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16 <Metadata name="Content">biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</Metadata>
17 <Metadata name="Page_topic">biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</Metadata>
18 <Metadata name="Author">Marilee Mongello</Metadata>
19 <Metadata name="Title">Secondary Sources: Queen Elizabeth by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892: Chapter V</Metadata>
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23 <Metadata name="dc.Subject">Tudor period|Others</Metadata>
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33
34&lt;table border=&quot;0&quot; cellpadding=&quot;3&quot; width=&quot;100%&quot; height=&quot;667&quot;&gt;
35 &lt;tr&gt;
36 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
37 &lt;td valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;50%&quot; height=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/td&gt;
38 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;29&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
39 &lt;/tr&gt;
40 &lt;tr&gt;
41 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
42 &lt;td width=&quot;50%&quot; height=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
43 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;3&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
44 &lt;/tr&gt;
45 &lt;tr&gt;
46 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;610&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
47 &lt;td valign=&quot;top&quot; width=&quot;50%&quot; height=&quot;610&quot;&gt;
48 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;7&quot;&gt;Queen Elizabeth&lt;br&gt;&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/b&gt;
49 &lt;font size=&quot;4&quot;&gt;by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
50 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
51 &lt;img border=&quot;2&quot; src=&quot;_httpdocimg_/eliz1-ermine.jpg&quot; width=&quot;400&quot; height=&quot;478&quot; alt=&quot;'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas Hilliard&quot;&gt;&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
52 &lt;i&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas
53 Hilliard;&lt;br&gt;from the &lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=0&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fwww.marileecody.com%2feliz1-images.html&quot;&gt;Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I&lt;/a&gt; website&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
54 &lt;td width=&quot;25%&quot; height=&quot;610&quot;&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
55 &lt;/tr&gt;
56&lt;/table&gt;
57&lt;blockquote&gt;
58 &lt;blockquote&gt;
59 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot;&gt;
60 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Times New Roman&quot;&gt;
61 &lt;div align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;
62 &lt;b&gt;CHAPTER V&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br&gt;
63 &lt;b&gt;ARISTOCRATIC PLOTS: 1568-1572&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
64 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;FROM the beginning of the reign Cecil had
65 never ceased to impress upon his mistress that a French or Spanish invasion
66 on behalf of the Pope might at any time be expected, and that she should
67 hurry to meet it by forming a league with the foreign Protestants of both
68 Confessions, and vigorously assisting them to carry on a war of religion on
69 the Continent. He was assuredly too well informed to believe that France and
70 Spain would cease to counteract each other's designs on England, or that
71 Lutherans and Calvinists would heartily combine for mutual defence. The
72 enemies he really feared were his Catholic countrymen, with whom he would
73 have to fight for his head if Elizabeth should die. He therefore desired to
74 force on the struggle in her lifetime, when they would be rebels, and he
75 would wield the power of the Crown. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
76 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Elizabeth, on the other hand, was against
77 interference on the Continent, because it would be the surest way to bring
78 upon England the calamity of invasion. She saw as plainly as Cecil did that
79 it would compel her to throw herself into the arms of her own Protestants
80 and to become, like her two predecessors, the mere chief of a party; whereas
81 she meant to be the Queen of all Englishmen, and to tranquillise the natural
82 fears of each party by letting it see that it would not be sacrificed to the
83 violence of the other. Moreover the unbridled ascendancy of the Protestants
84 would mean such alterations in the established worship as would have driven
85 from the parish churches thousands of the most military class, peers,
86 squires and their tenantry, who were enduring Anglicanism with its
87 episcopate, its semi-Catholic prayer-book, and its claim to belong to the
88 Universal Apostolic Church, because they could persuade themselves that its
89 variations from the old religion were unimportant and temporary. And this
90 again would increase the probability of foreign invasion. For, though to
91 Philip all forms of heresy were equally damnable and equally marked out for
92 extermination sooner or later, yet he was in much less hurry to begin with
93 the politically harmless Lutherans or Anglicans than with the dangerous
94 levellers who derived their inspiration from Geneva. Now for Elizabeth to
95 gain time was everything. She had gained ten precious years already by her
96 moderation. She was to gain twenty more before the slow-moving Spaniard
97 decided to launch the great Armada. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
98 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;But though Elizabeth shunned war with Spain
99 she nevertheless resognised that Philip was the enemy, and that all ways of
100 damaging him short of war were for her advantage. English and Huguenot
101 corsairs swarmed in the Channel. Spanish ships were seized. The crews were
102 hanged or made to walk the plank; the prizes were carried into English
103 ports, and there sold without disguise or rebuke. These outrages were
104 represented as reprisals for cruelties inflicted on English sailors who
105 occasionally fell into the hands of the Inquisition. Practically a ship with
106 a valuable cargo was treated as fair game whatever its nationality. But
107 while in the case of other countries it was only individual traders who
108 suffered, to Spain it meant obstruction of her high road to her Belgic
109 dominions, then simmering with disaffection. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
110 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The English nobles of the old blood disliked
111 these proceedings. Even Cecil did not conceal from himself that they
112 fostered a spirit of lawlessness. What the corsairs were doing he would have
113 preferred to see done by the royal navy. To that Elizabeth would not
114 consent. The activity of the corsairs gave her all the advantage she could
115 hope to have from war, without any of its disadvantages. Instead of laying
116 out her treasure on a navy, she was deriving an income from the piratical
117 ventures of Hawkins and Drake; while the ships and sailors of this volunteer
118 navy would be available for the defence of the country whenever the need
119 should arise. Whatever may be thought of the morality of her plan, there can
120 be no question as to its efficiency and economy. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
121 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Since even these outrages, exasperating as
122 they were, had not goaded Philip to the point of declaring war, a still more
123 daring provocation now followed. Some ships, conveying a large sum of money
124 borrowed by Philip in Genoa for the payment of Alva's army, having put into
125 English ports to avoid the corsairs, Elizabeth, with the hearty approval of
126 Cecil, took possession of the money, and said she would herself borrow it
127 from the Genoese (December 1568). The Minister hoped this would bring on a
128 war. The Queen audaciously but more correctly anticipated that Philip's
129 resentment would still stop short of that extremity. He remonstrated: he
130 threatened: he seized all English ships and sailors in his ports. Elizabeth,
131 undismayed, swept all the Spaniards and Flemings whom she could find in
132 London into her prisons, and seized their goods, to a value far greater than
133 that of the English property in Philip's grasp. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
134 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;In striking contrast with this unflinching
135 attitude towards Spain was the behaviour of Elizabeth when threatened with
136 war by France, unless she undertook to close her harbours to the Huguenots,
137 and to forbid her own corsairs to prey on French commerce. The summons was
138 promptly obeyed. Full satisfaction was made (April 1569). Yet France was at
139 the moment a far less formidable antagonist than Spain. The French
140 government did not possess the means of invading England. On this side of
141 the Channel the old anti-French feeling was so persistent that all parties
142 were ready and willing for the fray. The defeat of the Huguenots at Jarnac
143 (April 1569) may have had something to do with Elizabeth's compliance. But
144 what influenced her still more was her perception that war with France would
145 compel her to place herself under the protection of Spain; whereas she
146 desired to keep Spain at arm's-length, and to maintain a good understanding
147 with France, as did Eliot, Pym, and Cromwell afterwards, regardless of the
148 rooted prejudices of their countrymen. Elizabeth probably stood alone in her
149 judgment on this occasion. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
150 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The quarrel with Philip had more serious
151 results at home than abroad. It was indirectly the cause of the only English
152 rebellion that disturbed the long reign of Elizabeth. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
153 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Most of the nobility and gentry, even when
154 professedly Protestants, regretted the alienation of England from the
155 Universal Church. If they had all pulled together they must have had their
156 way, for they were the military and political class. But their discontent
157 varied widely in its intensity. There were nobles like Sussex who were
158 resolved to serve their Queen loyally and zealously, but who, all the same,
159 wished her to cultivate a good understanding with Philip, to marry the
160 Archduke, to abstain from assisting the Huguenots, to give no countenance to
161 the rovers, to recognise Mary as her heir-presumptive and marry her to
162 Norfolk. There were others like Norfolk, Montagu, Arundel, and Southampton,
163 who had treasonable relations with the Spanish ambassador, and aimed at
164 overthrowing Cecil, marrying Mary to Norfolk, and compelling the Queen to
165 restore the Catholic worship, or at least to make such changes in the
166 Anglican model as would facilitate a reunion with Rome when Mary should
167 succeed. A third party, headed by the Catholic lords of the north, was
168 plotting to depose Elizabeth in favour of Mary, and to marry the latter to
169 Don John of Austria. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
170 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;With these powerful nobles in opposition,
171 who, before the Reformation, could have hurled any sovereign from his
172 throne, where was Elizabeth to look for support? The town populations were
173 Protestant --too Protestant indeed for her taste. But the town populations
174 were a minority, and less military than the landowners and their tenants.
175 She had her Cecils, Bacons, Walsinghams, Hunsdons, Knollyses, Sadlers,
176 Killegrews, Drurys, capable and devoted servants, but new men without
177 territorial wealth or influence, and with no force except what they
178 possessed as wielding the power of the Crown. It would be difficult to name
179 more than half-a-dozen peers who zealously promoted her policy. Most of them
180 looked on it coldly, and would support her only as long as she seemed to be
181 strongest. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
182 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Mary's rejection of Elizabeth's terms
183 coincided with the quarrel with Philip (December 1568). The disaffected
184 nobles thought that the time was now come for striking a blow. Conscious
185 that the feudal devotion of the gentry and yeomanry to their local chiefs
186 had in Tudor times been largely superseded by awe of the central government,
187 they were importuning Philip to give them the signal for rebellion by
188 sending a division of Alva's army from the Netherlands. Philip, cautious as
189 usual, and afraid of driving England into alliance with France, declined to
190 send a soldier until either the Norfolk party had overthrown Cecil, or the
191 northern lords had carried off Mary. Between these two sets of conspirators
192 there was much jealousy and distrust. The Spanish ambassador thought the
193 southern scheme the most feasible. Not without difficulty he persuaded the
194 northern lords to wait till it should be seen whether the Queen could be
195 induced or compelled to sanction the marriage of Mary with Norfolk. If she
196 refused, they were to make a dash on Wingfield, a seat of Lord Shrewsbury's
197 in Derbyshire where Mary was staying, while Norfolk was to raise the eastern
198 counties. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
199 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;All through the summer of 1569 these plots
200 were brewing. Three times Norfolk and his father-in-law Arundel went to the
201 Council with the intention of arresting Cecil. Three times their hearts
202 failed them. The northern lords, who were not members of the Council, came
203 up to London to see Norfolk bell the cat, but went back, more suspicious
204 than ever, to make their own preparations. Cecil himself seems to have been
205 hedging. In his private advice to the Queen he was opposing the Norfolk
206 marriage, pointing out that free or in prison, married or single, in England
207 or in Scotland, Mary must always be dangerous, and breathing for the first
208 time the suggestion that she might lawfully be put to death in England for
209 complicity in English plots. In the Council he concurred in a vote that she
210 should be married to an Englishman --in other words, to Norfolk. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
211 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;If Elizabeth could have felt any confidence
212 in Norfolk's loyalty, it seems probable that much as she disliked the
213 marriage she would have yielded to the almost unanimous pronouncement of the
214 nobility in its favour. But a sure instinct warned her of her danger. &amp;quot;If
215 she consented she would be in the Tower before four months were over.&amp;quot; After
216 much deliberation she commanded the Duke on his allegiance to renounce his
217 project. He gave his promise, but soon retired to his own county, and sent
218 word to the northern earls that &amp;quot;he would stand and abide the venture.&amp;quot; But
219 while he was shivering and hesitating, Elizabeth, for once, was all
220 promptitude and decision. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
221 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Mary was hurried to Tutbury Castle. Arundel
222 and Pembroke were summoned to Windsor, and kept under surveillance. Norfolk
223 himself came in quietly, and was lodged in the Tower. Thus the southern
224 conspiracy collapsed (September-October 1569). &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
225 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The Catholic lords and gentlemen of the north
226 who had been awaiting Norfolk's signal, were staggered by his tame
227 surrender. Sussex, who was in command at York, and who, being of the old
228 blood himself, did not care to see old houses crushed, advised Elizabeth to
229 wink at their half-begun treason, and be thankful it had not come to
230 fighting. She winked at the attempted flight to Alva of Southampton and
231 Montagu, and even affected to trust the latter with the command of the
232 militia called out in Sussex. She could afford to ignore the disaffection of
233 a southern noble. A Sussex squire or yeoman, even if he was not a
234 Protestant, would think twice before he cast in his lot with rebellion. The
235 northern counties were mainly Catholic. They were much behind the south in
236 civilisation. The Tudor sovereigns were never seen there. Great families
237 were still looked up to. Elizabeth knew that though rebellion might be
238 adjourned, might possibly never come off, it was a constant menace, which
239 crippled her policy. She determined therefore to have done with it, once for
240 all, and summoned Northumberland and Westmoreland to London. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
241 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Thus driven into a corner, the two earls
242 burst into rebellion. They entered Durham in arms, overthrew the communion
243 table in the cathedral, set up the old altar, and had mass said (14 November
244 1569). Next day they marched south, with the object of rescuing Mary from
245 Tutbury. But when they were within fifty miles of that place, Shrewsbury and
246 Huntingdon, in obedience to hurried orders from London, conveyed her to
247 Coventry. Having thus missed their spring, the rebel earls halted
248 irresolutely for three days, and then turned back. Their followers dropped
249 away from them. Clinton and Warwick were on their track, with the musters of
250 the Midlands; and before the end of December they were fain to fly across
251 the Border. Northumberland was arrested by Moray. Two years later he was
252 given up to Elizabeth, and executed. Westmoreland, after being protected for
253 a time by Ker of Ferniehirst, escaped to the Netherlands, where he died.
254 England was not again disturbed by rebellion till the great civil war.
255 &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
256 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The failure of the northern earls to kindle a
257 general rebellion was due to the cautious and temporising policy for which
258 Elizabeth has been so severely blamed by heated partisans. The powerful
259 party which preferred a Spanish alliance, disliked religious innovation, and
260 looked forward to the succession of Mary, had not been driven to despair of
261 accomplishing those ends in a lawful way. Their avowed policy had not been
262 proscribed--had not even been repudiated. Some of their chief leaders were
263 on the Council--as we should say, were members of the Government; others
264 were employed and trusted and visited by the Queen. They objected to being
265 hurried into civil war by the northern lords, who were not of the Council,
266 who kept away from London, and were rebels by inheritance and tradition.
267 They would have nothing to do with the ill-advised movement; and, as in
268 those days neutrality in the presence of open insurrection was no more
269 permissible to a nobleman than it would be now to an officer in the army,
270 they had no choice but to range themselves on the side of the Government. If
271 Elizabeth had openly branded the Queen of Scots as a murderess, if she had
272 pointed to Huntingdon or the son of Catherine Grey as her successor, if she
273 had put herself at the head of a Protestant league, she might possibly have
274 come victorious out of a civil war. But a civil war it would have been, and
275 of the worst kind: one party calling in the Spaniard, and the other, in all
276 probability, driven to call in the Frenchman. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
277 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The assassination of Moray a few weeks later
278 (23 January 1570) was a severe blow to Elizabeth, and an irreparable
279 disaster to his own country. An attempt has been made to create an
280 impression that the English Queen was somehow responsible for his death,
281 because she did not march an army into Scotland to support him. He no more
282 wished to receive an English army into Scotland than Elizabeth wished to
283 send one. Therein they were both of them wiser than the critics of their own
284 day, or this. What he did ask for was money, and the recognition of James.
285 The request for money Elizabeth was willing to consider, though, as a rule,
286 she did not believe in paying for any work she could get done gratis. The
287 recognition of James seems a very simple thing to the critics. But it was as
288 difficult for Elizabeth as the recognition of the Prince of Bulgaria is now
289 to Austria, and for similar reasons. She was under no obligation whatever to
290 Moray. His own interest compelled him to play her game. But she well knew
291 his value. On hearing of his death she shut herself up in her chamber,
292 exclaiming, with tears, that she had lost the best friend she had in the
293 world. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
294 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;As long as Moray lived, and was able to keep
295 the Marian lords in some sort of check, Elizabeth judged, and rightly, that
296 she had more to lose than to gain by any open interference in Scotland. It
297 was no business of hers to put down anarchy there. Scotch anarchy did not
298 imperil England. What would imperil England would be the appearance of
299 French troops in Scotland; and she judged that nothing would be so likely to
300 bring them there as any pretension to establish an English protectorate. Her
301 Protestant councillors fretted at her &lt;i&gt;laisser faire&lt;/i&gt; policy. But then
302 they, for personal or at least for sectarian reasons, were eager for that
303 general European conflagration which she, with superior discernment and
304 larger patriotism, was trying to avert. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
305 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The death of Moray so weakened the King's
306 party that it became necessary to give them a little help. Elizabeth gave it
307 in such a way as she thought would be least likely to excite the jealousy of
308 France. She told the new Regent Lennox that, though she could not send an
309 army to support him, she would send one to chastise the Hamiltons and the
310 Borderers, who were harbouring her rebel the Earl of Westmoreland, and,
311 along with him, making raids into England. This was done sharply and
312 thoroughly. The robber holds on the Border, and Hamilton Castle itself, were
313 one after another taken and blown up by the English Wardens of the Marches
314 (April and May 1570). &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
315 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;What Elizabeth desired more than anything
316 else was to settle Scotch affairs, in conjunction with France, on the terms
317 that neither power should interfere in Scotland. To Cecil this was
318 unsatisfactory, because the restoration of Mary, on any terms whatever,
319 would, if she survived Elizabeth, ensure her succession to the English
320 throne, and the ruin of Cecil himself. He did not want to conciliate
321 Catholics at home or abroad. He wanted to commit his mistress to an
322 internecine war with them. In an angry dispute with Arundel at the Council
323 board about this time, he blurted out his doctrine, that the Queen had no
324 friends but the Protestants, and that if she restored Mary she would lose
325 them all. No language could have been more displeasing to Elizabeth,
326 especially in the presence of crypto-Catholic lords, and she snubbed him
327 unmercifully. &amp;quot;Mr Secretary, I mean to have done with this business; I shall
328 listen to the proposals of the French King. I am not going to be tied any
329 longer to you and your brethren in Christ.&amp;quot; &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
330 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The peace of St. Germain between the French
331 court and the Huguenots (August 8, 1570), and the disgrace of the Guises,
332 were followed by negotiations for a tripartite treaty between England,
333 France, and Scotland on the basis of the restoration of Mary. Elizabeth, of
334 course, insisted on the guarantees she had often sketched out. She was
335 willing--nay, anxious--to leave Scotland alone, if the French would do the
336 same. The French, on the other hand, felt that the equality of such an
337 arrangement was more seeming than real, because there were always English
338 troops lying at Berwick, within sixty miles of Edinburgh. They haggled over
339 the guarantees, and in the meantime, notwithstanding the real desire of
340 Catherine and Charles IX. to conclude an alliance with Elizabeth against
341 Philip, they continued to send money and encouragement to the Marian lords
342 in Scotland. For if, for any reason, the English alliance should not come
343 off, they meant to take up Mary's cause in earnest, and detach her from her
344 Guise relations by marrying her to the Duke of Anjou, afterwards Henry III.
345 &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
346 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;All this was known to Elizabeth, and in her
347 extreme anxiety for the tripartite treaty, she thought the moment was come
348 to dangle the bait which she always reserved for occasions of special
349 importance. She informed the French ambassador that she was ready to marry
350 Anjou herself. It is not to be supposed that she had the least intention of
351 doing so. She had settled with herself from the first how she would get out
352 of her proposal when it had served its turn. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
353 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;A minor motive for this move was the hope
354 that it would reconcile her Protestant councillors to the restoration of
355 Mary. She did not succeed with all of them. Some continued to mutter that
356 Anjou was a Papist, that tripartite treaties were a delusion, and that the
357 only safe course was to grasp the Scotch nettle and uphold James with the
358 whole force of England. But upon Cecil the effect was almost comical. He
359 jumped at the plan. Anything that was likely to make Elizabeth a mother
360 would be salvation to him. Whether the Queen at the mature age of
361 thirty-seven was likely to be happy with a husband of twenty was a question
362 that did not give him a moment's concern. She was not too old to have two or
363 three children, and, that result once achieved, Mary might go to Scotland or
364 anywhere else for what he cared, and do her worst. The sanguine man already
365 saw visions of a converted Valois heading an Anglo-French crusade against
366 Philip, and establishing the reformed faith throughout Europe. Walsingham
367 his right-hand man, then ambassador at Paris, was equally bitten. This was
368 in the year before the massacre of St. Bartholomew. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
369 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The overture of Elizabeth was very welcome to
370 the French court. Negotiations for the match were soon opened, and continued
371 during the first six months of 1571. At the same time, both the Scotch
372 factions were summoned to accept the tripartite arrangement. Mary was at
373 first eager for it, and instructed her agent, the Bishop of Ross, to swallow
374 every condition that might be imposed. She looked on it as the only means of
375 obtaining her release. But there is ample proof that she intended to throw
376 its stipulations to the winds and fight for her own cause when once she
377 should get back to Scotland. In playing this perfidious game, she had
378 confidently counted on the help of France. The Regent's party, however,
379 declined the treaty. They dreaded Mary's return, and they had no wish to
380 shake hands with the Marian lords or admit them to a share in the
381 Government. The tripartite scheme thus fell through. Mary herself ceased to
382 care for it as soon as she heard of the projected match between Elizabeth
383 and Anjou. She saw that if France was going to co-operate heartily with
384 England, her sovereignty in Scotland would be merely nominal. She might
385 almost as well remain with Lord Shrewsbury. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
386 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;To remain quietly in England and be content
387 with her position as heir-presumptive to the English crown was indeed the
388 best and safest course open to her. She had only to acquiesce in it and give
389 up plotting, and she might have lived here in considerable magnificence, and
390 with as much freedom as she could desire. If she wished for a husband, she
391 might have married any Englishman of whose loyalty Elizabeth could feel
392 assured. It was of the greatest importance to both countries that she should
393 bear more children. For it must be remembered that if James had died in his
394 childhood, his next heir was a Hamilton, who had no title to the English
395 throne. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
396 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;If the proposed Anjou match had not produced
397 the full results which Elizabeth hoped, it had at least defeated the plans
398 and disorganised the party of her rival. It had served its turn; and all
399 that now remained was to get out of it as decently as possible. The old
400 pretext for breaking off the Austrian match was reproduced. Anjou could not
401 be allowed to have a private mass; and when, in its eagerness, the French
402 court seemed disposed to give way on this point, Elizabeth began to talk
403 about a restitution of Calais. Ruefully did poor Cecil watch the vanishing
404 of his dream. It was to no purpose that he tried to frighten Elizabeth by
405 representing that a jilted prince would be converted into an angry enemy.
406 She knew better. Anjou comprehended that she did not mean to have him, and,
407 to avoid the indignity of a refusal, himself broke off negotiations. But, as
408 Elizabeth had calculated, the new alliance did not suffer. The French King
409 went out of his way to say that &amp;quot;for her upright dealing he would honour the
410 Queen of England during his life,&amp;quot; and Catherine, most unsentimental of
411 women, had another suitor to offer--her youngest son Alençon, then just
412 turned seventeen! &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
413 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;While the negotiations for the Anjou match
414 were going on, what is known as the Ridolfi Plot was hatching against
415 Elizabeth. Ridolfi, an Italian banker in London, and secretly an agent of
416 the Pope, was in close relations with Norfolk and the other peers who for
417 two years had been dabbling in treason. They were still pressing Philip to
418 invade England; but he and Alva were less than ever disposed to undertake
419 the venture since the pitiful collapse of the northern insurrection. In
420 order to impress Philip with the importance of the conspiracy, Ridolfi went
421 to Madrid, and showed Philip a letter purporting to be written by Norfolk,
422 to which was attached a list of noblemen stated to be favourable to the
423 cause. It contained the names of forty out of the sixty-seven peers then
424 existing, while, of the rest, some were marked as neutral, and fifteen at
425 most as true to Elizabeth. The classification was on the face of it absurdly
426 untrustworthy. But correct or incorrect, it did not weigh with Philip. He
427 wanted deeds, not lists of names, and Ridolfi was informed that, unless
428 Elizabeth were first assassinated or imprisoned, not a Spanish soldier could
429 be sent to England. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
430 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Whatever secret disaffection might prevail
431 among the peers, the temper displayed by the new House of Commons, elected
432 in the spring of 1571, was not of a kind to encourage Elizabeth's enemies at
433 home or abroad. So far as can be judged from its proceedings and debates, it
434 was not only entirely Protestant, but largely Puritan.(1) A bill was passed
435 by which any person refusing, on demand, to acknowledge Elizabeth's right to
436 the crown was made incapable of succeeding her; a provision which, though it
437 did not name Mary, could apply to no one else. It was made high treason to
438 deny that the inheritance of the crown could be determined by the Queen and
439 Parliament. To affirm in writing that any particular person was entitled to
440 succeed the Queen, except the Queen's issue, or some one established by
441 Parliament, was made punishable with imprisonment for life, and forfeiture
442 of all property for the second offence. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
443 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The plot which Ridolfi was so busily pushing
444 in 1571 was, in fact, a continuation of the twin aristocratic conspiracies,
445 one of which had exploded in the northern insurrection. By forcing that
446 insurrection to break out before the southern conspirators had made up their
447 minds what to do, the Government had effectually destroyed what chances of
448 success the disaffected nobles had ever had. Alva was right in his judgment
449 that, if the Percys, Nevilles, and Dacres could do so little, the Howard
450 group, whose estates, vast as they were, lay, for the most part, in more
451 orderly and civilised parts of the country, could do still less. There was,
452 indeed, some talk among them of seizing the Queen at the opening of the
453 Parliament of 1571, just as there had been a talk of arresting Cecil two
454 years before. But the truth was that insurrection was a played-out game in
455 England; and if Norfolk had been a ten-times abler and bolder man than he
456 was, it would have made no difference. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
457 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;The true history of the time is not to be
458 read in the croakings and wailings privately exchanged between Cecil,
459 Walsingham, and the rest of the Protestant junto, angry and alarmed because
460 Elizabeth would not let them play her cards for her. It is a strange
461 perversity which persists in adopting their view that she was on the brink
462 of ruin, when the patent fact is that Protestantism was making rapid
463 strides, that the Queen's personal popularity was increasing every day, and
464 that Spain, France, and Scotland, the only countries with which she was
465 concerned, were all humble suitors for her alliance on almost any terms that
466 it might please her to exact. The correspondence of Philip with Alva is
467 there to prove, that while writhing under the repeated aggressions of
468 England, he was obliged to put up with them because a war would imperil his
469 hold on the Netherlands. To all the invitations of the Norfolks and
470 Northumberlands, the able and well-informed Alva turned a deaf ear, because
471 he believed Elizabeth too strong to be overthrown. A French alliance she
472 could always have as long as the Guises were excluded from power. If they
473 regained their influence the Huguenots would keep them fully occupied.
474 Scotland, unless foreign troops made their appearance there, could be no
475 source of danger to England. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
476 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Elizabeth's policy was thus, in its broad
477 lines, as simple as it was successful. At home it was her wisdom to wink as
478 long as possible at the disaffection of the few, to win the affection of the
479 many by economical government, to reserve the persecuting laws for special
480 cases, while preventing any general and sweeping application of them, and,
481 lastly, to drive no party to desperation by a too pronounced encouragement
482 of its opponents. Spain, as being the centre of reaction and the hope of her
483 disloyal nobles, she meant to harass and weaken as far as she could do so
484 without bringing on an open war. With Charles IX. and his mother she desired
485 a defensive alliance, and an understanding that neither country should send
486 troops into Scotland or permit Spain to do so. In its general conception, I
487 repeat, this policy was simple and coherent. How it succeeded we know. There
488 was nothing sentimental about it, though, where individuals were concerned,
489 Elizabeth's judgment was sometimes warped by sentiment. Upon the whole, she
490 kept herself at the English point of view. Whereas Cecil was compelled by
491 personal considerations to place himself too much at the point of view of
492 his &amp;quot;brethren in Christ,&amp;quot; both at home and abroad. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
493 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;However, a plot there was, and it was
494 necessary that it should be unravelled and punished. Almost from its
495 inception, Cecil (created Lord Burghley February 1571), had been more or
496 less on the scent of it. Hints had come from abroad: spies had been
497 employed: suspected persons had been closely watched: inferior agents had
498 been imprisoned, questioned, racked: and enough had been discovered to make
499 it certain that Englishmen of the highest rank were plotting treason. Who
500 they were might be suspected, but was not ascertained until a lucky arrest
501 put the Minister in possession of evidence incriminating Norfolk, Arundel,
502 Southampton, Lumley, Cobham, the Spanish ambassador, the Bishop of Ross, and
503 Mary herself (September 1571). Norfolk was sent to the Tower, and the other
504 peers placed under arrest. The ambassador was dismissed. The Bishop made
505 ample confessions. Mary, who had hitherto lived as the guest of Lord
506 Shrewsbury, enjoying field-sports, receiving her friends and corresponding
507 with whom she would, was confined to a single room, and carefully cut off,
508 for a time, from all communication with the outer world. Both in England and
509 abroad it was universally expected that she would be brought to trial and
510 executed. James was at length officially styled &amp;quot;King&amp;quot; and his mother &amp;quot;late
511 Queen.&amp;quot; Her partisans in Edinburgh Castle were informed that she would never
512 be restored, and that, if they did not surrender the Castle to the Regent
513 Mar, an English force would be sent to take it. The casket letters had
514 hitherto been withheld from publication under pressure from Elizabeth; they
515 were now at last given to the world in the famous &amp;quot;Detection&amp;quot; of Buchanan.
516 &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
517 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Under any other Tudor, or under the Stuarts,
518 all the peers arrested would undoubtedly have lost their heads. Norfolk
519 alone was brought to trial (January 1572). There was much in the proceedings
520 which, according to modern notions, was unfair to the accused. But the peers
521 who tried him felt sure that he was guilty, and they were right. Subsequent
522 investigations have established beyond a doubt that he had conspired to
523 bring a foreign army into the country--the worst form that treason can take.
524 He had done this with contemptible hypocrisy, for a purely selfish object,
525 and after the most lenient and generous construction had been placed on his
526 first steps in crime. And yet historians have been found to make light of
527 the offence, and to pity the malefactor as the victim of a romantic
528 attachment to a woman whom he had never seen, and whom he believed to be an
529 adulteress and a murderess. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
530 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;During the spring of 1572 Elizabeth hesitated
531 to let justice take its course. She had reigned fourteen years without
532 taking the life of a single noble. The scaffold on Tower Hill from such long
533 disuse was falling to pieces, and Norfolk's sentence had made it necessary
534 to erect a new one. Elizabeth was loath to break the spell. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
535 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Not knowing with any certainty how many of
536 her nobles might have given more or less approval to the Ridolfi plot, but
537 confident that she could cow them by letting the voice of the untitled
538 aristocracy and middle class be heard, she called a new Parliament (May
539 1572). The response went beyond her expectation. Of Mary's well-wishers,
540 once so numerous, all except a few fanatics had now given her up. Two
541 alternative courses of action with respect to her were submitted for
542 consideration, with the intimation that the Queen would accept whichever of
543 them Parliament should approve. The first was attainder. The second was that
544 she should be disabled from succession to the crown; that if she attempted
545 treason again she should &amp;quot;suffer pains of death without further trouble of
546 Parliament;&amp;quot; and that it should be treason if she assented to any enterprise
547 to deliver her out of prison. Both houses at once voted to proceed with the
548 attainder. Elizabeth, we may be sure, was not sorry for this unmistakable
549 exhibition of feeling. It would open the eyes of her enemies both at home
550 and abroad. But she had no intention of proceeding to such extremities this
551 time. Mary should have fair warning. Accordingly Parliament was desired to
552 &amp;quot;defer&amp;quot; the bill of attainder, and to proceed with the second measure. But
553 the Commons were in grim earnest. They immediately resolved that the second
554 bill would be useless and even mischievous, as it would imply that at
555 present Mary had a right of succession, whereas she was already disabled by
556 law; and that they therefore preferred to proceed with the attainder. With
557 this resolution the Lords concurred. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
558 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Here they were on dangerous ground. To rake
559 up the law empowering Henry VIII. to determine the succession was to disable
560 all the Stuarts, James included, and so to throw away the opportunity of
561 uniting the crowns. Elizabeth had always, for excellent reasons, refused to
562 allow this question to be raised. Accordingly she again directed the House
563 to defer the attainder; she would not have the Scottish Queen &amp;quot;either
564 enabled or disabled to or from any manner of title to the crown,&amp;quot; nor &amp;quot;any
565 other &lt;i&gt;title&lt;/i&gt; to the same whatsoever touched at all;&amp;quot; to make sure of
566 which she would have the second bill drawn by her own law officers. To the
567 repeated demands of the Commons for the execution of Norfolk, she at length
568 gave way, and a few days later he was beheaded (2 June 1572). The second
569 bill, as drawn by the law officers, passed both Houses. Its exact terms are
570 not known, for it never received the royal assent. &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
571 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font size=&quot;3&quot;&gt;Burghley who was of opinion (as some one
572 afterwards said about Strafford) that &amp;quot;stone dead hath no fellow,&amp;quot; bemoaned
573 himself privately to Walsingham on the disappointment of their hopes; and
574 modern historians, with whom his authority is final, are loud in their
575 condemnation of Elizabeth's vacillation and blindness. Vacillation there was
576 really none. She had determined from the first not to allow Mary to be
577 punished. She had gained all she wanted when the temper of Parliament had
578 been ascertained and displayed to the world. There have always been plenty
579 of people to accuse her of treachery and cruelty because she put Mary to
580 death fifteen years later, for complicity in an assassination plot. How
581 would her name have gone down to posterity if the Scottish Queen had been
582 executed in 1572 merely for inviting a foreign army to rescue her from
583 captivity? &lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
584 &lt;/font&gt;
585 &lt;hr&gt;
586 &lt;/font&gt;
587 &lt;font face=&quot;Times New Roman&quot;&gt;
588 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;b&gt;Notes:&lt;/b&gt; 1. The oath of supremacy imposed on members of
589 the House of Commons in 1562 practically excluded conscientious Catholics. &lt;/p&gt;
590 &lt;/font&gt;
591 &lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif&quot;&gt;
592 &lt;p align=&quot;left&quot;&gt;&lt;font style=&quot;font-family: Times New Roman&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;From &lt;i&gt;
593 Queen Elizabeth&lt;/i&gt; by Edward Spencer Beesly.&amp;nbsp; Published in London by
594 Macmillan and Co., 1892.&lt;/font&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
595 &lt;/font&gt;
596 &lt;font face=&quot;Times New Roman&quot; size=&quot;2&quot;&gt;
597 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
598&lt;/blockquote&gt;
599
600 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
601 &lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fbeeslychaptersix.html&quot;&gt;to Chapter
602 VI: Foreign Affairs: 1572-1583&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
603 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;
604 &lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fmonarchs%2feliz1.html&quot;&gt;to the Queen
605 Elizabeth I website&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp; /&amp;nbsp;
606 &lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2frelative%2fmaryqos.html&quot;&gt;to the Mary,
607 queen of Scots website&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
608 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;_httpextlink_&amp;amp;rl=1&amp;amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fsecondary.html&quot;&gt;
609 to Secondary Sources&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
610 &lt;/font&gt;
611
612
613
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616</Content>
617</Section>
618</Archive>
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