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