The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth

again-Heneage-Renewed negotiations with the Emperor-The French patronise Leicester's suit-Dissensions in the English C

of Philip's attachment to him. Leicester protested his abject gratitude, but said sorrowfully that the Queen would never marry him, as she was bent on wedding a great prince; but there was none she could marry but Don Carlos or the Archduke. Guzman passed this over by saying he understood that there had formerly been some talk about the Archduke, and then again reverted to Leicester's own suit. Leicester's spirits rose at this, as it seemed to betoken a coolness towards the Archduke's advances, and said that if Guzman would speak to the Queen now about marrying him he thought she would be more favourable than formerly as her90 reasons for rejecting him before was the fear that Mary of Scotland would marry a powerful prince; "whereas now that this marriage with Darnley had taken place my business will be more easily arranged. I have not cared to press the point upon her hitherto, although the Council has done so. I think, therefore, that this is a good juncture for my business." The Spanish ambassador told him to leave the matter to him, and adds in his letter to Philip: "I thought well to approach the matter and have the road thus prepared before the Emperor's envoy arrived, so that if he does not tell me what he is arranging I can still find out and proceed in the business."43 It appeared that for once Leicester and Throgmorton had been co-operating with Cecil and others to bring the Archduke forward again, the Earl having taken up this new position no doubt as soon as he thought the French match was looking serious; but, withal, Guzman did not believe in the sincerity of the new Austrian negotiations, which he looked upon as a "mere diversion," and, after his conversation with Leicester, wrote: "Lord Robert is more confident now and said ... he could not contemplate the Queen's marriage with any one but himself without great repugnance." It is probable that at this time the Queen seriously leant again towards a marriage with Leicester. The propo

will towards him. He pressed the Queen to look favourably upon the Emperor's brother, gave hopes that the Archduke might be allowed to have his way and visit her, and congratulated her upon having avoided so unequal a match as that projected with the King of France, who, the Queen herself said, might be her grandson. The Emperor's answer about his brother's coming was hardly as cordial as was wished, but as it contained full particulars of the conditions demanded, both as to religion, finances, and position of the consort, the match was now brought seriously and officially under consideration. The terms were so hard, and the tone of the Emperor's communication so dry, that it was decided not to show the letter to the Queen, and to conceal the text of the conditions from her, by saying merely that the Emperor was willing for his brother to come, but desired first that commissioners should meet and decide upon some bases for negotiation, in case she should be favourably impressed by him. It was seen at once by the friends of the match that the Emperor's terms were impossible. The Archduke was to have the title of king and to govern jointly with his wife; in case of her death without heirs he was to remain in the government of the country, and was to exercise the Catholic religion without hindrance. Cecil, Sussex, and others privately met Swetkowitz, and agreed that, if the matter were to go on, the conditions must be softened to the Queen, and by some means the Archduke be brought to England, in the hope that his coming98 would so far pledge her that she could not well recede. But withal, the answer given by the Queen and Council was not very encouraging. The main question, that of religion, was slurred over and left for future discussion, but a decided negative was given to the claim that the consort should be called king, or that a permanent income should be settled upon him. As soon as the Emperor's hard terms were received a decided change took place in the attitude of Leicester and his friends towards the match. It was evident to him that it could always be prevented by raising difficulties with regard to religion, and Leicester had therefore no hesitation in pretending to favour and forward it in order to choke off the Swedish suit. He even entered into a regular treaty with the Spanish ambassador by which he agreed to help the Archduke's affair on condition that he was to receive Spanish support in case the Austrian marriage came to nothing, as he meant it to do. Still further to beguile people into the belief that he himself was entirely out of the running, and that the Archduke's suit was now really in a fair way, an elaborate comedy was concocted, by which the Queen was to flirt with Heneage-a married man-whilst the Earl was to make love to Viscountess Hereford, afterwards Countess of Essex, whom he subsequently married. This he probably did too realistically, and a quarrel, real or pretended, ending in tears on all sides, consequently took place between him, Heneage, and the Queen, whereupon the favourite went to his rooms and sulked for a few days, until he was recalled, and Heneage, who had been sent away, was also allowed to return.99 In the meanwhile Sussex was straining every nerve to pledge the Queen to the Archduke; and Guzman was really doing his best to forward the match, although he never was for a moment deceived by Leicester, whom he now saw through. "I keep Leicester in hand," he said, "in the best way I can, as I am still firm in my opinion that if any marriage at all is to result from all this it will be his." Swetkowitz hurried back to Vienna with the English reply, and to explain to his master the only method by which success was possible. Lutheran as he was, he would have given way upon the vital point of religion, although he confessed his fear that the Emperor would not do so; "but," said he, "you must put up with a good deal to gain such a kingdom as this." To have given up on the point of religion, however, would have made the match useless to Philip, and there was never any chance of the marriage being effected on such terms. Leicester, of course, did not know how pliable the Emperor might prove, but Swetkowitz's hopefulness and conciliatory attitude seems in August to have alarmed both him and the French ambassador into the belief that perhaps, after all, the marriage would be effected. At all events, Leicester and the French again began to push his suit warmly, as soon as Swetkowitz left, and the Queen, with just an occasional smile to Heneage, was kinder to him than ever. Philip II., who knew Elizabeth as well as any one, thus writes in October to his ambassador: "The Archduke's suit is now quite at an end, as I am informed by the Emperor that he is undeceived, and withdraws altogether from the business. You will, therefore, say no more about100 it unless he writes to the contrary, which I do not think he will.... Let me know the result of the Swedish negotiations, although no doubt they will end like the rest; and, after all, she will either not marry or else marry Robert, to whom she has always been so much attached. You did well in writing to me fully about the quarrel with Heneage, because the whole affair and its sequel clearly show that the Queen is in love with Robert, and for this reason, and in case at last that she may take him for her husband, it will be very expedient to keep him in hand."45 Maximilian, however, was not playing quite fairly with Philip when he told him he had abandoned the idea of marrying his brother to the Queen of England. The interference of the Spanish king in the affair was, in fact, a great hindrance to its success, as, dependent as the Emperor partly was upon the German Protestant princes, he could not bind himself hard and fast to the extreme Catholic militant party; and to saddle an Austrian match with impracticable Spanish conditions, was to make it impossible. Early in 1566, therefore, the Emperor sent back a temporising reply to England, saying that the wording of the clause about religion appeared somewhat harsh, and begging that it might be modified. The Emperor's tone was so conciliatory, as a result of Swetkowitz's representations, that the hopes of Suffolk and Norfolk again rose high for a time. But as the Emperor advanced the Queen receded. She complained to the Spanish ambassador of the delay in the sending of the reply, and was petulant about the Emperor's objections. "How could she marry," she asked, "a101 man whom she had to feed, and let the world say she had taken a husband who could not afford to keep himself! The Emperor must think they (the English) lived like Turks, whereas they had the Holy Sacrament the same as he had;" and then she began to talk about Leicester in a way which convinced the ambassador that his chance was better than ever. She said that she had promised the Earl no answer-in fact, he had never had the presumption to ask her to marry him, but the Council had done so, and it was for them to ask for a reply, and not Leicester; "but the Earl had good parts and great merits, and if she had to marry a subject she had a great liking for him." Referring to Mary of Scotland's recent marriage with Darnley, she said that if she married Leicester two neighbouring queens would be wedded in the same way. "She is so nimble in her dealing and threads in and out of this business in such a way that her most intimate favourites fail to understand her, and her intentions are, therefore, variously interpreted." In the meanwhile both the Archduke's and Leicester's friends were confident that their respective suits were prospering, although Leicester either was, or feigned to be, bitterly jealous of the Queen's new flame, his erstwhile bosom friend Heneage, with whom he had another noisy quarrel, nearly ending in bloodshed, in February, 1566.46 Cecil, Sussex, and Bacon, in the meanwhile, were constantly praying Guzman to exert his influence with the Queen in favour of the Archduke; and the Duke of Norfolk was induced to speak to her on the subject. He told the Queen that the former recommendation of102 the Council to her to marry Leicester was only adopted because they thought her own desires lay that way, and not because they approved of it. The Duke hi

, against her wish, was cunningly fanned by Guzman, who pointed out that they were nearly all extreme Protestants. "I do not know what the devils want," said the Queen. "O! your Majesty," replied the ambassador, "what they want is simply liberty; and if monarchs do not look out for themselves and combine, it is easy to see how it will end."50 So the irate Queen sent for the leaders of both Houses to have it out with them. First came the Duke of Norfolk, her kinsman and most distinguished subject, himself almost a sovereign in his own county, and received the full torrent of her vituperation. He was a traitor, a conspirator, and much else, and the poor man, overwhelmed, stammered out that he never thought to ask her pardon for having offended her thus. Next came the turn of Leicester, Pembroke, Northampton, and Howard, who remonstrated with her upon her treatment of Norfolk. She told Pembroke he talked like a swaggering soldier; said that Northampton was a nice fellow to prate about marriage-he had better look after his own matrimonial difficulties than mince words with her. Then softening somewhat she turned to Leicester and said that, even if all the world had abandoned her, she did not think he would have done so. He said something about his willingness to die at her feet, to which she replied that that was not the109 purpose. When the interview was at an end, the lords met in conclave and sent Sussex to beg Guzman again to exert his influence in favour of the Archduke. The next day the ambassador saw the Queen for the purpos

, one day turning her back upon him, and the next begging the Spanish ambassador to be friendly with him. On one occasion in February, 1567, when the Council had progressed very far in the settlement of Sussex's instructions, Leicester's Puritan friends again brought up the matter of the succession in order to embroil matters and embarrass the Queen; but she put her foot down firmly then, and they dropped the subject in a fright. This having failed, they renewed their agitation for an inquiry into the conduct of Sussex as Viceroy of Ireland; but out of this honest Ratcliff emerged triumphant, to the sorrow of his enemies. At last Sussex got tired of the constant quarrelling, and begged for leave to go111 home, which was refused, and some sort of reconciliation was patched up between him and Leicester. In view of almost hourly changes in the Queen's matrimonial attitude, and the certai

mself in the matter, there was never a shadow of a chance of such a match being made by her or consented to by her wisest councillors. Upon this rock the matrimonial hopes of the Archduke again split. Sussex remained with the Emperor until February, 1568, probably the only prominent English statesman who was sincere or honest in the negotiations, but was at last himself undeceived, and begged for his recall in deep disappointment and resentment against Leicester and his party, upon whom he laid the blame of the failure of his mission. A decent pretence was assumed on both sides that the project was still pending; and the Emperor was invested with the Garter with great pomp; but the matter was practically at an end on the departure of Su

eneage. An attempt was made nearly three years later, in December, 1570, to revive the negotiations for the Archduke's match by sending young Henry Cobham to the Emperor; but the device had at last grown too stale to deceive, an