XXVII. were combating for their existence and safety, and CHAP. when the vigorous co-operation of England would have secured for the Reformation a permanent establishment in that fine country; when Elizabeth's decided aid would have given voice, heart, and intellectual freedom to some of the noblest minds, who only sought personal safety, by a just and sincere accommodation, to avow and cultivate their purer faith. In September exertions for the queen of Scots were resolved upon,136 and the French ambassador became active in the secret transactions connected with her, and to procure her liberation: 137 and was in direct or eight thousand horse, and fifteen or sixteen thousand foot, shall approach them so near as to make them raise the siege.' Thus the establishment of the reformed religion in France hung on this eventful moment; but the treason purchased by Pius V. and his agent Ridolfi, prevailed. Elizabeth was counselled against sending any effective succors, and from that moment the Protestant cause declined in France. All the money, troops and means which Pius could procure, were put in action against them; and he deprived them, by the secret treachery of these English lords, of the effectual, and of the only, friend, that could have defeated his oppressive plans. Her judgment was paralyzed by some false advisers in whom she was confiding. 136 On 1st September 1569, there is, among Mr. Murray's MS. the copy of a letter to the Card. de Lorraine, unsigned, but apparently from the ambassador, in which he mentions, With the equity of the cause of the queen of Scots, I see there is joined such a great interest of the reputation of the king, and of the honor of her crown, and also for the good of her affairs on her side, that I should ill discharge my duty if I did not employ myself with all my power in her restoration. In this I shall obey their majesties' commands. There is great need that their majesties correspond de delà, with what I may treat of thereupon.' MS. ib. 137 On 6th September, Cath. de Medicis' letter was, ' We are glad to see by yours of the 26th, that there is more hope for the arrangement of the affairs of the queen of Scots than in your preceding. It will not be forgotten in order to continually favor them, to hold the same language to the ambassador of England here, which you express there to my good sister.' MS.ib. On 14th September Charles wrote, By your despatch of the 5th, I see the new acrochements qui sont dressez a la reine d'Ecosse. As they are always finding some novelty to postpone the conclusion of her affairs, you will not cease to urge it, as you have well done thus far: and so much the more livelily, as they seem to II. BOOK correspondence with her, expressing his regret that she had been transferred to Tutberry, as if it had caused some severe disappointment.138 In the next month we see again the irretrievable detriment to the French reformers, by Elizabeth's assisting arm being withheld. Left to their own private resources, when the French government had such supplies from the chief part of the papal world, the Catholic army gained over them that ruinous victory at Montcontour, which electrified Pius V. with so much transport. 139 The correspondence contains one incidental allusion to Ridolfi, as if this Frenchman had been concerned with him, and was interested in his having been unknown while in Flanders; 140 but the letters do not furnish any further lights on the French ambassador's share and practices in the conspiracy of Pius; yet the preceding traits are evidence, that he siege of Poitiers had been raised, and that the Huguenot forces had retreated, followed by my army.' Lett. MS. Murray. 6 138 This is a letter from him to her, dated 27th September 1569, beginning, Madame! I have been wonderfully troubled to hear that they have thus suddenly transported your majesty to Tutberry, and that the queen of England has been persuaded by those who love not your welfare.' MS. ib. As if the treacherous counsels of others had failed on this point against more honest advice. He mentions the bishop of Ross as making remonstrances to Elizabeth on behalf of Mary. MS. ib. 139 See his congratulating letters of 20th October 1569, to Charles IX. p. 84; of 19th October, to the duke of Florence, who was aiding the king with the papal forces, p. 89; and of 3d November, to his legate, p. 91. Charles thus announced it to his minister in England, on 4th October: Yesterday the duc d'Anjou forced my enemies to a battle, which he gained, with a great effusion of their blood, and is following his victory. The duke of Guise is wounded by an harquebuss in the foot; no great thing.' On 7th October he calls it 'une belle et heureuse victoire.' MS. ib. 140 On 20 January 1572, Remondouet wrote to Fenelon from Brussels, Ridolf has not been for some time in this quarter, that I know of, having gone from it to Italy above two monthis, as I have heard. He was well hidden in this city a month, without its being known who he was. Be assured that he lived very secretly at Antwerp.' Murray's MS. XXVII. was busily employed in it at London and Westmin- CHAP. ster, and too efficaciously for the accomplishment of that part of it, which sought the depression or extinction of the French Reformation.141 141 The strange fact mentioned both in the letters of Pius V. and of Charles IX. that some of Elizabeth's counsellors were traitorously influencing her to conduct that favored the plannings of these potentates, reminds me of sir William Cecil's complaint of his want of influence, and of other advice being taken in the first part of this reign. On 22d Dec. 1561, he thus intimates it to his friend, sir N. Throckmorton: I might lament my place that I hold, being, to outward appearance, because of frequentation with her majesty, of much credit; and [but] indeed of none at all. My only remedy is, to leave the place; my grief is, to see likelihood of such successors as I am sure shall or will destroy all my good purposes. I may not write, but yet I may lament.' He then complains, that he had been forced to sell at that time 1507. of his lands; and that to pay the debts which still burthened him, he was proceeding to sell his office in the Common Pleas. He then adds this indication how his counsels were disregarded: I have carried in my head, with care, means how her majesty should from time to time conduct her affairs. I see so little proof of my travails, by reason her majesty alloweth not of them, that I have left all to the wide world. I do only keep an account for a show, but inwardly I meddle not, leaving things to work in a course, as the clock is left when the barrel is wound up. It is time to end these complaints to you who cannot remedy them; but yet because you wrote to me divers times of matters worthy your consideration, thinking that you have bestowed them well on me, in hopes that I will fashion and put them forth, when you see that I have no comfort so to do, I thought it not inconvenient to note thus much to you of my imperfection.' Letter in Hardw. State Papers, v. 1. p. 178. If we pity the French Protestants who were sacrificed by the treachery of those who succeeded in turning Elizabeth's mind from giving them effectual succor at the fluctuating and turning moment of the balance, when a decided interposition would have rescued both them and their cause from the powerful combinations which were overwhelming it; yet it is a consolation to find as we advance, that Elizabeth discovered the value of Cecil's fidelity and wisdom in time enough to save England, herself, and the Protestant succession in this country and in Scotland, by making him afterwards her guiding counsellor. He would have preserved the Reformation also in France if he had been her ruling prime minister in the year 1569. But being then successfully counteracted by others, the Guises obtained triumphs which his foreseeing policy and vigorous firmness might have pre vented. II. CHAP. XXVIII. THE QUEEN INTERROGATES NORFOLK-THE EARLS OF WEST- BOOK WHILE the pontiff, the French ambassador and his sovereign, the duke of Alva and the king of Spain, Mary and her adherents, the English traitor nobles and the Catholic party in the island, were thus in active conspiracy for the destruction or deposition of Elizabeth, she was living in her usual manner, and attending to all her royal duties, in ignorance of the danger and treachery which were surrounding her, and which were penetrating even into her private chambers. In May 1569, ideas of her being in some danger had spread to Hamburgh, but were treated with contempt.' Spain was thought to be favorable;" and the character of Elizabeth was transcending the highest reputation which any English sovereign had reached. The only intima 1 On 25 May 1569, Kyllygrew wrote to Cecil from Hamburgh, that the Spaniards be no ways able to annoy her highness, if all be sure at home; whereof there is vain talk abroad to small effect.' Haynes' State Papers, p. 516. The same envoy remarked, 'It is said the duke of Alva hath commission from the king, his master, to appease this jar with England, till better opportunity may serve them. You know the Spaniard will not yield till he be at death's door.' ib. 516. Such is the statement of this foreign minister, writing from the Elbe: 'I think the queen's majesty be more feared and honored this day of ALL countries, what religion soever they be of, than ever any of her predecessors before her was.' Haynes, 516. XXVIII. tion she received of something unusual being on СНАР. foot, was the information that the duke of Norfolk was projecting a marriage with the Scottish queen; and that the earl of Murray, in Scotland, was favoring it. This disquieted her; because, whoever had Mary's hand, would also have her pretensions to the throne as the materials of his ambition, and as a dangerous nucleus of domestic intrigue; but it was not known or supposed to be connected with any external confederacy. She desired explanations from Murray on this subject, while her noble officer at Berwick sent her his suspicions that it had been long in agitation, and was connected with something formidable." 5 Tho nothing but vague apprehensions could be yet traced, Elizabeth deemed it important to guard more vigilantly her royal competitor, without knowing that conspiracy was at that moment seeking to place her on the English throne; and as Shrewsbury was unwell, lord Huntingdon was sent to Tutberry Castle, to add his superintendence.' They were This occasioned Cecil, on 9 September, to order Drury to state to the Scottish princess, that the queen hath of late found it very strange to hear it affirmed that she should labor to compass this marriage,' and yet not notify it to her. Haynes, 521. H. Carey was sent, 21 September, to desire that the said earl should advertise us what he hath anywise done therein, and who in our realm have moved him therein.' Instr. ib. 525. Lord Hunsdon wrote, on 18 Sept. to the secretary, that he was 'right glad that her majesty doth so much mislike of the marriage, wishing her so to continue; for, truly, I fear that whosoever were the first beginners thereof, they meant neither faithfully to her majesty nor friendly to him, what pretence soever is now made. I may not write what I know; but sure I am, that, as the matter hath been long a brewing, so hath there been strange dealing, which I doubt not but will shortly appear.' Haynes, p. 522. 7 Murden has printed the queen's letters, of 22d Sept. to these two |