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14 | <Metadata name="Content">biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</Metadata>
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15 | <Metadata name="Page_topic">biography of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</Metadata>
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16 | <Metadata name="Author">Marilee Mongello</Metadata>
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17 | <Metadata name="Title">Secondary Sources: Queen Elizabeth by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892: Chapter VI</Metadata>
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21 | <Metadata name="dc.Subject">Tudor period|Others</Metadata>
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30 | <Content>
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31 |
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32 | <table border="0" cellpadding="3" width="100%" height="667">
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33 | <tr>
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34 | <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
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35 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="29">&nbsp;</td>
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36 | <td width="25%" height="29"></td>
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37 | </tr>
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38 | <tr>
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39 | <td width="25%" height="3"></td>
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40 | <td width="50%" height="3"><font size="3"></font></td>
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41 | <td width="25%" height="3"></td>
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42 | </tr>
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43 | <tr>
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44 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
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45 | <td valign="top" width="50%" height="610">
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46 | <p align="center"><b><font size="7">Queen Elizabeth<br></font></b>
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47 | <font size="4">by Edward Spencer Beesly, 1892</font></p>
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48 | <p align="center">
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49 | <img border="2" src="_httpdocimg_/eliz1-ermine.jpg" width="400" height="478" alt="'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas Hilliard"><p align="center">
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50 | <i><font size="2">'The Ermine Portrait' of Elizabeth I, c1585, by Nicholas
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51 | Hilliard;<br>from the <a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fwww.marileecody.com%2feliz1-images.html">Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I</a> website</font></i></td>
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52 | <td width="25%" height="610"></td>
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53 | </tr>
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54 | </table>
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55 | <blockquote>
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56 | <blockquote>
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57 | <font style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
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58 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman">
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59 | <div align="left">
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60 | <b>CHAPTER VI</b><br>
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61 | <b>FOREIGN AFFAIRS : 1572-1583</b></div>
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62 | <p align="left"><font size="3">THE year 1572 witnessed two events of capital
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63 | importance in European history: the rising in the Netherlands, which
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64 | resulted in the establishment of the Dutch Republic (April); and the
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65 | massacre of St. Bartholomew, which marked the decisive rejection of
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66 | Protestantism by France (August). </font></p>
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67 | <p align="left"><font size="3">In the beginning of that year--a few weeks
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68 | before the proceedings in Parliament just narrated--Elizabeth had at last
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69 | concluded the defensive alliance with France for which she had been so long
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70 | negotiating (19 April). It cannot be too often repeated that this was the
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71 | corner-stone of her foreign policy. For the sake of its superior importance
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72 | she had abstained from the interference in Scotland which her Ministers were
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73 | always urging. The more she interfered there the more she would have to
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74 | interfere, till it would end in her having a rebellious province on her
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75 | hands in addition to the hostility of both France and Spain; whereas an
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76 | alliance with France would give her security on all sides, Scotland
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77 | included. In the treaty it was agreed that if either country were invaded
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78 | &quot;under any pretence or cause, none excepted,&quot; the other should send 6000
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79 | troops to its assistance. This was accompanied with an explanation, in the
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80 | King's handwriting, that &quot;any cause &quot; included religion. The article
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81 | relating to Scotland is not less significant. The two sovereigns &quot;shall make
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82 | no innovations in Scotland, but defend it against foreigners, not suffering
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83 | strangers to enter, or foment the factions in Scotland; but it shall be
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84 | lawful for the Queen of England to chastise by arms the Scots who shall
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85 | countenance the English rebels now in Scotland.&quot; Mary was not mentioned.
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86 | France therefore tacitly renounced her cause. Immediately after the
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87 | conclusion of the treaty Charles IX. formally proposed a marriage between
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88 | Elizabeth and his youngest brother, Alençon. This proposal she managed to
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89 | encourage and elude for eleven years. </font></p>
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90 | <p align="left"><font size="3">It was just at this moment that the seizure
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91 | of Brill by some Dutch rovers, who had taken refuge on the sea from the
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92 | cruelty of Alva, caused most of the towns of Holland and Zealand to blaze
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93 | into rebellion (1 April). Thus began the great war of liberation, which was
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94 | to last thirty-seven years. The Protestant party in England hailed the
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95 | revolt with enthusiasm. Large subscriptions were made to assist it, and
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96 | volunteers poured across to take part in the struggle. Charles IX. and his
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97 | mother, full of schemes of conquest in the Netherlands, urged Elizabeth to
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98 | join them in a war against Philip. But, with a sagacity and self-restraint
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99 | which do her infinite honour, she refused to be drawn beyond the lines laid
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100 | down in the recent defensive alliance. Security, economy, fructification of
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101 | the tax-payers' money in the tax-payers' pocket--such were the guiding
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102 | principles of her policy. She was not to be dragged into dangerous
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103 | enterprises either ambitious or Quixotic. Schemes for the partition of the
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104 | Netherlands were laid before her. Zealand, it was said, would indemnify her
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105 | for Calais. What Englishman with any common sense does not now see that she
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106 | was right to reject the bribe? </font></p>
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107 | <p align="left"><font size="3">To Elizabeth no rebellion against a
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108 | legitimate sovereign could be welcome in itself. Since Philip was so
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109 | possessed by religious bigotry as to be dangerous to all Protestant States,
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110 | she was not sorry that he should wear out his crusading ardour in the
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111 | Netherlands; and she was ready to give just as much assistance to the Dutch,
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112 | in an underhand way, as would keep him fully occupied without bringing a
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113 | declaration of war upon herself. But she would have vastly preferred that he
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114 | should repress Catholic and Protestant fanatics alike, and get along quietly
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115 | with the mass of his subjects as his father had done before him. Charles IX.
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116 | was eager to strike in if she would join him. Those who blame her so
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117 | severely for her refusal seem to forget that a French conquest of the
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118 | Netherlands would have been far more dangerous to this country than their
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119 | possession by Spain. To keep them out of French hands has indeed been the
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120 | traditional policy of England during the whole of modern history. </font>
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121 | </p>
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122 | <p align="left"><font size="3">But, it is said, such a war would have
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123 | clinched the alliance recently patched up between the French court and the
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124 | Huguenots; there would have been no Bartholomew Massacre; &quot;on Elizabeth
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125 | depended at that moment whether the French Government would take its place
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126 | once for all on the side of the Reformation.&quot; </font></p>
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127 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Whether it would have been for the advantage
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128 | of European progress in the long-run that France should settle down into
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129 | Calvinism, I will forbear to inquire. Fortunately for the immediate
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130 | interests of England, Elizabeth understood the situation in France better
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131 | than some of her critics do, even with the results before their eyes. The
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132 | Huguenots were but a small fraction of the nation. Whatever importance they
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133 | possessed they derived from their rank, their turbulence, and the ambition
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134 | of their leaders. In a few towns of the south and south-west they formed a
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135 | majority of the population. But everywhere else they were mostly noblemen,
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136 | full of the arrogance and reckless valour of their class, anything but
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137 | puritans in their morals, and ready to destroy the unity of the kingdom for
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138 | political no less than for religious objects. They had been losing ground
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139 | for several years. The mass of the people abhorred their doctrines, and
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140 | protested against any concession to their pretensions. Charles and his
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141 | mother were absolutely careless about religion. Their feud with the Guises
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142 | and their designs on the Netherlands had led them to invite the Huguenot
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143 | chiefs to court, and so to give them a momentary influence in shaping the
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144 | policy of France. It was with nothing more solid to lean on than this
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145 | ricketty and short-lived combination that Burghley and Walsingham were eager
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146 | to launch England into a war with the most powerful monarchy in Europe.
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147 | </font></p>
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148 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The massacre of St. Bartholomew (24 August)
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149 | was a rude awakening from these dreams. That thunderclap did not show that,
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150 | in signing the treaty with England and in proposing an attack on Philip, the
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151 | French Government had been playing a treacherous game all along, in order to
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152 | lure the Huguenots to the shambles. But it did show that when the Catholic
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153 | sentiment in France was thoroughly roused, the dynasty itself must bend
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154 | before it or be swept away. England might help the Huguenots to keep up a
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155 | desultory and harassing civil war; she could no more enable them to control
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156 | the policy of the French nation and wield its force, than she could at the
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157 | present day restore the Bourbons or Bonapartes. </font></p>
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158 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The first idea of Elizabeth and her
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159 | ministers, on receiving the news of the massacre, naturally was that the
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160 | French Government had been playing them false from the first, that the
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161 | Catholic League for the extirpation of heresy in Europe, which had been so
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162 | much talked of since the Bayonne interview in 1565, was after all a reality,
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163 | and that England might expect an attack from the combined forces of Spain
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164 | and France. Thanks to the prudent policy of Elizabeth, England was in a far
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165 | better position to meet all dangers than she had been in 1565. The fleet was
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166 | brought round to the Downs. The coast was guarded by militia. An expedition
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167 | was organised to co-operate with the Dutch insurgents. Money was sent to the
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168 | Prince of Orange. Huguenot refugees were allowed to fit out a flotilla to
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169 | assist their co-religionists in Rochelle. The Scotch Regent Mar was
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170 | informed, with great secrecy, that if he would demand the extradition of
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171 | Mary, and undertake to punish her capitally for her husband's murder, she
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172 | should be given up to him. </font></p>
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173 | <p align="left"><font size="3">A few weeks sufficed to show that there was
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174 | no reason for panic. Confidence, indeed, between the French and English
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175 | Governments had been severely shaken. Each stood suspiciously on its guard.
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176 | But the alliance was too well grounded in the interests of both parties to
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177 | be lightly cast aside. The French ambassador was instructed to excuse and
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178 | deplore the massacre as best he could, and to press on the Alençon marriage.
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179 | Elizabeth, dressed in deep mourning, gave him a stiff reception, but let him
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180 | see her desire to maintain the alliance. The massacre did not restore the
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181 | ascendancy of the Guises. To the Huguenots, as religious reformers, it gave
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182 | a blow from which they did not recover. But as a political faction they were
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183 | not crushed. Nay, their very weakness became their salvation, since it
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184 | compelled them to fall into the second rank behind the <i>Politiques</i>,
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185 | the true party of progress, who were before long to find a victorious leader
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186 | in Henry of Navarre. </font></p>
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187 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Philip, for his part, was equally far from
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188 | any thought of a crusade against England. Sir Humphrey Gilbert, commanding
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189 | several companies of English volunteers, with the hardly concealed sanction
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190 | of his government, was fighting against the Spaniards in Walcheren and
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191 | hanging all his prisoners. Sir John Hawkins, with twenty ships, had sailed
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192 | to intercept the Mexican treasure fleet. Yet Alva, though gnashing his
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193 | teeth, was obliged to advise his master to swallow it all, and to be
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194 | thankful if he could get Elizabeth to reopen commercial intercourse, which
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195 | had been prohibited on both sides since the quarrel about the Genoese
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196 | treasure. A treaty for this purpose was in fact concluded early in 1573.
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197 | Thus the chief result of the Bartholomew Massacre, as far as Elizabeth was
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198 | concerned, was to show how strong her position was, and that she had no need
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199 | either to truckle to Catholics or let her hand be forced by Protestants. A
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200 | balance of power on the Continent was what suited her, as it has generally
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201 | suited this country. Let her critics say what they will, it was no business
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202 | of hers to organise a Protestant league, and so drive the Catholic
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203 | sovereigns to sink their mutual jealousies and combine against the common
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204 | enemy. </font></p>
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205 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The Scotch Regent was quite ready to
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206 | undertake the punishment of Mary, but only on condition that Elizabeth would
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207 | send the Earl of Bedford or the Earl of Huntingdon with an army to be
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208 | present at the execution and to take Edinburgh Castle. It need hardly be
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209 | said that there was also a demand for money. Mar died during the
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210 | negotiations, but they were continued by his successor Morton. Elizabeth was
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211 | determined to give no open consent to Mary's execution. She meant, no doubt,
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212 | as soon as it should be over, to protest, as she did fifteen years
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213 | afterwards, that there had been an unfortunate mistake, and to lay the blame
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214 | of it on the Scotch Government and her own agents. This part of the
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215 | negotiation therefore came to nothing. But money was sent to Morton, which
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216 | enabled him to establish a blockade of Edinburgh Castle, and by the
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217 | mediation of Elizabeth's ambassador, the Hamiltons, Gordons, and all the
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218 | other Marians except those in the Castle, accepted the very favourable terms
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219 | offered them, and recognised James. </font></p>
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220 | <p align="left"><font size="3">All that remained was to reduce the Castle.
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221 | Its defenders numbered less than two hundred men. The city and the
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222 | surrounding country were--as far as preaching and praying went--vehemently
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223 | anti-Marian. The Regent had now no other military task on his hands.
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224 | Elizabeth might well complain when she was told that unless she sent an army
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225 | and paid the Scotch Protestants to co-operate with it, the Castle could not
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226 | be taken. For some time she resisted this thoroughly Scotch demand. But at
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227 | last she yielded to Morton's importunity. Sir William Drury marched in from
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228 | Berwick, did the job, and marched back again (May 1573). Among the captives
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229 | were the brilliant Maitland of Lethington, once the most active of
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230 | Anglophiles, and Kirkaldy of Grange, who had begun the Scottish Reformation
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231 | by the murder of Cardinal Beaton, and had taken Mary prisoner at Carberry
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232 | Hill. A politician who did not turn his coat at least once in his life was a
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233 | rare bird in Scotland. Maitland died a few days after his capture, probably
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234 | by his own hand. Kirkaldy was hanged by his old friend Morton. </font></p>
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235 | <p align="left"><font size="3">By taking Edinburgh Castle Elizabeth did not
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236 | earn any gratitude from the party who had called her in. What they wanted,
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237 | and always would want, was money. Morton himself, treading in the steps of
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238 | his old leader Moray, remained an unswerving Anglophile. But his coadjutors
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239 | told the English ambassador plainly that, if they could not get money from
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240 | England, they could and would earn it from France. Elizabeth's councillors
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241 | were always teasing her to comply with these impudent demands. If there had
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242 | been a grown-up King on the throne, a man with a will of his own, and whose
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243 | right to govern could not be contested, it might have been worth while to
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244 | secure his good-will by a pension; and this was what Elizabeth did when
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245 | James became real ruler of the country. But she did not believe in paying a
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246 | clique of greedy lords to call themselves the English party. An English
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247 | party there was sure to be, if only because there was a French party. Their
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248 | services would be neither greater nor smaller whether they were paid or
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249 | unpaid. The French poured money into Scotland, and were worse served than
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250 | Elizabeth, who kept her money in her treasury. It was no fault of Elizabeth
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251 | if the conditions of political life in Scotland during the King's minority
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252 | were such that a firmly established government was in the nature of things
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253 | impossible. </font></p>
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254 | <p align="left"><font size="3">As Mary was kept in strict seclusion during
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255 | the panic that followed on the Bartholomew Massacre, she did not know how
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256 | narrow was her escape from a shameful death on a Scottish scaffold. When the
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257 | panic subsided she was allowed to resume her former manner of life as the
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258 | honoured guest of Lord Shrewsbury, with full opportunities for communication
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259 | with all her friends at home and abroad. Any alarm she had felt speedily
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260 | disappeared. If Elizabeth had for a moment contemplated striking at her life
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261 | or title by parliamentary procedure, that intention was evidently abandoned
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262 | when the Parliament of 1572 was prorogued without any such measure becoming
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263 | law. The public assumed, and rightly, that Elizabeth still regarded the
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264 | Scottish Queen as her successor. Peter Wentworth in the next session (1576)
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265 | asserted, and probably with truth, that many who had been loud in their
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266 | demands for severity repented of their forwardness when they found that Mary
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267 | might yet be their Queen, and tried to make their peace with her.
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268 | Wentworth's outburst (for which he was sent to the Tower) was the only
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269 | demonstration against Mary in that session. She told the Archbishop of
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270 | Glasgow that her prospects had never been better, and when opportunities for
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271 | secret escape were offered her she declined to use them, thinking that it
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272 | was for her interest to remain in England. </font></p>
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273 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The desire of the English Queen to reinstate
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274 | her rival arose principally from an uneasy consciousness that, by detaining
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275 | her in custody, she was fatally impairing that religious respect for
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276 | sovereigns which was the main, if not the only, basis of their power. The
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277 | scaffold of Fotheringay was, in truth, the prelude to the scaffold of
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278 | Whitehall. But as year succeeded year, and Elizabeth became habituated to
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279 | the situation which had at first given her such qualms, she could not shut
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280 | her eyes to the fact that, troublesome and even dangerous as Mary's presence
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281 | in England was, the trouble and the danger had been very much greater when
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282 | she was seated on the Scottish throne. The seething caldron of Scotch
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283 | politics had not, indeed, become a negligible quantity. It required
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284 | watching. But experience had shown that, while the King was a child, the
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285 | Scots were neither valuable as friends nor formidable as foes. This was a
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286 | truth quite as well understood at Paris and Madrid as at London, though the
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287 | French, no less keen in those days than they are now to maintain that
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288 | shadowy thing called &quot;legitimate French influence&quot; in countries with which
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289 | they had any historical connection, continued to intrigue and waste their
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290 | money among the hungry Scotch nobles. It was a fixed principle with
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291 | Elizabeth, as with all English statesmen, not to tolerate the presence of
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292 | foreign troops in Scotland. But she believed--and her belief was justified
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293 | by events-that a French expedition was not the easy matter it had been when
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294 | Mary of Guise was Regent of Scotland and Mary Tudor Queen of England. And,
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295 | more important still, in spite of much treachery and distrust, the French
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296 | and English Governments were bound together by a treaty which was equally
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297 | necessary to each of them. Scotland, therefore, was no longer such a cause
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298 | of anxiety to Elizabeth as it had been during the first ten years of her
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299 | reign. Her ministers had neither her coolness nor her insight. Yet modern
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300 | historians, proud of having unearthed their croaking criticisms, ask us to
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301 | judge Elizabeth's policy by prognostications which turned out to be false
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302 | rather than by the known results which so brilliantly justified it. </font>
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303 | </p>
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304 | <p align="left"><font size="3">How to deal with the Netherlands was a much
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305 | more complicated and difficult problem. Here again Elizabeth's ministers
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306 | were for carrying matters with a high hand. In their view, England was in
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307 | constant danger of a Spanish invasion, which could only be averted by openly
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308 | and vigorously supporting the revolted provinces. They would have had
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309 | Elizabeth place herself at the head of a Protestant league, and dare the
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310 | worst that Philip could do. She, on the other hand, believed that every year
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311 | war could be delayed was so much </font></p>
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312 | <p align="left"><font size="3">gained for England. There were many ways in
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313 | which she could aid the Netherlands without openly challenging Philip. A
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314 | curious theory of international relations prevailed in those days--an
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315 | English Prime Minister, by the way, found it convenient not long ago to
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316 | revive it--according to which, to carry on warlike operations against
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317 | another country was a very different thing from going to war with that
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318 | country. Of this theory Elizabeth largely availed herself. English generals
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319 | were not only allowed, but encouraged, to raise regiments of volunteers to
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320 | serve in the Low Countries. When there, they reported to the English
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321 | Government, and received instructions from it with hardly a pretence of
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322 | concealment. Money was openly furnished to the Prince of Orange. English
|
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323 | fleets-also nominally of volunteers--were encouraged to prey on Spanish
|
---|
324 | commerce, Elizabeth herself subscribing to their outfit and sharing in the
|
---|
325 | booty. </font></p>
|
---|
326 | <p align="left"><font size="3">We are not to suppose, because the revolt of
|
---|
327 | the Netherlands crippled Philip for any attack on England, that Elizabeth
|
---|
328 | welcomed it, or that she contemplated the prolongation of the struggle with
|
---|
329 | cold-blooded satisfaction. Its immediate advantage to this country was
|
---|
330 | obvious. But Elizabeth had a sincere abhorrence of war and disorder. She was
|
---|
331 | equally provoked with Philip for persecuting the Dutch Protestants into
|
---|
332 | rebellion, and with the Dutch for insisting on religious concessions which
|
---|
333 | Philip could not be expected to grant, and which she herself was not
|
---|
334 | granting to Catholics in England. At any time during the struggle, if Philip
|
---|
335 | would have guaranteed liberty of conscience (as distinguished from liberty
|
---|
336 | of public worship), the restoration of the old charters, and the removal of
|
---|
337 | the Spanish troops, Elizabeth would not only have withheld all help from the
|
---|
338 | Dutch, but would have put pressure on them to submit to Philip. The presence
|
---|
339 | of Spanish veterans opposite the mouth of the Thames was a standing menace
|
---|
340 | to England. &quot;As they are there,&quot; argued Burghley, we must help the Dutch to
|
---|
341 | keep them employed. &quot;If the Dutch were not such impracticable fanatics,&quot;
|
---|
342 | rejoined Elizabeth, &quot;the Spanish veterans need not be there at all.&quot; </font>
|
---|
343 | </p>
|
---|
344 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The &quot;Pacification of Ghent&quot; (November 1576),
|
---|
345 | by which the Belgian Netherlands, for a short time, made common cause with
|
---|
346 | Holland and Zealand, relieved Elizabeth, for a time, from the necessity of
|
---|
347 | taking any decisive step. Philip was still recognised as sovereign, but he
|
---|
348 | was required to be content with such powers as the old constitution gave
|
---|
349 | him. It seemed likely that Catholic bigots would have to give up
|
---|
350 | persecuting, and Protestant bigots to acquiesce in the official
|
---|
351 | establishment of the old religion. This was precisely the settlement
|
---|
352 | Elizabeth had always desired. It would get rid of the Spanish troops. It
|
---|
353 | would keep out the French. It would relieve her from the necessity of
|
---|
354 | interfering. If it put some restriction on the open profession of Calvinism
|
---|
355 | she would not be sorry. </font></p>
|
---|
356 | <p align="left"><font size="3">If this arrangement could have been carried
|
---|
357 | out, would it in the long-run have been for the benefit of Europe? Those who
|
---|
358 | hold that the conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism was simply a
|
---|
359 | conflict between truth and falsehood will, of course, have no difficulty in
|
---|
360 | giving their answer. Others may hold that freedom of conscience was all that
|
---|
361 | was needed at the time, and they may picture the many advantages which
|
---|
362 | Europe would have reaped during the last three centuries from the existence
|
---|
363 | of a united Netherlands, independent, as it must soon have become, of Spain,
|
---|
364 | and able to make its independence respected by its neighbours. </font></p>
|
---|
365 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Short-lived as the coalition was destined to
|
---|
366 | be, it secured for the Dutch a breathing-time when they were most sorely
|
---|
367 | pressed, and enabled Elizabeth to avoid quarrelling with Spain. The first
|
---|
368 | step of the newly allied States was to apply to her for assistance and a
|
---|
369 | loan of money. The loan they obtained-£40,000--a very large sum in those
|
---|
370 | days. But she earnestly advised them that if the new Governor, Don John of
|
---|
371 | Austria, would accept the Pacification, they should use the money to pay the
|
---|
372 | arrears of the Spanish troops; otherwise they would refuse to leave the
|
---|
373 | country for Don John or any one else. This was done. Don John had treachery
|
---|
374 | in his heart. But the departure of the Spaniards was a solid gain; and if
|
---|
375 | the Protestants and Catholics of the Netherlands had been able to tolerate
|
---|
376 | each other, they would have achieved the practical independence of their
|
---|
377 | country, and achieved it by their own unaided efforts. </font></p>
|
---|
378 | <p align="left"><font size="3">But Don John, the crusader, the victor of
|
---|
379 | Lepanto, the half-brother of Philip, was a man of soaring ambition. His
|
---|
380 | dream was to invade England, marry the Queen of Scots, and seat himself with
|
---|
381 | her on the English throne. It was in vain that Philip, who never wavered in
|
---|
382 | his desire to conciliate Elizabeth, and was jealous of his showy brother,
|
---|
383 | had strictly enjoined him to leave England alone. He persisted in his
|
---|
384 | design, and sent his confidant Escovedo to persuade Philip that to conquer
|
---|
385 | the Netherlands it was necessary to begin by conquering England. </font></p>
|
---|
386 | <p align="left"><font size="3">For a pair of determined enemies, Elizabeth
|
---|
387 | and Philip were just now upon most amicable, not to say affectionate, terms.
|
---|
388 | She knew well that he had incited assassins to take her life, and that
|
---|
389 | nothing would at any time give him greater pleasure than to hear that one of
|
---|
390 | them had succeeded. But she bore him no malice for that. She took it all in
|
---|
391 | the way of business, and intended, for her part, to go on robbing and
|
---|
392 | damaging him in every way she could short of going to war. Philip bore it
|
---|
393 | all meekly. Alva himself insisted that he could not afford to quarrel with
|
---|
394 | her. Diplomatic relations by means of resident ambassadors, which had been
|
---|
395 | broken off by the expulsion of De Espes in 1571, were resumed; and English
|
---|
396 | heretics in the prisons of the Inquisition were released in spite of the
|
---|
397 | outcries of the Grand Inquisitor. </font></p>
|
---|
398 | <p align="left"><font size="3">In the summer of 1557 it seemed as if Don
|
---|
399 | John's restless ambition would interrupt this pacific policy which suited
|
---|
400 | both monarchs. He had sent for the Spanish troops again. He was known to be
|
---|
401 | projecting an invasion of England. He was said to have a promise of help
|
---|
402 | from Guise. Elizabeth's ministers, as usual, believed that she was on the
|
---|
403 | brink of ruin, and implored her to send armies both to the Netherlands and
|
---|
404 | to France. But she refused to be hustled into any precipitate action, and
|
---|
405 | reasons soon appeared for maintaining an expectant attitude. The treaty of
|
---|
406 | Bergerac between Henry III. and Henry of Navarre (September 1557) showed
|
---|
407 | once more that the French King had no intention of letting the Huguenots be
|
---|
408 | crushed. The invitation of the Archduke Matthias by the Belgian nobles
|
---|
409 | showed that they were deeply jealous of English interference. Here, surely,
|
---|
410 | was matter for reflection. The most Elizabeth could be got to do was to
|
---|
411 | become security for a loan of £100,000 to the States, on condition that
|
---|
412 | Matthias should leave the real direction of affairs to William of Orange,
|
---|
413 | and to promise armed assistance (January 1578). At the same time she
|
---|
414 | informed Philip that she was obliged to do this for her own safety; that she
|
---|
415 | had no desire to contest his sovereignty of the Netherlands; on the
|
---|
416 | contrary, she would help him to maintain it if he would govern reasonably;
|
---|
417 | but he ought to remove Don John, who was her mortal enemy, and to appoint
|
---|
418 | another Governor of his own family; in other words, Matthias. Her policy
|
---|
419 | could not have been more candidly set forth, and Philip showed his
|
---|
420 | disapproval of Don John's designs in a characteristic way--by causing
|
---|
421 | Escovedo to be assassinated. Don John himself died in the autumn, of a fever
|
---|
422 | brought on by disappointment, or, as some thought, of a complaint similar to
|
---|
423 | Escovedo's (September 1578). </font></p>
|
---|
424 | <p align="left"><font size="3">When Elizabeth feared that Don John's scheme
|
---|
425 | was countenanced by his brother, she had risked an open rupture by promising
|
---|
426 | to send an army to the Netherlands. The murder of Escovedo and the arrival
|
---|
427 | of the Spanish ambassador Mendoza (March 1578) reassured her. Philip was
|
---|
428 | evidently pacific to the point of tameness. Instead, therefore, of sending
|
---|
429 | an English army, she preferred to pay John Casimir, the Count Palatine, to
|
---|
430 | lead a German army to the assistance of the States. As far as military
|
---|
431 | strength went, they were probably no losers by the change. But what they
|
---|
432 | wanted was to see Elizabeth committed to open war with Philip, and that was
|
---|
433 | just what she desired to avoid. Indirect and underhand blows she was
|
---|
434 | prepared to deal him, for she knew by experience that he would put up with
|
---|
435 | them. Thus in the preceding autumn she had despatched Drake on his famous
|
---|
436 | expedition to the South Pacific. </font></p>
|
---|
437 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Don John was succeeded by his nephew,
|
---|
438 | Alexander of Parma. The fine prospects of the revolted provinces were now
|
---|
439 | about to be dashed. In the arts which smooth over difficulties and
|
---|
440 | conciliate opposition, Parma had few equals. He was a head and shoulders
|
---|
441 | above all contemporary generals; and no soldiers of that time were
|
---|
442 | comparable to his Spanish and Italian veterans. When he assumed the command,
|
---|
443 | he was master of only a small corner of the Low Countries. What he effected
|
---|
444 | is represented by their present division between Belgians and Dutch. The
|
---|
445 | struggle in the Netherlands continued, therefore, to be the principal object
|
---|
446 | of Elizabeth's attention. </font></p>
|
---|
447 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Shortly before the death of Don John, the
|
---|
448 | Duke of Alençon, (1) brother and heir-presumptive of Henry III. had been
|
---|
449 | invited by the Belgian nobles to become their Protector, and Orange, in his
|
---|
450 | anxiety for union, had accepted their nominee. Alençon was to furnish 12,000
|
---|
451 | French troops. It was hoped and believed that, though Henry had ostensibly
|
---|
452 | disapproved of his brother's action, he would in the end give him open
|
---|
453 | support, thus resuming the enterprise which had been interrupted six years
|
---|
454 | before by the Bartholomew Massacre. </font></p>
|
---|
455 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Now, how was Elizabeth to deal with this new
|
---|
456 | combination? The Protectorship of Alençon might bring on annexation to
|
---|
457 | France, the result which most of all she wished to avoid. For a moment she
|
---|
458 | thought of offering her own protection (which Orange would have much
|
---|
459 | preferred), and an army equal to that promised by Alençon. But upon further
|
---|
460 | reflection, she determined to adhere to the policy of not throwing down the
|
---|
461 | glove to Philip, and to try whether she could not put Alençon in harness,
|
---|
462 | and make him do her work. One means of effecting this would be to allow him
|
---|
463 | subsidies--the means employed on such a vast scale by Pitt in our wars with
|
---|
464 | Napoleon. But Elizabeth intended to spend as little as possible in this way.
|
---|
465 | She relied chiefly on a revival of the marriage comedy--now to be played
|
---|
466 | positively for the last time; the lady being forty-five, and her wooer
|
---|
467 | twenty-four. </font></p>
|
---|
468 | <p align="left"><font size="3">A dignified policy it certainly was not. All
|
---|
469 | that was ridiculous and repulsive in her coquetry with Henry had now to be
|
---|
470 | repeated and outdone with his younger brother. To overcome the incredulity
|
---|
471 | which her previous performances had produced, she was obliged to exaggerate
|
---|
472 | her protestations, to admit a personal courtship, to simulate amorous
|
---|
473 | emotion, and to go through a tender pantomime of kisses and caresses. But
|
---|
474 | Elizabeth never let dignity stand in the way of business. What to most women
|
---|
475 | would have been an insupportable humiliation did not cost her a pang. She
|
---|
476 | even found amusement in it. From the nature of the case, she could not take
|
---|
477 | one of her counsellors into her confidence. There was no chance of imposing
|
---|
478 | upon foreigners unless she could persuade those about her that she was in
|
---|
479 | earnest. They were amazed that she should run the risk of establishing the
|
---|
480 | French in the Netherlands. She had no intention of doing so. When Philip
|
---|
481 | should be brought so low as to be willing to concede a constitutional
|
---|
482 | government, she could always throw her weight on his side and get rid of the
|
---|
483 | French. </font></p>
|
---|
484 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The match with Alençon had been proposed six
|
---|
485 | years before. It had lately slumbered. But there was no difficulty in
|
---|
486 | whistling him back, and making it appear that the renewed overture came from
|
---|
487 | his side. After tedious negotiations, protracted over twelve months, he at
|
---|
488 | length paid his first visit to Elizabeth ( August 1579). He was an
|
---|
489 | under-sized man with an over-sized head, villainously ugly, with a face
|
---|
490 | deeply seamed by smallpox, a nose ending in a knob that made it look like
|
---|
491 | two noses, and a croaking voice. Elizabeth's liking for big handsome men is
|
---|
492 | well known. But as she had not the least intention of marrying Alençon, it
|
---|
493 | cost her nothing to affirm that she was charmed with his appearance, and
|
---|
494 | that he was just the sort of man she could fancy for a husband. The only
|
---|
495 | agreeable thing about him was his conversation, in which he shone, so that
|
---|
496 | people who did not thoroughly know him always at first gave him credit for
|
---|
497 | more ability than he possessed. Elizabeth, who had a pet name for all
|
---|
498 | favourites, dubbed him her &quot;frog&quot;; and &quot;Grenouille&quot; he was fain to subscribe
|
---|
499 | himself in his love-letters. This first visit was a short one, and he went
|
---|
500 | away hopeful of success. </font></p>
|
---|
501 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The English people could only judge by
|
---|
502 | appearances, and for the first time in her reign Elizabeth was unpopular.
|
---|
503 | The Puritan Stubbs published his <i>Discovery of a Gaping Gulf wherein
|
---|
504 | England is like to be swallowed by another French Marriage</i>. But the
|
---|
505 | excitement was by no means confined to the Puritans. Hatred of Frenchmen
|
---|
506 | long remained a ruling sentiment with most Englishmen. Elizabeth vented her
|
---|
507 | rage on Stubbs, who had been so rude as to tell her that childbirth at her
|
---|
508 | age would endanger her life. He was sentenced to have his hand cut off. &quot;I
|
---|
509 | remember,&quot; says Camden, &quot;being then present, that Stubbs, after his right
|
---|
510 | hand was cut off, put off his hat with his left, and said with a loud voice,
|
---|
511 | 'God save the Queen.' The multitude standing about was deeply silent.&quot;
|
---|
512 | </font></p>
|
---|
513 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Not long after Alençon's visit, a treaty of
|
---|
514 | marriage was signed (November 1579), with a proviso that two months should
|
---|
515 | be allowed for the Queen's subjects to become reconciled to it. If, at the
|
---|
516 | end of that time, Elizabeth did not ratify the treaty, it was to be null and
|
---|
517 | void. The appointed time came and went without ratification. Burghley, as
|
---|
518 | usual, predicted that the jilted suitor would become a deadly enemy, and
|
---|
519 | drew an alarming picture of the dangers that threatened England, with the
|
---|
520 | old exhortation to his mistress to form a Protestant league and subsidise
|
---|
521 | the Scotch Anglophiles. But in 1572 she had slipped out of the Anjou
|
---|
522 | marriage, and yet secured a French alliance. She confided in her ability to
|
---|
523 | play the same game now. Though she had not ratified the marriage treaty, she
|
---|
524 | continued to correspond with Alençon and keep up his hopes, urging him at
|
---|
525 | the same time to lead an army to the help of the States. This, however, he
|
---|
526 | was unwilling to do till he had secured the marriage. The French King was
|
---|
527 | ready, and even eager, to back his brother. But he, too, insisted on the
|
---|
528 | marriage, and that Elizabeth should openly join him in war against Spain.
|
---|
529 | </font></p>
|
---|
530 | <p align="left"><font size="3">In the summer of 1580, Philip conquered
|
---|
531 | Portugal, thus not only rounding off his Peninsular realm, but acquiring the
|
---|
532 | enormous transmarine dominions of the Portuguese crown. All Europe was
|
---|
533 | profoundly impressed and alarmed by this apparent increase of his power.
|
---|
534 | Elizabeth incessantly lectured Henry on the necessity of abating a
|
---|
535 | preponderance so dangerous to all other States, and tried to convince him
|
---|
536 | that it was specially incumbent on France to undertake the enterprise. But
|
---|
537 | she preached in vain. Henry steadily refused to stir unless England would
|
---|
538 | openly assist him with troops and money, of which the marriage was to be the
|
---|
539 | pledge. He did not conceal his suspicion that, when Elizabeth had pushed him
|
---|
540 | into war, she would &quot;draw her neck out of the collar&quot; and leave him to bear
|
---|
541 | the whole danger. </font></p>
|
---|
542 | <p align="left"><font size="3">This was, in fact, her intention. She
|
---|
543 | believed that a war with France would soon compel Philip to make proper
|
---|
544 | concessions to the States; whereupon she would interpose and dictate a
|
---|
545 | peace. &quot;Marry my brother,&quot; Henry kept saying, &quot;and then I shall have
|
---|
546 | security that you will bear your fair share of the fighting, and expenses.&quot;
|
---|
547 | &quot;If I am to go to war,&quot; argued Elizabeth, &quot;I cannot marry your brother; for
|
---|
548 | my subjects will say that I am dragged into it by my husband, and they will
|
---|
549 | grudge the expense. Suppose, instead of a marriage, we have an alliance not
|
---|
550 | binding me to open war; then I will furnish you with money <i>underhand</i>.
|
---|
551 | You know you have got to fight. You cannot afford to let Philip go on
|
---|
552 | increasing his power.&quot; </font></p>
|
---|
553 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Henry remained doggedly firm. No marriage, no
|
---|
554 | war. At last, finding she could not stir him, Elizabeth again concluded a
|
---|
555 | treaty of marriage, but with the extraordinary proviso that six weeks should
|
---|
556 | be left for private explanations by letter between herself and Alençon. It
|
---|
557 | soon appeared what this meant. In these six weeks Elizabeth furnished her
|
---|
558 | suitor with money, and incited him to make a sudden attack on Parma, who was
|
---|
559 | then besieging Cambray, close to the French frontier. Alençon, thinking
|
---|
560 | himself now sure of the marriage, collected 15,000 men; and Henry, though
|
---|
561 | not openly assisting him, no longer prohibited the enterprise. But, as soon
|
---|
562 | as Elizabeth thought they were sufficiently committed, she gave them to
|
---|
563 | understand that the marriage must be again deferred, that her subjects were
|
---|
564 | discontented, that she could only join in a defensive alliance, but that she
|
---|
565 | would furnish money &quot;in reasonable sort&quot; <i>underhand</i>. </font></p>
|
---|
566 | <p align="left"><font size="3">All this is very unscrupulous, very
|
---|
567 | shameless, even for that shameless age. Hardened liars like Henry and
|
---|
568 | Alençon thought it too bad. <i>They</i> were ready for violence as well as
|
---|
569 | fraud, and availed themselves of whichever method came handiest. Elizabeth
|
---|
570 | also used the weapon which nature had given her. Being constitutionally
|
---|
571 | averse from any but peaceful methods, she made up for it by a double dose of
|
---|
572 | fraud. <i>Dente lupus, cornu taurus</i>. It would have been useless for a
|
---|
573 | mate statesman to try to pass himself off as a fickle impulsive, susceptible
|
---|
574 | being, swayed from one moment to another in his political schemes by
|
---|
575 | passions and weaknesses that are thought natural in the other sex. This was
|
---|
576 | Elizabeth's advantage, and she made the most of it. She was a masculine
|
---|
577 | woman simulating, when it suited her purpose, a feminine character. The men
|
---|
578 | against whom she was matched were never sure whether they were dealing with
|
---|
579 | a crafty and determined politician, or a vain, flighty, amorous woman. This
|
---|
580 | uncertainty was constantly putting them out in their calculations. Alençon
|
---|
581 | would never have been so taken in if he had not told himself that any folly
|
---|
582 | might be expected from an elderly woman enamoured of a young man. </font>
|
---|
583 | </p>
|
---|
584 | <p align="left"><font size="3">On this occasion Elizabeth scored, if not the
|
---|
585 | full success she had hoped from her audacious mystification, yet no
|
---|
586 | inconsiderable portion of it. Henry managed to draw back just in time, and
|
---|
587 | was not let in for a big war. But Alençon, at the head of 15,000 men, and
|
---|
588 | close to Cambray, could not for very shame beat a retreat. Parma retired at
|
---|
589 | his approach, and the French army entered Cambray in triumph (August 1581).
|
---|
590 | Alençon therefore had been put in harness to some purpose. </font></p>
|
---|
591 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Though Henry III. had good reason to complain
|
---|
592 | of the way he had been treated, he did not make it a quarrel with Elizabeth.
|
---|
593 | His interests, as she saw all along, were too closely bound up with hers to
|
---|
594 | permit him to think of such a thing. On the contrary, he renewed the
|
---|
595 | alliance of 1572 in an ampler form, though it still remained strictly
|
---|
596 | defensive. Alençon, after relieving and victualling Cambray, disbanded his
|
---|
597 | army, and went over to England again to press for the marriage (November
|
---|
598 | 1581). Thither he was followed by ambassadors from the States. By the advice
|
---|
599 | of Orange they had resolved to take him as their sovereign, and they were
|
---|
600 | now urgently pressing him to return to the Netherlands to be installed.
|
---|
601 | Elizabeth added her pressure; but he was unwilling to leave England until he
|
---|
602 | should have secured the marriage. For three months (November 1581 to
|
---|
603 | February 1582) did Elizabeth try every art to make him accept promise for
|
---|
604 | performance. She was thoroughly in her element. To win her game in this way,
|
---|
605 | not by the brutal arbitrament of war, or even by the ordinary tricks of
|
---|
606 | vicarious diplomacy, but by artifices personally executed, feats of cajolery
|
---|
607 | that might seem improbable on the stage,--this was delightful in the highest
|
---|
608 | degree. The more distrustful Alençon showed himself, the keener was the
|
---|
609 | pleasure of handling him. One day he is hidden behind a curtain to view her
|
---|
610 | elegant dancing; not, surely, that he might be smitten with it, but that he
|
---|
611 | might think she desired him to be smitten. Another day she kisses him on the
|
---|
612 | lips (<i>en la boca</i>) in the presence of the French ambassador. She gives
|
---|
613 | him a ring. She presents him to her household as their future master. She
|
---|
614 | orders the Bishop of Lincoln to draw up a marriage service. It is a
|
---|
615 | repulsive spectacle; but, after all, we are not so much disgusted with the
|
---|
616 | elderly woman who pretends to be willing to marry the young man, as with the
|
---|
617 | young man who is really willing to marry the elderly woman. Unfortunately
|
---|
618 | for Elizabeth, her acting was so realistic that it not only took in
|
---|
619 | contemporaries, but has persuaded many modern writers that she was really
|
---|
620 | influenced by a degrading passion. </font></p>
|
---|
621 | <p align="left"><font size="3">Henry III. himself was at last induced to
|
---|
622 | believe that Elizabeth was this time in earnest. But he could not be driven
|
---|
623 | from his determination to risk nothing till he saw the marriage actually
|
---|
624 | concluded. Pinart, the French Secretary of State, was accordingly sent over
|
---|
625 | to settle the terms. Elizabeth demanded one concession after another, and
|
---|
626 | finally asked for the restitution of Calais. There was no mistaking what
|
---|
627 | this meant. Pinart, in the King's name, formally forbade Alençon to proceed
|
---|
628 | to the Netherlands except as a married man, and tried to intimidate
|
---|
629 | Elizabeth by threatening that his master would ally himself with Philip. But
|
---|
630 | she laughed at him, and told him that she could have the Spanish alliance
|
---|
631 | whenever she chose, which was perfectly true. Alençon himself gave way. He
|
---|
632 | felt that he was being played with. He had come over here, with a <i>fatuilé</i>
|
---|
633 | not uncommon among young Frenchmen, expecting to bend a love-sick Queen to
|
---|
634 | serve his political designs. He found himself, to his intense mortification,
|
---|
635 | bent to serve hers. Ashamed to show his face in France without either his
|
---|
636 | Belgian dominions or his English wife, he was fain to accept Elizabeth's
|
---|
637 | solemn promise that she would marry him as soon as she could, and allowed
|
---|
638 | himself to be shipped off under the escort of an English fleet to the
|
---|
639 | Netherlands (February 1582). </font></p>
|
---|
640 | <p align="left"><font size="3">According to Mr. Froude, &quot;the Prince of
|
---|
641 | Orange intimated that Alençon was accepted by the States only as a pledge
|
---|
642 | that England would support them; if England failed them, they would not
|
---|
643 | trust their fortunes to so vain an idiot.&quot; This statement appears to be
|
---|
644 | drawn from the second-band tattle of Mendoza, and is probably, like much
|
---|
645 | else from that source, unworthy of credit. But whether Orange sent such an
|
---|
646 | &quot;intimation&quot; or not, it cannot be allowed to weigh against the ample
|
---|
647 | evidence that Alençon was accepted by him and by the States mainly for the
|
---|
648 | sake of the French forces he could raise on his own account, and the
|
---|
649 | assistance which he undertook to procure from his brother. Neither Orange
|
---|
650 | nor any one else regarded him as an idiot. Orange had not been led to expect
|
---|
651 | that he would bring any help from England except money supplied underhand;
|
---|
652 | and money Elizabeth did furnish in very considerable quantities. But the
|
---|
653 | Netherlanders now expected everything to be done for them, and were backward
|
---|
654 | with their contributions both in men and money. Clearly there is something
|
---|
655 | to be said for the let-alone policy to which Elizabeth usually leant. </font>
|
---|
656 | </p>
|
---|
657 | <p align="left"><font size="3">The States intended Alençon's sovereignty to
|
---|
658 | be of the strictly constitutional kind, such as it had been before the
|
---|
659 | encroachments of Philip and his father. This did not suit the young
|
---|
660 | Frenchman, and at the beginning of 1583 he attempted a <i>coup d'état</i>,
|
---|
661 | not without encouragement from some of the Belgian Catholics. At Antwerp his
|
---|
662 | French troops were defeated with great bloodshed by the citizens, and the
|
---|
663 | general voice of the country was for sending him about his business. But
|
---|
664 | both Elizabeth and Orange, though disconcerted and disgusted by his
|
---|
665 | treachery, still saw nothing better to be done than to patch up the breach
|
---|
666 | and retain his services. Both of them urged this course on the
|
---|
667 | States--Orange with his usual dignified frankness; Elizabeth in the crooked,
|
---|
668 | blustering fashion which has brought upon her policy, in so many instances,
|
---|
669 | reproach which it does not really deserve. Norris, the commander of the
|
---|
670 | English volunteers, had discountenanced the <i>coup-d'état</i> and taken his
|
---|
671 | orders from the States. Openly Elizabeth reprimanded him, and ordered him to
|
---|
672 | bring his men back to England. Secretly she told him he had done well, and
|
---|
673 | bade him remain where he was. Norris was in fact there to protect the
|
---|
674 | interests of England quite as much against the French as against Spain.
|
---|
675 | There is not the least ground for the assertion that in promoting a
|
---|
676 | reconciliation with Alençon, Orange acted under pressure from Elizabeth.
|
---|
677 | Everything goes to show that he, the wisest and noblest statesman of his
|
---|
678 | time, thought it the only course open to the States, unless they were
|
---|
679 | prepared to submit to Philip. Both Elizabeth and Orange felt that the first
|
---|
680 | necessity was to keep the quarrel alive between the Frenchman and the
|
---|
681 | Spaniard. The English Queen therefore continued to feed Alençon with hopes
|
---|
682 | of marriage, and the States patched up a reconciliation with him (March
|
---|
683 | 1583). But his heart failed him. He saw Parma taking town after town. He
|
---|
684 | knew that he had made himself odious to the Netherlanders. He was covered
|
---|
685 | with shame. He was fatally stricken with consumption. In June 1583 he left
|
---|
686 | Belgium never to return. Within a twelvemonth he was dead. </font></p>
|
---|
687 | </font>
|
---|
688 | <hr>
|
---|
689 | </font>
|
---|
690 | <font face="Times New Roman">
|
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691 | <p align="left"><b>Notes:</b>
|
---|
692 | </font>
|
---|
693 | <font style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
|
---|
694 | <font style="font-family: Times New Roman">1. He had received the Duchy of
|
---|
695 | Anjou in addition to that of Alençon, and some historians call him by the
|
---|
696 | former title.</font></p>
|
---|
697 | <p align="left"><font style="font-family: Times New Roman" size="2">From <i>
|
---|
698 | Queen Elizabeth</i> by Edward Spencer Beesly.&nbsp; Published in London by
|
---|
699 | Macmillan and Co., 1892.</font></p>
|
---|
700 | </font>
|
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701 | <font face="Times New Roman" size="2">
|
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702 | </blockquote>
|
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703 | </blockquote>
|
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704 |
|
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705 | <p align="center">
|
---|
706 | <a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=1&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fbeeslychapterseven.html">to Chapter
|
---|
707 | VII The Papal Attack: 1570-1583</a></p>
|
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708 | <p align="center">
|
---|
709 | <a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=1&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fmonarchs%2feliz1.html">to the Queen
|
---|
710 | Elizabeth I website</a>&nbsp; /&nbsp;
|
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711 | <a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=1&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2frelative%2fmaryqos.html">to the Mary,
|
---|
712 | queen of Scots website</a></p>
|
---|
713 | <p align="center"><a href="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=1&amp;href=http:%2f%2fenglishhistory.net%2ftudor%2fsecondary.html">
|
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714 | to Secondary Sources</a></p>
|
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715 | </font>
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716 |
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717 |
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718 |
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719 | <!-- text below generated by server. PLEASE REMOVE --><!-- Counter/Statistics data collection code --><script language="JavaScript" src="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;href=http:%2f%2fhostingprod.com%2fjs%5fsource%2fgeov2.js"></script><script language="javascript">geovisit();</script><noscript><img src="_httpextlink_&amp;rl=0&amp;el=direct&amp;href=http://visit.webhosting.yahoo.com/visit.gif?us1108082625" alt="setstats" border="0" width="1" height="1"></noscript>
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721 | </Content>
|
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722 | </Section>
|
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723 | </Archive>
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