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| 11 | <title>Secondary Sources: Queen Elizabeth by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892:
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| 12 | Chapter VI</title>
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| 29 | <td width="50%" height="3"><font size="3"></font></td>
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| 33 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
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| 34 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="610">
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| 35 | <p align="center"><b><font size="7">Queen Elizabeth<br></font></b>
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| 36 | <font size="4">by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</font></p>
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| 37 | <p align="center">
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| 38 | <img border="2" src="eliz1-ermine.jpg" width="400" height="478" alt="'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas Hilliard"><p align="center">
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| 39 | <i><font size="2">'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas
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| 40 | Hilliard;<br>from the <a href="http://www.marileecody.com/eliz1-images.html">Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I</a> website</font></i></td>
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| 41 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
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| 42 | </tr>
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| 43 | </table>
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| 44 | <blockquote>
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| 45 | <blockquote>
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| 46 | <font style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
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| 47 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman">
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| 48 | <div align="left">
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| 49 | <b>CHAPTER VI</b><br>
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| 50 | <b>FOREIGN AFFAIRS : 1572-1583</b></div>
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| 51 | <p align="left"><font size="3">THE year 1572 witnessed two events of capital
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| 52 | importance in European history: the rising in the Netherlands, which
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| 53 | resulted in the establishment of the Dutch Republic (April); and the
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| 54 | massacre of St. Bartholomew, which marked the decisive rejection of
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| 55 | Protestantism by France (August). </font></p>
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| 56 | <p align="left"><font size="3">In the beginning of that year--a few weeks
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| 57 | before the proceedings in Parliament just narrated--Elizabeth had at last
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| 58 | concluded the defensive alliance with France for which she had been so long
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| 59 | negotiating (19 April). It cannot be too often repeated that this was the
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| 60 | corner-stone of her foreign policy. For the sake of its superior importance
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| 61 | she had abstained from the interference in Scotland which her Ministers were
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| 62 | always urging. The more she interfered there the more she would have to
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| 63 | interfere, till it would end in her having a rebellious province on her
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| 64 | hands in addition to the hostility of both France and Spain; whereas an
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| 65 | alliance with France would give her security on all sides, Scotland
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| 66 | included. In the treaty it was agreed that if either country were invaded
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| 67 | "under any pretence or cause, none excepted," the other should send 6000
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| 68 | troops to its assistance. This was accompanied with an explanation, in the
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| 69 | King's handwriting, that "any cause " included religion. The article
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| 70 | relating to Scotland is not less significant. The two sovereigns "shall make
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| 71 | no innovations in Scotland, but defend it against foreigners, not suffering
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| 72 | strangers to enter, or foment the factions in Scotland; but it shall be
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| 73 | lawful for the Queen of England to chastise by arms the Scots who shall
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| 74 | countenance the English rebels now in Scotland." Mary was not mentioned.
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| 75 | France therefore tacitly renounced her cause. Immediately after the
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| 76 | conclusion of the treaty Charles IX. formally proposed a marriage between
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| 77 | Elizabeth and his youngest brother, Alençon. This proposal she managed to
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| 78 | encourage and elude for eleven years. </font></p>
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| 79 | <p align="left"><font size="3">It was just at this moment that the seizure
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| 80 | of Brill by some Dutch rovers, who had taken refuge on the sea from the
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| 81 | cruelty of Alva, caused most of the towns of Holland and Zealand to blaze
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| 82 | into rebellion (1 April). Thus began the great war of liberation, which was
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| 83 | to last thirty-seven years. The Protestant party in England hailed the
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| 84 | revolt with enthusiasm. Large subscriptions were made to assist it, and
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| 85 | volunteers poured across to take part in the struggle. Charles IX. and his
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| 86 | mother, full of schemes of conquest in the Netherlands, urged Elizabeth to
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| 87 | join them in a war against Philip. But, with a sagacity and self-restraint
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| 88 | which do her infinite honour, she refused to be drawn beyond the lines laid
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| 89 | down in the recent defensive alliance. Security, economy, fructification of
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| 90 | the tax-payers' money in the tax-payers' pocket--such were the guiding
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| 91 | principles of her policy. She was not to be dragged into dangerous
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| 92 | enterprises either ambitious or Quixotic. Schemes for the partition of the
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| 93 | Netherlands were laid before her. Zealand, it was said, would indemnify her
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| 94 | for Calais. What Englishman with any common sense does not now see that she
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| 95 | was right to reject the bribe? </font></p>
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| 96 | <p align="left"><font size="3">To Elizabeth no rebellion against a
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| 97 | legitimate sovereign could be welcome in itself. Since Philip was so
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| 98 | possessed by religious bigotry as to be dangerous to all Protestant States,
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| 99 | she was not sorry that he should wear out his crusading ardour in the
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| 100 | Netherlands; and she was ready to give just as much assistance to the Dutch,
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| 101 | in an underhand way, as would keep him fully occupied without bringing a
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| 102 | declaration of war upon herself. But she would have vastly preferred that he
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| 103 | should repress Catholic and Protestant fanatics alike, and get along quietly
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| 104 | with the mass of his subjects as his father had done before him. Charles IX.
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| 105 | was eager to strike in if she would join him. Those who blame her so
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| 106 | severely for her refusal seem to forget that a French conquest of the
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| 107 | Netherlands would have been far more dangerous to this country than their
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| 108 | possession by Spain. To keep them out of French hands has indeed been the
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| 109 | traditional policy of England during the whole of modern history. </font>
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| 110 | </p>
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| 111 | <p align="left"><font size="3">But, it is said, such a war would have
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| 112 | clinched the alliance recently patched up between the French court and the
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| 113 | Huguenots; there would have been no Bartholomew Massacre; "on Elizabeth
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| 114 | depended at that moment whether the French Government would take its place
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| 115 | once for all on the side of the Reformation." </font></p>
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| 116 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Whether it would have been for the advantage
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| 117 | of European progress in the long-run that France should settle down into
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| 118 | Calvinism, I will forbear to inquire. Fortunately for the immediate
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| 119 | interests of England, Elizabeth understood the situation in France better
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| 120 | than some of her critics do, even with the results before their eyes. The
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| 121 | Huguenots were but a small fraction of the nation. Whatever importance they
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| 122 | possessed they derived from their rank, their turbulence, and the ambition
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| 123 | of their leaders. In a few towns of the south and south-west they formed a
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| 124 | majority of the population. But everywhere else they were mostly noblemen,
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| 125 | full of the arrogance and reckless valour of their class, anything but
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| 126 | puritans in their morals, and ready to destroy the unity of the kingdom for
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| 127 | political no less than for religious objects. They had been losing ground
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| 128 | for several years. The mass of the people abhorred their doctrines, and
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| 129 | protested against any concession to their pretensions. Charles and his
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| 130 | mother were absolutely careless about religion. Their feud with the Guises
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| 131 | and their designs on the Netherlands had led them to invite the Huguenot
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| 132 | chiefs to court, and so to give them a momentary influence in shaping the
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| 133 | policy of France. It was with nothing more solid to lean on than this
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| 134 | ricketty and short-lived combination that Burghley and Walsingham were eager
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| 135 | to launch England into a war with the most powerful monarchy in Europe.
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| 136 | </font></p>
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| 137 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The massacre of St. Bartholomew (24 August)
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| 138 | was a rude awakening from these dreams. That thunderclap did not show that,
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| 139 | in signing the treaty with England and in proposing an attack on Philip, the
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| 140 | French Government had been playing a treacherous game all along, in order to
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| 141 | lure the Huguenots to the shambles. But it did show that when the Catholic
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| 142 | sentiment in France was thoroughly roused, the dynasty itself must bend
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| 143 | before it or be swept away. England might help the Huguenots to keep up a
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| 144 | desultory and harassing civil war; she could no more enable them to control
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| 145 | the policy of the French nation and wield its force, than she could at the
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| 146 | present day restore the Bourbons or Bonapartes. </font></p>
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| 147 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The first idea of Elizabeth and her
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| 148 | ministers, on receiving the news of the massacre, naturally was that the
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| 149 | French Government had been playing them false from the first, that the
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| 150 | Catholic League for the extirpation of heresy in Europe, which had been so
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| 151 | much talked of since the Bayonne interview in 1565, was after all a reality,
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| 152 | and that England might expect an attack from the combined forces of Spain
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| 153 | and France. Thanks to the prudent policy of Elizabeth, England was in a far
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| 154 | better position to meet all dangers than she had been in 1565. The fleet was
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| 155 | brought round to the Downs. The coast was guarded by militia. An expedition
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| 156 | was organised to co-operate with the Dutch insurgents. Money was sent to the
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| 157 | Prince of Orange. Huguenot refugees were allowed to fit out a flotilla to
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| 158 | assist their co-religionists in Rochelle. The Scotch Regent Mar was
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| 159 | informed, with great secrecy, that if he would demand the extradition of
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| 160 | Mary, and undertake to punish her capitally for her husband's murder, she
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| 161 | should be given up to him. </font></p>
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| 162 | <p align="left"><font size="3">A few weeks sufficed to show that there was
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| 163 | no reason for panic. Confidence, indeed, between the French and English
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| 164 | Governments had been severely shaken. Each stood suspiciously on its guard.
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| 165 | But the alliance was too well grounded in the interests of both parties to
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| 166 | be lightly cast aside. The French ambassador was instructed to excuse and
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| 167 | deplore the massacre as best he could, and to press on the Alençon marriage.
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| 168 | Elizabeth, dressed in deep mourning, gave him a stiff reception, but let him
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| 169 | see her desire to maintain the alliance. The massacre did not restore the
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| 170 | ascendancy of the Guises. To the Huguenots, as religious reformers, it gave
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| 171 | a blow from which they did not recover. But as a political faction they were
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| 172 | not crushed. Nay, their very weakness became their salvation, since it
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| 173 | compelled them to fall into the second rank behind the <i>Politiques</i>,
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| 174 | the true party of progress, who were before long to find a victorious leader
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| 175 | in Henry of Navarre. </font></p>
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| 176 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Philip, for his part, was equally far from
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| 177 | any thought of a crusade against England. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, commanding
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| 178 | several companies of English volunteers, with the hardly concealed sanction
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| 179 | of his government, was fighting against the Spaniards in Walcheren and
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| 180 | hanging all his prisoners. Sir John Hawkins, with twenty ships, had sailed
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| 181 | to intercept the Mexican treasure fleet. Yet Alva, though gnashing his
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| 182 | teeth, was obliged to advise his master to swallow it all, and to be
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| 183 | thankful if he could get Elizabeth to reopen commercial intercourse, which
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| 184 | had been prohibited on both sides since the quarrel about the Genoese
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| 185 | treasure. A treaty for this purpose was in fact concluded early in 1573.
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| 186 | Thus the chief result of the Bartholomew Massacre, as far as Elizabeth was
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| 187 | concerned, was to show how strong her position was, and that she had no need
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| 188 | either to truckle to Catholics or let her hand be forced by Protestants. A
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| 189 | balance of power on the Continent was what suited her, as it has generally
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| 190 | suited this country. Let her critics say what they will, it was no business
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| 191 | of hers to organise a Protestant league, and so drive the Catholic
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| 192 | sovereigns to sink their mutual jealousies and combine against the common
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| 193 | enemy. </font></p>
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| 194 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The Scotch Regent was quite ready to
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| 195 | undertake the punishment of Mary, but only on condition that Elizabeth would
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| 196 | send the Earl of Bedford or the Earl of Huntingdon with an army to be
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| 197 | present at the execution and to take Edinburgh Castle. It need hardly be
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| 198 | said that there was also a demand for money. Mar died during the
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| 199 | negotiations, but they were continued by his successor Morton. Elizabeth was
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| 200 | determined to give no open consent to Mary's execution. She meant, no doubt,
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| 201 | as soon as it should be over, to protest, as she did fifteen years
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| 202 | afterwards, that there had been an unfortunate mistake, and to lay the blame
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| 203 | of it on the Scotch Government and her own agents. This part of the
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| 204 | negotiation therefore came to nothing. But money was sent to Morton, which
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| 205 | enabled him to establish a blockade of Edinburgh Castle, and by the
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| 206 | mediation of Elizabeth's ambassador, the Hamiltons, Gordons, and all the
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| 207 | other Marians except those in the Castle, accepted the very favourable terms
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| 208 | offered them, and recognised James. </font></p>
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| 209 | <p align="left"><font size="3">All that remained was to reduce the Castle.
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| 210 | Its defenders numbered less than two hundred men. The city and the
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| 211 | surrounding country were--as far as preaching and praying went--vehemently
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| 212 | anti-Marian. The Regent had now no other military task on his hands.
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| 213 | Elizabeth might well complain when she was told that unless she sent an army
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| 214 | and paid the Scotch Protestants to co-operate with it, the Castle could not
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| 215 | be taken. For some time she resisted this thoroughly Scotch demand. But at
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| 216 | last she yielded to Morton's importunity. Sir William Drury marched in from
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| 217 | Berwick, did the job, and marched back again (May 1573). Among the captives
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| 218 | were the brilliant Maitland of Lethington, once the most active of
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| 219 | Anglophiles, and Kirkaldy of Grange, who had begun the Scottish Reformation
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| 220 | by the murder of Cardinal Beaton, and had taken Mary prisoner at Carberry
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| 221 | Hill. A politician who did not turn his coat at least once in his life was a
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| 222 | rare bird in Scotland. Maitland died a few days after his capture, probably
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| 223 | by his own hand. Kirkaldy was hanged by his old friend Morton. </font></p>
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| 224 | <p align="left"><font size="3">By taking Edinburgh Castle Elizabeth did not
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| 225 | earn any gratitude from the party who had called her in. What they wanted,
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| 226 | and always would want, was money. Morton himself, treading in the steps of
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| 227 | his old leader Moray, remained an unswerving Anglophile. But his coadjutors
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| 228 | told the English ambassador plainly that, if they could not get money from
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| 229 | England, they could and would earn it from France. Elizabeth's councillors
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| 230 | were always teasing her to comply with these impudent demands. If there had
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| 231 | been a grown-up King on the throne, a man with a will of his own, and whose
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| 232 | right to govern could not be contested, it might have been worth while to
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| 233 | secure his good-will by a pension; and this was what Elizabeth did when
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| 234 | James became real ruler of the country. But she did not believe in paying a
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| 235 | clique of greedy lords to call themselves the English party. An English
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| 236 | party there was sure to be, if only because there was a French party. Their
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| 237 | services would be neither greater nor smaller whether they were paid or
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| 238 | unpaid. The French poured money into Scotland, and were worse served than
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| 239 | Elizabeth, who kept her money in her treasury. It was no fault of Elizabeth
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| 240 | if the conditions of political life in Scotland during the King's minority
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| 241 | were such that a firmly established government was in the nature of things
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| 242 | impossible. </font></p>
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| 243 | <p align="left"><font size="3">As Mary was kept in strict seclusion during
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| 244 | the panic that followed on the Bartholomew Massacre, she did not know how
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| 245 | narrow was her escape from a shameful death on a Scottish scaffold. When the
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| 246 | panic subsided she was allowed to resume her former manner of life as the
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| 247 | honoured guest of Lord Shrewsbury, with full opportunities for communication
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| 248 | with all her friends at home and abroad. Any alarm she had felt speedily
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| 249 | disappeared. If Elizabeth had for a moment contemplated striking at her life
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| 250 | or title by parliamentary procedure, that intention was evidently abandoned
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| 251 | when the Parliament of 1572 was prorogued without any such measure becoming
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| 252 | law. The public assumed, and rightly, that Elizabeth still regarded the
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| 253 | Scottish Queen as her successor. Peter Wentworth in the next session (1576)
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| 254 | asserted, and probably with truth, that many who had been loud in their
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| 255 | demands for severity repented of their forwardness when they found that Mary
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| 256 | might yet be their Queen, and tried to make their peace with her.
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| 257 | Wentworth's outburst (for which he was sent to the Tower) was the only
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| 258 | demonstration against Mary in that session. She told the Archbishop of
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| 259 | Glasgow that her prospects had never been better, and when opportunities for
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| 260 | secret escape were offered her she declined to use them, thinking that it
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| 261 | was for her interest to remain in England. </font></p>
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| 262 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The desire of the English Queen to reinstate
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| 263 | her rival arose principally from an uneasy consciousness that, by detaining
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| 264 | her in custody, she was fatally impairing that religious respect for
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| 265 | sovereigns which was the main, if not the only, basis of their power. The
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| 266 | scaffold of Fotheringay was, in truth, the prelude to the scaffold of
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| 267 | Whitehall. But as year succeeded year, and Elizabeth became habituated to
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| 268 | the situation which had at first given her such qualms, she could not shut
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| 269 | her eyes to the fact that, troublesome and even dangerous as Mary's presence
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| 270 | in England was, the trouble and the danger had been very much greater when
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| 271 | she was seated on the Scottish throne. The seething caldron of Scotch
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| 272 | politics had not, indeed, become a negligible quantity. It required
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| 273 | watching. But experience had shown that, while the King was a child, the
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| 274 | Scots were neither valuable as friends nor formidable as foes. This was a
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| 275 | truth quite as well understood at Paris and Madrid as at London, though the
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| 276 | French, no less keen in those days than they are now to maintain that
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| 277 | shadowy thing called "legitimate French influence" in countries with which
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| 278 | they had any historical connection, continued to intrigue and waste their
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| 279 | money among the hungry Scotch nobles. It was a fixed principle with
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| 280 | Elizabeth, as with all English statesmen, not to tolerate the presence of
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| 281 | foreign troops in Scotland. But she believed--and her belief was justified
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| 282 | by events-that a French expedition was not the easy matter it had been when
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| 283 | Mary of Guise was Regent of Scotland and Mary Tudor Queen of England. And,
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| 284 | more important still, in spite of much treachery and distrust, the French
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| 285 | and English Governments were bound together by a treaty which was equally
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| 286 | necessary to each of them. Scotland, therefore, was no longer such a cause
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| 287 | of anxiety to Elizabeth as it had been during the first ten years of her
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| 288 | reign. Her ministers had neither her coolness nor her insight. Yet modern
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| 289 | historians, proud of having unearthed their croaking criticisms, ask us to
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| 290 | judge Elizabeth's policy by prognostications which turned out to be false
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| 291 | rather than by the known results which so brilliantly justified it. </font>
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| 292 | </p>
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| 293 | <p align="left"><font size="3">How to deal with the Netherlands was a much
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| 294 | more complicated and difficult problem. Here again Elizabeth's ministers
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| 295 | were for carrying matters with a high hand. In their view, England was in
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| 296 | constant danger of a Spanish invasion, which could only be averted by openly
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| 297 | and vigorously supporting the revolted provinces. They would have had
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| 298 | Elizabeth place herself at the head of a Protestant league, and dare the
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| 299 | worst that Philip could do. She, on the other hand, believed that every year
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| 300 | war could be delayed was so much </font></p>
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| 301 | <p align="left"><font size="3">gained for England. There were many ways in
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| 302 | which she could aid the Netherlands without openly challenging Philip. A
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| 303 | curious theory of international relations prevailed in those days--an
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| 304 | English Prime Minister, by the way, found it convenient not long ago to
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| 305 | revive it--according to which, to carry on warlike operations against
|
|---|
| 306 | another country was a very different thing from going to war with that
|
|---|
| 307 | country. Of this theory Elizabeth largely availed herself. English generals
|
|---|
| 308 | were not only allowed, but encouraged, to raise regiments of volunteers to
|
|---|
| 309 | serve in the Low Countries. When there, they reported to the English
|
|---|
| 310 | Government, and received instructions from it with hardly a pretence of
|
|---|
| 311 | concealment. Money was openly furnished to the Prince of Orange. English
|
|---|
| 312 | fleets-also nominally of volunteers--were encouraged to prey on Spanish
|
|---|
| 313 | commerce, Elizabeth herself subscribing to their outfit and sharing in the
|
|---|
| 314 | booty. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 315 | <p align="left"><font size="3">We are not to suppose, because the revolt of
|
|---|
| 316 | the Netherlands crippled Philip for any attack on England, that Elizabeth
|
|---|
| 317 | welcomed it, or that she contemplated the prolongation of the struggle with
|
|---|
| 318 | cold-blooded satisfaction. Its immediate advantage to this country was
|
|---|
| 319 | obvious. But Elizabeth had a sincere abhorrence of war and disorder. She was
|
|---|
| 320 | equally provoked with Philip for persecuting the Dutch Protestants into
|
|---|
| 321 | rebellion, and with the Dutch for insisting on religious concessions which
|
|---|
| 322 | Philip could not be expected to grant, and which she herself was not
|
|---|
| 323 | granting to Catholics in England. At any time during the struggle, if Philip
|
|---|
| 324 | would have guaranteed liberty of conscience (as distinguished from liberty
|
|---|
| 325 | of public worship), the restoration of the old charters, and the removal of
|
|---|
| 326 | the Spanish troops, Elizabeth would not only have withheld all help from the
|
|---|
| 327 | Dutch, but would have put pressure on them to submit to Philip. The presence
|
|---|
| 328 | of Spanish veterans opposite the mouth of the Thames was a standing menace
|
|---|
| 329 | to England. "As they are there," argued Burghley, we must help the Dutch to
|
|---|
| 330 | keep them employed. "If the Dutch were not such impracticable fanatics,"
|
|---|
| 331 | rejoined Elizabeth, "the Spanish veterans need not be there at all." </font>
|
|---|
| 332 | </p>
|
|---|
| 333 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The "Pacification of Ghent" (November 1576),
|
|---|
| 334 | by which the Belgian Netherlands, for a short time, made common cause with
|
|---|
| 335 | Holland and Zealand, relieved Elizabeth, for a time, from the necessity of
|
|---|
| 336 | taking any decisive step. Philip was still recognised as sovereign, but he
|
|---|
| 337 | was required to be content with such powers as the old constitution gave
|
|---|
| 338 | him. It seemed likely that Catholic bigots would have to give up
|
|---|
| 339 | persecuting, and Protestant bigots to acquiesce in the official
|
|---|
| 340 | establishment of the old religion. This was precisely the settlement
|
|---|
| 341 | Elizabeth had always desired. It would get rid of the Spanish troops. It
|
|---|
| 342 | would keep out the French. It would relieve her from the necessity of
|
|---|
| 343 | interfering. If it put some restriction on the open profession of Calvinism
|
|---|
| 344 | she would not be sorry. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 345 | <p align="left"><font size="3">If this arrangement could have been carried
|
|---|
| 346 | out, would it in the long-run have been for the benefit of Europe? Those who
|
|---|
| 347 | hold that the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism was simply a
|
|---|
| 348 | conflict between truth and falsehood will, of course, have no difficulty in
|
|---|
| 349 | giving their answer. Others may hold that freedom of conscience was all that
|
|---|
| 350 | was needed at the time, and they may picture the many advantages which
|
|---|
| 351 | Europe would have reaped during the last three centuries from the existence
|
|---|
| 352 | of a united Netherlands, independent, as it must soon have become, of Spain,
|
|---|
| 353 | and able to make its independence respected by its neighbours. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 354 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Short-lived as the coalition was destined to
|
|---|
| 355 | be, it secured for the Dutch a breathing-time when they were most sorely
|
|---|
| 356 | pressed, and enabled Elizabeth to avoid quarrelling with Spain. The first
|
|---|
| 357 | step of the newly allied States was to apply to her for assistance and a
|
|---|
| 358 | loan of money. The loan they obtained-£40,000--a very large sum in those
|
|---|
| 359 | days. But she earnestly advised them that if the new Governor, Don John of
|
|---|
| 360 | Austria, would accept the Pacification, they should use the money to pay the
|
|---|
| 361 | arrears of the Spanish troops; otherwise they would refuse to leave the
|
|---|
| 362 | country for Don John or any one else. This was done. Don John had treachery
|
|---|
| 363 | in his heart. But the departure of the Spaniards was a solid gain; and if
|
|---|
| 364 | the Protestants and Catholics of the Netherlands had been able to tolerate
|
|---|
| 365 | each other, they would have achieved the practical independence of their
|
|---|
| 366 | country, and achieved it by their own unaided efforts. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 367 | <p align="left"><font size="3">But Don John, the crusader, the victor of
|
|---|
| 368 | Lepanto, the half-brother of Philip, was a man of soaring ambition. His
|
|---|
| 369 | dream was to invade England, marry the Queen of Scots, and seat himself with
|
|---|
| 370 | her on the English throne. It was in vain that Philip, who never wavered in
|
|---|
| 371 | his desire to conciliate Elizabeth, and was jealous of his showy brother,
|
|---|
| 372 | had strictly enjoined him to leave England alone. He persisted in his
|
|---|
| 373 | design, and sent his confidant Escovedo to persuade Philip that to conquer
|
|---|
| 374 | the Netherlands it was necessary to begin by conquering England. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 375 | <p align="left"><font size="3">For a pair of determined enemies, Elizabeth
|
|---|
| 376 | and Philip were just now upon most amicable, not to say affectionate, terms.
|
|---|
| 377 | She knew well that he had incited assassins to take her life, and that
|
|---|
| 378 | nothing would at any time give him greater pleasure than to hear that one of
|
|---|
| 379 | them had succeeded. But she bore him no malice for that. She took it all in
|
|---|
| 380 | the way of business, and intended, for her part, to go on robbing and
|
|---|
| 381 | damaging him in every way she could short of going to war. Philip bore it
|
|---|
| 382 | all meekly. Alva himself insisted that he could not afford to quarrel with
|
|---|
| 383 | her. Diplomatic relations by means of resident ambassadors, which had been
|
|---|
| 384 | broken off by the expulsion of De Espes in 1571, were resumed; and English
|
|---|
| 385 | heretics in the prisons of the Inquisition were released in spite of the
|
|---|
| 386 | outcries of the Grand Inquisitor. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 387 | <p align="left"><font size="3">In the summer of 1557 it seemed as if Don
|
|---|
| 388 | John's restless ambition would interrupt this pacific policy which suited
|
|---|
| 389 | both monarchs. He had sent for the Spanish troops again. He was known to be
|
|---|
| 390 | projecting an invasion of England. He was said to have a promise of help
|
|---|
| 391 | from Guise. Elizabeth's ministers, as usual, believed that she was on the
|
|---|
| 392 | brink of ruin, and implored her to send armies both to the Netherlands and
|
|---|
| 393 | to France. But she refused to be hustled into any precipitate action, and
|
|---|
| 394 | reasons soon appeared for maintaining an expectant attitude. The treaty of
|
|---|
| 395 | Bergerac between Henry III. and Henry of Navarre (September 1557) showed
|
|---|
| 396 | once more that the French King had no intention of letting the Huguenots be
|
|---|
| 397 | crushed. The invitation of the Archduke Matthias by the Belgian nobles
|
|---|
| 398 | showed that they were deeply jealous of English interference. Here, surely,
|
|---|
| 399 | was matter for reflection. The most Elizabeth could be got to do was to
|
|---|
| 400 | become security for a loan of £100,000 to the States, on condition that
|
|---|
| 401 | Matthias should leave the real direction of affairs to William of Orange,
|
|---|
| 402 | and to promise armed assistance (January 1578). At the same time she
|
|---|
| 403 | informed Philip that she was obliged to do this for her own safety; that she
|
|---|
| 404 | had no desire to contest his sovereignty of the Netherlands; on the
|
|---|
| 405 | contrary, she would help him to maintain it if he would govern reasonably;
|
|---|
| 406 | but he ought to remove Don John, who was her mortal enemy, and to appoint
|
|---|
| 407 | another Governor of his own family; in other words, Matthias. Her policy
|
|---|
| 408 | could not have been more candidly set forth, and Philip showed his
|
|---|
| 409 | disapproval of Don John's designs in a characteristic way--by causing
|
|---|
| 410 | Escovedo to be assassinated. Don John himself died in the autumn, of a fever
|
|---|
| 411 | brought on by disappointment, or, as some thought, of a complaint similar to
|
|---|
| 412 | Escovedo's (September 1578). </font></p>
|
|---|
| 413 | <p align="left"><font size="3">When Elizabeth feared that Don John's scheme
|
|---|
| 414 | was countenanced by his brother, she had risked an open rupture by promising
|
|---|
| 415 | to send an army to the Netherlands. The murder of Escovedo and the arrival
|
|---|
| 416 | of the Spanish ambassador Mendoza (March 1578) reassured her. Philip was
|
|---|
| 417 | evidently pacific to the point of tameness. Instead, therefore, of sending
|
|---|
| 418 | an English army, she preferred to pay John Casimir, the Count Palatine, to
|
|---|
| 419 | lead a German army to the assistance of the States. As far as military
|
|---|
| 420 | strength went, they were probably no losers by the change. But what they
|
|---|
| 421 | wanted was to see Elizabeth committed to open war with Philip, and that was
|
|---|
| 422 | just what she desired to avoid. Indirect and underhand blows she was
|
|---|
| 423 | prepared to deal him, for she knew by experience that he would put up with
|
|---|
| 424 | them. Thus in the preceding autumn she had despatched Drake on his famous
|
|---|
| 425 | expedition to the South Pacific. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 426 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Don John was succeeded by his nephew,
|
|---|
| 427 | Alexander of Parma. The fine prospects of the revolted provinces were now
|
|---|
| 428 | about to be dashed. In the arts which smooth over difficulties and
|
|---|
| 429 | conciliate opposition, Parma had few equals. He was a head and shoulders
|
|---|
| 430 | above all contemporary generals; and no soldiers of that time were
|
|---|
| 431 | comparable to his Spanish and Italian veterans. When he assumed the command,
|
|---|
| 432 | he was master of only a small corner of the Low Countries. What he effected
|
|---|
| 433 | is represented by their present division between Belgians and Dutch. The
|
|---|
| 434 | struggle in the Netherlands continued, therefore, to be the principal object
|
|---|
| 435 | of Elizabeth's attention. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 436 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Shortly before the death of Don John, the
|
|---|
| 437 | Duke of Alençon, (1) brother and heir-presumptive of Henry III. had been
|
|---|
| 438 | invited by the Belgian nobles to become their Protector, and Orange, in his
|
|---|
| 439 | anxiety for union, had accepted their nominee. Alençon was to furnish 12,000
|
|---|
| 440 | French troops. It was hoped and believed that, though Henry had ostensibly
|
|---|
| 441 | disapproved of his brother's action, he would in the end give him open
|
|---|
| 442 | support, thus resuming the enterprise which had been interrupted six years
|
|---|
| 443 | before by the Bartholomew Massacre. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 444 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Now, how was Elizabeth to deal with this new
|
|---|
| 445 | combination? The Protectorship of Alençon might bring on annexation to
|
|---|
| 446 | France, the result which most of all she wished to avoid. For a moment she
|
|---|
| 447 | thought of offering her own protection (which Orange would have much
|
|---|
| 448 | preferred), and an army equal to that promised by Alençon. But upon further
|
|---|
| 449 | reflection, she determined to adhere to the policy of not throwing down the
|
|---|
| 450 | glove to Philip, and to try whether she could not put Alençon in harness,
|
|---|
| 451 | and make him do her work. One means of effecting this would be to allow him
|
|---|
| 452 | subsidies--the means employed on such a vast scale by Pitt in our wars with
|
|---|
| 453 | Napoleon. But Elizabeth intended to spend as little as possible in this way.
|
|---|
| 454 | She relied chiefly on a revival of the marriage comedy--now to be played
|
|---|
| 455 | positively for the last time; the lady being forty-five, and her wooer
|
|---|
| 456 | twenty-four. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 457 | <p align="left"><font size="3">A dignified policy it certainly was not. All
|
|---|
| 458 | that was ridiculous and repulsive in her coquetry with Henry had now to be
|
|---|
| 459 | repeated and outdone with his younger brother. To overcome the incredulity
|
|---|
| 460 | which her previous performances had produced, she was obliged to exaggerate
|
|---|
| 461 | her protestations, to admit a personal courtship, to simulate amorous
|
|---|
| 462 | emotion, and to go through a tender pantomime of kisses and caresses. But
|
|---|
| 463 | Elizabeth never let dignity stand in the way of business. What to most women
|
|---|
| 464 | would have been an insupportable humiliation did not cost her a pang. She
|
|---|
| 465 | even found amusement in it. From the nature of the case, she could not take
|
|---|
| 466 | one of her counsellors into her confidence. There was no chance of imposing
|
|---|
| 467 | upon foreigners unless she could persuade those about her that she was in
|
|---|
| 468 | earnest. They were amazed that she should run the risk of establishing the
|
|---|
| 469 | French in the Netherlands. She had no intention of doing so. When Philip
|
|---|
| 470 | should be brought so low as to be willing to concede a constitutional
|
|---|
| 471 | government, she could always throw her weight on his side and get rid of the
|
|---|
| 472 | French. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 473 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The match with Alençon had been proposed six
|
|---|
| 474 | years before. It had lately slumbered. But there was no difficulty in
|
|---|
| 475 | whistling him back, and making it appear that the renewed overture came from
|
|---|
| 476 | his side. After tedious negotiations, protracted over twelve months, he at
|
|---|
| 477 | length paid his first visit to Elizabeth ( August 1579). He was an
|
|---|
| 478 | under-sized man with an over-sized head, villainously ugly, with a face
|
|---|
| 479 | deeply seamed by smallpox, a nose ending in a knob that made it look like
|
|---|
| 480 | two noses, and a croaking voice. Elizabeth's liking for big handsome men is
|
|---|
| 481 | well known. But as she had not the least intention of marrying Alençon, it
|
|---|
| 482 | cost her nothing to affirm that she was charmed with his appearance, and
|
|---|
| 483 | that he was just the sort of man she could fancy for a husband. The only
|
|---|
| 484 | agreeable thing about him was his conversation, in which he shone, so that
|
|---|
| 485 | people who did not thoroughly know him always at first gave him credit for
|
|---|
| 486 | more ability than he possessed. Elizabeth, who had a pet name for all
|
|---|
| 487 | favourites, dubbed him her "frog"; and "Grenouille" he was fain to subscribe
|
|---|
| 488 | himself in his love-letters. This first visit was a short one, and he went
|
|---|
| 489 | away hopeful of success. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 490 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The English people could only judge by
|
|---|
| 491 | appearances, and for the first time in her reign Elizabeth was unpopular.
|
|---|
| 492 | The Puritan Stubbs published his <i>Discovery of a Gaping Gulf wherein
|
|---|
| 493 | England is like to be swallowed by another French Marriage</i>. But the
|
|---|
| 494 | excitement was by no means confined to the Puritans. Hatred of Frenchmen
|
|---|
| 495 | long remained a ruling sentiment with most Englishmen. Elizabeth vented her
|
|---|
| 496 | rage on Stubbs, who had been so rude as to tell her that childbirth at her
|
|---|
| 497 | age would endanger her life. He was sentenced to have his hand cut off. "I
|
|---|
| 498 | remember," says Camden, "being then present, that Stubbs, after his right
|
|---|
| 499 | hand was cut off, put off his hat with his left, and said with a loud voice,
|
|---|
| 500 | 'God save the Queen.' The multitude standing about was deeply silent."
|
|---|
| 501 | </font></p>
|
|---|
| 502 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Not long after Alençon's visit, a treaty of
|
|---|
| 503 | marriage was signed (November 1579), with a proviso that two months should
|
|---|
| 504 | be allowed for the Queen's subjects to become reconciled to it. If, at the
|
|---|
| 505 | end of that time, Elizabeth did not ratify the treaty, it was to be null and
|
|---|
| 506 | void. The appointed time came and went without ratification. Burghley, as
|
|---|
| 507 | usual, predicted that the jilted suitor would become a deadly enemy, and
|
|---|
| 508 | drew an alarming picture of the dangers that threatened England, with the
|
|---|
| 509 | old exhortation to his mistress to form a Protestant league and subsidise
|
|---|
| 510 | the Scotch Anglophiles. But in 1572 she had slipped out of the Anjou
|
|---|
| 511 | marriage, and yet secured a French alliance. She confided in her ability to
|
|---|
| 512 | play the same game now. Though she had not ratified the marriage treaty, she
|
|---|
| 513 | continued to correspond with Alençon and keep up his hopes, urging him at
|
|---|
| 514 | the same time to lead an army to the help of the States. This, however, he
|
|---|
| 515 | was unwilling to do till he had secured the marriage. The French King was
|
|---|
| 516 | ready, and even eager, to back his brother. But he, too, insisted on the
|
|---|
| 517 | marriage, and that Elizabeth should openly join him in war against Spain.
|
|---|
| 518 | </font></p>
|
|---|
| 519 | <p align="left"><font size="3">In the summer of 1580, Philip conquered
|
|---|
| 520 | Portugal, thus not only rounding off his Peninsular realm, but acquiring the
|
|---|
| 521 | enormous transmarine dominions of the Portuguese crown. All Europe was
|
|---|
| 522 | profoundly impressed and alarmed by this apparent increase of his power.
|
|---|
| 523 | Elizabeth incessantly lectured Henry on the necessity of abating a
|
|---|
| 524 | preponderance so dangerous to all other States, and tried to convince him
|
|---|
| 525 | that it was specially incumbent on France to undertake the enterprise. But
|
|---|
| 526 | she preached in vain. Henry steadily refused to stir unless England would
|
|---|
| 527 | openly assist him with troops and money, of which the marriage was to be the
|
|---|
| 528 | pledge. He did not conceal his suspicion that, when Elizabeth had pushed him
|
|---|
| 529 | into war, she would "draw her neck out of the collar" and leave him to bear
|
|---|
| 530 | the whole danger. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 531 | <p align="left"><font size="3">This was, in fact, her intention. She
|
|---|
| 532 | believed that a war with France would soon compel Philip to make proper
|
|---|
| 533 | concessions to the States; whereupon she would interpose and dictate a
|
|---|
| 534 | peace. "Marry my brother," Henry kept saying, "and then I shall have
|
|---|
| 535 | security that you will bear your fair share of the fighting, and expenses."
|
|---|
| 536 | "If I am to go to war," argued Elizabeth, "I cannot marry your brother; for
|
|---|
| 537 | my subjects will say that I am dragged into it by my husband, and they will
|
|---|
| 538 | grudge the expense. Suppose, instead of a marriage, we have an alliance not
|
|---|
| 539 | binding me to open war; then I will furnish you with money <i>underhand</i>.
|
|---|
| 540 | You know you have got to fight. You cannot afford to let Philip go on
|
|---|
| 541 | increasing his power." </font></p>
|
|---|
| 542 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Henry remained doggedly firm. No marriage, no
|
|---|
| 543 | war. At last, finding she could not stir him, Elizabeth again concluded a
|
|---|
| 544 | treaty of marriage, but with the extraordinary proviso that six weeks should
|
|---|
| 545 | be left for private explanations by letter between herself and Alençon. It
|
|---|
| 546 | soon appeared what this meant. In these six weeks Elizabeth furnished her
|
|---|
| 547 | suitor with money, and incited him to make a sudden attack on Parma, who was
|
|---|
| 548 | then besieging Cambray, close to the French frontier. Alençon, thinking
|
|---|
| 549 | himself now sure of the marriage, collected 15,000 men; and Henry, though
|
|---|
| 550 | not openly assisting him, no longer prohibited the enterprise. But, as soon
|
|---|
| 551 | as Elizabeth thought they were sufficiently committed, she gave them to
|
|---|
| 552 | understand that the marriage must be again deferred, that her subjects were
|
|---|
| 553 | discontented, that she could only join in a defensive alliance, but that she
|
|---|
| 554 | would furnish money "in reasonable sort" <i>underhand</i>. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 555 | <p align="left"><font size="3">All this is very unscrupulous, very
|
|---|
| 556 | shameless, even for that shameless age. Hardened liars like Henry and
|
|---|
| 557 | Alençon thought it too bad. <i>They</i> were ready for violence as well as
|
|---|
| 558 | fraud, and availed themselves of whichever method came handiest. Elizabeth
|
|---|
| 559 | also used the weapon which nature had given her. Being constitutionally
|
|---|
| 560 | averse from any but peaceful methods, she made up for it by a double dose of
|
|---|
| 561 | fraud. <i>Dente lupus, cornu taurus</i>. It would have been useless for a
|
|---|
| 562 | mate statesman to try to pass himself off as a fickle impulsive, susceptible
|
|---|
| 563 | being, swayed from one moment to another in his political schemes by
|
|---|
| 564 | passions and weaknesses that are thought natural in the other sex. This was
|
|---|
| 565 | Elizabeth's advantage, and she made the most of it. She was a masculine
|
|---|
| 566 | woman simulating, when it suited her purpose, a feminine character. The men
|
|---|
| 567 | against whom she was matched were never sure whether they were dealing with
|
|---|
| 568 | a crafty and determined politician, or a vain, flighty, amorous woman. This
|
|---|
| 569 | uncertainty was constantly putting them out in their calculations. Alençon
|
|---|
| 570 | would never have been so taken in if he had not told himself that any folly
|
|---|
| 571 | might be expected from an elderly woman enamoured of a young man. </font>
|
|---|
| 572 | </p>
|
|---|
| 573 | <p align="left"><font size="3">On this occasion Elizabeth scored, if not the
|
|---|
| 574 | full success she had hoped from her audacious mystification, yet no
|
|---|
| 575 | inconsiderable portion of it. Henry managed to draw back just in time, and
|
|---|
| 576 | was not let in for a big war. But Alençon, at the head of 15,000 men, and
|
|---|
| 577 | close to Cambray, could not for very shame beat a retreat. Parma retired at
|
|---|
| 578 | his approach, and the French army entered Cambray in triumph (August 1581).
|
|---|
| 579 | Alençon therefore had been put in harness to some purpose. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 580 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Though Henry III. had good reason to complain
|
|---|
| 581 | of the way he had been treated, he did not make it a quarrel with Elizabeth.
|
|---|
| 582 | His interests, as she saw all along, were too closely bound up with hers to
|
|---|
| 583 | permit him to think of such a thing. On the contrary, he renewed the
|
|---|
| 584 | alliance of 1572 in an ampler form, though it still remained strictly
|
|---|
| 585 | defensive. Alençon, after relieving and victualling Cambray, disbanded his
|
|---|
| 586 | army, and went over to England again to press for the marriage (November
|
|---|
| 587 | 1581). Thither he was followed by ambassadors from the States. By the advice
|
|---|
| 588 | of Orange they had resolved to take him as their sovereign, and they were
|
|---|
| 589 | now urgently pressing him to return to the Netherlands to be installed.
|
|---|
| 590 | Elizabeth added her pressure; but he was unwilling to leave England until he
|
|---|
| 591 | should have secured the marriage. For three months (November 1581 to
|
|---|
| 592 | February 1582) did Elizabeth try every art to make him accept promise for
|
|---|
| 593 | performance. She was thoroughly in her element. To win her game in this way,
|
|---|
| 594 | not by the brutal arbitrament of war, or even by the ordinary tricks of
|
|---|
| 595 | vicarious diplomacy, but by artifices personally executed, feats of cajolery
|
|---|
| 596 | that might seem improbable on the stage,--this was delightful in the highest
|
|---|
| 597 | degree. The more distrustful Alençon showed himself, the keener was the
|
|---|
| 598 | pleasure of handling him. One day he is hidden behind a curtain to view her
|
|---|
| 599 | elegant dancing; not, surely, that he might be smitten with it, but that he
|
|---|
| 600 | might think she desired him to be smitten. Another day she kisses him on the
|
|---|
| 601 | lips (<i>en la boca</i>) in the presence of the French ambassador. She gives
|
|---|
| 602 | him a ring. She presents him to her household as their future master. She
|
|---|
| 603 | orders the Bishop of Lincoln to draw up a marriage service. It is a
|
|---|
| 604 | repulsive spectacle; but, after all, we are not so much disgusted with the
|
|---|
| 605 | elderly woman who pretends to be willing to marry the young man, as with the
|
|---|
| 606 | young man who is really willing to marry the elderly woman. Unfortunately
|
|---|
| 607 | for Elizabeth, her acting was so realistic that it not only took in
|
|---|
| 608 | contemporaries, but has persuaded many modern writers that she was really
|
|---|
| 609 | influenced by a degrading passion. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 610 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Henry III. himself was at last induced to
|
|---|
| 611 | believe that Elizabeth was this time in earnest. But he could not be driven
|
|---|
| 612 | from his determination to risk nothing till he saw the marriage actually
|
|---|
| 613 | concluded. Pinart, the French Secretary of State, was accordingly sent over
|
|---|
| 614 | to settle the terms. Elizabeth demanded one concession after another, and
|
|---|
| 615 | finally asked for the restitution of Calais. There was no mistaking what
|
|---|
| 616 | this meant. Pinart, in the King's name, formally forbade Alençon to proceed
|
|---|
| 617 | to the Netherlands except as a married man, and tried to intimidate
|
|---|
| 618 | Elizabeth by threatening that his master would ally himself with Philip. But
|
|---|
| 619 | she laughed at him, and told him that she could have the Spanish alliance
|
|---|
| 620 | whenever she chose, which was perfectly true. Alençon himself gave way. He
|
|---|
| 621 | felt that he was being played with. He had come over here, with a <i>fatuilé</i>
|
|---|
| 622 | not uncommon among young Frenchmen, expecting to bend a love-sick Queen to
|
|---|
| 623 | serve his political designs. He found himself, to his intense mortification,
|
|---|
| 624 | bent to serve hers. Ashamed to show his face in France without either his
|
|---|
| 625 | Belgian dominions or his English wife, he was fain to accept Elizabeth's
|
|---|
| 626 | solemn promise that she would marry him as soon as she could, and allowed
|
|---|
| 627 | himself to be shipped off under the escort of an English fleet to the
|
|---|
| 628 | Netherlands (February 1582). </font></p>
|
|---|
| 629 | <p align="left"><font size="3">According to Mr. Froude, "the Prince of
|
|---|
| 630 | Orange intimated that Alençon was accepted by the States only as a pledge
|
|---|
| 631 | that England would support them; if England failed them, they would not
|
|---|
| 632 | trust their fortunes to so vain an idiot." This statement appears to be
|
|---|
| 633 | drawn from the second-band tattle of Mendoza, and is probably, like much
|
|---|
| 634 | else from that source, unworthy of credit. But whether Orange sent such an
|
|---|
| 635 | "intimation" or not, it cannot be allowed to weigh against the ample
|
|---|
| 636 | evidence that Alençon was accepted by him and by the States mainly for the
|
|---|
| 637 | sake of the French forces he could raise on his own account, and the
|
|---|
| 638 | assistance which he undertook to procure from his brother. Neither Orange
|
|---|
| 639 | nor any one else regarded him as an idiot. Orange had not been led to expect
|
|---|
| 640 | that he would bring any help from England except money supplied underhand;
|
|---|
| 641 | and money Elizabeth did furnish in very considerable quantities. But the
|
|---|
| 642 | Netherlanders now expected everything to be done for them, and were backward
|
|---|
| 643 | with their contributions both in men and money. Clearly there is something
|
|---|
| 644 | to be said for the let-alone policy to which Elizabeth usually leant. </font>
|
|---|
| 645 | </p>
|
|---|
| 646 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The States intended Alençon's sovereignty to
|
|---|
| 647 | be of the strictly constitutional kind, such as it had been before the
|
|---|
| 648 | encroachments of Philip and his father. This did not suit the young
|
|---|
| 649 | Frenchman, and at the beginning of 1583 he attempted a <i>coup d'état</i>,
|
|---|
| 650 | not without encouragement from some of the Belgian Catholics. At Antwerp his
|
|---|
| 651 | French troops were defeated with great bloodshed by the citizens, and the
|
|---|
| 652 | general voice of the country was for sending him about his business. But
|
|---|
| 653 | both Elizabeth and Orange, though disconcerted and disgusted by his
|
|---|
| 654 | treachery, still saw nothing better to be done than to patch up the breach
|
|---|
| 655 | and retain his services. Both of them urged this course on the
|
|---|
| 656 | States--Orange with his usual dignified frankness; Elizabeth in the crooked,
|
|---|
| 657 | blustering fashion which has brought upon her policy, in so many instances,
|
|---|
| 658 | reproach which it does not really deserve. Norris, the commander of the
|
|---|
| 659 | English volunteers, had discountenanced the <i>coup-d'état</i> and taken his
|
|---|
| 660 | orders from the States. Openly Elizabeth reprimanded him, and ordered him to
|
|---|
| 661 | bring his men back to England. Secretly she told him he had done well, and
|
|---|
| 662 | bade him remain where he was. Norris was in fact there to protect the
|
|---|
| 663 | interests of England quite as much against the French as against Spain.
|
|---|
| 664 | There is not the least ground for the assertion that in promoting a
|
|---|
| 665 | reconciliation with Alençon, Orange acted under pressure from Elizabeth.
|
|---|
| 666 | Everything goes to show that he, the wisest and noblest statesman of his
|
|---|
| 667 | time, thought it the only course open to the States, unless they were
|
|---|
| 668 | prepared to submit to Philip. Both Elizabeth and Orange felt that the first
|
|---|
| 669 | necessity was to keep the quarrel alive between the Frenchman and the
|
|---|
| 670 | Spaniard. The English Queen therefore continued to feed Alençon with hopes
|
|---|
| 671 | of marriage, and the States patched up a reconciliation with him (March
|
|---|
| 672 | 1583). But his heart failed him. He saw Parma taking town after town. He
|
|---|
| 673 | knew that he had made himself odious to the Netherlanders. He was covered
|
|---|
| 674 | with shame. He was fatally stricken with consumption. In June 1583 he left
|
|---|
| 675 | Belgium never to return. Within a twelvemonth he was dead. </font></p>
|
|---|
| 676 | </font>
|
|---|
| 677 | <hr>
|
|---|
| 678 | </font>
|
|---|
| 679 | <font face="Times New Roman">
|
|---|
| 680 | <p align="left"><b>Notes:</b>
|
|---|
| 681 | </font>
|
|---|
| 682 | <font style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
|
|---|
| 683 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman">1. He had received the Duchy of
|
|---|
| 684 | Anjou in addition to that of Alençon, and some historians call him by the
|
|---|
| 685 | former title.</font></p>
|
|---|
| 686 | <p align="left"><font style="font-family: Times New Roman" size="2">From <i>
|
|---|
| 687 | Queen Elizabeth</i> by Edward Spencer Beesly. Published in London by
|
|---|
| 688 | Macmillan and Co., 1892.</font></p>
|
|---|
| 689 | </font>
|
|---|
| 690 | <font face="Times New Roman" size="2">
|
|---|
| 691 | </blockquote>
|
|---|
| 692 | </blockquote>
|
|---|
| 693 |
|
|---|
| 694 | <p align="center">
|
|---|
| 695 | <a href="beeslychapterseven.html">to Chapter
|
|---|
| 696 | VII The Papal Attack: 1570-1583</a></p>
|
|---|
| 697 | <p align="center">
|
|---|
| 698 | <a href="monarchs/eliz1.html">to the Queen
|
|---|
| 699 | Elizabeth I website</a> /
|
|---|
| 700 | <a href="relative/maryqos.html">to the Mary,
|
|---|
| 701 | queen of Scots website</a></p>
|
|---|
| 702 | <p align="center"><a href="secondary.html">
|
|---|
| 703 | to Secondary Sources</a></p>
|
|---|
| 704 | </font>
|
|---|
| 705 |
|
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| 706 | </body>
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| 707 |
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