124 POLICY OF ELIZABETH AND OF MARY. [1560. treachery of Murray and his associates always ready for argument or illustration. It would be well to consider what the rupture of the amity between England and Scotland, so desired by Mary, really meant. It meant a civil war in Scotland, which the alliance with England kept down. It meant the establishment of the French interest in Scotland, under the policy of the Guises, which has been thus described: "To put down the Huguenots in France, to encourage the Romanists in England and Scotland, to sow dissensions amongst the Protestant princes of Germany, to support the Council of Trent, now sitting, and, in a word, to concentrate the whole strength of France, Spain, Italy, and the Empire against that great moral and religious revolution, by which light and truth were struggling to break in upon a system of long-established error, was the main object to which they directed their efforts." * That Mary Stuart was fully imbued with the desire to support this main object, and that Elizabeth Tudor was equally resolved to oppose it, may more satisfactorily account for the early hostility between these queens than the received theory that the government of England was "constant in nothing, save in a desire to profit by the strifes and embarrassments of the Scottish people." The able writer who has so justly denounced this prevailing fallacy, says, with a distinct knowledge of the historical evidence, that "there were two principles which consistently regulated the English policy in Scotland during the time of Elizabeth. The one was, a determination that no continental power should interfere by force of arms in Scottish affairs; the other, a similar determination to uphold Protestantism and the Protestant party, in opposition to that party which befriended Mary."+ When the queen of Scotland desired to return to her native country, she was assuring the English ambassador, that she was most anxious for the friendship of Elizabeth: “I, for my part, am very desirous to have the perfect and the assured amity of the queen, my good sister; and I will use all the means I can to give her occasion to think that I mean it indeed." She was telling Murray, in confidence, that she desired to have the amity dissolved. Elizabeth, with a perfect knowledge of her real wishes, received the ambassador, D'Oysell, whom Mary had sent to solicit a safe conduct from the queen, either on her voyage to Scotland, or should she land in the English dominions. He was also to ask for a passport for himself to pursue his journey to Scotland. Elizabeth, with undisguised anger, refused both requests. "Let your queen," she said, "ratify the treaty, and she shall experience on my part, either by sea or land, whatever can be expected from a queen, a relation, or a neighbour." It was the point of the renunciation of the present claim to the crown of England that made Elizabeth so resolved. Sir James Mackintosh has pointed out that Dr. Robertson "confounded the right of succession with the claim to possession; and that "the claim to possession, asserted by the arms, supposed Elizabeth to be an usurper; the right of succession recognised her as a lawful sovereign." This most unwise pretension of Mary, thus re-asserted by her refusal to ratify the treaty, was a real declaration of hostility, affecting the quiet of the English nation. The refusal of a safe-conduct had undoubtedly the approval of Elizabeth's ministers, who could not forbear to look with * Tytler, vol. vi. p. 231. Mr. Bruce's Introduction to "Letters of Elizabeth and James VI." p. xx. 1561.] MARY DESIRES TO RETURN TO SCOTLAND. 125 apprehension upon the return to Scotland of one so opposed to their general policy. Their conduct might be ungenerous, but it was not inconsistent. Cecil thus notices the resolve in a letter to the earl of Sussex:-" Many reasons moved us to mislike her passage, but this only served us for answerthat where she had promised to send the queen's majesty a good answer for the ratification of the last league of peace made in Edinburgh, and now had sent none, her majesty would not disguise with her, but plainly would forbear to show her such pleasure until she should ratify it; and, that done, she should not only have free passage, but all helps and gratuities." * The indignation of Mary at this refusal was such as might have been expected from so high-spirited a woman. Throckmorton has related his interview with her on this occasion, and has reported her address to him, eloquent and slightly sarcastic. She desired her attendants to retire, and thus spoke to the ambassador:-"I know not well my own infirmity, nor how far I may with my passion be transported, but I like not to have so many witnesses of my passions as the queen, your mistress, was content to have when she talked with Monsieur d'Oysell. There is nothing doth more grieve me, than that I did so forget myself, as to require of the queen, your mistress, that favour which I had no need to ask. I needed no more to have made her privy to my journey than she doth me of hers. I may pass well enough home into mine own realm, I think, without her passport or license; for though the late king, your master, used all the impeachment he could, both to stay me and catch me when I came hither, yet you know, Monsieur l'Ambassadeur, I came hither safely, and I may have as good means to help me home again, as 1 had to come hither, if I would employ my friends. Truly, I was so far from evil meaning to the queen, your mistress, that at this time I was more willing to employ her amity to stand me in stead than all the friends I have, and yet you know, both in this realm and elsewhere, I have both friends and allies, and such as would be glad and willing to employ their forces and aid to stand me in stead. You have oftentimes told me, that the amity between the queen, your mistress, and me, was very necessary and profitable for us both; and now I have some reason to think, that the queen, your mistress, is not of that mind, for I am sure, if she were, she would not have refused me thus unkindly. It seemeth she maketh more account of the amity of my disobedient subjects, than she doth of me their sovereign, who am her equal in degree, though inferior in wisdom and experience, her nighest kinswoman and her next neighbour." At this interview, however, Mary said, with reference to the complaint of her assumption of the arms of England, that she acted under the commandment of Henry, the king of France, and of her husband: "whatsoever was then done was their act, not mine, and since their death I have neither borne the arms, nor used the title, of England." Amongst the imprudent avowals of Mary was the declaration of her hatred to John Knox, before she had acquired any experience of his severe judgment of her character, and his rough mode of urging his opinions upon her. On the eve of Mary's departure from France, Throckmorton wrote to Elizabeth-"I understand that the queen of Scotland is thoroughly * Wright's "Queen Elizabeth." Keith's "Affairs of Scotland," quoted by Tytler, vol. vi. p. 270. 126 MARY EMBARKS AT CALAIS. [1561. persuaded that the most dangerous man in all her realm of Scotland, both to her intent there, and the dissolving of the league between your majesty and that realm, is Knox; and therefore is fully determined to use all the means she can devise to banish him thence, or else to assure them that she will never dwell in that country as long as he is there; and to make him the more odious to your majesty, and that at your hands he receive neither courage nor comfort, she mindeth to send very shortly to your majesty, (if she have not already done it,) to lay before you the book that he hath written against the government of women, (which your majesty hath seen already,) thinking thereby to animate your majesty against him." This book of "The Government of Women" was a violent attack, whilst Knox was in exile, upon the rule of Mary Tudor, and his lightest word for her was "Jezabel." There were many other works issued to the same effect as that of Knox, in which a female monarchy was denounced as monstrous." It may readily be understood how the queen of Scotland thought this book presented an excellent reason for the queen of England giving no countenance to Knox and his adherents. But Throckmorton, who knew how important it was that passion should be subjected to policy, thus gave his opinion about Knox and his "Blast" against female government : "But whatsoever the said queen shall insinuate your majesty of him, I take him to be as much for your majesty's purpose, and that he hath done, and doth daily, as good service for the advancement of your majesty's desire in that country, and to establish a mutual benevolence and common quiet between the two realms, as any man of that nation; his doings wherein, together with his zeal well known, have sufficiently recompensed his faults in writing that book, and therefore he is not to be driven out of that realm." He was not driven out when Mary arrived; and she had a bitter experience how unequal she was, with her ready wit, to cope with the dogged enthusiasm of the great reformer.. On the 14th of August, 1561, Mary embarked at Calais on her voyage to Scotland. There was an evil omen in the wreck of a vessel before her eyes as she left the harbour. Brantome has recorded those touching displays of her feelings, which show how reluctantly she quitted the country where she had moved amidst the universal homage of a gay court; where pleasures surrounded her on every side; and where there were no severe religionists to interpret the most innocent actions into evidences of immorality. Yet at that dangerous court, where female purity had ceased to be regarded as a virtue, and female prudence was ridiculed and despised, this fascinating woman might have learnt to forget that self-respect which would have shielded her from harm, even amongst the most stern judges of human conduct; and thus France might have been to her a cruel step-mother. She could now only look back upon its shores as the seat of past joys, and exclaim, "Farewell, France!" Again, when the evening was drawing on, would she again gaze, and say, "It is now, my dear France, that I lose sight of thee. I shall never see thee more." Awakened at the first dawning, as she had desired to be, if the coast were still in sight, she exclaimed, “Farewell, France. It is over." On they went to the North Sea, when a fog came on, and they cast anchor in the open sea. It was this fog, according to some writers, which prevented the galleys of Mary being captured by Elizabeth's cruisers. One vessel was taken and carried into port; but, says Tytler, "as 1561.] ARRIVAL OF MARY IN SCOTLAND. 127 soon as it was discovered that the young queen was not on board, the prize was released, and pursued her voyage into Scotland. The incident, however, demon strated clearly the sinister intentions of the English queen." This statement is scarcely candid, to say the least. The counter-statement, upon the authority of Cecil, is that the small English squadron was in pursuit of pirates, who were then cruising in the Scottish sea; that this squadron saluted the royal galleys; but detained one baggage vessel, suspected of having pirates on board. "The conduct of the English commanders towards Mary's vessels minutely corresponds with the assurance of Elizabeth, in her letter of the 16th of August, that she suspended her displeasure at the refusal to ratify the treaty, and had given orders to her naval officers which were equivalent to a safe conduct.”* This document must have been familiar enough to the historian who so boldly affirms "the sinister intentions of the English queen." Elizabeth says, "It seemeth that report hath been made to you, that we had sent out our admiral with our fleet to hinder your passage. Your servants know how false that is. We have only, at the desire of the king of Spain, sent two or three small barks to sea, in pursuit of certain Scottish pirates." + Mary landed at the port of Leith on the 19th of August. She was received by a deputation, and conducted to the palace, or abbey, of Holyrood-that seat of Scottish royalty whose chief interest is associated with her name, but of which a very small portion of the original building remains. Mary had been accustomed to grander pageants than now welcomed her. Mean hackneys, wretchedly caparisoned, waited her arrival. She went on to Edinburgh, having no magnificence to show the French courtiers who surrounded her. Under the windows of Holyrood the citizens sang psalms to discordant threestringed rebecks, which kept the weary queen from sleeping; and the next morning, when a popish priest was about to perform mass in her private chapel, he would have been slain by the master of Lindsay, and a furious multitude, had not Murray placed himself at the door of the chapel, and maintained the principle for which he had contended, that the queen should not be molested in the private exercise of her religion. The fortunes of Mary Stuart and Elizabeth Tudor suggest the most remarkable contrasts, even up to this period. When Mary was in her girlhood she was married to the heir of one of the greatest monarchies of Europe; and she dwelt in the French court, surrounded with all the pomp and luxury of a refined but licentious age. When Elizabeth had scarcely reached her twenty-first year, she became the object of suspicion to her sister; was a close prisoner under apprehension of immediate death; and passed several years of durance and solitary anxiety. The taint of supposed illegitimacy was upon her, and her succession to the crown was more than doubtful. When she came to the throne she had to decide upon heading an ecclesiastical revolution that would make her the proscribed of Rome, and the contemned of Rome's supporters, or to support a system which had become odious in England. She threw herself upon her people,-and she triumphed. When Mary became the widowed queen of France, and returned to assume the rule of Scotland, she found herself supported by the great catholic *Mackintosh, "History," vol. iii., p. 57. 128 CONTRASTS OF MARY AND ELIZABETH. [1561. powers, but opposed to her people, and she failed. She had to bear the rough monitions of Knox; the ill-concealed hostility and uncertain support of her nobles; and the secret or proclaimed dislike of an angry nation. Whilst the government of England was carrying out its resolved policy with regard to Scotland, and all there was strife and bitterness, Elizabeth was moving amongst her subjects with the love of the many and the fear of the few. Mary could depend upon no advisers; for the adherents to the old religion were too rash in their weakness, and the reformers too harsh in their strength. Elizabeth had the ablest men of the time as counsellors, who held to a settled principle of action without provoking hostility by capricious and passionate exercises of authority. Mary was the sovereign of a people amongst whom the feudal tyrannies had not yet been held in subjection by the growth of profitable industry. Elizabeth governed a community in which the strength of the middle classes had asserted itself against monarchical and ecclesiastical tyranny, and new channels of prosperity were being opened wherever commerce developed the energies of capital, and adventurous men went forth for the conquests of peace. The most prosaic record of the first two years of Elizabeth's reign shows how remarkably the tranquillity of England was opposed to the turbulence of Scotland. |