out in France, he acquaints the ambassador that the queen dislikes to give assistance to Conde and his party against their sovereign; but recommends it to him to do it occasionally notwithstanding, as the council of England are their friends.

In Sept. 1568 he writes thus: 'The French ambassador has sent his nephew to require audience; and that it might be ordered to have her majesty's council present at the bishop's missado. Her majesty's answer was, that they forgot themselves, in coming from a king that was but young, to think her not able to conceive an answer without her council: and although she could use the advice of her council, as was meet, yet she saw no cause why they should thus deal with her; being of full years and governing her realm in better sort than France was. So the audience, being demanded on Saturday, was put off till Tuesday; wherewith I think they are not contented.' Again: 'Monsieur de Montausier . . . was brought to the queen's presence to report the victory which God had given the French king by a battle as he termed it, wherein was slain the prince of Conde; whereunto, as I could conceive, her majesty answered, that of any good fortune happening to the king she was glad; but that she thought it also to be condoled with the king, that it should be counted a victory to have a prince of his blood slain; and so with like speech, not fully to their contentation.' [Scrinia Ceciliana.]

With the Spanish court the queen was on the worst possible terms short of open hostilities. Her ambassador at Madrid had been banished from the city to a little village in the neighbourhood; the Spanish ambassador at London had been placed under guard for dispersing libels against her person and government; and in consequence of her adroit seizure of a sum of money belonging to some Genoese merchants designed as a loan to the duke of Alva, to enable him to carry on the war against the protestants in Flanders, the king of Spain had ordered all commerce to be broken off between those provinces and England.

In the midst of these menaces of foreign war, cabals were forming against Elizabeth in her own kingdom and court which threatened her with nearer dangers. Of all these plots, the Scottish queen was directly or indirectly, the cause or the pretext; and, in order to place them in a clear light, it will now be necessary to return to the conferences at York.

CHAP. XVII. 1568 TO 1570.

Proceedings of the commissioners at York in the cause of Mary— Intrigues of the duke of Norfolk with the regent Murray.—The conferences transferred to Westminster.—Mary's guilt disclosed.— Fresh intrigues of Norfolk.-Conspiracy for procuring his marriage with Mary.-Conduct of Throgmorton.-Attempt to ruin Cecil baffled by the queen.—Endeavour of Sussex to reconcile Norfolk and Cecil.-Norfolk betrayed by Leicester.—his plot revealedcommitted to the Tower.-Mary given in charge to the earl of Huntingdon.-Remarks on this subject.—Of the earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland.-Their rebellion.--Particulars of the Norton family.—Severities exercised against the rebels.-Conduct of the earl of Sussex.-Notice of Leonard Dacre.—Rising under him. His after-fortunes and those of his family.—Expedition of the earl of Sussex into Scotland.-Murder of regent Murray.-Influence of this event on the affairs of Elizabeth.—Campaign in Scotland. -Papal bull against the queen.-Trifling effect produced by it.Attachment of the people to her government.

THE three commissioners named by Elizabeth to sit as judges in the great cause between Mary and her subjects, of which she had been named the umpire, were the duke of Norfolk, the earl of Sussex, and sir Ralph Sadler, a very able negotiator and man of business. On the part of the Scottish nation, the regent Murray, fearing to trust the cause in other hands, appeared in person, attended by several men of talent and consequence. The situation of Mary herself was not more critical or more unprecedented, and scarcely more humiliating, than that in which Murray was placed by her appeal to Elizabeth. Acting on behalf of the infant king his nephew, he saw himself called upon to submit to the tribunal of a foreign sovereign such proofs of the atrocious guilt of the queen his sister, as should justify, in the eyes of this sovereign and in those of Europe, the degradation of Mary from the exalted station which she was born to fill, her imprisonment, her violent expulsion from the kingdom, and her future banishment or captivity for life:—an enterprise in which, though successful, there was both disgrace to himself and detriment to the honor and independence of his country; and from which, if unsuccessful, he could contemplate nothing but certain ruin. Struck with all the evils of this dilemma; with the danger of provoking beyond forgiveness his own queen, whose restoration he still regarded as no improbable event; and with the imprudence of relying implicitly on the dubious protection of Elizabeth; Murray long hesitated to bring forward the only charge dreaded by

the illustrious prisoner,-that of having conspired with Bothwell for the murder of her late husband.

In the meantime Maitland, a Scottish commissioner secretly attached to Mary, found means to open a private communication with the duke of Norfolk; and to suggest to this nobleman, now a widower for the third time, the project of obtaining for himself the hand of Mary, and of replacing her by force on the throne of her ancestors. The vanity of Norfolk, artfully worked upon by the bishop of Ross, Mary's prime agent, caused him to listen with complacency to this rash proposal; and having once consented to entertain it, he naturally became earnest to prevent Murray from preferring that heinous accusation which he had at length apprized the English commissioners that he was provided with ample means of substantiating. After some deliberation on the means of effecting this object, the duke resolved upon the step of discovering his views to the regent himself, and endeavouring to obtain his concurrence. Murray, who seems to have felt little confidence in the stability of the government of which he was the present head; and who judged perhaps that the return of the queen as the wife of ar English protestant nobleman would afford the best prospect of safety to himself and his party; readily acceded to the proposal, and consented still to withhold the ‘damning proofs' of Mary's guilt which he held in his hand.

But neither the Scottish associates of Murray, nor the English cabinet, were disposed to rest satisfied with this feeble and temporizing conduct. Mary's commissioners, too, emboldened by his apparent timidity; the motives of which were probably not known to them all; began to push their advantage in a manner which threatened final defeat to his party: the queen of England artfully incited him to proceed; and in spite of his secret engagements with the duke and his own reluctance, he at length saw himself compelled to let fall the longsuspended stroke on the head of Mary. He applied to the English court for encouragement and protection in his perilous enterprise; and Elizabeth, being at length suspicious of the intrigue which had hitherto baffled all her expectations from the conferences at York, suddenly gave orders for the removal of the queen of Scots from Bolton-castle, and the superintendence of lord Scrope, the duke's brother-in-law, to the more secure situation of Tutbury-castle in Staffordshire, and the vigilant custody of the earl of Shrewsbury. At the same time she found pretexts for transferring the conferences from York to Westminster, and added to the number of her commissioners sir Nicholas Bacon lord-keeper, the earls of Arundel and Leicester, with lords Clinton and Cecil.

Anxious to preserve an air of impartiality, Elizabeth declined giving to the regent all the assurances for his future security which he required; but on his arrival in London she bestowed on him a recep

248 INTRIGUES OF NORFOLK TO MARRY THE QUEEN OF SCOTS.

tion equally kind and respectful; and by alternate caresses and hints of intimidation she gradually led him on to the production of the fatal casket containing the letters of Mary to Bothwell; by which her participation in the murder of her husband was clearly proved.

After steps on the part of Elizabeth from which the duke might have inferred her knowledge of his secret machinations; after discoveries respecting the conduct of Mary which impeached her of guilt so heinous, and covered her with infamy so indelible, prudence and honor alike required that this nobleman should abandon for ever the thought of linking his destiny with hers. But in the light and unbalanced mind of Norfolk, the ambition of matching with royalty unfortunately preponderated over all other considerations; he speedily began to weave anew the tissue of intrigue which the removal of the conferences had broken off; and turning once more with fond credulity to Murray, by whom his cause had been before deserted, he again put confidence in his assurances that the marriage-project had his hearty approbation, and should receive his effectual support. Melvil informs us that this fresh compact was brought about by sir Nicholas Throgmorton; 'being a man of a deep reach and great prudence and discretion, who had ever travelled for the union of this isle.' But notwithstanding his 'deep reach,' he was certainly imposed upon in this affair; for the regent, insincere perhaps from the beginning, had now no other object than to secure his present personal safety by lavishing promises which he had no intention to fulfil. Melvil, who attended him on his return to Scotland, thus explains the secret of his conduct: 'At that time the duke commanded over all the north parts of England, where our mistress was kept ; and so might have taken her out when he pleased. And when he was angry at the regent, he had appointed the earl of Westmorland to lie in his way, and cut off himself and so many of his company as were most bent upon the queen's accusation. But after the last agreement, the duke sent and discharged the said earl from doing us any harm; yet upon our return the earl came in our way with a great company of horse, to signify to us that we were at his mercy.'

It is difficult to believe, notwithstanding this positive testimony, that the duke of Norfolk; a man of mild disposition and guided in the main by religion and conscience; would have hazarded, or would not have scrupled, so astrocious, so inexpiable an act of violence, as that of cutting off the regent of Scotland returning to his own country under sanction of the public faith and the express protection of the queen but he may have indulged himself in vague menaces, which Westmoreland, a bigoted papist, ripe for rebellion against the govern. ment of Elizabeth, would have felt little reluctance to carry into effect; and thus the regent's duplicity might be prompted and excused to his own mind by a principle of self-defence.

Whatever degree of confidence Norfolk and his advisers might

place in Murray's sincerity, they were well aware that other sters must be taken and other confederates engaged, before the grand affair of the marriage could be put in a train to insure its final success. There was no immediate prospect of Mary's regaining her liberty by means of the queen of England, or with her concurrence: for since the production of the great charge against her, to which she had instructed her commissioners to decline making any answer, Elizabeth had regarded her as one who had suffered judgment to go against her by default; and began to treat her accordingly. Her confinement was rendered more rigorous; and the still pending negotiations respecting her return to her own country were carried on with a slackness which evidently proceeded from the dread of Mary, and the reluctance of Elizabeth, to bring to a decided determination a business which could not now be ended either with credit or advantage to the deposed queen of Scotland.

Elizabeth had dismissed the regent to his government without open approbation of his conduct as without censure; but he had received from her in private an important supply of money, and such other effectual aids as not only served to establish the present preponderance of his authority, but would enable him, it was thought, successfully to withstand all future attempts for the restoration of Mary. Evidently, then, it was only by the raising of a formidable party in the English court that any thing could be effected in behalf of the royal captive; but her agents and those of the duke of Norfolk assured themselves that ample means were in their hands for setting this machine in action.

It was now thought that Elizabeth would not marry; the queen of Scots was generally admitted to be her legal heir; and it appeared highly important to the welfare of England that she should not transfer her claims, with her hand, to any of the more powerful princes of Europe; consequently the duke entertained little doubt of uniting in favor of his suit the suffrages of all those leading characters in the English court who had formerly conveyed to Mary assurances of their attachment to her title and interests. His own influence amongst the nobility was very considerable; and he readily obtained the concurrence of the earl of Pembroke, the earl of Arundel (his first wife's father), and lord Lumley, a catholic peer closely connected with the house of Howard. The design was next imparted to Leicester, who entered into it with an ostentation of affectionate zeal which ought perhaps to have alarmed the too credulous duke. As if impatient to give an undeniable piedge of his sincerity, he undertook to draw up with his own hand a letter to the queen of Scots, warmly recommending the duke to her matrimonial choice; which immediately received the signatures of the three nobles above mentioned and the rest of the confederates. By these subscribers it was distinctly stipulated, that