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was not in the confessional; the accusing spirit did not carry up that oath]; and that she had never thought about marriage till after it had pleased God to raise her to the throne. Her own wishes would lead her to remain single; but she was ready to sacrifice them to public considerations. [Yet such considerations could have had little influence on her choice, since she well knew that in marrying a foreign prince she was acting in opposition to the strongest feelings of the nation; and when her Parliament remonstrated, she told them plainly that her marriage was no concern of theirs.] She trusted the Emperor would consider well what she had said to me [about the necessity for 'the person's residing in England?'] She desired to obey and to please his majesty in all things, as if he were her own father. She should not dare to discuss the subject with her Council; it must be opened to them by a communication from the Emperor. [So, afterwards, when Count Egmont brought the formal proposal, Mary said, 'it became not a female to speak in public, on so delicate a subject as her own marriage.'] It was true that her ladies talked to her of nothing but marriage- que les dames quilz sont à l'entour d'elle ne luy preschent d'aultre chose sinon de mariaige; - but the members of the Council, assembled or individually, had never touched upon the topic in her presence."

"Which is the sum of what passed in regard to the said matter of marriage. I would not lose the opportunity of speaking to her on the subject; and you and his majesty can now judge for yourselves what inferences are to be deduced." *

And we, for our part, ("en notre particulier,") leave it to the fair reader to pronounce if Mary was heart-whole, or at all events"fancy-free."

She now waited anxiously for Charles's proposal. As often as she saw the secretary of the embassy, she inquired whether any despatches had been received from his majesty, and if the envoy had any communication to make to her. It was her desire that the emperor should send her a letter, conveying the proposal in such terms, that it might be laid before the Council for their approbation. But this open and straightforward course did not meet the views of her crafty kinsman. If Philip came forward publicly as a suitor for the hand of the English Queen, his negotiations for a marriage with the Por

*Renard to the Bishop of Arras, September 8.

↑ Renard to the Bishop of Arras, September 9.

tuguese princess would at once come to an absolute termination. The intermarriages, so frequent in that age, between the royal houses of Portugal and Spain, proceeded from the hopes which each dynasty entertained of absorbing its rival by these means, and ultimately bringing the whole Peninsula under its own sway. Two of Charles's aunts, his sister, and his daughter, had married Portuguese princes. He himself had broken a contract with the very daughter of Henry VIII. of England whom he was now wooing for his son, in order to wed his kinswoman, Isabella of Portugal. Philip was the widower of a Portuguese princess, whom he had married at the age of seventeen; and, as we have seen, he had again made proposals for a daughter of the same house. But the Portuguese nation relished such matches as little as the English nation. Whichever family might prove the winner in this matrimonial game, it was clear that the smaller and weaker country could gain nothing by the amalgamation. Nor did the court of Lisbon regard the present project with much favor. The power, the ambition, and the astuteness of Charles caused his offers of alliance to be viewed with nearly as much apprehension as his declarations of hostility. Philip, too, was, even at this period, the most unpopular prince in Europe. Had his suit been carried on with the dilatoriness represented by Renard, it would long before have received its quietus. The difficulties made by the other party had occasioned the delay. "I do not think," wrote Granvelle, while he and his master were waiting for intelligence from Portugal, "that the treaty has been concluded; for those people are very slow in their proceedings when the object is one that they themselves desire, and much slower when it is one for which they have little inclination, which I suspect is the case in this instance." *

But before breaking off this negotiation, the emperor wished to be quite sure of the ground on which he was about to step. This was one reason for the strict secrecy with which he conducted the affair. He knew that "the English people naturally hated and abhorred foreigners," and "held the idea of

*The Bishop of Arras to Renard, August 14.

having a foreign prince as their ruler, in universal detestation."* Yet the prize, he conceived, was one worth incurring a great risk for. There was not merely the chance of ultimately uniting England and the Low Countries under the sovereignty of his grandchildren. He also hoped that Philip would be able to control the foreign policy of Mary's government, bring the resources of the nation to his assistance, and thus enable him to give the coup de grace to that power with which he had been carrying on an almost uninterrupted struggle ever since his accession to the throne. Such were the schemes of

a man whose constitution was broken, whose mind was distempered by melancholy, and who was looking forward to the speedy termination of his career, either by abdication or by death.

Before making a public offer to Mary of his son's hand, Charles wished to be fully assured of her sentiments in his favor, and also to gain a definite notion of the degree of opposition which the project would meet with from her subjects. Hitherto, no member of the Council had been spoken to upon the matter. An expectation, indeed, prevailed at the English court, that Charles would offer advice to his kinswoman respecting her marriage; but it was some time before suspicions began to be entertained of the negotiations that were actually going on. The ambassador wrote, that, to gain the consent of the members of the Council and the principal nobles, it would be necessary to distribute large sums of money, and to promise estates, dignities, and other rewards for their coöperation. At length, he ventured to drop a hint on the matter to Paget; and finding that that unscrupulous politician was ready to embark in the scheme, he took him partially into his confidence, and availed himself of his counsel and assistance. The emperor wrote to Paget with his own hand, and, at his recommendation, directed that some other members of the Council should be sounded; that considerable sums (" sommes notables de deniers") should be privately distributed among them, and promises made to them of an increase of their rank and privileges, in case of their adherence. An intimation might also be given to them that, if they were not disposed * Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, iv., 10, et alibi.

to support the project, others, who were less impracticable, might be found to supply their places in the Council.*

It now remained to obtain from the lady herself an explicit assent to the engagement. Early in September, Gardiner, whose eyes were now opened to what was going on, made a final effort in behalf of Courtenay; but to this proposal the Queen gave an absolute rejection. The emperor then empowered his ambassador to tender to her privately, in his name, the hand of his son. Charles thought it necessary to apologize for not becoming a suitor on his own behalf; his age and infirmities afforded an obvious excuse. But he could not offer any one who was so dear to him as Philip. The envoy was directed to urge all the public and private considerations which might be supposed to render such an alliance desirable for Mary. She was requested to make a plain and direct statement of her sentiments, discarding the ceremony and reserve with which such matters are discussed between strangers. If she should express a desire to communicate with the Council before coming to a resolution, Renard was to tell her that the present question concerned only her own feelings; if she were not herself inclined to sanction the project, there was no necessity for consulting any one, and the whole affair might remain a profound secret. On the other hand, if her own inclinations were in favor of the alliance, and her hesitation proceeded merely from doubts as to its feasibility, she was entreated to give the envoy her entire confidence; to give him the names of the persons whom she wished to consult; and to be guided by his advice as to what steps she should take.†

Mary seems to have accepted this offer without any show of reluctance. But the secrecy with which the affair had hitherto been conducted could no longer be maintained. No sooner did it become known to the Council, than the majority of them, with Gardiner at their head, waited on the Queen, *The Emperor to Renard, September 20.

† Letter above cited, of September 20. The dates which we have given are sufficient to refute the story, taken by Tytler and Miss Strickland from Graziani, Vie de Commendon, that Mary told the Papal envoy, in the middle of August, that "she had concluded her league with the Emperor, and had entirely resolved upon her marriage with his heir, Prince Philip."

and remonstrated strongly with her on the impolicy of such a marriage. If any thing had been wanting to confirm her in her purpose, this opposition would, of course, have had that effect. Parliament now took the alarm, and sent a committee to the Queen, to beseech her not to take a foreign prince for her husband. On the evening of the day on which she received this deputation, Mary knelt before the altar of her private oratory, in presence of the Spanish ambassador, and made a solemn vow to marry no one but the Prince of Spain. Another trial of her constancy awaited her. A rebellion, more formidable, more nearly successful than any that has ever been provoked in England by any single act of the government, followed the publication of the intended alliance. When this insurrection had been suppressed, and its ringleaders punished, Mary had no further resistance to apprehend.

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There is one feature of this transaction, the details of which have not been fully related by historians,*— which merits particular attention. Mary had obtained possession of the crown, which was her birthright, by the unexpected display of an ardent loyalty and attachment to her person, on the part of the great body of the people. All the dangers, all the sufferings, all the wrongs she had endured, had received an ample compensation in such general sympathy and adherBut this generous fidelity failed to inspire her with any confidence in her subjects, or any regard for their wishes or their interests. In all important matters, her course was dictated by a foreign prince, who had given her no assistance in the assertion of her rights, whose advice came to her through secret channels, and whose aim, of course, was to render her policy subservient to his own. No English subject was privy to the communications that passed between the

ence.

* Lingard alone, at least among English historians, had access to the Ambassades de Renard, while they were still unprinted, among the State Papers of Cardinal Granville. But this able, though (necessarily) uncandid, writer made little use of these invaluable documents. We may hope that they will be turned to better account by the distinguished historian, who is understood to be now engaged upon a work which will embrace all the important events of the latter half of the sixteenth century, and among whose merits, merits which the world has so amply recognized, - a total freedom from religious bigotry is not the least.

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