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Scotland to her enemies by marriage, as it would be to hinder their conquest of a country on which the safety of her own dominions depended; yet her interference to impede the free choice of a husband by her cousin was a policy of a stern and obnoxious sort, which required much address, and all the mitigations of which so harsh a measure was susceptible. It was necessary to the political object that advances should be slowly made; that proposals should be suggested before they were avowed; that the temper of Mary should be sounded at every step; and that Elizabeth should sometimes retire quickly from a plan which should appear impracticable or hazardous. It was impossible, in a correspondence of two women on such a subject, that the passions and weaknesses of their sex should not mingle with their policy as sovereigns: if these considerations be kept in view, it will not be difficult to form a judgment on the following summary of the matrimonial negotiation, which will not import grave blame of either queen.

The offers made to Mary on the part of the archduke Charles of don Carlos, and other foreign princes, have been narrated at the same time with the proposals made to Elizabeth. Every such marriage of Mary was objectionable to Elizabeth for the most solid reasons of national security. The protestant nobility of Scotland dreaded a Roman catholic husband, especially if strengthened by foreign dominions. An alliance with a powerful monarch was unpopular among Scotchmen of all parties, as threatening that ancient independence of which a martial nation felt a generous jealousy, the guardian of their national rank,-a sentiment which atoned for many of the vices incident to their barbarism.

Mary, soon after her return to Scotland, solicited an interview with Elizabeth to cement their friendship, and to settle their differences amicably. The queen of England had concluded a treaty with the prince of Condé, which will be presently more fully considered, for the defence of the protestants against the cruelty and perfidy

of the Guisian faction *; which naturally induced her to postpone such manifestation of friendship, until an amicable adjustment of the affairs of France should allow her to meet Mary without causing any suspicion that her zeal to resist the house of Lorrain had become lukewarm. +

Elizabeth made a nearer approach to the delicate subject of marriage in instructions to Randolph, her minister at Edinburgh, on the 16th of November, 1563, the day before he set out on his mission. In these instructions Cecil, who was the writer, discusses very ably the reasons which ought to regulate the choice of Mary; which he briefly stated to be, 1. The mutual affection of the wedded parties; 2. The approval of her own subjects; and, 3. The friendship of Elizabeth. On this last head Cecil observed, that the queen, his mistress, could not think a foreign match conducive to the end; and he adds, that she disapproved of the means employed [by Mary's uncle the cardinal, of whose practices she was not ignorant 1, for a husband in the emperor's family. Randolph was farther instructed to say from himself, by indirect speeches, that "nothing would content Elizabeth so much as Mary's choice of some noble person within the kingdom of England, having the qualities and conditions meet for such an alliance, [yea, perchance, (adds the queen in her own handwriting), such as she could hardly think we could agree unto,] and therewith be agreeable to both queens and both their nations; or, as the words are reported by sir James Melville, "with whom her majesty might more readily and more safely declare and extend the good-will her majesty has to cause you to enjoy, before any creature, any thing she has, next herself or children.” §

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Randolph, some time after ||, suggested Robert Dudley;

* Dumont. Corps. Diplomat. pars 1. p. 94. Hampton Court, 20th Sept. 1562. + Ellis's Letters, second series, vol. i. p. 267. Sir William Cecil to an unknown correspondent, 11th October, 1562.

MSS. in State Paper Office, in November, 1563, and March, 1564. The words between brackets are inserted in Cecil's MS. in the handwriting of Elizabeth.

Melville, 107.

Before January, 1564. MSS. correspondence. State Paper Office.

on which Mary made some dilatory and evasive answers, and concluded by saying, “I do not look for the kingdom; my sister may marry and live longer than myself; my respect is to what may be for my commodity (policy) and the contentment of my friends, who, I believe, would hardly agree that I should embase myself so far as that:" words which seem clearly to imply that favourable terms respecting the succession had been held out if she should consent to the marriage recommended to her by Elizabeth. Lord Robert Dudley was the younger son of the regent duke of Northumberland, and, consequently, a brother of lord Guilford Dudley, lady Jane Grey's husband. Writers familiarly acquainted with him represent his person as goodly, his countenance as singularly well featured, and in his youth of a sweet aspect. His high forehead gave a dignity to this soft expression; he possessed the arts, the attainments, and the graceful manners which flourish in courts. Intoxicated by the favour of the queen, his ambition aspired beyond the level of his capacity, either in council or in the field. Placed so near the summit of grandeur, he is charged, on imperfect evidence, with murdering two of his wives as impediments on his way to the throne. None of his contemporaries ascribe any merit to him but the shallow and showy qualities of a courtier. The most obvious explanation of the favour enjoyed by such a man at the court of the wisest of queens, must be owned to be found in the weaknesses to which female sovereigns are peculiarly liable. Yet it is not easy to study the virtues or the vices of Elizabeth without inclining to an opinion, that the same pleasure in the exercise of supreme power, the same pride of rule, the same aversion from subjection which made her impatient of the authority of a husband, would also dispose her to reject the often harsher yoke of an illicit lover. Fancies and preferences, especially in haughty women, do not always become passionate attachments. Women may be touched who will not be subdued; and many pass their lives on the brink of weaknesses into which they never fall. Elizabeth is

said to have inherited from Henry VIII. a taste for handsome attendants, as pageants of the court; a preference which might have been softened by the sex of Elizabeth, without outweighing her sense of dignity, overpowering her hatred of a master, or silencing the voice of moral principle, which, however sometimes disobeyed, was no stranger to her breast.

As there is no doubt that Dudley aspired to the hand of Elizabeth, he must have professed, and may have felt, a repugnance to an union with the most beautiful, and most accomplished, queen in Europe. The negotiation on the subject continued during the whole year 1564. On condition of its success, it appears that Elizabeth was ready to grant those very favourable terms which she authorised Randolph to hold out in November; which some writers describe as the adoption of Mary as a daughter or sister, with the recognition of her rights as presumptive heiress to the crown. So late as the 5th of February, 1565, Randolph, in his despatches from Edinburgh, assured his court of the inclination of the queen of Scots to marry the earl of Leicester, and the great probability of the successful issue of his embassy." Some historians have, very gratuitously, supposed these negotiations on the part of England to have been insincere, and intended only to prolong the celibacy of Mary, or at least to divert her from a foreign alliance. Undoubtedly the latter purpose always influenced Elizabeth : but can any one seriously believe that, if the queen of Scots had shown a willingness to wed Leicester, Elizabeth either could with plausibility or would in prudence have rejected an arrangement which she herself proposed, and which placed Scotland under the administration of her most trusty lieutenant? Every political reason pleaded for the real and earnest pursuit of the marriage. Elizabeth showed that she had herself no

*

Cecil's Diary in Murdin's State Papers, 506-508. February 5. 1565, and Keith, 269.; who adds from himself, "as we may conjecture, by de claring our queen presumptive heiress to the crown of England; an inference which Dr. Robertson, by an oversight very unusual with him, alleges as part of the despatch, and relies on as an historical fact. Robertson,

purpose to wed Leicester; nor is it reasonable to impute to a politic sovereign the sacrifice of her highest interest to amorous frailties: and it is incredible that she should have been influenced by so chimerical a project as that of perpetuating the widowhood of a queen, for whose hand all Europe was then pouring forth competitors. Some plausibility has been given to this supposed delusion practised on Mary by the unexpected backwardness of Elizabeth, at the critical moment, in sacrificing expectations relating to the succession, which her former language had been calculated to excite. But she inherited much of that jealousy of pretenders, of competitors, and of heirs, which the Tudor princes caught from their originally irregular title. This jealousy was confirmed by the revolts against Henry VIII.; and still more by those religious revolutions, which afforded alarming proofs how easily established institutions might be overthrown. *

As the prospect of marriage with Leicester vanished, another candidate presented himself, whose appearance was attended by almost instantaneous success. This was Henry Stuart, lord Darnley, the son of the earl of Lennox, by lady Margaret Douglas, daughter of Margaret Tudor, queen of Scots, by the second marriage of the last princess with the earl of Angus. The countess of Lennox was the grand-daughter of Henry VII. by his eldest daughter, and followed Mary in the order of hereditary succession to the crown of England. The earl of Lennox was the representative of an ancient branch of the royal family, who had acquired high honour and large possessions by marrying the heiress of the old thanes and earls of Lennox, whose origin is lost in the darkness of the earliest times. Henry Stuart was born in England; his parents had been driven into exile; and lady Lennox herself was born in Northumberland, where

The following words in one of Cecil's despatches contain the best key to Elizabeth's fluctuations:-"I see the queen's majesty very desirous to have my lord of Leicester to be the Scottish queen's husband; but when it cometh to the conditions which are demanded, I see her then remiss of her earnestness. 30th Dec. 1564."- Ellis, ii. 294. The date of the letter, and the words "conditions which are demanded," which must refer to the succession, seem to render it decisive.

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