66

of France, there are clearer traces of intention on either side to amuse and deceive for temporary purposes, than can be discovered in other treaties of the like nature. Castelnau, for example, offered the duke of Anjou to Mary Stuart, as he had done before to Elizabeth. But the Austrian marriage, on the contrary, was so acceptable, that lord Sussex, the ambassador at Vienna in 1567, was not only very desirous of the alliance, but considered it as practicable. In his despatch to Elizabeth, he skilfully tries to soften the heart of his mistress, by displaying the qualities of Charles's mind, and still more fully the beauties of his countenance and form. He told the archduke that the queen was free to marry, though she had never given grateful ear" to any motion of marriage but to this. The archduke answered, that but for this assurance, he had heard so much of the queen's not meaning to marry as might give him cause to suspect the proposal. Sussex, fearing religion to be the obstacle, ventured to insinuate that, his imperial majesty being believed secretly to favour the Lutherans, the archduke, by communicating the secret now to him, might bring the negotiation within a short compass. The archduke, without contradicting the prevalent opinion of his father's religious inclination, asked Sussex whether he could advise an Austrian prince suddenly to change a religion which his ancestors had so long holden. Sussex told Elizabeth, that as reputation ruled Charles under the guise of the catholic religion, there was no doubt that, notwithstanding the obstacle of his profession, he would prove a true husband, a loving companion, a wise counsellor, and a faithful servant.'

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Eric king of Sweden, the son of Gustavus Vasa, sought the hand of both the British queens: his suit in England continued for two years. John duke of Finland, his brother, was welcomed at court in 1559; and in 1561 preparations were made for his own honourable reception; but both the princesses had the fortune to escape a sanguinary tyrant, the degenerate offspring of * Sussex to the queen, Vienna, 18th and 26th Oct. 1567. Lodge, 1. 364. 368.

the deliverer and reformer of his country. The national jealousy which has generally subsisted between Sweden and Denmark excited Adolphus duke of Holstein to proffer his hand to Elizabeth, who received him becom- . ingly, but declined the connection; accounting him to be sufficiently honoured by the order of the garter, and likely to be sufficiently consoled by an ample pension.*

The root of that indisposition to marriage which is apparent through Elizabeth's life, is probably best understood from her significant declaration to the earl of Leicester, during the period of his highest favour,—“I will have here but one mistress, and no master.”† On another occasion, Melville, who understood her character, when she declared her dislike of marriage to be such as nothing but policy could overcome, answered, “Madam, you need not tell me that: I know your stately stomach; you cannot suffer a commander: you think if you were married, you would be but queen of England, and now you are king and queen both."‡

From the earliest moment she professed her preference of celibacy, though, with characteristic caution, she avoided, or rather disclaimed, an absolute renunciation of marriage. In answer to the first address of the house of commons, she said, "From my years of understanding, I happily chose this kind of life in which I now live; yet I shall never in that matter conclude any thing that shall be prejudicial to the realm. This shall be for me sufficient, that a marble stone shall declare that a queen, having reigned such a time, lived and died a virgin." § In 1563 she declared, "If any think I never meant to try a wedded life, they are deceived: I may hereafter bend my mind thereunto, the rather for your request."

In 1566 she was very earnestly entreated, in a joint address from both houses of parliament, to enter into a state of wedlock, and to settle the order of the succession to the crown. The cause of this unusual address was probably the extremely disturbed state of the affairs of Scot+ Naunton's Fragm, Regal. Melville, 122. relating his mission to England in 1564. D'Ewes, 47.

Camd. Ann. i. 69.

land, which in the year of the sitting of this parliament was the scene of the murder of Rizzio by Darnley, and of the murder of Darnley by Bothwell; both deeply affecting the presumptive heiress of the crown of England.* Opinions in England on the succession were divided, and inclinations violently opposed to each other. Mary was the hope of the catholics, the terror of the protestants; but acknowledged to be heiress by all the rigorous adherents to hereditary succession. Some preferred lady Lennox, as a natural-born Englishwoman, who was a daughter of Margaret Tudor. Another party maintained the right of lady Catherine Grey, countess of Hertford, for the same reasons which had seated her unfortunate sister lady Jane on a momentary throne. The new influence which the birth of a son had bestowed on Mary, and the remembrance of the danger from her usurpation at the queen's accession, were additional incitements to the petition. "Our first prayer is, that it may please your majesty to dispose yourself to marry. The second, that limitation may be made of this imperial crown, how it should descend, if God call your highness without heirs of your body to guard the realm against factions, seditions, and intestine war.' They fortified their petition by referring to many instances, both ancient and modern, in which the sovereigns of England had entered into marriage by the advice and consent of parliament.‡ The queen again said, "If any one here suspect that I have made a vow or determination against that kind of life, he is wrong; for though I may think it [celibacy] best for a private woman, yet I strive with myself to think it unmeet for a prince."§ But the commons, being more zealous protestants, were not satisfied by this language, which, though veiled by an affectation of prudery, was intelligible; and Elizabeth, on the 4th of November, was obliged to allay their apprehensions by instructing her ministers, Cecil and Rogers, to signify to the house

* The session was opened on the 30th of September, 1566, and the parliament was dissolved on the 2d of January, 1567. Journals and D'Ewes, 93.

+ D'Ewes, 104.

+ D'Ewes, 117.

§ D'Ewes, 107.

of commons," that she, by God's grace, would marry; but that the perils to the person of a sovereign from the nomination of a successor, of which she had seen a specimen in her sister's reign, though the successor was then only expected, not nominated, were so great that the time would not allow it now to be fully treated of.”

A subsidy, consisting of a tenth and a fifteenth of all personal estate, measured according to the ancient usages, and made payable in two instalments, was granted by this parliament, in consideration, as the preamble alleges, of her having forborne to make such demands of money on her people as her needs required, "of the comfortable assurances that her majesty would marry, and that she would fix a successor as soon as the safety of her person would allow."* We must here anticipate so far as to observe, that in the next parliament, which met in 1571, sir Nicholas Bacon, lord keeper, reminded the parliament that of the late subsidy the queen's majesty, from her own bountifulness, had remitted the one half- was the like here in England ever seen or heard of? It was on this occasion that one of her memorable sayings came forth, that the money was better in the pockets of her people than in her coffers. The remission of this subsidy, however, may be rather ascribed to a just reliance on her people, and to an equitable regard to the motive of the commons for the grant, than to principles of political economy, of which the prevalence could not have then been foreseen without the gift of prophecy.

We have seen that she made too strong a declaration in favour of marriage, in order to cover her refusal to nominate a successor. A person of less sagacity might easily see the policy of keeping contending claims to the crown suspended and dependent upon her, and the danger of offending one party by a nomination which might encourage the opposite faction to anticipate the allegiance to which it would by such a choice be declared that their favourite candidate would one day be entitled. An in+ D'Ewes, 138.

* 8 Eliz. c. 18.

+ Camden.

cident occurred, almost immediately after her accession, which cruelly exemplified, in the person of the sister of lady Jane Grey, the sternness of those political maxims which the queen was little disposed to relax, in cases relating to the royal family, and which might affect the descent of the crown. The sovereigns of England had in all ages claimed, and have not yet renounced, an unreasonable latitude in that part of their prerogative which consists in superintending the conduct, and more especially in controlling the marriages, of the princes and princesses of the royal blood. Lady Catherine Grey, the descendant of Henry VII. by his second daughter, the queen-dowager of France, was undoubtedly the first princess of the blood, with the illustrious exception of the queen of Scots. Her marriage was not unjustly deemed to concern the order of succession. It was maintained, with much appearance of reason, that the queen's consent was necessary to an union which might otherwise render the succession doubtful, distract the kingdom, and overthrow her throne. Princely rank was dearly purchased by this young lady. She had been wedded, or rather affianced, to lord Herbert when she had scarcely ceased to be a child, at the period of her admirable sister's nuptials with Dudley. But the earl of Pembroke, the most noted weathercock of a variable age, who was said to have "got, spent, and left more than any subject since the Norman conquest *"" as soon as he veered round to Mary Tudor, which was when the first ray of fortune shone on her, immediately caused his son to repudiate the espoused lady, and secured a lasting separation from the child of misfortune, by wedding him to Margaret Talbot, daughter of the earl of Shrewsbury. Lady Catherine Grey resided in attendance upon the queen, where she contracted a passion for the earl of Hertford, the son of the protector Somerset, in spite of the deadly feud between their fathers. They were secretly married while Elizabeth was on a hunting party. On her acknowledging, in August, 1560, that she was preg* Naunton's Fragm. Regal. Ellis, second series, ii. 272.