CHA P. The prelates of the antient faith appeared, in order to XXXIX. complain of great injustice committed on them by the invafion of their property, but the parliament took no 1560. notice of them; till at last, these ecclefiaftics, tired with fruitless attendance, departed the town. They were then cited to appear; and as nobody presented himself, it was voted by the parliament, that the ecclefiaftics were entirely fatisfied, and found no reason of complaint.

French

SIR James Sandilands, prior of St. John, was fent over to France to obtain the ratification of these acts; but was very ill received by the queen, who denied the validity of a parliament, fummoned without the royal confent; and the refufed her fan&tion to these statutes. But the proteftants gave themselves little concern about their queen's refufal. They immediately put the statutes in execution: They abolished the mass; they fettled their ministers; they committed every where furious devaftations on the monafteries, and even on the churches, which they thought profaned by idolatry; and deeming the property of the clergy lawful prize, they took poffeffion, without ceremony, of the far greatest part of the ecclefiaftical revenues. Their new preachers, who had authority fufficient to incite them to war and infurrection, could not reftrain their rapacity, and fanaticism concurring with avarice, an incurable wound was given to the papal authority in that country. The proteftant nobility and gentry, united by the consciousness of fuch unpardonable guilt, alarmed for their new poffeffions, well acquainted with the imperious character of the house of Guife, faw no fafety for themfelves but in the protection of England; and they dispatched Morton, Glencarne, and Lidington, to express their fincere gratitude to the queen for her paft favours, and represent to her the neceffity of continuing them.

ELIZABETH, on her part, had equal reason to mainaffairs. tain an union with Scotch proteftants; and foon found that the house of Guife, notwithstanding their former difappointments, had not laid aside the defign of contefting her title, and subverting her authority. Francis and Mary, whose counfels were wholly directed by them, refused to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh; and fhewed no difpofition to give her any fatisfaction for that mortal injury and affront, which they had put upon her, by their openly affuming the title and arms of England. She was

fenfible

fenfible of the danger attending fuch pretenfions; and it CHA P. was with pleasure she heard of the violent factions, which XXXIX. prevailed in the French government, and of the oppofition, which had arifen against the measures of the duke of 1560. Guise. That ambitious prince, fupported by his four brothers, the cardinal of Lorraine, the duke of Aumal, the marquis of Elbeuf, and the grand prior, men no less ambitious than himself, had engroffed all the authority of the crown; and as he was poffeffed of every quality, which could command the esteem or feduce the affections of men, there appeared no end of his acquifitions and pretenfions. The conítable Montmorency, who had long balanced his credit, was deprived of all power: The princes of the blood, the king of Navarre, and his brother, the prince of Conde, were entirely excluded from offices and favour: The queen-mother herself, Catharine de Medicis, found her influence every day declining And as Francis, a young prince, infirm both in mind and body, was wholly governed by his confort, who knew no law but the pleasure of her uncles, men despaired of ever obtaining freedom from the dominion of that afpiring family. It was the contest of religion, which first infpired the French with courage openly to oppose their exorbitant authority.

THE theological difputes, first started in the north of Germany, and next in Switzerland, countries at that time wholly illiterate, had long ago penetrated into France; and as they were affifted by the general discontents against the court and church of Rome, and by the zealous spirit of the age, the profelytes to the new religion were fecretly encreasing in every province. Henry the fecond, in imitation of his father Francis, had oppofed the progress of the reformers; and though a prince addicted to pleasure and fociety, he was tranfported by a vehemence, as well as bigotry, which had little place in his predeceffor's conduct. Rigorous punishments had been inflicted on the most eminent of the proteftant party; and a point of honour seemed to have arisen, whether the one fect could exercise or the other fuffer moft barbarity. The death of Henry put fome stop to the perfecutions; and the people, who had admired the conftancy of the new preachers, now heard with favour and prepoffeffion their arguments and doctrines. But the cardinal of Lorraine, as well as his brothers, who were poffeffed of the legal VOL. V. authority,

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CHA P. authority, thought it their intereft to fupport the estabXXXIX. lished religion; and when they revived the execution of

the penal statutes, they neceffarily engaged the malcon1560. tent princes and nobles in the protection of the new re

ligion. The king of Navarre, a man of mild difpofitions, but of a weak character, and the prince of Conde, who poffeffed many great qualities, having declared themselves in favour of the proteftants, that fect acquired new force from their countenance; and the admiral Coligni, with his brother Andelot, no longer fcrupled to make open profeffion of their communion. The integrity of the admiral, who was believed fincere in his attachment to the new doctrine, and his high renown both for valour and conduct, for the arts of peace as well as of war, gave credit to the reformers; and after a frustrated attempt of the malcontents to feize the king's perfon at Amboise, of which Elizabeth had probably fome intelligence T, every place was full of diftraction, and matters haftened to an extremity between the parties. But the house of Guife, though these factions had obliged them to remit their efforts in Scotland, and had been one chief caufe of Elizabeth's fuccefs, were determined not to relinquish their authority in France, or yield to the violence of their enemies. They found an opportunity of feizing the king of Navarre and the prince of Condé; they threw the former into prison; they obtained a sentence of death against the latter, and they were proceeding to put the fentence in execution, when the king's fudden death faved the noble prifoner, and Decem. 4, interrupted the prosperity of the duke of Guife. The 1561. queen-mother was appointed regent to her fon Charles the ninth, now in his minority: The king of Navarre was named lieutenant-general of the kingdom: The fentence against Condé was annulled: The conftable was recalled to court: And the family of Guife, though they ftill enjoyed great offices, and great power, now found a counterpoife to their authority.

ELIZABETH was determined to make advantage of thefe events against the queen of Scots, whom the still regarded

T Forbes, vol. i. p. 214. Throgmorton, about this time, unwilling to entrust to letters the great fecrets committed to him, obtained leave, under fome pretext, to come over to London.

regarded as a dangerous rival. She faw herself freed from CHA P. the perils attending an union of Scotland with France, XXXIX. and from the pretenfions of fo powerful a prince as Francis: But the confidered, at the fame time, that the En- 1561. glish catholics, who were numerous, and who were generally prejudiced in favour of Mary's title, would now adhere to that princess with more zealous attachment, when they faw, that her fucceffion no longer endangered the liberties of the kingdom, and was rather attended with the advantage of effecting an entire union with Scotland. She gave orders, therefore, to her ambassador, Throgmorton, a vigilant and able minister, to renew his applications to the queen of Scots, and to require her ratification of the treaty of Edinburgh. But though' Mary had defifted, after her husband's death, from bearing the arms and title of queen of England, the fstill declined gratifying Elizabeth in this momentous article; and being fwayed by the ambitious fuggestions of her uncles, the refused to make any formal renunciation of her pretenfions.

MEANWHILE, the queen-mother of France, who imputed to Mary all the mortifications, which fhe had met with during Francis's life-time, took care to retaliate on her by like injuries; and the queen of Scots, finding her abode in France difagreeable, began to think of returning into her native country. Lord James, who had been fent in deputation from the ftates to invite her over, feconded these intentions; and the applied to Elizabeth, by D'Oisel, for liberty to pass through England : But the received for anfwer, that, till the had given fatisfaction, by ratifying the treaty of Edinburgh, the could expect no favour from a person, whom she had fo much injured. This denial excited her indignation; and she made no fcruple of expreffing her fentiments to Throgmorton, when he reiterated his applications to gratify his mistress in a demand, which he represented as so reasonable. Having cleared the room of her attendants, she said to him, "How weak I may prove, or how far a woman's frailty may tranfport me, I 66 cannot tell: However, I am refolved not to have fo many witnesses of my infirmity as your mistress had at "her audience of my ambaffador D'Oifel. There is "nothing

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U Goodall, vol. i. p. 175.

1561.

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CHAP." nothing disturbs me fo much, as the having afked, XXXIX. " with fo much importunity, a favour which it was of 66 no confequence for me to obtain. I can, with God's "leave, return to my own country without her leave; as I came to France, in fpite of all the oppofition "of her brother, king Edward: Neither do I want "friends both able and willing to conduct me home, 66 as they brought me hither; though I was defirous ra"ther to make an experiment of your mistress's friend

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fhip than of the affiftance of any other person. I "have often heard you fay, that a good correspondence "between her and myself would conduce much to the "fecurity and happiness of both our kingdoms: Were "the well convinced of this truth, fhe would hardly "have denied me fo fmall a request. But, perhaps, "The bears a better inclination to my rebellious fubjects "than to me, their fovereign, her equal in royal dig"nity, her near relation, and the undoubted heir of her "kingdoms. Besides her friendship, I ask nothing at "her hands: I neither trouble her, nor concern my"felf in the affairs of her state: Not that I am ignorant, that there are now in England a great many "malcontents, who are no friends to the present eftab"lishment. She is pleased to upbraid me as a perfon lit"tle experienced in the world: I freely own it; but 66 age will cure that defect. However, I am already "old enough to acquit myself honeftly and courteously "to my friends and relations, and to encourage no << reports of your mistress, which would mifbecome a queen and her kinfwoman. I would also fay, by "her leave, that I am a queen as well as fhe, and not altogether friendless: And, perhaps, I have as 66 great a foul too; fo that methinks we should be upon a level in our treatment of each other. As foon as "I have confulted the ftates of my kingdom, I fhall "be ready to give her a reasonable answer; and I 66 am the more intent on my journey, in order to make "the quicker dispatch in this affair. But fhe, it seems, "intends to stop my journey; fo that either she will not let

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me give her fatisfaction, or is refolved not to be fatif"fied; perhaps, on purpose to keep up the difagreement "between us. She has often reproached me with my "being young; and I must be very young, indeed, and "as ill advised, to treat of matters of fuch great con

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cern