Government however were to be strictly legal;
changes must have parliamentary sanction. At the coronation, the authorised
forms obtained. But at the end of January, the Houses met; and during the
following four months the whole of the Marian legislation was wiped out, as
Mary had wiped out the legislation of the preceding reign. The first
measures brought forward were financial--as the first step Cecil had taken
was to dispatch an agent to the Netherland cities to negotiate a loan--a
Tonnage and Poundage bill, a Subsidy, and a First-fruits bill which marked
the revival of the claims of the Crown against ecclesiastical
revenues. These bills were skilfully introduced, and well-received; for it
was expected that the money would be expended where it was needed, on
national defence. Next, the new Act of Supremacy was introduced, against
which the small phalanx of bishops fought with determination, supported by
the protest of Convocation. It was not in fact carried till April; and then
the actual title of "Supreme Head," which Mary and Philip had surrendered,
was not revived, but a different formula was used, the Crown being declared
"Supreme in all causes as well ecclesiastical as civil". The Act once more
repealed the lately revived heresy Acts, and forbade proceedings on the
ground of false opinions, except where these were opposed to the decisions
of the first four General Councils or the plain words of
Scripture. Moreover, the refusal of the Oath was not to be treason, as
under Henry VIII.; it merely precluded the recusant from office. All save
one of the Marian bishops did refuse it and were deprived; most of them
doubtless would have done so even in the face of the old
penalties. Incidentally it authorised the appointment of a Commission to
deal with ecclesiastical offences, which took shape five and twenty years
later as the Court of High Commission. But taken altogether, the measure
was a long step in the direction of a much wider toleration than had ever
been practised before.
[Sidenote: The Prayer-book, etc.]
In the meantime, the Prayer-book had been undergoing a final revision; and
here Elizabeth's own wish would undoubtedly have been to revert to that of
1549. The disciples however of the Swiss school were too strong, and the
last Prayer-book of Edward was the basis of the new one, though some
sentences were so modified as to cause them dissatisfaction, and higher
practices in the matter of ornaments and ceremonial were enjoined. The Act
of Uniformity, imposing the use of the Prayer-book on the clergy, resulted
in resignations which according to the records did not exceed two
hundred. To account for so small a number, we must suppose that the
regulations were to a considerable extent evaded; if not, the clergy must
have been singularly obsequious.
The only remaining Act of importance was that for the Recognition of the
Queen, which declared her to be the lawful sovereign by blood, and repealed
in general terms all Acts or judgments [Footnote: _Cf._ Moore,
p. 241.] passed in a contrary sense, legitimating her without examining the
grounds on which her mother's marriage had been declared invalid--a method
of settling the question entirely sufficient on the theory of parliamentary
sovereignty, but wholly inadequate on the theory of Divine Right.
It was not till some months later that the depletion of the bench of
Bishops by deaths or deprivations was remedied. Matthew Parker, a man of
moderation and ability, was selected as Archbishop of Canterbury, the
consecration being performed by Barlow--who had resigned Bath and Wells
under Mary--with Coverdale, Scory, and Hodgekins. The question whether the
Apostolic Succession was duly conveyed at the hands of these prelates
belongs rather to ecclesiastical history--even to theological
controversy--than to general history. It is sufficient here to observe that
it turns mainly on the doubt which has been thrown without real
justification on Barlow's own ordination as a Bishop. [Footnote: See the
Lives of Parker by Strype and Hook; and a brief summary in Moore,
pp. 245-247.] After the Archbishop's consecration, the vacant sees were
filled up, generally with moderate men, with a leaning towards Zurich or
even Lutheranism rather than the old Catholicism or Calvinism, but always
in accord with the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity.
In point of time, however, the story of these last events has carried us a
year forward, and we have to return to the first six months of the new
reign and the relations of Elizabeth to France.
[Sidenote: France and Peace]
Before Mary's death, an armistice was in operation. England did not mean to
conclude peace with France, unless Calais was restored, and Philip could
not desert England lest an effort should be made to place Mary Stewart on
the throne--on which Henry could not venture while Spain supported
Elizabeth. Unsuccessful diplomatic attempts were made to negotiate
separately with the allied Powers, and to induce Elizabeth formally to
recognise the Queen of Scots as heir presumptive--which however she stoutly
declined to do, being aware that the obvious effect of such a course would
be to invite her own immediate assassination, to secure Mary's immediate
accession. Moreover, Philip was not without a direct interest in England's
recovery of Calais, because of its position on the border of the
Netherlands. In the event, however, the English felt that, since the
Spanish marriage was rejected, the claims on Philip must not be pressed too
hard; and in the final terms of the Peace of Cateau Cambresis, France was
allowed to retain Calais under promise to restore it after eight years,
while she was formally to recognise Elizabeth as lawful queen of England,
with the adhesion of Mary and her husband.
Now however, parties and persons in Scotland become so inextricably
interwoven with the English queen's policy and her relations with parties
and persons in France, that Scottish affairs demand close attention.
[Sidenote: State of Scotland]
In December, 1542, James V. of Scotland had died leaving a daughter just a
week old. When Elizabeth ascended the English throne, the Northern country
had for sixteen years been governed or misgoverned by regents and Councils
of regency. From early childhood, the little queen had been brought up at
the French court, under the more particular tutelage of her uncles, the
Duke of Guise and his brothers. In 1558, at the age of fifteen, she was
married to the Dauphin. Now (and for some time past) her mother, Mary of
Guise--not the least able member of a very able family--was Regent of
Scotland, supported in that position against the Protestant factions by a
French garrison. In the natural course of events, the Scottish Protestant
party looked to England for support, and favoured in the abstract the idea
of uniting the English and Scottish crowns, though in the concrete they
would not admit an English King. All Scottish sentiment, without
distinction of party, rebelled against any prospect of Scotland becoming an
appanage of any foreign Power, and the idea of subordination to France was
only less unpopular than that of subordination to England. Moreover, with
their young queen married to the Heir Apparent of France, and with a Guise
supported by French troops as Regent in Scotland, this latter danger seemed
the less pressing.
Now the extremes of religious partisanship were more general and more
deeply rooted in Scotland than in England; partly because the corruption of
the clergy had been more flagrant; partly because in a country where deeds
of violence were comparatively ordinary, they had been freely committed
under the cloak of religion. The French influence had been cast against the
Reformation. The Reformers had murdered Cardinal Beton; John Knox had been
taken from St. Andrews to the French galleys; and the Preachers were at war
with the Regency. The two men who were about to prove themselves along with
Knox the ablest statesmen in Scotland--James Stewart, afterwards famous as
the Regent Murray, and young Maitland of Lethington--were on the side of
the Preachers, and of what was the same thing, now that a Protestant
government was restored in England, the English alliance. Moreover it has
to be borne in mind that whereas in England the Reformation was imposed,
whether willingly or unwillingly, on the Nation by the Government; in
Scotland it was a popular movement which a Government, itself half French,
endeavoured to repress. Whatever the sincerity of the aristocratic leaders
might be, the Scottish Reformers felt themselves to be fighting for their
liberties against an alien domination.
[Sidenote: 1559 Religious parties in Scotland]
In the spring of 1559 the quarrel between the party of the Preachers and
the Regency assumed a very threatening aspect. After the peace of Cateau
Cambrésis, in March, the French King decided in favour of an
anti-Protestant policy. In spite of the promise to recognise the title of
the English queen, the Dauphin and his wife were allowed to assume the Arms
of England, and it seemed that Mary of Guise in Scotland was about to wage
a more active war than of late against the heretics; also that more French
troops would be sent to help her. On the other hand, Knox, who on his
retirement from England had withdrawn to Geneva, to await an opportunity
when his presence might be effective, now returned to Scotland in a very
unconciliatory spirit. For the party who desired union with England, it was
unfortunate that the great preacher while in exile had issued a tract
entitled _The Monstrous Regiment of Women_, aimed against the two
Maries, but inferentially (though not of set purpose) condemning Elizabeth;
who entirely refused to forgive him, while he on the other hand refused to
eat his words. The fact undoubtedly increased the difficulty of harmonious
accord between the English Government and the Scottish "Lords of the
Congregation," as the Protestant leaders entitled themselves collectively.
[Sidenote: Arran as a suitor to Elizabeth]
The situation however produced a new candidate for the hand of Elizabeth in
the person of the Earl of Arran, son of the quondam Earl of Arran now Duke
of Chatelherault. The Duke was head of the house of Hamilton, and was in
fact at this time heir presumptive [Footnote: As descending from the
daughter of James II., sister of James III, Albany was now dead.] to the
throne of Scotland. If then a legitimate ground could be devised for
dethroning Mary--as for instance, if she employed foreign (_i.e._
French) troops against her subjects lawfully maintaining their
constitutional rights--the succession would fall to the Hamiltons; and if
Arran and Elizabeth were married, the crowns of the two kingdoms would be
united. Thus this marriage became a primary object with the Lords of the
Congregation; and the Earl was included in the list of those with whose
aspirations Elizabeth coquetted.
In July, the French King was killed in a tournament. Francis and Mary
became king and queen of France and Scotland, and Mary's uncles the Guises
immediately became decisively predominant with the French Government.
[Sidenote: The Archduke Charles]
The Spanish ambassador was in the greatest anxiety. The one thing his
master could not afford was to see the queen of France and Scotland
established as queen of England also. But it was only less necessary to
avoid war with France on that issue. If the Arran marriage were in serious
contemplation, Mary would have very strong justification for asserting her
claim to England as a counter-move. What Philip wanted was that Elizabeth
should marry his cousin the Archduke Charles, a younger son of his uncle
the Emperor Ferdinand who had succeeded Charles V. Then Philip would
practically have control of England; France would not venture to grasp at
the crown; and Elizabeth would of course have to leave the Scots to
themselves. Elizabeth saw her advantage. She prevaricated with the Scots
about the Arran marriage, and with Philip about the Austrian marriage. She
did her best to make the Lords of the Congregation fight their own battles,
a task which they were equally bent on transferring to England. And
meantime, Cecil never wavered in his determination of at least maintaining
the Scottish Protestants against active French intervention: while the
whole body of Elizabeth's more Conservative Counsellors favoured the
Austrian marriage and non-intervention in Scotland.
[Sidenote: Wynter sails for the Forth; 1560]
Elizabeth's own procedure was entirely characteristic. She had, it would
seem, no sort of intention of marrying either Charles or Arran; but she
worked her hardest to persuade their respective partisans of the
contrary. Her officers were in secret communication with the Scots, and
were supplying them with money, while she was openly vowing that she was
rendering them no assistance whatever. Neither Scots nor Spaniards trusted
her, but neither altogether disbelieved. Finally--having devoted the
parliamentary grants and all available funds to the equipment of her
fleet--when it was evident that a French expedition was on the point of
sailing for the Forth, she allowed Admiral Wynter to put to sea; with
orders to act if opportunity offered, but to declare when he did so that he
had transgressed his instructions on his own responsibility. In January,
1560, Wynter appeared in the Forth, seduced the French into firing on him
from the fort of Inch Keith, and blew the fort to pieces--in self-defence.
Meantime, D'Elboeuf, brother of Guise, had sailed with a powerful flotilla,
which was however almost annihilated by a storm. For a time then at least
there was no danger of another French expedition to Scotland. Wynter's
fleet commanded the Firth of Forth, and the French soon found that, except
for an occasional raid, they would have to confine their efforts to making
their position at Leith impregnable.
[Sidenote: Difficulties of France]
Wynter's protestations that he was not acting under orders can hardly have
deceived any one, though the Queen, Cecil, and Norfolk [Footnote: Grandson
of the old duke, and son of the Earl of Surrey executed by Henry VIII.]--
who had accepted the command on the Border, after refusing it--confirmed
his story. The Spaniards were intensely annoyed. Philip proposed that he
should himself send an army to Scotland, to put affairs straight; but this
was equally little to the taste of the French and the English. Moreover,
Philip had not yet grasped the fact that the one way to make Elizabeth
definitely defiant was, to threaten her. Hitherto she had repudiated
Wynter's action, and refused to allow Norfolk to march in support of the
Congregation, though she had secretly given them encouragement and hard
cash; now she came to a definite agreement with them, and by the end of
March Norfolk was over the Border. The Queen had doubtless drawn
encouragement from the latest turn of affairs in France. D'Elboeufs
disaster had greatly diminished the present danger of attack from that
quarter; while now the conspiracy of Amboise revealed such a dangerous
development of party antagonisms in France as to make it unlikely that she
would be able to spare her energies for broils beyond her own borders. The
aim of the plot was to overthrow the Guises, and place the young king and
queen under the control of the Protestant Bourbon princes, Condé and
Anthony King of Navarre. [Footnote: See _Appendix A_, vi.] The
conspiracy itself collapsed, but it served as a very effective
danger-signal.
[Sidenote: Elizabeth's vacillations]
Elizabeth had no sooner allowed the advance into Scotland than she was
again seized with her usual desire to avoid becoming involved in active
hostilities; and she continued the exasperating practice--for her servants
--of sending them contradictory and hampering instructions. The very men
who, like Norfolk, had been flatly opposed to the policy of interference
were now convinced that, being once committed to it, there must be no
turning back. Vacillation would presently drive the Congregation to such a
pitch of distrust that they would break with England in despair; whereas
the primary object of interference had been to make sure of a powerful
party which would be inevitably committed to forwarding Elizabeth's
interests. However, Philip again stiffened her by dictatorial messages,
which failed to frighten because the essential fact remained true that he
dared not facilitate the substitution of Mary for Elizabeth on the English
throne. The Queen refused to recall her troops, and explained elaborately
that she was not taking part with rebels against their sovereign, but with
loyal subjects who were resisting the abuse by the Guises of authority
filched from Mary, who in her turn would approve as soon as she came to
Scotland and saw the true state of affairs.
[Side note: The English at Leith]
And so the English army sat down before Leith and set about starving it and
bombarding it; till the process appeared to be too slow, and Lord Grey de
Wilton, who was in command of the operations, was forced by urgent messages
against his own judgment to attempt an assault which was repulsed with very
severe loss. Elizabeth was shaken, but her Council remained resolute. Then,
if she had really been afraid that Philip might actually mean what he
threatened, her fears were dispelled by a disaster to his fleet in a battle
with the Turks. She became aggressively inclined once more. The position of
Leith, despite the valour of its garrison, was becoming hopeless; and in
June the central figure of the French and Catholic party was removed by the
death of the Regent Mary of Guise--an able woman, who had played her part
with unfailing courage, no little skill, and quite as much moderation as
could reasonably be expected, under extraordinarily difficult conditions.
[Sidenote: the Treaty of Edinburgh July 6th]
Cecil had already been sent north to negotiate. The terms required were the
entire withdrawal of French troops from Scotland, the recognition of
Elizabeth's right to the throne of England, the recognition of her compact
with the Congregation as legitimate, and the confirmation of their demands
for toleration. It was not till after the Regent's death that the
arrangement known as the Treaty of Edinburgh was signed; by this instrument
the French gave the promise that the demands of the Congregation should be
conceded, but without formally admitting that Elizabeth was ever entitled
to make a compact with Mary's subjects. The other two points were allowed,
and the French departed for ever. Fortunately a dispatch from Elizabeth
requiring more stringent terms (which would have been refused) arrived a
day too late, after the treaty was signed. It was comparatively of little
consequence that Mary declined to ratify the treaty. When the French had
gone, the Congregation were masters of the situation; and before the year
was out, the French and Scottish crowns were separated by the death of
Francis. The Guise domination in France was checked, and while Mary's
accession to the English throne remained desirable to the Catholic party in
that country, the hope of combining the three crowns under the hegemony of
France came to an end.
[Sidenote: Elizabeth's methods]
The whole episode deserves to be dwelt on at length, because it very
forcibly illustrates the strength and the weakness of Elizabeth's methods
and the character of her entourage. She saw the sound policy; she
maintained her confidence in the men who also saw it. Yet she perpetually
wavered and hesitated till the eleventh hour to authorise the steps
necessary to carrying it out. At the eleventh hour, she did authorise them;
and that, repeatedly, because at the last moment an injudicious threat
stirred her to defiance. For herself, she could have secured inglorious
ease by simply accepting Philip's patronage, but she elected to play the
daring game, and won. Her methods were tortuous. She lied unblushingly,
but she was an adept at avoiding acts which palpably would prove beyond a
doubt that she was lying. The Spanish ambassador lived under a perpetual
conviction that she was rushing on her own ruin--that she would drive his
master to choose between the deplorable alternatives of fighting on her
behalf or allowing the Queen of France and Scotland to become Queen of
England also--that the Catholics would rise to dethrone her. But her
calculations were sound, and Norfolk himself commanded her armies and
served her loyally in a policy which, in his opinion, ought never to have
been initiated. She never allowed herself to be bullied or cajoled; but she
perpetually kept alive the impression that a little more bullying or a
little more cajolery might turn the scale. And she drove the French out of
Scotland.
[Sidenote: The Dudley Imbroglio]
All the intriguing at this time about suitors for the hand of Elizabeth is
mixed up with the scandals associated with the name of Lord Robert Dudley
(afterwards made Earl of Leicester), a son of the traitor Duke of
Northumberland. Lord Robert, although a married man, was allowed an
intimacy with the Queen which not only points conclusively to an utter
absence of delicacy in the daughter of Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn, but
filled the entire Court circle with the gravest apprehensions. It was the
current belief that if Dudley could get free of his wife, Elizabeth would
marry him, and that this desire was at the back of her vacillation. The
affair was brought to an acute stage by the sudden death of Amy Robsart,
Dudley's wife, in September; when already for some time past, his
innumerable enemies had been hinting that he meant to make away with
her. The facts are obscure; but the impression given by the evidence is
that she was murdered, though not with the direct connivance of her
husband. Still, the suspicion of his guilt was so strong that if the Queen
had married him she would have strained the loyalty of her most loyal
subjects probably to breaking point. Yet so keen was her delight in playing
with fire that it was many months before English statesmen began to feel
that the danger was past; while overtures were certainly made on Dudley's
behalf to the Spanish Ambassador, De Quadra, to obtain Philip's sanction
and support, in return for a promise that the Old Religion should be
restored. Sussex alone expressed a conviction that Elizabeth would find her
own salvation in marrying for Love. Every one else was convinced that,
whatever might be her infatuation for Dudley, marriage with him would spell
total ruin for her: and there was a general belief that Norfolk and others
would interfere in arms if necessary; while the secret marriage of Lady
Katharine Grey (who stood next in succession under Henry's will) to Lord
Hertford, son of the Protector Somerset, was suspected of being a move to
which even Cecil was privy, for placing her on the throne should the worst
befall. At last, when the limit of endurance was almost reached, Elizabeth
finally declared that she was not going to marry the favourite. Judging her
conduct by her whole career, it would seem that she never really
contemplated the commission of so fatal a blunder, but could not resist the
temptation of tormenting her best friends, and torturing politicians of
every kind with uncertainty--perhaps even of half believing herself that
she actually would set all adverse opinion at defiance if she chose.
[Sidenote: The Huguenots]
From one suitor at any rate Elizabeth felt herself freed by the death of
the young French King in December. The main interest of France in the
Scottish Crown was thereby ended; more than that, the Huguenot Bourbons,
who stood in France next in succession to the sons of Katharine de Medici,
recovered for the time much of their power. The political arguments in
favour of the Arran marriage lost enough of their force to enable the
English Queen to brave the wrath of the Congregation and finally decline
the Hamilton alliance. It is of interest to find Paget, once again called
in to her Counsels, declaring in favour of a Huguenot alliance, in despite
of Spain.
[Sidenote: The Pope]
The position of the Huguenots in France, and the proposed resuscitation of
the Council of Trent under the auspices of Pope Pius IV., who had succeeded
Paul in 1559, had revived ideas of Protestant representation therein; and
Elizabeth, after her fashion, played with the hopes of the Catholic party,
at home and abroad, that she might be drawn into participation. It was only
when it had become perfectly clear that the admission of the Papal
Supremacy was a condition precedent, that these hopes were dashed, and the
proposal that a papal Nuncio should be received in England, with which the
Queen had been coquetting, was definitely declined; while Philip was
obliged to intimate to the Pope that he must not launch against the
recalcitrant England ecclesiastical thunderbolts which would involve him in
war, whether against or on behalf of Elizabeth.
[Sidenote: 1561 Mary sails for Scotland]
In the meantime however, both the Catholic party in Scotland and the
Congregation were hoping to bring Mary back from France, and to control her
policy when she should arrive. For the Protestants felt now that without
foreign interference they could hold their own. Elizabeth had rejected
their scheme for bringing the union of the crowns in reach by the Arran
marriage: they were now bent on the alternative course of inducing
Elizabeth to acknowledge their own Queen as her heir presumptive. Mary
herself was more than ready for the adventure. Elizabeth refused her a
passage through England which might easily have been utilised, especially
in the North, for the organisation of a Stewart party within the realm;
while on the other hand it would obviously be an easy thing for an
"accident" to happen while the Scots Queen was running the gauntlet of her
ships on the seas. But Mary was nothing if not daring. In August,
accompanied by her Guise uncle, D'Elboeuf, she set sail from the "pleasant
land of France," and four days later, without disaster, the Queen of Scots
landed at Leith.