[31681] | 1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="no"?>
|
---|
| 2 | <!DOCTYPE Archive SYSTEM "http://greenstone.org/dtd/Archive/1.0/Archive.dtd">
|
---|
| 3 | <Archive>
|
---|
| 4 | <Section>
|
---|
| 5 | <Description>
|
---|
| 6 | <Metadata name="gsdlsourcefilename">import/englishhistory.net/tudor/beeslychapterfour.html</Metadata>
|
---|
| 7 | <Metadata name="gsdldoctype">indexed_doc</Metadata>
|
---|
| 8 | <Metadata name="Plugin">HTMLPlugin</Metadata>
|
---|
| 9 | <Metadata name="FileSize">76440</Metadata>
|
---|
| 10 | <Metadata name="Source">beeslychapterfour.html</Metadata>
|
---|
| 11 | <Metadata name="SourceFile">beeslychapterfour.html</Metadata>
|
---|
| 12 | <Metadata name="Language">en</Metadata>
|
---|
| 13 | <Metadata name="Encoding">windows_1252</Metadata>
|
---|
| 14 | <Metadata name="Content">biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</Metadata>
|
---|
| 15 | <Metadata name="Page_topic">biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</Metadata>
|
---|
| 16 | <Metadata name="Author">Marilee Mongello</Metadata>
|
---|
| 17 | <Metadata name="Title">Secondary Sources: Queen Elizabeth by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892: Chapter IV</Metadata>
|
---|
| 18 | <Metadata name="FileFormat">HTML</Metadata>
|
---|
| 19 | <Metadata name="URL">http://englishhistory.net/tudor/beeslychapterfour.html</Metadata>
|
---|
| 20 | <Metadata name="UTF8URL">http://englishhistory.net/tudor/beeslychapterfour.html</Metadata>
|
---|
| 21 | <Metadata name="dc.Subject">Tudor period|Others</Metadata>
|
---|
| 22 | <Metadata name="Identifier">HASH018ca23021dc0cdbf824e592</Metadata>
|
---|
[32161] | 23 | <Metadata name="lastmodified">1522032932</Metadata>
|
---|
| 24 | <Metadata name="lastmodifieddate">20180326</Metadata>
|
---|
| 25 | <Metadata name="oailastmodified">1522033101</Metadata>
|
---|
| 26 | <Metadata name="oailastmodifieddate">20180326</Metadata>
|
---|
[31681] | 27 | <Metadata name="assocfilepath">HASH018c.dir</Metadata>
|
---|
| 28 | <Metadata name="gsdlassocfile">eliz1-ermine.jpg:image/jpeg:</Metadata>
|
---|
| 29 | </Description>
|
---|
| 30 | <Content>
|
---|
| 31 |
|
---|
| 32 | <table border="0" cellpadding="3" width="100%" height="667">
|
---|
| 33 | <tr>
|
---|
| 34 | <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
|
---|
| 35 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="29">&nbsp;</td>
|
---|
| 36 | <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
|
---|
| 37 | </tr>
|
---|
| 38 | <tr>
|
---|
| 39 | <td width="25%" height="3"></td>
|
---|
| 40 | <td width="50%" height="3"><font size="3"></font></td>
|
---|
| 41 | <td width="25%" height="3"></td>
|
---|
| 42 | </tr>
|
---|
| 43 | <tr>
|
---|
| 44 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
|
---|
| 45 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="610">
|
---|
| 46 | <p align="center"><b><font size="7">Queen Elizabeth<br></font></b>
|
---|
| 47 | <font size="4">by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</font></p>
|
---|
| 48 | <p align="center">
|
---|
| 49 | <img border="2" src="_httpdocimg_/eliz1-ermine.jpg" width="400" height="478" alt="'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas Hilliard"><p align="center">
|
---|
| 50 | <i><font size="2">'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas
|
---|
| 51 | Hilliard;<br>from the <a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fwww.marileecody.com%2feliz1-images.html">Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I</a> website</font></i></td>
|
---|
| 52 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
|
---|
| 53 | </tr>
|
---|
| 54 | </table>
|
---|
| 55 | <blockquote>
|
---|
| 56 | <blockquote>
|
---|
| 57 | <font face="Times New Roman">
|
---|
| 58 | <div align="left">
|
---|
| 59 | <b>CHAPTER IV</b><br>
|
---|
| 60 | <b>ELIZABETH AND MARY STUART: 1559-1568</b></div>
|
---|
| 61 | <p align="left"><font size="3">WHEN Elizabeth mounted the throne, it was
|
---|
| 62 | taken for granted that she was to marry, and marry with the least possible
|
---|
| 63 | delay. This was expected of her, not merely because in the event of her
|
---|
| 64 | dying without issue there would be a dispute whether the claim of Mary
|
---|
| 65 | Stuart or that of Catherine Grey was to prevail, but for a more general
|
---|
| 66 | reason. The rule of an unmarried woman, except provisionally during such
|
---|
| 67 | short interval as might be necessary to provide her with a husband, was
|
---|
| 68 | regarded as quite out of the question. It was the custom for the husbands of
|
---|
| 69 | heiresses to step into the property of their wives and stand in the shoes,
|
---|
| 70 | so to speak, of the last male proprietor, in order to perform those duties
|
---|
| 71 | which could not be efficiently performed by a woman. Elizabeth's sister,
|
---|
| 72 | while a subject, had no thought of marrying. But her accession was
|
---|
| 73 | considered by herself and every one else to involve marriage. If the nobles
|
---|
| 74 | of England could have foreseen that Elizabeth would elude this obligation,
|
---|
| 75 | she would probably never have been allowed to mount the throne. Her marriage
|
---|
| 76 | was thought to be as much a matter of course, and as necessary, as her
|
---|
| 77 | coronation. </font></p>
|
---|
| 78 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Accordingly the House of Commons, which met a
|
---|
| 79 | month after her accession, immediately requested her to select a husband
|
---|
| 80 | without delay. Her declaration that she had no desire to change her state
|
---|
| 81 | was supposed to indicate only the real or affected coyness to be expected
|
---|
| 82 | from a young lady. There was no lack of suitors, foreign or English. The
|
---|
| 83 | Archduke Charles, son of the Emperor and cousin of Philip, would have been
|
---|
| 84 | welcomed by all Catholics and acquiesced in by political Protestants like
|
---|
| 85 | Cecil. The ardent Protestants were eager for Arran, and Cecil, till he saw
|
---|
| 86 | it was useless, worked his best for him, regardless of the personal
|
---|
| 87 | sacrifice his mistress must make in wedding a man who was not always quite
|
---|
| 88 | sane and eventually became a confirmed lunatic. </font></p>
|
---|
| 89 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Not many months of the new reign had passed
|
---|
| 90 | before it began to be suspected that Elizabeth's partiality for Lord Robert
|
---|
| 91 | Dudley had something to do with her evident distaste for all her suitors. To
|
---|
| 92 | her Ministers and the public this partiality for a married man became a
|
---|
| 93 | cause of great disquietude. They not unnaturally feared that with a young
|
---|
| 94 | woman who had no relations to advise and keep watch over her, it might lead
|
---|
| 95 | to some disastrous scandal incompatible with her continuance on the throne.
|
---|
| 96 | Marriage with Dudley at this time was out of the question. But within four
|
---|
| 97 | months of her accession, the Spanish ambassador mentions a report that
|
---|
| 98 | Dudley's wife had a cancer, and that the Queen was only waiting for her
|
---|
| 99 | death to marry him. </font></p>
|
---|
| 100 | <p align="left"><font size="3">About the humble extraction of Elizabeth's
|
---|
| 101 | favourite much nonsense was talked in his lifetime by his ill-wishers, and
|
---|
| 102 | has been duly repeated since. He was as well born as most of the peerage of
|
---|
| 103 | that time; very few of whom could show nobility of any antiquity in the male
|
---|
| 104 | line. The Duke of Norfolk being the only Duke at Elizabeth's accession, and
|
---|
| 105 | in possession of an ancient title, was looked on as the head of his order.
|
---|
| 106 | Yet it was only seventy-five years since a Howard had first reached the
|
---|
| 107 | peerage in consequence of having had the good fortune to marry the heiress
|
---|
| 108 | of the Mowbrays. Edmund Dudley, Minister of Henry VII. and father of
|
---|
| 109 | Northumberland, was grandson of John, fourth Lord Dudley; and
|
---|
| 110 | Northumberland, by his mother's side, was sole heir and representative of
|
---|
| 111 | the ancient barony of De L'Isle, which title he bore before he received his
|
---|
| 112 | earldom and dukedom. In point of wealth and influence, indeed, the favourite
|
---|
| 113 | might be called an upstart. The younger son of an attainted father, he had
|
---|
| 114 | not an acre of land or a farthing of money which he did not owe either to
|
---|
| 115 | his wife or to the generosity of Elizabeth. This it was that moved the
|
---|
| 116 | sneers and ill-will of a people with whom nobility has always been a
|
---|
| 117 | composite idea implying, not only birth and title, but territorial wealth.
|
---|
| 118 | Moreover his grandfather, though of good extraction, was a simple esquire,
|
---|
| 119 | and had risen by helping Henry VII. to trample on the old nobility. After
|
---|
| 120 | his fall his son had climbed to power under Henry VIII. and Edward VI. in
|
---|
| 121 | the same way. Lord Robert Dudley, again, had to begin at the bottom of the
|
---|
| 122 | ladder. </font></p>
|
---|
| 123 | <p align="left"><font size="3">No one will claim for Elizabeth's favourite
|
---|
| 124 | that he was a man of distinguished ability or high character. He had a fine
|
---|
| 125 | figure and a handsome face. He bore himself well in manly exercises. His
|
---|
| 126 | manners were attractive when he wished to please. To these qualities he
|
---|
| 127 | first owed his favour with Elizabeth, who was never at any pains to conceal
|
---|
| 128 | her liking for good-looking men and her dislike of ugly ones. Finding
|
---|
| 129 | himself in favour, and inheriting to the full the pushing audacity of his
|
---|
| 130 | father and grandfather, he professed for the Queen a love which he certainly
|
---|
| 131 | did not feel, in order to serve his soaring ambition. Elizabeth, it is my
|
---|
| 132 | firm conviction, never loved Dudley or any other man, in any sense of the
|
---|
| 133 | word, high or low. She had neither a tender heart nor a sensual temperament.
|
---|
| 134 | But she had a more than feminine appetite for admiration; and the more she
|
---|
| 135 | was, unhappily for herself, a stranger to the emotion of love, the more
|
---|
| 136 | restlessly did she desire to be thought capable of inspiring it. She was
|
---|
| 137 | therefore easily taken in by Dudley's professions, and, though she did not
|
---|
| 138 | care for him enough to marry him, she liked to have him as well as several
|
---|
| 139 | other handsome men, dangling about her, &quot;like her lap-dog,&quot; to use her own
|
---|
| 140 | expression. Further she believed--and here came in the mischief --that his
|
---|
| 141 | devotion to her person would make him a specially faithful servant. </font>
|
---|
| 142 | </p>
|
---|
| 143 | <p align="left"><font size="3">We know, though Elizabeth did not, that in
|
---|
| 144 | 1561, Dudley was promising the Spanish ambassador to be Philip's humble
|
---|
| 145 | vassal, and to do his best for Catholicism, if Philip would promote his
|
---|
| 146 | marriage with the Queen; that, in the same year, he was offering his
|
---|
| 147 | services to the French Huguenots for the same consideration; that at one
|
---|
| 148 | time he posed as the protector of the Puritans, while at another he was
|
---|
| 149 | intriguing with the captive Queen of Scots; whom, again, later on, he had a
|
---|
| 150 | chief share in bringing to the block. But we must remember that very few
|
---|
| 151 | statesmen, English or foreign, in the sixteenth century could have shown a
|
---|
| 152 | record free from similar blots. Those who, like Elizabeth and Cecil, were
|
---|
| 153 | undeniably actuated on the whole by public spirit, or by any principle more
|
---|
| 154 | respectable than pure selfishness, never hesitated to lie or play a double
|
---|
| 155 | game when it seemed to serve their turn. William of Orange is the only
|
---|
| 156 | eminent statesman, as far as I know, against whom this charge cannot be
|
---|
| 157 | made. When this was the standard of honour for consistent politicians and
|
---|
| 158 | real patriots, what was to be expected of lower natures? Dudley's conduct on
|
---|
| 159 | several occasions was bad and contemptible; and he must be judged with the
|
---|
| 160 | more severity, because he sinned not only against the code of duty binding
|
---|
| 161 | on the ordinary man and citizen, but against his professions of a tender
|
---|
| 162 | sentiment by means of which he had acquired his special influence. I have
|
---|
| 163 | said that he was not a man of great ability. But neither was he the
|
---|
| 164 | empty-headed incapable trifler that some writers have depicted him. He was
|
---|
| 165 | not so judged by his contemporaries. That Elizabeth, because she liked him,
|
---|
| 166 | would have selected a man of notorious incapacity to command her armies,
|
---|
| 167 | both in the Netherlands and when the Armada was expected, is one of those
|
---|
| 168 | hypotheses that do not become more credible by being often repeated. Cecil
|
---|
| 169 | himself, when it was not a question of the marriage--of which he was a
|
---|
| 170 | determined opponent--regarded him as a useful servant of the Queen. I do not
|
---|
| 171 | doubt that Elizabeth estimated his capacity at about its right value. What
|
---|
| 172 | she over-estimated was his affection for on, he had a chief share in
|
---|
| 173 | bringing to the block. But we must remember that very few statesmen, English
|
---|
| 174 | or foreign, in the sixteenth century could have shown a record free from
|
---|
| 175 | similar blots. Those who, like Elizabeth and Cecil, were undeniably actuated
|
---|
| 176 | on the whole by public spirit, or by any principle more respectable than
|
---|
| 177 | pure selfishness, never hesitated to lie or play a double game when it
|
---|
| 178 | seemed to serve their turn. William of Orange is the only eminent statesman,
|
---|
| 179 | as far as I know, against whom this charge cannot be made. When this was the
|
---|
| 180 | standard of honour for consistent politicians and real patriots, what was to
|
---|
| 181 | be expected of lower natures? Dudley's conduct on several occasions was bad
|
---|
| 182 | and contemptible; and he must be judged with the more severity, because he
|
---|
| 183 | sinned not only against the code of duty binding on the ordinary man and
|
---|
| 184 | citizen, but against his professions of a tender sentiment by means of which
|
---|
| 185 | he had acquired his special influence. I have said that he was not a man of
|
---|
| 186 | great ability. But neither was he the empty-headed incapable trifler that
|
---|
| 187 | some writers have depicted him. He was not so judged by his contemporaries.
|
---|
| 188 | That Elizabeth, because she liked him, would have selected a man of
|
---|
| 189 | notorious incapacity to command her armies, both in the Netherlands and when
|
---|
| 190 | the Armada was expected, is one of those hypotheses that do not become more
|
---|
| 191 | credible by being often repeated. Cecil himself, when it was not a question
|
---|
| 192 | of the marriage--of which he was a determined opponent--regarded him as a
|
---|
| 193 | useful servant of the Queen. I do not doubt that Elizabeth estimated his
|
---|
| 194 | capacity at about its right value. What she over-estimated was his affection
|
---|
| 195 | for herself, and consequently his trustworthiness. Sovereigns--and
|
---|
| 196 | others--often place a near relative in an important post, not as being the
|
---|
| 197 | most capable person they know, but as most likely to be true to them.
|
---|
| 198 | Elizabeth had no near relatives. If we grant--as we must grant--that she
|
---|
| 199 | believed in Dudley's love, we cannot wonder that she employed him in
|
---|
| 200 | positions of trust. A female ruler will always be liable to make these
|
---|
| 201 | mistakes, unless her Ministers and captains are to be of her own sex. </font>
|
---|
| 202 | </p>
|
---|
| 203 | <p align="left"><font size="3">On the 3rd of September 1560, two months
|
---|
| 204 | after the Treaty of Leith, Elizabeth told De Quadra that she had made up her
|
---|
| 205 | mind to marry the Archduke Charles. On the 8th, Lady Robert Dudley died at
|
---|
| 206 | Cumnor Hall. On the 11th, Elizabeth told De Quadra that she had changed her
|
---|
| 207 | mind. Dudley neglected his wife, and never brought her to court. We cannot
|
---|
| 208 | doubt that he fretted under a tie which stood in the way of his ambition.
|
---|
| 209 | Her death had been predicted. It is not strange, therefore, that he should
|
---|
| 210 | have been suspected of having caused it. Nevertheless, not a particle of
|
---|
| 211 | evidence pointing in that direction has ever been produced, and it seems
|
---|
| 212 | most probable that the poor deserted creature committed suicide. A coroner's
|
---|
| 213 | jury investigated the case diligently, and, it would seem, with some animus
|
---|
| 214 | against Foster, the owner of Cumnor Hall, but returned a verdict of
|
---|
| 215 | accidental death. </font></p>
|
---|
| 216 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Anyhow, Dudley was now free. The Scotch
|
---|
| 217 | Estates were eagerly pressing Arran's suit, and the English Protestants were
|
---|
| 218 | as eagerly backing them. The opportunity was certainly unique. Though
|
---|
| 219 | nothing was said about deposing Mary, yet nothing could be more certain than
|
---|
| 220 | that, if this marriage took place, the Queen of France would never reign in
|
---|
| 221 | Scotland. </font></p>
|
---|
| 222 | <p align="left"><font size="3">At her wits' end how to escape a match so
|
---|
| 223 | desirable for the Queen, so repulsive to the woman, Elizabeth had announced
|
---|
| 224 | her willingness to espouse the Archduke in order to gain a short
|
---|
| 225 | breathing-time. Vienna was at least further than Edinburgh, and difficulties
|
---|
| 226 | were sure to arise when details began to be discussed. At this moment, by
|
---|
| 227 | the sudden death of his wife, Dudley became marriageable. If Elizabeth had
|
---|
| 228 | been free to marry or not, as she pleased, it seems to me in the highest
|
---|
| 229 | degree improbable that she would ever have thought of taking Dudley. But
|
---|
| 230 | believing that a husband was inevitable, and expecting that she would be
|
---|
| 231 | forced to take some one who was either unknown to her or positively
|
---|
| 232 | distasteful, it was most natural that she should ask herself whether it was
|
---|
| 233 | not the least of evils to put this cruel persecution to an end by choosing a
|
---|
| 234 | man whom at least she admired and liked, who loved her, as she thought, for
|
---|
| 235 | her own sake, and would be as obedient &quot;as her lap-dog.&quot; When nations are
|
---|
| 236 | ruled by women, and marriageable women, feelings and motives which belong to
|
---|
| 237 | the sphere of private life, and should be confined to it, are apt to invade
|
---|
| 238 | the domain of politics. If Elizabeth's subjects expected their sovereign to
|
---|
| 239 | suppress all personal feelings in choosing a consort, they ought to have
|
---|
| 240 | established the Salic law. No woman, queen or not queen, can be expected
|
---|
| 241 | voluntarily to make such a sacrifice. Her happiness is too deeply involved.
|
---|
| 242 | </font></p>
|
---|
| 243 | <p align="left"><font size="3">In the autumn, then, of 1560, when Elizabeth
|
---|
| 244 | had been not quite two years on the throne, she seriously thought of
|
---|
| 245 | marrying Dudley. It is difficult to say how long she continued to think of
|
---|
| 246 | it seriously. With him, as with other suitors, she went on coquetting when
|
---|
| 247 | she had perfectly made up her mind that nothing was to come of it. Perhaps
|
---|
| 248 | we shall be right in saying that, as long as there was any question of the
|
---|
| 249 | Archduke Charles, she looked to Dudley as a possible refuge. This would be
|
---|
| 250 | till about the beginning of 1568. It seems to be always assumed, as a matter
|
---|
| 251 | of course, that Cecil played the part of Elizabeth's good genius in
|
---|
| 252 | persistently dissuading her from marrying Dudley. I am not so sure of this.
|
---|
| 253 | If she had been a wife and a mother many of her difficulties would have at
|
---|
| 254 | once disappeared, and the weakest points in her character would have no
|
---|
| 255 | longer been brought out. It ended in her not marrying at all. I am inclined
|
---|
| 256 | to think that another enemy of Dudley, the Earl of Sussex, showed more good
|
---|
| 257 | sense and truer patriotism when he wrote in October 1560:-- </font></p>
|
---|
| 258 | <blockquote>
|
---|
| 259 | <p align="left"><font size="3">&quot;I wish not her Majesty to linger this
|
---|
| 260 | matter of so great importance, but to choose speedily; and therein to
|
---|
| 261 | follow so much her own affection as [that], by the looking upon him whom
|
---|
| 262 | she should choose, omnes ejus sensus titillarentur; which shall be the
|
---|
| 263 | readiest way, with the help of God, to bring us a blessed prince which
|
---|
| 264 | shall redeem us out of thraldom. If I knew that England had other rightful
|
---|
| 265 | inheritors I would then advise otherwise, and seek to serve the time by a
|
---|
| 266 | husband's choice [seek for an advantageous political alliance]. But seeing
|
---|
| 267 | that she is ultimum refugium, and that no riches, friendship, foreign
|
---|
| 268 | alliance, or any other present commodity that might come by a husband, can
|
---|
| 269 | serve our turn, without issue of her body, if the Queen will love anybody,
|
---|
| 270 | let her love where and whom she lists, so much thirst I to see her love.
|
---|
| 271 | And whomsoever she shall love and choose, him will I love, honour, and
|
---|
| 272 | serve to the uttermost.&quot; </font></p>
|
---|
| 273 | </blockquote>
|
---|
| 274 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Perhaps I may be excused for expressing the
|
---|
| 275 | opinion that the ideal husband for Elizabeth, if it had been possible, would
|
---|
| 276 | have been Lord James Stuart, afterwards Earl of Moray. Of sufficient
|
---|
| 277 | capacity, kindly heart, undaunted resolution, and unswerving rectitude of
|
---|
| 278 | purpose, he would have supplied just those elements that were wanting to
|
---|
| 279 | correct her defects. King of Scotland he perhaps could not be. Regent of
|
---|
| 280 | Scotland he did become. If he could, at the same time, have been Elizabeth's
|
---|
| 281 | husband, the two crowns might have, in the next generation, been worn by a
|
---|
| 282 | Stuart of a nobler stock than the son of Mary and Darnley. </font></p>
|
---|
| 283 | <p align="left"><font size="3">When Mary Stuart, on the death of her husband
|
---|
| 284 | Francis II., returned to her own kingdom (August 1561), she found the
|
---|
| 285 | Scotch nobles sore at the rejection of Arran's suit. Bent on giving a
|
---|
| 286 | sovereign to England, in one way or another, they were now ready,
|
---|
| 287 | Protestants as well as Catholics, to back Mary's demand that she should be
|
---|
| 288 | recognised as Elizabeth's heir-presumptive. To this the English. Queen could
|
---|
| 289 | not consent, for the very sufficient reason, that not only would the
|
---|
| 290 | Catholic party be encouraged to hold together and give trouble, but the more
|
---|
| 291 | bigoted and desperate members of it would certainly attempt her life, lest
|
---|
| 292 | she should disappoint Mary's hopes by marrying. &quot;She was not so foolish,&quot;
|
---|
| 293 | she said, &quot;as to hang a winding-sheet before her eyes or make a funeral
|
---|
| 294 | feast whilst she was alive,&quot; but she promised that she would neither do
|
---|
| 295 | anything nor allow anything to be done by Parliament to prejudice Mary's
|
---|
| 296 | title. To this undertaking she adhered long after Mary's hostile conduct had
|
---|
| 297 | given ample justification for treating her as an enemy. </font></p>
|
---|
| 298 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Openly Mary was claiming nothing but the
|
---|
| 299 | succession. In reality she cared little for a prospect so remote and
|
---|
| 300 | uncertain. What she was scheming for was to hurl Elizabeth from her throne.
|
---|
| 301 | This was an object for which she never ceased to work till her head was off
|
---|
| 302 | her shoulders. Her aims were more sharply defined than those of Elizabeth,
|
---|
| 303 | and she was remarkably free from that indecision which too often marred the
|
---|
| 304 | action of the English Queen. In ability and information she was not at all
|
---|
| 305 | inferior to Elizabeth; in promptitude and energy she was her superior. These
|
---|
| 306 | masculine qualities might have given her the victory in the bitter duel, but
|
---|
| 307 | that, in the all-important domain of feeling, her sex indomitably asserted
|
---|
| 308 | itself, and weighted her too heavily to match the superb self-control of
|
---|
| 309 | Elizabeth. She could love and she could hate; Elizabeth had only likes and
|
---|
| 310 | dislikes, and therefore played the cooler game. When Mary really loved,
|
---|
| 311 | which was only once, all selfish calculations were flung to the winds; she
|
---|
| 312 | was ready to sacrifice everything, and not count the cost--body and soul,
|
---|
| 313 | crown and life, interest and honour. When she hated, which was often,
|
---|
| 314 | rancour was apt to get the better of prudence. And so at the fatal
|
---|
| 315 | turning-point of her career, when mad hate and madder love possessed her
|
---|
| 316 | soul, she went down before her great rival never to rise again. Here was a
|
---|
| 317 | woman indeed. And if, for that reason, she lost the battle in life, for that
|
---|
| 318 | reason too she still disputes it from the tomb. She has always had, and
|
---|
| 319 | always will have, the ardent sympathy of a host of champions, to whom the
|
---|
| 320 | &quot;fair vestal throned by the west&quot; is a mere politician, sexless, coldblooded,
|
---|
| 321 | and repulsive. </font></p>
|
---|
| 322 | <p align="left"><font size="3">In 1564 Mary, as yet fancy-free, was seeking
|
---|
| 323 | to match herself on purely political grounds. She was not so fastidious as
|
---|
| 324 | Elizabeth, for she does not seem to have troubled herself at all about
|
---|
| 325 | personal qualities, if a match seemed otherwise eligible. The Hamiltons
|
---|
| 326 | pressed Arran upon her. But he was a Protestant. He was not heir to any
|
---|
| 327 | throne but that of Scotland; and, though a powerful family in Scotland, the
|
---|
| 328 | Hamiltons could give her no help elsewhere. Philip, who, now that the Guises
|
---|
| 329 | had become his protégés, was less jealous of her designs, wished her to
|
---|
| 330 | marry his cousin, the Archduke Charles of Austria. But this prince, whom
|
---|
| 331 | Elizabeth professed to find too much of a Catholic, was, in the eyes of
|
---|
| 332 | 'Mary and her more bigoted co-religionists, too nearly a Lutheran; and she
|
---|
| 333 | doubted whether Philip cared enough for him to risk a war for establishing
|
---|
| 334 | him and herself upon the English throne. For this reason the husband on whom
|
---|
| 335 | she had set her heart was Don Carlos, Philip's own son, a sort of wild
|
---|
| 336 | beast. But Philip received her overtures doubtfully; the fact being that he
|
---|
| 337 | could not trust Don Carlos, whom he eventually put to death. Catherine de'
|
---|
| 338 | Medici loved Mary as little as she did the other Guises, but the prospect of
|
---|
| 339 | the Spanish match filled her with such terror that she proposed to make the
|
---|
| 340 | Scottish Queen her daughter-in-law a second time by a marriage with Charles
|
---|
| 341 | IX., a lad under thirteen, if she would wait two years for him. </font></p>
|
---|
| 342 | <p align="left"><font size="3">On the other hand, Elizabeth impressed upon
|
---|
| 343 | Mary that, unless she married a member of some Reformed Church, the English
|
---|
| 344 | Parliament would certainly demand that her title to the succession, whatever
|
---|
| 345 | it was, should be declared invalid. The House of Commons was strongly
|
---|
| 346 | Protestant, and had with difficulty been prevented from addressing the Queen
|
---|
| 347 | in favour of the succession of Lady Catherine Grey. Apart from religion
|
---|
| 348 | there was deep irritation against the whole Scotch nation. Sir Ralph Sadler,
|
---|
| 349 | who had been much employed in Scotland, denounced them as &quot;false, beggarly,
|
---|
| 350 | and perjured, whom the very stones in the English streets would rise
|
---|
| 351 | against.&quot; When Elizabeth was dangerously ill in October 1562, the Council
|
---|
| 352 | discussed whom they should proclaim in the event of her death. Some were for
|
---|
| 353 | the will of Henry VIII. and Catherine Grey. Others, sick of female rulers,
|
---|
| 354 | were for taking the Earl of Huntingdon, a descendant of the Duke of
|
---|
| 355 | Clarence. None were for Mary or Darnley. Mary's chief friends--Montagu,
|
---|
| 356 | Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Derby--were not on the Council. </font>
|
---|
| 357 | </p>
|
---|
| 358 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Parliament and the Council being against her,
|
---|
| 359 | Mary could not afford to quarrel with the Queen. Elizabeth told her that she
|
---|
| 360 | would regard a marriage with any Spanish, Austrian, or French prince as a
|
---|
| 361 | declaration of war. Help from those quarters was far away, and at the mercy
|
---|
| 362 | of winds and waves: the Border fortresses were near, and their garrisons
|
---|
| 363 | always ready to march. Besides, whichever of the two she might
|
---|
| 364 | obtain--Charles IX. or the Archduke--she drove the other into the arms of
|
---|
| 365 | Elizabeth. </font></p>
|
---|
| 366 | <p align="left"><font size="3">But there was another possible husband who
|
---|
| 367 | had crossed her mind from time to time; not a prince indeed, yet of royal
|
---|
| 368 | extraction in the female line, and, what was more, not without pretensions
|
---|
| 369 | to that very succession which she coveted. Henry Lord Darnley, son of
|
---|
| 370 | Matthew Stuart, Earl of Lennox, was, by his father's side, of the royal
|
---|
| 371 | family of Scotland, while his mother was the daughter of Margaret Tudor,
|
---|
| 372 | sister of Henry VIII., by her second husband, the Earl of Angus. Born and
|
---|
| 373 | brought up in England, where his father had been long an exile, he was
|
---|
| 374 | reckoned as an Englishman, which, in the opinion of many lawyers, was
|
---|
| 375 | essential as a qualification for the crown. He was also a Catholic, and if
|
---|
| 376 | Elizabeth had died at this time, it was perhaps Darnley, rather than Mary,
|
---|
| 377 | whom the Catholics would have tried to place on the throne. Elizabeth had
|
---|
| 378 | promised that, if Mary would marry an English nobleman, she would do her
|
---|
| 379 | best to get Mary's title recognised by Parliament. To Elizabeth, therefore,
|
---|
| 380 | Mary now turned, with the request that she would point out such a nobleman,
|
---|
| 381 | not without a hope that she would name Darnley (March 1564). But, to Mary's
|
---|
| 382 | mortification, she formally recommended Lord Robert Dudley. </font></p>
|
---|
| 383 | <p align="left"><font size="3">This recommendation has often been treated as
|
---|
| 384 | if it was a sorry joke perpetrated by Elizabeth, who had never any intention
|
---|
| 385 | of furthering, or even permitting, such a match. But nothing is more certain
|
---|
| 386 | than that Elizabeth was most anxious to bring it about; and it affords a
|
---|
| 387 | decisive proof that her feeling for Dudley, whatever name she herself may
|
---|
| 388 | have put to it, was not what is usually called love. Cecil and all her most
|
---|
| 389 | intimate advisers entertained no doubt that she was sincere. She undertook,
|
---|
| 390 | if Mary would accept Dudley, to make him a duke; and, in the meantime, she
|
---|
| 391 | created him Earl of Leicester. She regarded him, so she told Mary's envoy
|
---|
| 392 | Melville, as her brother and her friend; if he was Mary's husband she would
|
---|
| 393 | have no suspicion or fear of any usurpation before her death, being assured
|
---|
| 394 | that he was so loving and trusty that he would never permit anything to be
|
---|
| 395 | attempted during her time. &quot;But,&quot; she said, pointing to Darnley, who was
|
---|
| 396 | present, &quot;you like better yonder long lad.&quot; Her suspicion was correct.
|
---|
| 397 | Melville had secret instructions to procure permission for Darnley to go to
|
---|
| 398 | Scotland. However, he answered discreetly that &quot;no woman of spirit could
|
---|
| 399 | choose such an one who more resembled a woman than a man.&quot; </font></p>
|
---|
| 400 | <p align="left"><font size="3">How was Elizabeth to be persuaded to let
|
---|
| 401 | Darnley leave England? There was only one way to disarm suspicion: Mary
|
---|
| 402 | declared herself ready to marry Leicester (January 1565). Darnley
|
---|
| 403 | immediately obtained leave of absence for three months ostensibly to recover
|
---|
| 404 | the forfeited Lennox property. In Scotland the purpose of his coming was not
|
---|
| 405 | mistaken, and it roused the Protestants to fury. The Queen's chapel, the
|
---|
| 406 | only place in the Lowlands where mass was said, was beset. Her priests were
|
---|
| 407 | mobbed and maltreated. Moray, who till lately had supported his sister with
|
---|
| 408 | such loyalty and energy that Knox had quarrelled with him, prepared, with
|
---|
| 409 | the other Lords of the Congregation, for resistance. Elizabeth, and Cecil
|
---|
| 410 | also, had been completely overreached. A prudent player sometimes gets into
|
---|
| 411 | difficulties by attributing equal prudence to a daring and reckless
|
---|
| 412 | antagonist. Elizabeth, as a patriotic ruler, desired nothing but peace and
|
---|
| 413 | security for her own kingdom. If she could have that, she had no wish to
|
---|
| 414 | meddle with Scotland. Mary, caring nothing for the interests of her
|
---|
| 415 | subjects, was facing civil war with a light heart; and, for the chance of
|
---|
| 416 | obtaining the more brilliant throne, was ready to risk her own. </font></p>
|
---|
| 417 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Undeterred by Elizabeth's threats, Mary
|
---|
| 418 | married Darnley (29 July 1565). Moray and Argyll, having obtained a
|
---|
| 419 | promise of assistance from England, took arms; but most of the Lords of the
|
---|
| 420 | Congregation showed themselves even more powerless or perfidious than they
|
---|
| 421 | had been five years before. Morton, Ruthven, and Lindsay, stoutest of
|
---|
| 422 | Protestants, were related to Darnley, and were gratified by the elevation of
|
---|
| 423 | their kinsman. Moray failed to elicit a spark of spirit out of the
|
---|
| 424 | priest-baiting citizens of Edinburgh, and the Queen, riding steel cap on
|
---|
| 425 | head and pistols at saddle-bow, chased him into England. Lord Bedford, who
|
---|
| 426 | was in command at Berwick, could have stepped across the Border and
|
---|
| 427 | scattered her undisciplined array without difficulty. He implored Elizabeth
|
---|
| 428 | to let him do it; offered to do it on his own responsibility, and be
|
---|
| 429 | disavowed. But he found, to his mortification, that she had been playing a
|
---|
| 430 | game of brag. She had hoped that a threatening attitude would stop the
|
---|
| 431 | marriage. But as it was an accomplished fact she was not going to draw the
|
---|
| 432 | sword. </font></p>
|
---|
| 433 | <p align="left"><font size="3">This was shabby treatment of Moray and his
|
---|
| 434 | friends, and to some of her councillors it seemed not only shameful but
|
---|
| 435 | dangerous to show the white feather. But judging from the course of events,
|
---|
| 436 | Elizabeth's policy was the safe one. The English Catholics--some of them at
|
---|
| 437 | all events, as will be explained presently--were becoming more discontented
|
---|
| 438 | and dangerous. The northern earls were known to be disaffected. Mary
|
---|
| 439 | believed that in every country in England the Catholics had their
|
---|
| 440 | organisation and their leaders, and that, if she chose, she could march to
|
---|
| 441 | London. No doubt she was much deceived. In reluctance to resort to violence
|
---|
| 442 | and respect for constituted authority, England, even north of the Humber,
|
---|
| 443 | was at least two centuries ahead of Scotland, and, if she had come attended
|
---|
| 444 | by a horde of savage Highlanders and Border ruffians, &quot;the very stones in
|
---|
| 445 | the streets would have risen against them.&quot; It was Elizabeth's rule--and a
|
---|
| 446 | very good rule too--never to engage in a war if she could avoid it. From
|
---|
| 447 | this rule she could not be drawn to swerve either by passion or ambition, or
|
---|
| 448 | that most fertile source of fighting, a regard for honour. All the old
|
---|
| 449 | objections to an invasion of Scotland still subsisted in full strength, and
|
---|
| 450 | were reinforced by others. It was better to wait for an attack which might
|
---|
| 451 | never come than go half-way to meet it. An invasion of Scotland might drive
|
---|
| 452 | the northern earls to declare for Mary, which, unless compelled to choose
|
---|
| 453 | sides, they might never do. Some people are more perturbed by the
|
---|
| 454 | expectation and uncertainty of danger than by its declared presence. Not so
|
---|
| 455 | Elizabeth. Smouldering treason she could take coolly as long as it only
|
---|
| 456 | smouldered. As for the betrayal of the Scotch refugees, Elizabeth never
|
---|
| 457 | allowed the private interests of her own subjects, much less those of
|
---|
| 458 | foreigners, to weigh against the interests of England. Moray, one of the
|
---|
| 459 | most magnanimous and self-sacrificing of statesmen, evidently felt that
|
---|
| 460 | Elizabeth's course was wise, if not exactly chivalrous. He submitted to her
|
---|
| 461 | public rebuke without publicly contradicting her, and waited patiently in
|
---|
| 462 | exile till it should be convenient for her to help him and his cause. Mary,
|
---|
| 463 | too, though elated by her success, and never abandoning her intention to
|
---|
| 464 | push it further, found it best to halt for a while. Philip wrote to her that
|
---|
| 465 | he would help her secretly with money if Elizabeth attacked her, but not
|
---|
| 466 | otherwise, and warned her against any premature clutch at the English crown.
|
---|
| 467 | Elizabeth's seeming tameness could hardly have received a more complete
|
---|
| 468 | justification. </font></p>
|
---|
| 469 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Mary had determined to espouse Darnley,
|
---|
| 470 | before she had set eyes on him, for purely political reasons. There is no
|
---|
| 471 | reason to suppose she ever cared for him. It is more likely, as Mr. Froude
|
---|
| 472 | suggests, that for a great political purpose she was doing an act which in
|
---|
| 473 | itself she loathed. A woman of twenty-two, already a widow, mature beyond
|
---|
| 474 | her years, exceptionally able, absorbed in the great game of politics, and
|
---|
| 475 | accustomed to admiration, was not likely to care for a raw lad of nineteen,
|
---|
| 476 | foolish, ignorant, ill-conditioned, vicious, and without a single manly
|
---|
| 477 | quality. One man we know she did love later on--loved passionately and
|
---|
| 478 | devotedly, no slim girl-faced youngster, but the fierce, stout-limbed,
|
---|
| 479 | dare-devil Bothwell; and Bothwell gradually made his way to her heart by his
|
---|
| 480 | readiness to undertake every desperate service she required of him. What
|
---|
| 481 | Mary admired, nay envied, in the other sex was the stout heart and the
|
---|
| 482 | strong arm. She loved herself to rough it on the war-path. She surprised
|
---|
| 483 | Randolph by her spirit:--&quot;Never thought I that stomach to be in her that I
|
---|
| 484 | find. She repented nothing but, when the Lords and others came in the
|
---|
| 485 | morning from the watches, that she was not a man, to know what life it was
|
---|
| 486 | to lie all night in the fields or to walk upon the causeway with a jack and
|
---|
| 487 | a knapscap, a Glasgow buckler and a broadsword.&quot; &quot;She desires much,&quot; says
|
---|
| 488 | Knollys, &quot;to hear of hardiness and valiancy, commending by name all approved
|
---|
| 489 | hardy men of her country, although they be her enemies; and she concealeth
|
---|
| 490 | no cowardice even in her friends.&quot; Valuable to Mary as a man of action,
|
---|
| 491 | Bothwell was not worth much as an adviser. For advice she looked to the
|
---|
| 492 | Italian Rizzio, in whom she confided because, with the detachment of a
|
---|
| 493 | foreigner, he regarded Scotch ambitions, animosities, and intrigues only as
|
---|
| 494 | so much material to be utilised for the purpose of the combined onslaught on
|
---|
| 495 | Protestantism which the Pope was trying to organise. Bothwell was at this
|
---|
| 496 | time thirty, and Rizzio, according to Lesley, fifty. </font></p>
|
---|
| 497 | <p align="left"><font size="3">In spite of all the prurient suggestions of
|
---|
| 498 | writers who have fastened on the story of Mary's life as on a savoury
|
---|
| 499 | morsel, there is no reason whatever for thinking that she was a woman of a
|
---|
| 500 | licentious disposition, and there is strong evidence to the contrary. There
|
---|
| 501 | was never anything to her discredit in France. Her behaviour in the affair
|
---|
| 502 | of Chastelard was irreproachable. The charge of adultery with Rizzio is
|
---|
| 503 | dismissed as unworthy of belief even by Mr. Froude, the severest of her
|
---|
| 504 | judges. Bothwell indeed she loved, and, like many another woman who does not
|
---|
| 505 | deserve to be called licentious, she sacrificed her reputation to the man
|
---|
| 506 | she loved. But the most conclusive proof that she was no slave to appetite
|
---|
| 507 | is afforded by her nineteen years' residence in England, which began when
|
---|
| 508 | she was only twenty-five. During almost the whole of that time she was
|
---|
| 509 | mixing freely in the society of the other sex, with the fullest opportunity
|
---|
| 510 | for misconduct had she been so inclined. It is not to be supposed that she
|
---|
| 511 | was fettered by any scruples of religion or morality. Yet no charge of
|
---|
| 512 | unchastity is made against her. </font></p>
|
---|
| 513 | <p align="left"><font size="3">When Darnley found that his wife, though she
|
---|
| 514 | conferred on him the title of King, did not procure for him the crown
|
---|
| 515 | matrimonial or allow him the smallest authority, he gave free vent to his
|
---|
| 516 | anger. No less angry were his kinsmen, Morton, Ruthven, and Lindsay. They
|
---|
| 517 | had deserted the Congregation in the expectation that when Darnley was King
|
---|
| 518 | they would be all-powerful. Instead of this they found themselves neglected;
|
---|
| 519 | while the Queen's confidence was given to Catholics and to Bothwell, who,
|
---|
| 520 | though nominally a Protestant, always acted with the Catholics. The
|
---|
| 521 | Protestant seceders had in fact fallen between two stools. It was against
|
---|
| 522 | Rizzio that their rage burnt fiercest. Bothwell was only a bull-headed,
|
---|
| 523 | blundering swordsman. Rizzio was doubly detestable to them as the brain of
|
---|
| 524 | the Queen's clique and as a low-born foreigner. Rizzio, therefore, they
|
---|
| 525 | determined to remove in the time-honoured Scottish fashion. Notice of the
|
---|
| 526 | day fixed for the murder was sent to the banished noblemen in England, so
|
---|
| 527 | that they might appear in Edinburgh immediately it was accomplished. </font>
|
---|
| 528 | </p>
|
---|
| 529 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Randolph, the English ambassador, and
|
---|
| 530 | Bedford, who commanded on the Border, were also taken into the secret, and
|
---|
| 531 | they communicated it to Cecil and Leicester. </font></p>
|
---|
| 532 | <p align="left"><font size="3">It is unnecessary here to repeat the
|
---|
| 533 | well-known story of the murder of Rizzio. It was part of a large scheme for
|
---|
| 534 | bringing back the exiled Protestant lords, closing the split in the
|
---|
| 535 | Protestant party, and securing the ascendancy of the Protestant religion. At
|
---|
| 536 | first it appeared to have succeeded. Bedford wrote to Cecil that &quot;everything
|
---|
| 537 | would now go well.&quot; But Mary, by simulating a return of wifely fondness,
|
---|
| 538 | managed to detach her weak husband from his confederates. By his aid she
|
---|
| 539 | escaped from their hands. Bothwell and her Catholic friends gathered round
|
---|
| 540 | her in arms. In a few days she re-entered Edinburgh in triumph, and Rizzio's
|
---|
| 541 | murderers had to take refuge in England. </font></p>
|
---|
| 542 | <p align="left"><font size="3">But if the Protestant stroke had failed, Mary
|
---|
| 543 | was obliged to recognise that her plan for re-establishing the Catholic
|
---|
| 544 | ascendancy in Scotland could not be rushed in the high-handed way she had
|
---|
| 545 | proposed as a mere preliminary to the more important subjugation of England.
|
---|
| 546 | At the very moment when she seemed to stand victorious over all opposition,
|
---|
| 547 | the ground had yawned under her feet, and, while she was dreaming of
|
---|
| 548 | dethroning Elizabeth, she had found herself a helpless captive in the hands
|
---|
| 549 | of her own subjects. The lesson was a valuable one, and if she could profit
|
---|
| 550 | by it her prospects had never been so good. The barbarous outrage of which,
|
---|
| 551 | in the sixth month of pregnancy, she had been the object could not but
|
---|
| 552 | arouse widespread sympathy for her. She had extricated herself from her
|
---|
| 553 | difficulties with splendid courage and clever-ness. The loss of such an
|
---|
| 554 | adviser as Rizzio was really a stroke of luck for her. All she had to do was
|
---|
| 555 | to abandon, or at all events postpone, her design of reestablishing the
|
---|
| 556 | Catholic religion in Scotland, and to discontinue her intrigues against
|
---|
| 557 | Elizabeth. </font></p>
|
---|
| 558 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Her prospects in England were still further
|
---|
| 559 | improved when she gave birth to a son (19 June 1566). Once more there was
|
---|
| 560 | an heir-male to the old royal line, and, as Elizabeth continued to evade
|
---|
| 561 | marriage, most people who were not fierce Protestants began to think it
|
---|
| 562 | would be more reasonable and safe to abide by the rule of primogeniture than
|
---|
| 563 | by the will of Henry VIII., sanctioned though it was by Act of Parliament.
|
---|
| 564 | There can be no doubt that this was the opinion and intention of Elizabeth,
|
---|
| 565 | though she strongly objected to having anything settled during her own
|
---|
| 566 | lifetime. But she had herself gone a long way towards settling it by her
|
---|
| 567 | treatment of Mary's only serious competitor. Catherine Grey had contracted a
|
---|
| 568 | secret marriage with the Earl of Hertford, son of the Protector Somerset.
|
---|
| 569 | Her pregnancy necessitated an avowal. The clergyman who had married them was
|
---|
| 570 | not forthcoming, and Hertford's sister, the only witness, was dead.
|
---|
| 571 | Elizabeth chose to disbelieve their story, though she would not have been
|
---|
| 572 | able to prove when, where, or by whom her own father and mother had been
|
---|
| 573 | married. She had a right to be angry; but when she sent the unhappy couple
|
---|
| 574 | to the Tower, and caused her tool, Archbishop Parker, to pronounce the union
|
---|
| 575 | invalid and its offspring illegitimate, she was playing Mary's game. The
|
---|
| 576 | House of Commons elected in 1563 was still undissolved. It was strongly
|
---|
| 577 | Protestant, and it favoured Catherine's title even after her disgrace. In
|
---|
| 578 | its second session, in the autumn of 1566, it made a determined effort to
|
---|
| 579 | compel Elizabeth to marry, and in the meanwhile to recognise Catherine as
|
---|
| 580 | the heirpresumptive. The zealous Protestants knew well that the Peers were
|
---|
| 581 | in favour of the Stuart title, and they feared that a new House of Commons
|
---|
| 582 | might agree with the Peers. To get rid of their pertinacity Elizabeth
|
---|
| 583 | dissolved Parliament, not without strong expressions of displeasure (2 January 1567). Cecil himself earned the thanks of Mary for his attitude on this
|
---|
| 584 | occasion. It cannot be doubted that he dreaded her succession; but he saw
|
---|
| 585 | which way the tide was running, and he thought it prudent to swim with it.
|
---|
| 586 | </font></p>
|
---|
| 587 | <p align="left"><font size="3">It was at this moment that Mary flung away
|
---|
| 588 | all her advantage, and entered oh the fatal course which led to her ruin.
|
---|
| 589 | Her loathing for Darnley, her fierce desire to avenge on him the insults and
|
---|
| 590 | outrage she had suffered, left no room in heart or mind for considerations
|
---|
| 591 | of policy. She would have been glad to obtain a divorce. But the Catholic
|
---|
| 592 | Church does not grant divorce for misconduct after marriage. Some pretext
|
---|
| 593 | must be found for alleging that the marriage was null from the beginning.
|
---|
| 594 | This did not suit Mary. It would have made her son illegitimate, and would
|
---|
| 595 | have placed her in exactly the position of Catherine Grey. A mere separation
|
---|
| 596 | a toro would not have suited her any better, for it would not have enabled
|
---|
| 597 | her to contract another marriage. </font></p>
|
---|
| 598 | <p align="left"><font size="3">When Mary's reliance on Bothwell grew into
|
---|
| 599 | attachment, when her attachment warmed into love, it is impossible to fix
|
---|
| 600 | with any exactness. Her infatuation presented itself to him as a grand
|
---|
| 601 | opening for his daring ambition. A notorious profligate, he loved her--if
|
---|
| 602 | the word is to be so degraded--as much or as little as he had loved twenty
|
---|
| 603 | other women. What, however, he desired in her case, was marriage. A more
|
---|
| 604 | sensible man would have foreseen that marriage would mean certain ruin for
|
---|
| 605 | himself and the Queen. But he was accustomed to despise all difficulties in
|
---|
| 606 | his path, being intellectually incapable of measuring them, and believing in
|
---|
| 607 | nothing but audacity and brute force. Husband of the Queen, why should he
|
---|
| 608 | not be master of the kingdom? Why not King? When such an idea had once
|
---|
| 609 | occurred to Bothwell, Darnley's expectancy of life would be much the same as
|
---|
| 610 | that of a calf in the presence of the butcher. </font></p>
|
---|
| 611 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The wretched victim had alienated all his
|
---|
| 612 | friends among the nobility. Some owed him a deadly grudge for his treachery.
|
---|
| 613 | Others had been offended by his insolence. To all he was an encumbrance and
|
---|
| 614 | a nuisance. Several, therefore, of the leading personages were more or less
|
---|
| 615 | engaged in the compact for putting him out of the way. Moray, Argyll, and
|
---|
| 616 | Maitland offered to assist in ridding Mary of her husband by way of a
|
---|
| 617 | Protestant sentence of divorce, on condition that Morton and his friends in
|
---|
| 618 | exile should be pardoned and recalled. The bargain was struck, and Mary
|
---|
| 619 | assented to it. Nothing was said about murder. No one had any interest in
|
---|
| 620 | murder except Mary and Bothwell, whose project of marriage was as yet
|
---|
| 621 | unsuspected. At the same time, if Bothwell liked to kill Darnley on his own
|
---|
| 622 | responsibility, as no doubt he made it pretty plain that he would--why, so
|
---|
| 623 | much the better. It relieved the other lords of all trouble. It was a
|
---|
| 624 | simple, thorough, old-fashioned expedient, which had never been attended
|
---|
| 625 | with any discredit in Scotland, and had only one inconvenience --that it
|
---|
| 626 | usually saddled the murderer with a blood feud. In the present case Lennox
|
---|
| 627 | was the only peer who would feel the least aggrieved; and he was in no
|
---|
| 628 | condition to wage blood-feuds. Anyhow, that was Bothwell's look-out. </font>
|
---|
| 629 | </p>
|
---|
| 630 | <p align="left"><font size="3">So obvious was all this that it was hardly
|
---|
| 631 | worth while to observe secrecy except as to the exact occasion and mode of
|
---|
| 632 | execution. Many persons were more or less aware of what was going to be
|
---|
| 633 | done; but none cared to interfere. Moray was an honourable and conscientious
|
---|
| 634 | man, if judged by the standard of his environment--the only fair way of
|
---|
| 635 | estimating character. But Moray chose to leave Edinburgh the morning before
|
---|
| 636 | the deed; and thought it sufficient to be able to say afterwards that &quot;if
|
---|
| 637 | any man said he was present when purposes [talk] were held in his audience
|
---|
| 638 | tending to any unlawful or dishonourable end, he spoke wickedly and
|
---|
| 639 | untruly.&quot; The inner circle of the plot consisted of Bothwell, Argyll, Huntly,
|
---|
| 640 | Maitland, and Sir James Balfour. </font></p>
|
---|
| 641 | <p align="left"><font size="3">That Darnley was murdered by Bothwell is not
|
---|
| 642 | disputed. That Mary was cognisant of the plot, and lured him to the
|
---|
| 643 | shambles, has been doubted by few investigators at once competent and
|
---|
| 644 | unbiassed. She lent herself to this part not without compunction. Bothwell
|
---|
| 645 | had the advantage over her that the loved has over the lover; and he used it
|
---|
| 646 | mercilessly for his headlong ambition, hardly taking the trouble to pretend
|
---|
| 647 | that he cared for the unhappy woman who was sacrificing everything for him.
|
---|
| 648 | He in fact cared more for his lawful wife, whom he was preparing to divorce,
|
---|
| 649 | and to whom he had been married only six months. Mary was tormented by
|
---|
| 650 | jealousy of her after the divorce as well as before. </font></p>
|
---|
| 651 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The murder of Darnley (10 February 1567) was
|
---|
| 652 | universally ascribed to Mary at the time by Catholics as well as Protestants
|
---|
| 653 | at home and abroad, and it fatally damaged her cause in England and the rest
|
---|
| 654 | of Europe. In Scotland itself--such was the backward and barbarous state of
|
---|
| 655 | the country--it would probably not have shaken her throne if she had
|
---|
| 656 | followed it up with firm and prudent government. She might even have
|
---|
| 657 | indulged her illicit passion for Bothwell, with little pretence of
|
---|
| 658 | concealment, if she had not advanced him in place and power above his
|
---|
| 659 | equals. There was probably not a noble in Scotland, from Moray downwards,
|
---|
| 660 | who would have scrupled to be her Minister. The Protestant commonalty
|
---|
| 661 | indeed, who with all the national laxity as to the observance of the sixth
|
---|
| 662 | commandment, were shocked by any trifling with the seventh, would no doubt
|
---|
| 663 | have made their bark heard. But their bite had not yet become formidable;
|
---|
| 664 | and in any case they were not to be propitiated. </font></p>
|
---|
| 665 | <p align="left"><font size="3">What brought sudden and irretrievable ruin on
|
---|
| 666 | Mary was not the murder of Darnley, but the infatuation which made her the
|
---|
| 667 | passive instrument of Bothwell's presumptuous ambition. The lords, Catholic
|
---|
| 668 | and Protestant alike, allowed the murder to pass uncondemned and unpunished;
|
---|
| 669 | but they were furious when they found that Darnley had only been removed to
|
---|
| 670 | make room for Bothwell, and that they were to have for their master a noble
|
---|
| 671 | of by no means the highest lineage, bankrupt in fortune, and generally
|
---|
| 672 | disliked for his arrogant and bullying demeanour. The project of marriage
|
---|
| 673 | was not disclosed till ten weeks after the murder (19 April 1567). Five
|
---|
| 674 | days later, Bothwell, fearing lest he should be frustrated by public
|
---|
| 675 | indignation or interference from England, carried off the Queen, as had been
|
---|
| 676 | previously arranged between them. His idea was that, when Mary had been thus
|
---|
| 677 | publicly outraged, it would be recognised as impossible that she should
|
---|
| 678 | marry any one but the ravisher. In this coarse expedient, as in the clumsy
|
---|
| 679 | means employed for disposing of Darnley, we see the blundering foolhardiness
|
---|
| 680 | of the man. The marriage ceremony was performed as soon as Bothwell's
|
---|
| 681 | divorce could be managed (15 May). Just a month later Mary surrendered to
|
---|
| 682 | the insurgent lords at Carberry Hill, and Bothwell, flying for his life,
|
---|
| 683 | disappears from history. </font></p>
|
---|
| 684 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The feelings with which Elizabeth had
|
---|
| 685 | contemplated the course of events in Scotland during the last six months
|
---|
| 686 | were no doubt of a mixed nature. At the beginning of 1567, her seven-years'
|
---|
| 687 | duel with Mary appeared to be ending in defeat. The last bold thrust, aimed
|
---|
| 688 | in her interest if not by her hand --the murder of Rizzio--had not improved
|
---|
| 689 | her position. It seemed that she would soon be obliged to make her choice
|
---|
| 690 | between two equally dreaded alternatives: she must either recognise Mary as
|
---|
| 691 | her heir or take a husband. From this unpleasant dilemma she was released by
|
---|
| 692 | the headlong descent of her rival in the first six months of 1567. But all
|
---|
| 693 | other feelings were soon swallowed up in alarm and indignation at the
|
---|
| 694 | spectacle of subjects in revolt against their sovereign. As tidings came in
|
---|
| 695 | rapid succession of Mary's surrender at Carberry Hill, of her return to
|
---|
| 696 | Edinburgh amidst the insults and threats of the Calvinist mob, of her
|
---|
| 697 | imprisonment at Loch Leven, of the proposal to try and execute her,
|
---|
| 698 | Elizabeth's anger waxed hotter, and she told the Scotch lords in her most
|
---|
| 699 | imperious tones that she could not, and would not, permit them to use force
|
---|
| 700 | with their sovereign. If they deposed or punished her, she would revenge it
|
---|
| 701 | upon them. If they could not prevail on her to do what was right, they must
|
---|
| 702 | &quot;remit themselves to Almighty God, in whose hands only princes' hearts
|
---|
| 703 | remain.&quot; </font></p>
|
---|
| 704 | <p align="left"><font size="3">This language, addressed as it was to the
|
---|
| 705 | only men in Scotland who were disposed to support the English interest, was
|
---|
| 706 | imprudent. In her fellow-feeling for a sister sovereign, and her keen
|
---|
| 707 | perception of the revolutionary tendencies of the time, Elizabeth spoilt an
|
---|
| 708 | unique opportunity of placing her relations with Scotland on a footing of
|
---|
| 709 | permanent security, of providing for the English succession in a way at once
|
---|
| 710 | advantageous to the nation and free from risk to her own life, and lastly,
|
---|
| 711 | of escaping from the constant worry about her own marriage. She had seen
|
---|
| 712 | clearly enough what might be made of the situation. Throgmorton had been
|
---|
| 713 | despatched to Scotland with instructions to do his best to get the infant
|
---|
| 714 | Prince confided to her care. Once in England, she would virtually have
|
---|
| 715 | adopted him. She would have possessed a son and heir without the
|
---|
| 716 | inconvenience of marriage. To a Parliamentary recognition, indeed, of his
|
---|
| 717 | title she would assuredly not have consented. It would have made him
|
---|
| 718 | independent and dangerous. But if he behaved well to her, his succession
|
---|
| 719 | would be more certain than any Act of Parliament could make it. Mary, if
|
---|
| 720 | released and restored to power, would no longer be formidable. If she were
|
---|
| 721 | deposed or put to death, Elizabeth would indirectly govern Scotland, at all
|
---|
| 722 | events, till James should be of age. </font></p>
|
---|
| 723 | <p align="left"><font size="3">This splendid opportunity Elizabeth lost by
|
---|
| 724 | her peremptory and domineering language. The old Scotch pride took fire. The
|
---|
| 725 | Anglophile lords, who would have been glad enough to send the young Prince
|
---|
| 726 | to England, could not afford to appear less patriotic than the Francophiles.
|
---|
| 727 | Throgmorton's attempt to get hold of James was as unsuccessful as that of
|
---|
| 728 | the Protector Somerset to get hold of James's mother had been twenty years
|
---|
| 729 | before. He was told that, before the Prince could be sent to England, his
|
---|
| 730 | title to the English succession must be recognised; a condition which
|
---|
| 731 | Elizabeth could not grant. Her claim that Mary should be restored without
|
---|
| 732 | conditions was equally unacceptable to the Anglophile lords. They might have
|
---|
| 733 | been induced to release her if she would have consented to give up Bothwell,
|
---|
| 734 | or if they could have caught and hanged him. But such was her devotion to
|
---|
| 735 | him, that no threats or promises availed to shake it. It was in vain that
|
---|
| 736 | they offered to produce letters of his to the divorced Lady Bothwell, in
|
---|
| 737 | which he assured her that he regarded her still as his lawful wife, and Mary
|
---|
| 738 | only as his concubine. The unhappy Queen had been aware even before her
|
---|
| 739 | marriage--as a pathetic letter to Bothwell shows--that her passionate love
|
---|
| 740 | was not returned. Two days after the marriage, his unkindness had driven her
|
---|
| 741 | to think of suicide. But nothing they could say could shake her constancy.
|
---|
| 742 | &quot;She would not consent by any persuasion to abandon the Lord Bothwell for
|
---|
| 743 | her husband. She would live and die with him. If it were put to her choice
|
---|
| 744 | to relinquish her crown and kingdom or the Lord Bothwell, she would leave
|
---|
| 745 | her kingdom and dignity to go as a simple damsel with him; and she will
|
---|
| 746 | never consent that he shall fare worse or have more harm than herself. Let
|
---|
| 747 | them put Bothwell and herself on board ship to go wherever fortune might
|
---|
| 748 | carry them.&quot; This temper made it difficult for the Anglophile lords to know
|
---|
| 749 | what to do with the prisoner of Loch Leven. They were disappointed and angry
|
---|
| 750 | that Elizabeth, instead of approving their enterprise, and sending the money
|
---|
| 751 | for which, as usual, they were begging, should treat them as rebels, and
|
---|
| 752 | even secretly urge the Hamiltons to rescue Mary by force. The Hamiltons were
|
---|
| 753 | in arms at Dumbarton. They wanted either that the Prince should be
|
---|
| 754 | proclaimed King, with the Duke of Chatelherault for Regent, or that Mary
|
---|
| 755 | should be divorced from Bothwell and married to Lord John Hamilton, the
|
---|
| 756 | Duke's second son, and, in default of the crazy Arran, his destined
|
---|
| 757 | successor. With Argyll, too, disgust at Mary's crime was tempered by a
|
---|
| 758 | desire to marry her to his brother. Lady Douglas of Loch Leven herself, for
|
---|
| 759 | whom Sir Walter Scott has invented such magnificent tirades, desired nothing
|
---|
| 760 | better than to be her mother-in-law. </font></p>
|
---|
| 761 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The prompt action of the confederate lords
|
---|
| 762 | foiled these schemes. By the threat of a public trial on the charge of
|
---|
| 763 | complicity in her husband's murder, or, as her advocates believe, by the
|
---|
| 764 | fear of instant death, Mary was compelled to abdicate in favour of her son,
|
---|
| 765 | and to nominate Moray Regent (29 July 1567). Elizabeth would not recognise
|
---|
| 766 | him; partly from a natural fear lest she should be suspected of having been
|
---|
| 767 | in collusion with him all along, partly from genuine abhorrence of such
|
---|
| 768 | revolutionary proceedings. The French Government, on the other hand, casting
|
---|
| 769 | principle and sentiment alike to the winds, courted his alliance. He might
|
---|
| 770 | keep his sister in prison, or put her to death, or send her to be immured in
|
---|
| 771 | a French convent: only let him embrace the French interests, and an army
|
---|
| 772 | should be sent to support him --a Huguenot army if he did not like
|
---|
| 773 | Catholics. But Moray turned a deaf ear to these solicitations, and waited
|
---|
| 774 | patiently till Elizabeth's ill-humour should give way to more statesmanlike
|
---|
| 775 | considerations. </font></p>
|
---|
| 776 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The escape of Mary from Loch Leven (2 May
|
---|
| 777 | 1568), and the rising of the Hamiltons in her favour, were largely due to
|
---|
| 778 | the unfriendly attitude assumed by Elizabeth to the Regent's government.
|
---|
| 779 | After the defeat of Langside (13 May) it would perhaps have been difficult
|
---|
| 780 | for the fugitive Queen to make her way to France or Spain. But it was not
|
---|
| 781 | the difficulty which deterred her from making the attempt. Both Catherine
|
---|
| 782 | and Philip, later on, were disposed to befriend her, or, rather, to make use
|
---|
| 783 | of her; but at the time of her escape from Scotland, she had nothing to
|
---|
| 784 | expect from them but severity. Elizabeth was the only sovereign who had
|
---|
| 785 | tried to help her. Moreover, Mary had always laboured under the delusion
|
---|
| 786 | that because most Englishmen regarded her as the next heir to the crown, and
|
---|
| 787 | a great many preferred the old religion to the new, she had as good a party
|
---|
| 788 | in England as Elizabeth herself, if not a better. During her prosperity, she
|
---|
| 789 | had made repeated applications to be allowed to visit the southern kingdom.
|
---|
| 790 | She was convinced that, if she once appeared on English ground, Elizabeth's
|
---|
| 791 | throne would be shaken; and Elizabeth's unwillingness to receive the visit
|
---|
| 792 | had confirmed her in her belief. If she now crossed the Solway without
|
---|
| 793 | waiting for the permission which she had requested by letter, it was not
|
---|
| 794 | because she was hard pressed. The Regent had gone to Edinburgh after the
|
---|
| 795 | battle. At Dundrennan, among the Catholic Maxwells, Lord Herries guaranteed
|
---|
| 796 | her safety for forty days; and, at an hour's notice, a boat would place, her
|
---|
| 797 | beyond pursuit. Her haste was rather prompted by the expectation that
|
---|
| 798 | Elizabeth, alarmed by her application, would refuse to receive her. To
|
---|
| 799 | Elizabeth the arrival of the Scottish Queen was, indeed, as unwelcome as it
|
---|
| 800 | was unexpected. For ten years she had governed successfully, because she had
|
---|
| 801 | managed to hold an even course between conflicting principles and parties,
|
---|
| 802 | and to avoid taking up a decisive attitude on the most burning questions.
|
---|
| 803 | The very indecision, which was the weak spot in her character, and which so
|
---|
| 804 | fretted her Ministers, had, it must be confessed, contributed something to
|
---|
| 805 | the result. </font></p>
|
---|
| 806 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Cecil might groan over a policy of letting
|
---|
| 807 | things drift. But it may be doubted whether they had not often drifted
|
---|
| 808 | better than Cecil would have steered them if he might have had his way. To
|
---|
| 809 | do nothing is not, indeed, the golden rule of statesmanship. But at that
|
---|
| 810 | time, England's peculiar position between France and Spain, and between
|
---|
| 811 | Calvinism and Catholicism, enabled her ruler to play a waiting game. This
|
---|
| 812 | was the general rule applicable to the situation. Elizabeth apprehended it
|
---|
| 813 | more clearly than her Ministers did, and she fell back on it again and
|
---|
| 814 | again, when they flattered themselves that they had committed her to a
|
---|
| 815 | forward policy. It was safe. It was cheap. It required coolness and
|
---|
| 816 | intrepidity--qualities with which Elizabeth was well furnished by nature.
|
---|
| 817 | But it was not spirited: it was not showy. Hence it has not found favour
|
---|
| 818 | with historians, who insist that it ought to have ended in disaster. As a
|
---|
| 819 | matter of fact, England was carried safely through unparalleled
|
---|
| 820 | difficulties; and, when all is said, Elizabeth is entitled to be judged by
|
---|
| 821 | the general result of her long reign. </font></p>
|
---|
| 822 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Mary's arrival was unwelcome to Elizabeth,
|
---|
| 823 | because it seemed likely to force her hand. To do nothing would be no longer
|
---|
| 824 | possible. The Catholic nobles and gentry of the north flocked to Carlisle to
|
---|
| 825 | pay court to the heiress of the English crown. It was not that they believed
|
---|
| 826 | her innocent of her husband's murder. The suspicion of her complicity was at
|
---|
| 827 | that time universal. But they supposed that it would never amount to more
|
---|
| 828 | than a suspicion. They did not expect that the charge would ever be formally
|
---|
| 829 | made. They were not aware that it could be supported by overwhelming
|
---|
| 830 | evidence. Later on, when the proofs were produced, they had already
|
---|
| 831 | committed themselves to her cause, and were bound not to be convinced.
|
---|
| 832 | </font></p>
|
---|
| 833 | <p align="left"><font size="3">If the attitude of these Catholics be thought
|
---|
| 834 | to indicate some moral callousness, it may be fairly argued that it was less
|
---|
| 835 | cynical than that of Elizabeth herself, who, while not unwilling that Mary
|
---|
| 836 | should be suspected, would not allow her to be convicted. Steady to her main
|
---|
| 837 | purpose, though hesitating, and even vacillating, in the means she adopted,
|
---|
| 838 | she still adhered, notwithstanding all that had lately taken place, to her
|
---|
| 839 | intention that Mary, if her survivor, should be her successor. Like all the
|
---|
| 840 | greatest statesmen of her time, she placed secular interests before
|
---|
| 841 | religious opinions. She was persuaded that the maintenance of the principle
|
---|
| 842 | of authority was all-important. Nothing else could hold society together or
|
---|
| 843 | prevent the rival fanaticisms from tearing each other to pieces. For
|
---|
| 844 | authority there was no other basis left than the principle of hereditary
|
---|
| 845 | succession by primogeniture. This principle must, therefore, be treated as
|
---|
| 846 | something sacred--not to be set aside or tampered with in a short-sighted
|
---|
| 847 | grasping at any seeming immediate utility. To allow it to be called in
|
---|
| 848 | question was to shake her own title. Already, in France, the Jesuits were
|
---|
| 849 | preaching that orthodoxy and the will of the people were the only legitimate
|
---|
| 850 | foundation of sovereignty. Few English Catholics had learned that doctrine;
|
---|
| 851 | but they would not be slow to learn it if the hereditary claim of Mary was
|
---|
| 852 | to be set aside. </font></p>
|
---|
| 853 | <p align="left"><font size="3">If Mary had been content to claim what
|
---|
| 854 | primogeniture gave her--the right to the succession--there would have been
|
---|
| 855 | no quarrel between her and Elizabeth. But it was notorious that she had all
|
---|
| 856 | along been plotting to substitute herself for Elizabeth. Never had she
|
---|
| 857 | cherished that dream with more confidence than when the Percys and Nevilles
|
---|
| 858 | crowded round her at Carlisle. In her sanguine imagination, she already saw
|
---|
| 859 | herself mistress of a finer kingdom than that which had just expelled her,
|
---|
| 860 | and marching, at the head of her new subjects, to wreak vengeance on her old
|
---|
| 861 | ones. She seemed likely to be no less dangerous as an exile in England than
|
---|
| 862 | as a Queen in Scotland. </font></p>
|
---|
| 863 | </font><font style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
|
---|
| 864 | <font face="Times New Roman">
|
---|
| 865 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Elizabeth had now reason to regret the
|
---|
| 866 | unnecessary warmth with which she had espoused Mary's cause. To suppose that
|
---|
| 867 | she had any sentimental feelings for one whom she knew to be her deadly
|
---|
| 868 | enemy is, in my judgment, ridiculous. Elizabeth was not a generous
|
---|
| 869 | woman--especially towards other women; and in this case generosity would
|
---|
| 870 | have been folly, and culpable folly. She did not hate Mary--she was too cool
|
---|
| 871 | and self-reliant to hate an enemy--but she disliked her. She was jealous,
|
---|
| 872 | with a small feminine jealousy, of her beauty and fascinations. The
|
---|
| 873 | consciousness of this unworthy feeling made her all the more anxious not to
|
---|
| 874 | betray it. And so, at a time when she did not expect to have Mary on her
|
---|
| 875 | hands, she had been tempted to use language implying a pity, sympathy, and
|
---|
| 876 | affection which assuredly she did not feel, and which it would not have been
|
---|
| 877 | creditable to her to feel. Petty insincerities of this kind have usually to
|
---|
| 878 | be paid for sooner or later. She had now to exchange the language of
|
---|
| 879 | sympathy for the language of business with what grace she could; and she has
|
---|
| 880 | not escaped the charge, certainly undeserved, of deliberate treachery. It
|
---|
| 881 | was awkward, after such exaggerated professions of sympathy, to be obliged
|
---|
| 882 | to hold the fugitive at arm's-length, and even to put restraint on her
|
---|
| 883 | movements. But no other course was possible. No sovereign, at any time in
|
---|
| 884 | history, has allowed a pretender to the crown to move about freely in his
|
---|
| 885 | dominions and make a party among his subjects. </font></p>
|
---|
| 886 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Wince as she might, and did, under the
|
---|
| 887 | reproach of treachery, Elizabeth was not going to allow her unwise words to
|
---|
| 888 | tie her to unwise action. Only one arrangement appeared to her to be at once
|
---|
| 889 | admissible in principle and prudent in practice. Mary must be restored to
|
---|
| 890 | the Scottish throne; but in such a way that she should thenceforth be
|
---|
| 891 | powerless for mischief. She must be content with the title of Queen. The
|
---|
| 892 | real government must be in the hands of Moray. Thus the principle of
|
---|
| 893 | legitimacy and the sacredness of royalty would be saved, and the English
|
---|
| 894 | Catholics would be content to bide their time. </font></p>
|
---|
| 895 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Cecil, for his part, was also anxious to see
|
---|
| 896 | Mary back in Scotland; but not as Queen. Though regarded in Catholic circles
|
---|
| 897 | as a desperate heretic, he was really a <i>politique</i>, a worldly-minded
|
---|
| 898 | man--I mean the epithet to be laudatory--and he would probably have admitted
|
---|
| 899 | in the abstract the wisdom of Elizabeth's opinion--that it was of more
|
---|
| 900 | importance to England to have a legitimate sovereign than a gospel religion.
|
---|
| 901 | But he was not prepared to submit frankly to the application of this
|
---|
| 902 | principle. His personal prospects were too deeply concerned. It was all very
|
---|
| 903 | well for Elizabeth to lay down a principle in which she might be said to
|
---|
| 904 | have a life-interest. She was thirteen years his junior; but she might
|
---|
| 905 | easily predecease him; and, with Mary on the throne, his power would
|
---|
| 906 | certainly go, and, not improbably, his head with it. It was not in human
|
---|
| 907 | nature, therefore, that he should cherish the principle of primogeniture as
|
---|
| 908 | his mistress did; and, as far as his dread of her displeasure would allow
|
---|
| 909 | him, he was always casting about for some means of defeating Mary's
|
---|
| 910 | reversion. Her sudden plunge into crime was to him a turn of good fortune
|
---|
| 911 | beyond his dreams. If he could have had his will she would have been
|
---|
| 912 | promptly handed over to the Regent on the understanding that she was to be
|
---|
| 913 | consigned to perpetual imprisonment, or, still better, to the scaffold.
|
---|
| 914 | </font></p>
|
---|
| 915 | <p align="left"><font size="3">In order to carry out her plan, Elizabeth
|
---|
| 916 | called on Mary and the Regent to submit their respective cases to a
|
---|
| 917 | Commission, consisting of the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Sussex, and Sir
|
---|
| 918 | Ralph Sadler. Mary was extremely reluctant, as she well might be, to face
|
---|
| 919 | any investigation; but she was told that, until her character was formally
|
---|
| 920 | cleared, she could not be admitted to Elizabeth's presence; and she was at
|
---|
| 921 | the same time privately assured that her restoration should, in any case, be
|
---|
| 922 | managed without any damage to her honour. Moray received an equally positive
|
---|
| 923 | assurance that if his sister was proved guilty, she should not be restored.
|
---|
| 924 | The two statements were not absolutely irreconcilable, because Elizabeth
|
---|
| 925 | intended to prevent the worst charges from being openly proved. Her sole
|
---|
| 926 | object--and we can hardly blame her--was to obtain security for herself and
|
---|
| 927 | her own kingdom. She did not wish the Queen of Scots to be proved a
|
---|
| 928 | murderess in open court; but she did desire that the charge should be made,
|
---|
| 929 | and also that the Commissioners should see the originals of the casket
|
---|
| 930 | letters. Any public disclosure of the evidence might be prevented, and some
|
---|
| 931 | sort of ambiguous acquittal pronounced, on grounds which all the world would
|
---|
| 932 | see to be nugatory: such, for instance, as the culprit's own solemn denial
|
---|
| 933 | of the charge; which was, in fact, the only answer Mary intended to make.
|
---|
| 934 | What was known to the Commissioners would come to be more or less known to
|
---|
| 935 | all persons of influence in England, and would surely discredit Mary to such
|
---|
| 936 | a degree that even her warmest partisans would cease to conspire in her
|
---|
| 937 | favour. Mary herself (so Elizabeth hoped), when made aware that this
|
---|
| 938 | terrible weapon was in reserve, and could at any moment be used against her,
|
---|
| 939 | would be permanently humbled and crippled, and would be glad to accept such
|
---|
| 940 | terms as Elizabeth would impose. </font></p>
|
---|
| 941 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The Commissioners opened their court at York
|
---|
| 942 | (October 1568). But they had not been sitting long before Elizabeth
|
---|
| 943 | discovered that Norfolk was scheming to marry Mary, and that the project was
|
---|
| 944 | approved by many of the English nobility. Their purpose was not, as yet,
|
---|
| 945 | disloyal. They thought that, married to the head of the English peerage, and
|
---|
| 946 | residing in England, Mary would have to give up her plots with France, while
|
---|
| 947 | her presence would strengthen the Conservative party, which desired to keep
|
---|
| 948 | up the old alliance with Spain, and looked for the re-establishment sooner
|
---|
| 949 | or later of the old religion. This scheme, though not disloyal, was
|
---|
| 950 | extremely alarming to Elizabeth. Norfolk was nominally a Protestant. But she
|
---|
| 951 | had placed him on the Commission as a representative of the Conservative
|
---|
| 952 | party, believing that, while he would lend himself to hushing up Mary's
|
---|
| 953 | guilt, his eyes would be opened to her real character. Yet here he was, like
|
---|
| 954 | the Hamiltons, Campbells, and Douglases, ready to take her with her smirched
|
---|
| 955 | reputation, simply for the chance of her two crowns. It was not a case of
|
---|
| 956 | love, for he had never seen her. He seems to have been staggered for a
|
---|
| 957 | moment by the sight of the casket letters, and to have doubted whether it
|
---|
| 958 | was for his honour or even his safety to marry such a woman. But in the end,
|
---|
| 959 | as we shall see, he swallowed his scruples. </font></p>
|
---|
| 960 | <p align="left"><font size="3">On discovering Norfolk's intrigue, Elizabeth
|
---|
| 961 | hastily revoked the Commission, and ordered another investigation to be held
|
---|
| 962 | by the most important peers and statesmen of England. The casket letters and
|
---|
| 963 | the depositions were submitted to them. Mary's able and zealous advocate,
|
---|
| 964 | the Bishop of Ross, could say nothing except that his mistress had sent him
|
---|
| 965 | on the supposition that Moray was to be the defendant: let her appear in
|
---|
| 966 | person before the Queen, and she would give reasons why Moray ought not to
|
---|
| 967 | be allowed to advance any charges against her. To make no better answer than
|
---|
| 968 | this was virtually to admit that the charges against her were unanswerable.
|
---|
| 969 | </font></p>
|
---|
| 970 | <p align="left"><font size="3">It was thought that she was now sufficiently
|
---|
| 971 | frightened to be ready to accept Elizabeth's terms, and they were
|
---|
| 972 | unofficially communicated to her. Her return to Scotland was no longer
|
---|
| 973 | contemplated, for Moray had absolutely declined to charge her openly with
|
---|
| 974 | the murder or produce the letters unless she were detained in England. But
|
---|
| 975 | in order to get rid of the revolutionary proceedings at Loch Leven she
|
---|
| 976 | herself, as it were of her own free will, and on the ground that she was
|
---|
| 977 | weary of government, was to confer the crown on her son and the regency on
|
---|
| 978 | Moray. James was to be educated in England. She herself was to reside in
|
---|
| 979 | England as long as Elizabeth should find it convenient. It was not mentioned
|
---|
| 980 | in the communication, but it was probably intended, that she should marry
|
---|
| 981 | some Englishman of no political importance, in order to produce more
|
---|
| 982 | children who would succeed James if, as was likely enough, he should die in
|
---|
| 983 | his infancy. If she would accept these conditions the charges against her
|
---|
| 984 | should be &quot;committed to perpetual silence;&quot; if not, the trial must go on,
|
---|
| 985 | and the verdict could not be doubtful (December 1568). </font></p>
|
---|
| 986 | <p align="left"><font size="3">A woman less daring and less keen-sighted
|
---|
| 987 | than Mary would assuredly, at this point, have given up the game, and
|
---|
| 988 | thankfully accepted the conditions offered. They would not have prevented
|
---|
| 989 | her from ascending the English throne if she had outlived Elizabeth. But
|
---|
| 990 | that was a delay which she had always scouted as intolerable, and she was
|
---|
| 991 | one to whom life was worth nothing if it meant defeat, retirement, even for
|
---|
| 992 | a time, from the public scene, and the abandonment of long-cherished
|
---|
| 993 | ambitions. Moreover her quick wit had divined that Elizabeth was using a
|
---|
| 994 | threat which she did not mean to put into execution. There would be no
|
---|
| 995 | verdict--not even any publication to the world of the evidence. Guilty
|
---|
| 996 | therefore as she was, and aware that her guilt could be proved, she coolly
|
---|
| 997 | faced &quot;the great extremities&quot; at which Elizabeth had hinted, and rejected
|
---|
| 998 | the conditions. </font></p>
|
---|
| 999 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Perhaps even Mary's daring would have
|
---|
| 1000 | flinched from this bold game but for a quarrel between Elizabeth and Philip,
|
---|
| 1001 | to be mentioned presently. Hitherto Philip, much to his credit, had declined
|
---|
| 1002 | to interfere in Mary's behalf. To him, as to every one else, Catholic as
|
---|
| 1003 | well as Protestant, her guilt seemed evident. She had been only a scandal
|
---|
| 1004 | and embarrassment to the Catholic cause. But if there was to be war with
|
---|
| 1005 | England, every enemy of Elizabeth was a weapon to be used. Accordingly he
|
---|
| 1006 | now began, though reluctantly, to think of helping the Queen of Scots, and
|
---|
| 1007 | even of marrying her to his brother Don John of Austria. With the prospect
|
---|
| 1008 | of such backing it was not wonderful that she declined to own herself
|
---|
| 1009 | beaten. </font></p>
|
---|
| 1010 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Elizabeth's calculations, though reasonable,
|
---|
| 1011 | were thus disappointed. The inquiry was dropped without any decision. The
|
---|
| 1012 | Regent was sent home with a small sum of money, and Mary remained in England
|
---|
| 1013 | (January 1569). </font></p>
|
---|
| 1014 | </font><hr>
|
---|
| 1015 | <p align="left"><font style="font-family: Times New Roman" size="2">From <i>
|
---|
| 1016 | Queen Elizabeth</i> by Edward Spencer Beesly.&nbsp; Published in London by
|
---|
| 1017 | Macmillan and Co., 1892.</font></p>
|
---|
| 1018 | </font>
|
---|
| 1019 | <font face="Times New Roman" size="2">
|
---|
| 1020 | </blockquote>
|
---|
| 1021 | </blockquote>
|
---|
| 1022 |
|
---|
| 1023 | <p align="center">
|
---|
| 1024 | <a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=1&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fbeeslychapterfive.html">to Chapter
|
---|
| 1025 | V: Aristocratic Plots: 1568-1572</a></p>
|
---|
| 1026 | <p align="center">
|
---|
| 1027 | <a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=1&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fmonarchs%2feliz1.html">to the Queen
|
---|
| 1028 | Elizabeth I website</a>&nbsp; /&nbsp;
|
---|
| 1029 | <a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=1&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2frelative%2fmaryqos.html">to the Mary,
|
---|
| 1030 | queen of Scots website</a></p>
|
---|
| 1031 | <p align="center"><a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=1&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fsecondary.html">
|
---|
| 1032 | to Secondary Sources</a></p>
|
---|
| 1033 | </font>
|
---|
| 1034 |
|
---|
| 1035 |
|
---|
| 1036 |
|
---|
| 1037 | <!-- text below generated by server. PLEASE REMOVE --><!-- Counter/Statistics data collection code --><script language="JavaScript" src="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fhostingprod.com%2fjs%5fsource%2fgeov2.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;el=direct&amp;href=http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1108082623" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript>
|
---|
| 1038 | <IMG SRC="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;el=direct&amp;href=http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=76001524&t=1108082623" ALT=1 WIDTH=1 HEIGHT=1>
|
---|
| 1039 | </Content>
|
---|
| 1040 | </Section>
|
---|
| 1041 | </Archive>
|
---|