Dudley and the Council of Trent--The Bishop of Aquila tricked
--Eric makes another attempt--Dudley again approaches the
Bishop--The suitors for Mary of Scotland--Darnley--The
Archduke Charles--Dudley--Melvil’s mission to Elizabeth--
Hans Casimir--French approaches.
When it was clear that the Archduke Charles was shelved and that Cecil
and the Protestants were urging the suit of the Prince of Sweden, who
evidently meant business, it behoved Dudley to make a countermove.
Bishop Quadra had over and over again said he had found him out, and
would not be deceived by him again; but in January, 1561, only four
months after Lady Robert Dudley’s death, Sir Henry Sidney came to see
the Bishop. Sir Henry was Lord Robert’s brother-in-law, and had always
belonged to the Spanish or Catholic party, and consequently was a
_persona grata_ with Quadra, especially as he was a near relative of
the Duchess of Feria (Jane Dormer) whose husband was the Bishop’s great
patron. He came (of course from Dudley), and after much beating about
the bush said that as the Queen’s attachment to Lord Robert, and her
desire to marry him were now public, he, Sidney, was much surprised
that some approach was not made to Dudley on behalf of the King of
Spain; as in the event of a helping hand being extended to him now,
“he would hereafter serve and obey your Majesty like one of your own
vassals.” The Bishop intimated that there was no particular reason
why his master should put himself out of the way about it, as he had
nothing to gain in the matter, although if the Queen expressed a desire
for his good offices he would be always ready to extend courtesy to
her. But really such strange tales were afloat, said the Bishop, that
he had not dared to write to the King about them. Sidney took the bull
by the horns and said that if the Bishop were satisfied about Lady
Robert’s death he saw no other reason for hesitation, “as after all,
though it was a love affair, the object of it was marriage, and there
was nothing illicit about it.” He had, he said, inquired carefully
into Lady Robert’s death, and was satisfied that it was an accident,
although he knew that public opinion held to the contrary. The Bishop
was very dubious upon the point, and said drily that it would be
difficult for Lord Robert to make things appear as he represented
them. Sidney admitted that no one believed it was an accident, and
that even preachers in the pulpits impugned the honour of the Queen in
the matter. This led him to the real object of his visit, which was to
propose that in return for the King of Spain’s help towards Dudley’s
marriage he would undertake to “restore religion.” The Bishop still
held off, reminding him of how he had been tricked by Robert and the
Queen before through Sidney’s wife, and refused to move unless the
Queen herself spoke about it and told him what to write to his master.
This, said Sidney, was impossible, unless he broached the subject
first, but promised that Dudley himself should come and state his own
case. The Bishop deprecated the making of any bargain about religion.
If Robert wished to relieve his conscience he would be glad to hear
him, but he could enter into no agreement to reward him for doing what
was the duty of every good Christian: all of which meant that the
Bishop was determined not to be caught again and made to act by vague
professions. In his letter to the King, however, he emphatically urges
him to take advantage of the Queen’s passion for Dudley to bring her
to her knees, “as she will not dare to publish the match if she do not
obtain your Majesty’s consent,” popular feeling being dead against it.
“There is not a person,” he says, “without some scandalous tale to
tell about the matter, and one of the Queen’s gentlemen of the chamber
is in prison for blabbing.” It was even asserted that the Queen had
had children by Dudley, but this the Bishop said he did not believe.
Shortly after this interview Sidney brought his brother-in-law and the
Bishop together, and Dudley, wisely avoiding any direct reference to
the religious bargain, merely asked the ambassador to recommend the
Queen to marry him. The Bishop said he could not do that, but would
make an opportunity for praising him to the Queen whilst speaking
of the advisability of her marriage. This was even more than Dudley
expected, and he urged that no time should be lost. Two days afterwards
the Queen received the Bishop, who more than fulfilled his promise
to praise Dudley; although he was careful to say that the King knew
nothing of the matter, but he succeeded in persuading the Queen that
his help would be readily forthcoming if it were requested.
“After much circumlocution she said she wished to confess to me....
She was no angel, and did not deny that she had some affection for
Lord Robert ... but she certainly had not decided to marry him or any
one else, although she daily saw more clearly the necessity of her
marriage, and to satisfy the English humour it was desirable that she
should marry an Englishman.... What would your Majesty think, she
asked, if she married one of her servants?” The Bishop replied that
he did not know, but would write and ask the King, if she desired
him to do so, although he believed his master would be glad to hear
of her marriage in any case, and would no doubt be happy to learn of
the advancement and elevation of Lord Robert, for whom he felt much
affection. The Queen had perforce to be content with this, which she at
once repeated to Dudley, who came to the Bishop to thank him. Dudley
was so elated at the almost unexpected help he was getting that, in
the fulness of his heart he repeated Sidney’s pledge that in return
the whole control of the Government should be handed over to the King
of Spain, and the Catholic religion restored. The Bishop stopped him
at once. He had done, he said, and would do, all he could to forward
his marriage, but he would make no bargain about religion. That was
an affair of their own conscience. “I am thus cautious with these
people, because if they are playing false, which is quite possible, I
do not wish to give them the opportunity of saying that we offered them
your Majesty’s favour in return for their changing their religion,
as they say similar things to make your Majesty disliked by the
heretics here and in Germany. If they are acting straightforwardly,
a word from your Majesty in due time will do more than I can do with
many.”[28] At the same time the Bishop made no secret to the King
of his opinion that unless the “heretics” were to finally prevail
Dudley’s marriage must be forwarded or a revolution and the removal
of the Queen carried out. Philip was even more cautious than his
ambassador. He was anxious to help Dudley on the lines suggested, but
there must be something in writing from the Queen and her lover, and
some prior earnest must be given of their chastened hearts in the
matter of religion, either by the despatch of plenipotentaries to the
Council of Trent or otherwise. Dudley was all eagerness to get the
matter settled, and for the next few weeks kept urging the Queen to
request the King of Spain’s good offices towards the marriage. But
the recognition of the Pope’s Council of Trent was a serious matter
and could not be done without the co-operation of Cecil. He had been
bought over temporarily to Dudley’s side in appearance by the gift of
some vacant sinecure offices, but he saw--as did the Queen in her
calmer moments--that the participation of Elizabeth in the Catholic
Council would ruin England by destroying the balance upon which its
safety depended. So whilst ostensibly countenancing it he artfully
frustrated Dudley’s plan. Francis II., Mary Stuart’s husband, was now
dead, and France was ruled by the Queen-mother Catharine de Medici,
whose tenure of power largely depended upon Huguenot support. So to
her was sent the Puritan Earl of Bedford to suggest joint action with
England in relation to the Council and religious affairs generally as
a countercheck to Dudley, and Cecil himself began to intervene in the
negotiations with the Bishop. He urged the latter to get his master
to write a letter to the Queen recommending the marriage, in terms
that he knew were impossible, and when the Bishop asked him point
blank whether this was the Queen’s message or his own, he begged that
a modest maiden like her Majesty might not be driven into a corner
and made to appear anxious for her own marriage. He further said the
intention was to summon Parliament, and lay the King’s letter before
it as an inducement for them to adopt the marriage with Dudley--a
course which he knew well would have an entirely opposite effect. The
Bishop soon saw the drift. “The sum of it all is that Cecil and these
heretics wish to keep the Queen bound and subject to their heresies,
and although she sees that they treat her badly, and especially the
preachers, she dares not go against Cecil’s advice, as she fears both
sides would then rise up against her. Robert is very much displeased at
all this, and has used great efforts to cause the Queen to make a stand
and free herself from the tyranny of these people and throw herself
entirely on your Majesty’s favour. I do not think, however, that he has
been able to prevail, as he is faint-hearted and his favour is founded
on vanity.” Sidney, Pembroke, and others, urged Dudley to action, but,
infatuated as the Queen was with him, she knew what a weak reed he was
in Council, and always checked herself in her passion to take the wise
advice of Cecil. For some weeks, however, the Bishop was deceived.
A great show of cordiality was made towards him; the Catholic nobles
and bishops, persuaded that Dudley’s suit was being pushed by Spain,
began to gather round the favourite, and ostensible preparations were
made for receiving the Pope’s Nuncio in England with the invitation
to the Council of Trent. The Bishop wrote to the King that, at last
Dudley “appeared to have made up his mind to be a worthy man and gain
respect.” Dudley was now more emphatic than before of his intention
to restore the Catholic religion in England, and the Protestant party
took fright. Greatly to Quadra’s indignation public opinion was excited
against himself as the promoter of a plot to restore Catholicism; the
Nuncio was informed that he would not be allowed to land in England,
the Queen refused to send envoys to the Council of Trent, Sidney was
hurried off to his Government in Wales, and, by the end of April,
Cecil’s underhand diplomacy had triumphed and Dudley’s plan to force
the Queen into a marriage by the aid of the Catholics was frustrated.
It is undoubted that the Queen was perilously near taking the step on
this occasion, and, but for Cecil, might have been betrayed into doing
so; although Dudley’s vain and giddy boasting, when he thought he had
triumphed on this and other occasions aided the disillusionment. Her
own imperiousness could not brook his assumption of superior airs in
her presence, and she quickly resented it. She would let them know,
she said, that in England there was only one mistress and no master.
Shortly before she had told Morette, who came at the instance of the
Duke of Savoy, to propose the Duke de Nemours for a husband, that
in England there was a woman who acted as a man, and did not need a
Granvelle or a Montmorenci to guide her. Elizabeth was now in the very
prime of her beauty and powers. Her complexion was of that peculiar
transparence which is only seen in golden blondes, her figure was
fine and graceful, and her wit and accomplishments were such as would
have made a woman of any rank or time remarkable. She was a splendid
horsewoman too, with a keen eye for popular effect in her actions, and
for ever on the look-out, as her ill-fated mother had been, for the
cheers of the populace. One of the German agents sent by the Emperor
about the Archduke Charles’s match, gave a glowing account of her.[29]
“She lives, he says, a life of such magnificence and feasting as can
hardly be imagined, and occupies a great portion of her time with
balls, banquets, hunting, and similar amusements, with the utmost
possible display, but nevertheless she insists upon far greater respect
being shown her than was exacted by Queen Mary. She summons Parliament,
but lets them know that her orders must be obeyed in any case.” Her
vanity was perfectly insatiable, and only those who would consent
to pander to it could hope for a continuance of her favour, always
excepting Cecil, but yet the great mind, the far-seeing caution, the
strong will, the keen self-interest, kept even the vanity and frivolity
in check when they otherwise would have led her into danger. As Dudley
was necessary to her weak side, so was Cecil needful to her strong one:
the one to amuse and gratify her, the other to counsel and sustain her
and to protect her against herself.
[Illustration: Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester.]
The Bishop attributed the approaches made to him by Dudley to a
deep-laid scheme to propitiate Spain until the widowed Mary Stuart
should be married, but he seems to leave out of account Dudley’s real
desire for his marriage with the Queen on any terms, and his wrath at
the fiasco. The Bishop thought the hand of Cecil had been forced by the
coming of the Pope’s Nuncio, and that otherwise the farce would have
been kept up for some time longer. In any case the Catholic hopes in
England and Ireland, which had revived at the news of the negotiation
with Spain, were speedily crushed by fresh persecutions, and the
Protestants in England, France, and Germany were for the first time
drawn together in a common understanding. That the Bishop was deeply
chagrined at the way he had been treated is clear by his behaviour
towards the Queen and Dudley during the entertainment given by Dudley
on St. John’s Day, 1561. It was only a month after the Nuncio had
been turned back, and the Catholic prosecutions were being carried
on vigorously. The Queen, Dudley, and the Bishop were alone in the
gallery of the State-barge off Greenwich witnessing the fireworks and
other entertainments, “when she and Robert began joking, which she
likes to do much better than talking about business. They went so far
in their jokes that Lord Robert told her that if she wished I could be
the clergyman to marry them, and she, nothing loath to hear it, said
she was not sure whether I knew enough English. I let them jest for a
time, but at last spoke to them in earnest, and told them that if they
listened to me they could extricate themselves from the tyranny of the
councillors who had taken possession of the Queen and her affairs, and
could restore peace and unity to the country by reinstating religion.
If they did this they could effect the marriage they spoke of, and I
should be glad to perform it, and they might severely punish those who
did not like it, as they could do anything with your Majesty (Philip)
on their side. As things were now I did not think the Queen would be
able to marry except when and whom Cecil and his friends might please.
I enlarged on this point somewhat, because I see that unless Robert and
the Queen are estranged from this gang of heretics they will continue
as heretofore, but if God ordain that they should fall out with them I
should consider it an easy thing to do everything else we desire.” No
action more likely to attain the end in view than that adopted by the
Bishop can be conceived, and had it depended upon Dudley alone, not
many days would have passed before England was handed over to Spain
and the Catholics for the satisfaction of the worthless favourite’s
ambition. Happily the Queen and Cecil had to be taken into account as
well, and England was saved. In August news came to England that the
new king, Eric XIV., encouraged by certain Puritan messages sent to
him when Dudley’s marriage was pending, was on his way to England. His
servants and household stuff arrived in Dover, with smart new liveries
and a showy stud of horses, and it was announced that the King would
follow at once to ask for Elizabeth’s hand. This was inconvenient,
for Mary of Scotland was still a widow, and the wedding of Elizabeth
to Eric would have been at once followed by the marriage of Mary to a
nominee of Philip, to the almost certain destruction of the Protestant
party. Elizabeth assured the Swedes that she had no intention of
marrying, refusing a passport for the King on the ground that it was
not becoming for a modest maiden to be always giving passports to a
young unmarried prince--besides, she had given him two already--
one of which he did not use and the other was lost. In face of this
coolness Eric affected to put to sea, but a providential tempest caused
him to return, and the affair was again shelved, the Queen in the
meanwhile dallying with Lord Robert, which she could do without much
danger to the State now that Cecil had upset his Catholic plan. But
Dudley’s personal enemies were always on the alert. Arundel considered
he had been insulted by him, and in revenge had a minute inquiry made
as to the circumstances of Lady Robert’s death, which disclosed very
suspicious facts. This humbled Dudley somewhat and made him more
cautious, but as he found the Catholics incensed against him, he tried
to balance matters by approaching their opponents. He sent an envoy
to Henry of Navarre with similar proposals to the Huguenots to those
he had previously made to the Spaniards and Catholics. If they would
uphold him in his pretensions to the Queen’s hand he would practically
hand over England to their control. They politely agreed, but knew
full well that the control of England was in stronger hands than his,
and did nothing to help him. It was little indeed they could have
done just then, for their own great struggle was yet before them, and
Dudley soon found that he had made a mistake. His sending Mowbray to
negotiate with Navarre had offended the regular English ambassador,
Throgmorton, and the noise of the intrigue had reached England, more
than ever irritating the Catholics against Dudley. The latter had no
scruples and no shame, and turned completely round again. In January,
1562, he once more went servilely to Bishop Quadra, professing his
attachment to Spanish interests and begging that Philip should write to
the Queen urging her to marry him. He was in a great hurry, and wanted
the letter before Easter; but the Bishop was not to be rushed into
another compromising position, and said that he had so often assured
the Queen of Philip’s affection for Dudley that a fresh letter from
the King was unnecessary, but he would again speak to her Majesty in
his favour. This did not satisfy Lord Robert, but it was all he could
get, and a few days afterwards the Bishop asked Elizabeth what was the
meaning of Dudley’s request, as Philip’s approval of the match had
already been expressed. “She replied that she was as free from any
engagement to marry as on the day she was born, no matter what the
world might think or say, but she had quite made up her mind to marry
nobody whom she had not seen or known, and consequently she might
be obliged to marry in England, in which case she thought she could
find no person more fitting than Lord Robert. She did not wish people
to say that she had married of her own desire, but that her friends
and neighbouring princes should persuade her to do so.” “This,” said
she, “is what Robert wants; as for me, I ask for nothing.” Seeing
that the Bishop still held off and refused to budge, she said it
was of no consequence at all. It was only for appearance’ sake. She
could as well marry without Philip’s approval as with it, but if she
did, Robert would have but small reason to serve the interests of
Spain. “I answered her in a joking way,” said the Bishop, “and told
her not to dilly-dally any longer, but to satisfy Lord Robert at once
... and so I passed over the question of the letter.” He, no doubt
correctly, surmised that the letter was wanted merely for the purpose
of mollifying the Catholics towards Dudley, and plainly told Philip
that if he were not prepared to force Catholicism upon England by an
invasion, there was no reason why the letter should not be sent, as
it would at all events please somebody, whilst his present attitude
of reserve pleased no one, and the English Catholics would never move
without active help. The letter, however, was never written, and three
months afterwards the Bishop himself had altered his opinion about
it. In April, 1562, he writes to Granvelle that the time had now gone
by for Philip to help Robert, as the Catholics were against him, and
instead of their being propitiated they would be alienated thereby.
“The Queen,” he says, “desires not to act in accord with his Majesty,
as will have been seen by her behaviour in this case and all others.
I have already pointed out that the letter they requested was only to
smooth over all difficulties here and carry out their own intentions.”
Quadra was now completely undeceived, and declined to be snared again
with matrimonial negotiations. Indeed, for the present, the point upon
which European policy pivoted was not the marriage of Elizabeth, which
had now grown stale, but that of the widowed Mary Stuart in Scotland.
The persevering Eric XIV., after yet one more repulse from the Queen
Elizabeth, had sent to propose to Mary--which, however, did not
prevent his ambassador in London from politely suggesting a match with
one of the daughters of the Emperor--Darnley, the Earl of Arran,
Don Carlos, and even the Archduke Charles, were already being dangled
before Mary’s eyes. Her uncles, the Guises, were in an atmosphere of
intrigue on the subject, and there was hardly a Court in Europe that
had not its own candidate for the Scottish Queen’s hand. Elizabeth’s
great efforts, seconded by those of James Stuart (afterwards the Regent
Murray), were directed towards preventing Mary from marrying a powerful
foreign prince, particularly a Catholic, and as a means to this end
the Huguenots in France were encouraged to break down the power of
the Guises. Catharine de Medici, the regent, was glad of the chance,
for she hated them; and now that their niece was no longer Queen of
France there was no excuse for their predominance. The best way for the
English to please the Huguenots was to flout Spain and the Catholics,
and the Bishop soon found that frowns instead of smiles greeted him.
Elizabeth had been informed that an intrigue was afoot to marry Mary to
Don Carlos, the vicious young lunatic who was Philip’s only son. This
would have meant the ruin of Protestant England and the strengthening
of the Guises in France, to the detriment of Catharine de Medici.
The plan of the latter, supported by James Stuart, was to hasten on
a marriage between Mary and Darnley. Elizabeth did not relish the
idea of the union of the two next legal heirs to her own crown, but
pretended to approve of it,[30] and Dudley promised Lethington to
support it strongly, in the hope that such a precedent might bring his
own marriage nearer. The Spanish ambassador was openly slighted, his
couriers stopped, his letters read, his secretary suborned, and he
himself placed under semi-arrest, charged with plotting against the
Queen. Among other things he was accused of writing to Philip, in a
letter that had been intercepted, that the Queen had been privately
married to Lord Robert in the Earl of Pembroke’s house. To this he
answered that he had merely written what all London was saying, namely,
that the wedding had taken place. “When he had said as much to the
Queen herself she was not annoyed thereat, for she had replied that
it was not only people outside who thought so, as on her return that
afternoon from the Earl’s house her own ladies-in-waiting, when she
entered the chamber with Lord Robert, had asked her whether they were
to kiss his hand as well as her own, to which she had replied no, and
that they were not to believe what people said.” The Bishop inserted a
sting at the end of his justification by saying that, considering the
way people were talking, he did not think he would injure the Queen
by saying she was married. Elizabeth’s next step was to send powerful
aid to the Huguenots in France, who were already in arms, to draw
closer the connection with the Protestants in Germany and Holland, and
for the first time openly to disregard Spain and the Catholic party
in Europe. With a divided France and a discontented Netherlands this
was possible as it never had been before. In the midst of the warlike
preparations in England to occupy Havre for the Huguenots, Elizabeth
fell ill of small-pox at Hampton Court, and was thought to be on her
death-bed. The consternation in the palace was great, as the crisis was
unexpected; but whilst the acrimonious discussions as to the succession
were still in progress the Queen rallied, and was pronounced out of
danger. The first thing she did on recovering speech and consciousness
was to beg the Council to make Dudley protector, with a peerage and an
income of £20,000. Everything she asked was promised, though, as Quadra
says, without any intention of fulfilling it. But Dudley and the Duke
of Norfolk were admitted members of the Council, which was a great
point gained for the former. When the Queen feared she might die she
protested solemnly before God that, although she loved Robert dearly,
nothing improper had ever passed between them.[31]
Parliament assembled early in 1563, and deputations from both Houses
addressed the Queen on the subject of fixing the succession. She was
extremely angry, and said that what they saw on her face were pock
marks and not wrinkles, and she was not so old yet as to have lost
hope of children. Subsequent attempts to approach her on the subject,
or that of the marriage, met with a similar or more violent repulse.
In March, during the sitting of Parliament, Maitland of Lethington,
Mary of Scotland’s famous Secretary of State, arrived in London for
the purpose of forwarding his mistress’s claim to the succession. He
soon saw that the Queen would have her way, and that no successor would
be appointed, the evident intention of both Elizabeth and Catharine
de Medici being, as Mary herself said, to force an unworthy or a
Protestant marriage upon her, in order to injure her prestige with the
English Catholics. Cardinal Lorraine and others were anxious that Mary
should wed the Archduke Charles, but Mary said she must have a prince
strong enough to enforce her claim to the English throne, which Charles
was not, and refused him, her own Catholic noblemen being also strongly
against him for similar reasons. The opponents of the Guises in France,
and the Protestants in England, were of course against the marriage
of Mary with a member of the house of Austria, so that, although his
name was kept to the front for some time, Charles was never a probable
husband for the Queen of Scots. In a long conversation Elizabeth had
with Maitland she told him that if his mistress would take her advice,
and wished to marry with safety and happiness, she would give her a
husband who would ensure both: and this was Lord Robert, in whom nature
had implanted so many graces that if she (Elizabeth) wished to marry
she would prefer him to all the princes in the world. Maitland said
this was indeed a proof of the love she bore to his mistress, to give
up to her what she cherished so much herself, but he hardly thought his
mistress, even if she loved Lord Robert as dearly as Elizabeth did,
would consent to deprive her of all the joy and solace she received
from his company. Elizabeth, after some more talk of this sort, said
she wished to God that his brother, the Earl of Warwick, had the grace
and good looks of Robert, in which case each Queen could have one of
the brothers. Maitland was much embarrassed by this unexpected sally,
and adroitly turned the subject to one that he knew would silence the
Queen. He said that as his mistress was much the younger, it would be
well that Elizabeth should marry Robert first and have children, and
then when she died she might leave both her kingdom and her husband to
Mary.
The Scots nobles at this time saw that, with Elizabeth and Catharine
united against their Queen, things were likely to go badly with her;
and even Protestants such as Maitland and Murray were desirous of
counteracting the opposing combination by enlisting the help of Spain.
Maitland, therefore, after much circumlocution and mystery, proposed
to Quadra that Mary should be offered to Don Carlos. The Bishop was
delighted with the idea, and sent the offer to Philip, who also
approved of it. If such a marriage had been possible, and had been
carried out swiftly and suddenly, it might have been the turning-point
to make England Catholic--but it was not to be. Events marched too
rapidly for Philip’s leaden method, and the opportunity was lost whilst
information, pledges, and securities were being sought from the Scotch
and English nobles, upon whom Philip depended for deposing Elizabeth
and placing Mary and her consort on the throne of Great Britain.
In vain through a course of years Philip was told with tiresome
reiteration that things could not be done in that way. The Catholics
would not rise without a certainty of aid, and the pledges could not
be all on one side. So, tired of waiting, at last the Scots nobles were
driven to consent to Mary’s marriage with Darnley, and she, for a time
at least, ceased to be the centre figure in the marriage manœuvres.
Sir James Melvil, one of those cosmopolitan Scotsmen who were in so
much request at European Courts in the sixteenth century, had been
sent by the Emperor and the Elector Palatine, to whom he was then
attached, to propose a marriage between the boy-king, Charles IX.,
and one of the granddaughters of the Emperor Ferdinand, and whilst he
was still in Paris, early in 1564, his own Queen, Mary of Scotland,
recalled him. He had lived abroad for many years--since he was a
child--and Catharine de Medici made him tempting offers to remain
with her, but he decided to obey Mary’s summons and return home. He
had, of course, first to go to Heidelberg and take leave of his master,
the Palatine. Some time before this the Palatine’s second son, the
famous Duke Hans Casimir, had requested Melvil to carry an offer of
marriage from him to Elizabeth. Melvil refused, as he says he had
reason to believe from what he had heard that Elizabeth knew herself
incapable of child-bearing, and “would never subject herself to any
man.” When Melvil was taking leave of the Palatine, Hans Casimir forgot
his resentment sufficiently to request the Scotch courtier to take
his portrait and present it to the Queen on his way through London,
and after considerable demur Melvil consented to do so on condition
that he carried with him portraits of all the rest of the Elector
Palatine’s family, so that Hans Casimir’s picture might be introduced
as if accidentally. Melvil took with him also an important message
from the Protestant princes of Germany to Elizabeth; and, with his
polish and wit, very soon got into the Queen’s good graces. He deftly
introduced the subject of the portraits, and she at once asked him
pointedly whether he had that of Hans Casimir, as she wished to see
it. He told her he had left the portraits in London, he being then at
Hampton Court, whereupon she said he should not go until she had seen
the pictures. Melvil delivered them to her next day, and even suggested
that she should keep them. But she only asked Dudley’s opinion about
them, “and would have none of them. I had also sure information that
first and last she despised Duke Casimir.” Which, indeed, seems highly
probable. In one of the Queen’s familiar chats with Melvil she told
him she had determined to propose two persons as fit husbands for his
Queen, and promised to make the Scotsman her agent in the matter,
which, he says, at the persuasion of Dudley, she failed to do. He
was soon sent back again to London as Mary’s envoy, to, if possible,
mollify Elizabeth’s anger at the Scotch queen’s cool reception of her
matrimonial advice, and at Mary’s intimacy with Lennox, the father of
Darnley.
He arrived in London early in October, 1564, and soon became on
friendly terms with Elizabeth again. In his first interview in an
“alley” in the gardens at Whitehall he told the Queen that his mistress
had not considered the proposal for her to marry Dudley until a joint
commission of Scotch and English statesmen should have met; and Melvil
suggested that the English commissioners should be the Earl of Bedford
and Lord Robert. Elizabeth took offence at the order in which the
names were mentioned. “She said,” writes Melvil, “that I appeared to
make small account of my Lord Robert, seeing that I named the Earl of
Bedford before him, but she said that ere long she would make him a far
greater earl, and that I should see it done before I returned home.
For she esteemed him as her brother and best friend, whom she would
herself have married had she ever minded to have taken a husband. But
being determined to end her life in virginity, she wished the Queen her
sister might marry him, as meetest of all other with whom she could
find in her heart to declare her second person.”[32] Elizabeth’s reason
for her recommendation was a curious one. She said she trusted Dudley
so implicitly that she knew that if he married Mary he would not allow
any attempt to usurp the throne of England whilst she, Elizabeth,
lived. The Queen was as good as her word, and before Melvil left he
saw Dudley made Earl of Leicester and Baron Denbeigh. The ceremony of
investure was a splendid one, and the Queen herself helped to decorate
the new earl with the insignia of his rank, “he sitting on his knees
before her with great gravity. But she could not refrain from putting
her hand in his neck, smilingly tickling him, the French ambassador
and I standing by. Then she turned, asking at me, 'How I liked him.’
Melvil gave a courtly answer. 'Yet,’ says she, 'you like better of
yonder long lad,’ pointing towards my lord Darnley, who, as nearest
prince of the blood, did bear the sword of honour that day before her.
My answer was that no woman of spirit would make choice of such a man,
who more resembled a woman than a man. For he was handsome, beardless,
and lady-faced.” But for all that one of Melvil’s principal purposes
in England was diplomatically to obtain permission for Darnley to go
to Scotland. On another occasion Elizabeth told Melvil that she would
never marry unless forced thereto by his mistress’s “harsh behaviour.”
“I know the truth of that, Madam,” said he, “you need not tell me. You
think that if you were married you would be but Queen of England, and
now you are both King and Queen. I know your spirit cannot endure a
commander.” She then took him to her bedchamber and opened a little
cabinet “wherein were divers little pictures, and their names written
with her own hand on the papers. Upon the first that she took up was
written 'My lord’s picture.’ I held up the candle and pressed to see
the picture so named, but she appeared loath to let me see it, yet
my importunity prevailed, and found it to be the Earl of Leicester’s
picture.” Melvil tried to get the picture to carry to Scotland, as the
Queen had, as he says, the original; but Elizabeth would not part with
the counterfeit, although she pretended to be willing to give Dudley
himself to “her dear sister.” Melvil gives a very amusing account of
the manner in which the Queen pressed him to give his opinion as to
the respective perfections of his mistress and herself. She dressed
herself in every possible style for his delectation, showed off her
dancing, her music (with a fair amount of coyness), her knowledge of
languages. “Her hair,” he says, “was more reddish than yellow, curled,
in appearance, naturally. She desired to know whether my Queen’s hair
or hers was the best.” He rather fenced so delicate a question, but
the Queen insisted upon an answer, and she was told that “she was the
fairest Queen in England, and mine the fairest Queen in Scotland.” But
still she was not satisfied, and after much pressure Melvil was fain
to answer that “she was the whiter of the two, but that Mary was very
lovely.”
Shortly before Melvil’s visit a new Spanish ambassador, Guzman de
Silva, had arrived in London, and Dudley lost not a day in trying upon
him the tactics that had failed with Quadra. A Catholic friend of his
was sent to Guzman to assure him that, if he would exert his influence
to ruin Cecil with the Queen, Dudley would place himself under the
orders of Philip, and at a second interview with the ambassador the
same person told him “that Robert still looks to marry the Queen, and
thinks that religious questions will be settled thereby. Robert, he
says, has an understanding with the Pope on the matter, and a person
in Rome to represent him. This he told me in strict secrecy, and
greatly praises Robert’s good intentions with regard to religion and
the marriage, but with equivocal assurances as to what measures would
be adopted.” Needless to say that the former ambassador’s experience
was not lost upon his successor, and Dudley was henceforward looked
at askance by the Spanish party. The Queen herself next tried her
blandishments on the new envoy. He was invited to a grand masque
represented in the palace, and sat next to her Majesty, who interpreted
the play to him. Of course it was all about love, which gave an
opportunity for the Queen to ask the Spaniard whether Don Carlos had
grown manly. She was told that he had, and then, sighing sentimentally,
she said: “Ah me! every one disdains me! I hear he is to be married to
the Queen of Scots.” The ambassador assured her that it was not true
--Carlos had been too ill of late for any thought of his marriage,
but still people would gossip about great people. “That is very true,”
said the Queen. “Why, they even said in London the other day that the
King was sending an ambassador to treat of the marriage of the prince
(Don Carlos) with _me_!” The feasting and entertainment lasted till
two in the morning, but it is probable that this hint was the origin
and end of it all. This was in July, 1564, when the Queen felt the
need of again drawing closer to the house of Austria. She had been
somewhat badly treated by Condé and his Huguenots. Peace had been made
in France on terms which again gave the Catholics a predominance,
and Cardinal Lorraine had already practically arranged the interview
between Catharine de Medici and her daughter, the Queen of Spain, which
took place at Bayonne in the following spring. It was known in England
and Germany that the real object of this meeting between mother and
daughter was to give an opportunity for the Catholic statesmen to form
a league for the utter extermination of Protestantism the world over;
and, since the Protestant princes in France had been gained over, it
became necessary for Elizabeth now to trim to the side of Spain. She
soon began dropping hints to Guzman about her marrying a German, and
assured him that she was a Catholic at heart, “although she had to
conceal her real feelings to prevail with her subjects in matters
of religion.”[33] When, with the desire of turning her against the
Protestants, he told her that preachers were slandering her because
she had placed a crucifix on the altar of her chapel, she said that
she would order crosses to be placed in all the churches, and then
continued: “They also charge me with showing more favour to Robert
than is fitting, speaking of me as if I were an immodest woman. I am
not surprised that occasion for it should have been given by a young
woman and a young man of good qualities, to whose merits and goodness
I show favour, although not so much as he deserves; but God knows how
great a slander it is, and a time will come when the world will know
it. My life is open ... and I cannot understand how so bad a judgment
can have been formed of me.” She then referred to the negotiations,
which were still lingering on, for the marriage of Mary of Scotland
with Don Carlos, of which she was evidently in great fear, and on the
ambassador laughingly saying that Mary was more likely to marry the
King of France, who was then only fifteen years of age, Elizabeth at
once said that was impossible, as approaches had been made to marry
him to her, “which, she was assured, was a more suitable marriage than
that which your Majesty (Philip) had contracted with her sister.” She
had, however, she said, laughed at it as a thing not to be spoken of
considering their ages.” This was quite true, for Condé had suggested
the matter to Sir Thomas Smith, the English ambassador in Paris, a
year before, whilst the bickering was going on between them as to the
terms of the peace and the repayment to the English of the cost of the
aid given to the Huguenots.[34] Smith had passed it over at the time
as impossible, and the matter had gone no further; but only a month
after the interview described above between Guzman and the Queen, the
marriage of the latter with the boy Charles IX., who was barely half
her age, was brought forward in a more authoritative form. When the
Catholics were again dominant in Paris, and the objects of the Spanish
and French _rapprochement_ beyond doubt, Elizabeth had sent to the new
Emperor Maximilian, ostensibly to condole with him on his father’s
death, but really to reopen the negotiations for the marriage with the
Archduke Charles. This action had to be met and parried by Catharine
de Medici, who at this time--November, 1564--found herself getting
rather more completely pledged than she liked to the Catholic and
Spanish party, the complete success of which she knew would be her
own downfall; and it was a characteristic stroke of policy of hers to
propose so farcical a match as that of Charles IX. with Elizabeth, with
the objects, first of hindering the negotiations with the Archduke
Charles, secondly of keeping her own Huguenots in hand and preventing
England from helping them, and thirdly to checkmate the attempts to
marry Mary of Scotland to a Spanish prince. In one of her familiar
chats with Smith, who followed her in her voyage through Southern
France, she told him she would like to see her son married to the
Queen of England. Smith was not sympathetic, but gave a full account
of the conversation to Cecil, who clearly looked upon the proposal
with equal dislike and incredulity. Very soon afterwards a more direct
approach was made to Elizabeth herself, through one of those intriguing
ladies of the Valois Court whom Brantome is so fond of describing. This
was Madame de Crussol, who is stated to have worked for Catharine in
sending Chastelard to Scotland for the express purpose of compromising
and injuring Mary of Scotland.[35] This woman wrote a long letter to
Elizabeth hinting at the marriage, and shortly afterwards instructions
were sent to Paul de Foix, the French ambassador in England, to make a
formal offer to Elizabeth. The instructions arrived early in February,
1565, and de Foix was received by the Queen of England a few days
afterwards. The interview took place at first in the presence-chamber,
but on the ambassador saying that he had something secret to
communicate, the Queen led him into her private apartment, where, after
much high-flown compliment, he read to her Catharine’s despatch, saying
that she would be the happiest of mothers if her dearly beloved sister
would marry her son and become a daughter to her. She hastened to add
that “she (Elizabeth) would find both in the body and mind of the King
that which would please her.”[36] Elizabeth blushed with satisfied
vanity as much as confusion at this, expressed a deep sense of the
honour done her, and deplored that she was not ten years younger. She
was afraid she would be abandoned as her sister was, and foresaw the
grave obstacles to such a match; but de Foix sought to reassure her by
saying that the Queen-mother knew her age, and expected she would yet
bear many children to her son. Elizabeth replied that she would rather
die than be neglected; but still, though her people would prefer that
she should marry an Englishman, there was none she could marry but the
Earl of Arundel, “and he was as far off as the poles are asunder.”
As for the Earl of Leicester, she had always esteemed his merit, but
her sense of dignity would not allow her to endure him as a husband.
It was agreed between the Queen and de Foix that the matter should be
kept secret, and she promised him a reply shortly. The next day Cecil
drew up one of his lucid Latin papers, setting forth in detail the
many dangers and objections which would ensue from such a marriage,
and the Queen at once repeated all of Cecil’s arguments to the French
ambassador as her own, assuring him that she had not mentioned the
matter to any one. The ambassador still pressed the King’s suit; she
would have a husband in the flower of his youth, she would be certain
to bear children, Parliament might certainly be induced to give its
consent, and all the objections might be overcome by a wisely drafted
treaty. But, said the Queen, who would bring the King to book if he
violated it? Upon this de Foix lost patience, and said that as a
consequence of the good reports he had sent to the Queen-mother with
regard to Elizabeth’s disposition towards her son, she had thought of
this match; but as he saw that her affections were placed elsewhere he
would withdraw. This did not suit the Queen. She assured him she had
not given a refusal, made him sit close by her, and thanked him warmly
for the good report he had sent of her to his King, dismissing him at
last with a promise to send Cecil to him in a couple of days. Cecil was
certainly not in favour of the match, although Leicester affected to
be so, thanks partly to the bribes sent to him from France, and partly
because he considered the marriage an impracticable one. Cecil, indeed,
was now almost ostentatiously leaning to the Catholic side, forcing the
vestments on to the clergy, relaxing the persecution of the Catholics,
and gaining praise even from the Spanish ambassador. If the new Emperor
was going to fulfil the promises he had made to the Protestant princes
who had elected him, and turn reformer, no husband would have been so
favourable to England as the Archduke Charles, who would have disarmed
Philip and the Catholics whilst satisfying the Protestants and avoiding
the dangers to English independence which would arise from the marriage
of the Queen with a prince of the reigning houses of France or Spain.
When Cecil saw de Foix, therefore, he diplomatically combated the views
advanced by the ambassador. When the latter remarked that the aid of
France would for ever preserve England from danger, Cecil replied
proudly that England had nothing to fear. At the end of the interview
Cecil promised to put his objections to the match in writing; but when
he was asked for the paper, some days afterwards, he refused it, and
said that the Queen would go no further until she had a reply from
Catharine to her remarks made to de Foix. Secretaries and couriers
therefore went backwards and forwards actively for the next few months.
This unwonted movement of messengers soon attracted the attention of
the Spanish ambassador, who wrote, on the 15th of March: “The question
of marriage is a difficult one, because if she weds Robert great
dissatisfaction will be caused in the country, both amongst the higher
classes and the common people. The Queen has told me several times
that she wishes to marry, but not with Robert; and Robert himself has
told me the same. Apart from this all eyes are fixed on the Archduke
Charles, and I am informed that negotiations are actually going on
about him through Robert.... Of Robert’s leaning towards the matter
there is no doubt, in appearance, although it is impossible to say with
what object. On the other hand, it is said that negotiations are afoot
about the King of France, which the Queen herself told me, and it may
be true now, because the French, having got wind of the Archduke’s
affair, may wish to divert it. It may be also that, however great
the disparity of years, they may be willing to overlook it in order
to join this country to theirs. By the same rule this Queen may be
listening to the Archduke for the purpose of stopping his negotiations
with Scotland, and the French may be trying to beat her at her own
game.”[37] It will be seen by this how tangled was the diplomatic skein
even to those contemporaries whose especial business it was to unravel
it.
A week after the date of the letter just quoted, Guzman saw the
Queen, when, as usual, she turned the conversation to the subject of
marriages, and the ambassador slily hinted that there was some talk
of her marrying the French king. She held down her head and giggled
at this, and Guzman continued that the French ambassador had asked
his opinion about the match, seeing that the King was so little and
she so tall. “O!” said the Queen, “they tell me he is not very short;
but as it is Lent, and you are my friend, I will make a confession
to you. A proposal for marriage was formerly made to me by the King,
my brother-in-law (Philip). The King of France has now made me an
offer, as well as the Kings of Denmark and Sweden, and, I am told, the
Archduke Charles also. The only person who has not been suggested is
your prince (Don Carlos).” Guzman replied that the reason no doubt was
that, as she had refused the King himself, it was concluded that she
had no desire to marry, since no higher match could be proposed to her.
She retorted that she did not consider such an inference clear: it is
true that she had no desire to marry, and would not do so if she could
appoint a satisfactory successor; but her people were pressing her, and
she was now forced either to marry or nominate an heir, which would be
difficult. “The world thinks that a woman cannot live unmarried, and,
if she refrains from marriage, that she does so for some bad reason; as
they said of me that I avoided doing so because I was fond of the Earl
of Leicester, whom I could not marry, as he had a wife living. His wife
is now dead, but yet I do not marry him, although I have been pressed
to do so even by your King.”[38] Elizabeth was getting very uneasy
about the Franco-Spanish meeting at Bayonne and the rumoured voyage of
Philip to the Netherlands with a strong force to crush Protestantism
for good and for all; the idea of her marriage with Charles IX. was
one eminently calculated to breed distrust of the French in the mind
of Philip, and, as such, was being actively forwarded by the Huguenot
party. When therefore de Foix, the French ambassador, saw her a few
days afterwards she told him that she had refused to let Cecil put
into writing his objections to the match, as promised, because the
objections were really all reducible to one--namely, the question of
disparity of age. She said that Smith had written lately, saying that
the King had grown wonderfully, and that, when he had seen him after
an interval of a few weeks, he hardly recognised him, as he had grown
so tall, and he would no doubt be as tall as his father had been. De
Foix afterwards sat next to the Queen at supper, when she was in very
high spirits, and drank the King’s health, and during the entertainment
which followed talked of nothing but the attractions of the French
Court.[39]
Catharine de Medici on her side was just as eager in appearance for
the match as Elizabeth--and probably equally insincere, since she
too had her own game to play. She had a long talk about it with Smith
in Bordeaux in April, in which she said that the ages seemed the
principal objection, but if Elizabeth would put up with the youth of
the King, she (Catharine) would put up with the age of the Queen;
upon which the youthful suitor himself burst in with the remark that
he hoped his mistress would be as satisfied of his age as he was of
hers. Catharine went on to discuss the other two difficulties raised;
namely, the objection to the Queen residing out of England, and the
fear of the unpopularity of the match; but Smith declined to give any
opinion upon the matter. It was clear, indeed, all through that the
English ambassador would not commit himself in a negotiation which he
felt to be a hollow one. He said his instructions were limited. If the
King were a few years older, if he had seen the Queen and really liked
her, he (Smith) would feel less astonishment at the present advances,
but now----“But really,” interrupted the King, “I do love her.” “Your
Majesty does not know yet what love is,” said Smith, “but you will
soon go through it. It is the most foolish, impotent and disrespectful
thing possible.” The boy blushed at this, and his mother answered for
him saying that his was not a foolish love. Perhaps not, said the
ambassador, but it is just because it must rest upon very grave reasons
and great and worthy considerations that it ought only to be undertaken
after mature deliberation.[40] Catharine pressed for a reply before the
Bayonne meetings, which were fixed for the following month of May, but
this Smith thought impossible. On the following day she again tackled
Smith on the subject; and said that, as Cecil himself had had a son
at fifteen or sixteen, the King’s age could not be made an objection.
Secret as the negotiations were kept, Guzman in London was irritated
and alarmed to see the coming and going of Huguenot secretaries,
without being able to fathom the reasons, although it was evident that
something was afoot. Both de Foix and he were ecclesiastics, and many
were the feline passages of words that passed between them on the
subject. There was really nothing at all going on, said de Foix, only
mercantile affairs were being negotiated. Guzman did not believe him
--as he was a Huguenot although an Archbishop--but still did not
guess that the Queen’s marriage with Charles IX. was seriously being
discussed. For some time he thought that the matter in hand was the
marriage of the Queen and Leicester under French patronage, but at last
in the middle of April the Queen could keep the secret from him no
longer. He was sneering at the long delay at the arrival of a present
of a coach and some camels that were being sent from Catharine to the
Queen, when the latter told him he was jealous, and asked him what he
would think if he found her one day Queen of France. He declined to
consider such a hypothetical case, and the Queen, having said so much,
tried to make light of the matter, saying that she knew nothing of all
this coming and going of couriers that he talked about. He could get
no further, and concludes his account of the interview thus: “She is
very artful, wished to appear reserved and give the idea that there
was no matter of importance afoot.”[41] On the 20th of April de Foix
pressed the Queen urgently for a reply. The interviews of Bayonne were
fixed for the 20th of May, and if the King’s offer were rejected, his
betrothal to a princess of the house of Austria would be arranged.
Elizabeth put the ambassador off with vague professions of friendship
which a week later changed into complaints that Catharine was unduly
hurrying her.[42] In fact, the insincere negotiations for the Queen’s
marriage with Charles IX. could now be dropped, as they had served
Elizabeth’s immediate purpose, and had brought a prince of the House of
Austria once more into the meshes of her net.
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