Two English queens and Philip

Chapter I Page

The Emperor and England — Death of Edward VI. — Mary and Renard — To capture England by marriage — Philip II. accepts the sacrifice — Spanish efforts to moderate the religious reaction in England

Chapter II 1553-1554 .... . . 32

The Coronation of Mary — Noailles versus Renard — Mary accepts Philip — The marriage treaty — Alarm in London — Egmont's missions — Wyatt's rebellion — Attitude of Elizabeth — The coming of Philip — His voyage and arrival — His popular manners in England — Arrival at Winchester

Chapter III ^554-1555 75

Philip's first meeting with Mary — The marriage — Discontent and disappointment of the Spaniards — Philip's kindness to his wife — Spanish descriptions of England — Philip in London — Arrival of Pole — PhiHp's religious policy in England — His attempts to marry Elizabeth to Savoy — The Emperor's war with France — Departure of Philip from England

Chapter IV 1555-1558 128

Religious persecution in England — Philip's attempts to restrain it — His efforts to keep control of English policy — Elizabeth comes to viii TWO ENGLISH QUEENS AND PHIl

Court— Return of Philip to England — French intrigues— The ^^^^ English drawn into the war— St. Ouentin— Loss of Calais- Penury of the English treasury— Illness and death of Mary— Feria's approaches to Elizabeth

Chapter V ^558-1565 181

Accession of Elizabeth— The beginning of the long duel— Feria urges Philip to use force— PhiHp's many difficulties— He offers his hand to Elizabeth— The Peace of Cateau Cambresis— The Franco- Spanish Alliance— Fears of a Catholic League— Philip marries a French Princess— English Catholics appeal to Philip— Mary Stuart claims the Crown of England— War with Scotland— Philip's efforts to effect a reconciliation— Bishop Quadra— His relations with Leicester— Intrigue for a Catholic reaction in England — Mary Stuart approaches Philip— Disgrace and death of Quadra— A war of tariffs— Guzman de Silva, ambassador — The interviews of Bayonne— Failure of the Catholic League

^34

Chapter VI 1565-t569

Mary Stuart marries Darnley— Their intrigues with Philip through Guzman— Plan to promote revolution in England in favour of Mary —Expulsion of the English ambassador from Spain— Recall of Guzman — Don Gerau de Spes ambassador — His character- Commences conspiring at once— His turbulent behaviour— Seizure of Philip's treasure in England— Indignation of de Spes— His imprudent and disastrous action — Alba stops trade— Strained relations— Proposed declaration of war against England— The views of Philip and Alba— The Norfolk plot— The Northern rebellion

Desperation of Alba— Fresh Catholic conspiracies— De Spes's complicity— Alba and the Ridolfi plot— Discovery— The revenge of John Hawkins— De Spes outwitted— His expulsion from England — Guaras appointed Spanish Agent— Reopening of trade— Guaras' intrigues with Mary Stuart and Don Juan of Austria— The plot discovered — Imprisonment of Guaras — Fall of Don Juan — Bernardino de Mendoza appointed ambassador in England

CONTENTS ix

Chapter VIII

Mendoza and Elizabeth — His haughty behaviour — The French in Flanders — Elizabeth's approaches to Philip — The Spanish designs on Portugal — Renewed plots of Mary Stuart — Appeals to Philip to aid her in England — ^Philip's attitude towards Guise — Co-operation with him in Britain — The Jesuit mission — Mendoza and the Catholic plot in Scotland — Elizabeth aids the Portuguese Pretender — Anger of Mendoza — His altercation with Elizabeth — Progress of the plots — Collapse of Lennox — The interference of Guise in the plans — The jealousy between English Catholic exiles and the Scots — Development of the Anglo-Spanish plans and intended exclusion of Guise — Arrest of Francis Throckmorton — Discovery of the plot — Expulsion of Mendoza — Philip faces the inevitable and slowly prepares for a war of invasion

Chapter IX 1584-1588 416

English Catholics verstis Scottish — Santa Cruz's proposal to conquer England — EnUsting the Pope — Intrigues in Rome — Mary Stuart and Philip — Drake's raid on Galicia — Elizabeth assumes the protectorate of the Netherlands — War at last inevitable — The preliminaries of the Armada — The Babington plot — Philip's consent — His distrust — Discovery — Elizabeth's fears of war — Her approaches to Spain — Santa Cruz's fresh proposals to invade England — His great plan— The Scottish Catholics try again to share the attack upon England — Failure of Huntly's scheme — Guise not allowed by Philip to interfere — Mendoza in favour of the Scottish plan — Philip's claims to the English crown — The peace negotiations — Drake's dash upon Cadiz — Parma and the Armada— Death of Santa Cruz— Medina Sidonia — The Armada — The failure and its causes — The end of the struggle to win England

V'

Chapter I Introductory

1552-1553

The Emperor and England-Death of Edward VI.-Mary and Renard-To capture England by marriage-Phihp II. accepts the sacrifice-Spanish efforts to moderate the religious reaction m England

y

T an uncovered table, upon which jested a clock, a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles and some other trifles, there sat a prematurely aged man of fifty-two with a long, fair, sallow face and a white beard. His great, projecting netherlip was cracked and sore with fever, and between it and the tongue there lay a fresh green leaf to give coolness and moisture. His hands and feet w?rr distorted by gout; and his fur-lined, black ■>{j,-,il ing around a once-stalwart frame now pw . with sickness. On his right hand at the othe.. .ide of the table a stout, somewhat pursy, middle-aged English gendeman, with his cap in his hand and in an attitude of profound respect, was delivering a speech in Italian, to which the old man was listening with eager attention, now and again painfully raising his hand to his flat black velvet cap in salute when the name of King Edward was mentioned. It was in the little city of Landau in the Bavarian Palatinate, and Sir Richard Moryson, the English Ambassador, had ridden from Spires, nearly twenty miles away, that day, the 4th October, 1552, bringing his message to the greatest potentate on earth, the Emperor Charles V. ; Fate had dealt hardly with the Emperor of late, and the impossible task he had assumed was breaking him down mentally and physically. Once again he had found himself faced, not only by his old enemy France, but by his own German Princes ; and solely by flight and good luck had he escaped capture at the hands of the Judas whom he had made powerful at the expense of right and justice, Maurice of Saxony. From sheer impotence to struggle further, the Emperor had been forced to accept the humiliating terms of the Peace of Passau dictated to him by the Lutheran Princes. But free now from danger from his own people, he had turned again to cope with the foreign ally of his rebel vassals, determined this time to make a supreme effort to crush his French rival utterly before his growing infirmities crushed him.

As he had always done throughout his reign at such a juncture, he looked to England for aid. The insults offered by Henry VIII. to his House and to the Catholic faith, whose champion he was., had not been able to alienate the Emperor, who well knew that with England permanently on the side of France against him, the vast ambitions

THE EMPEROR AND ENGLAND 3

he cherished for himself, his son, and his country were doomed to failure ; and now, notwithstanding the still more aggressive Protestantism of young Edward VI. and his mentors, it was as necessary to Charles as ever it had been to secure the goodwill of England in his struggle against France in defence of his own Netherlands. So long as Charles had been fighting his German Lutheran subjects it was hopeless for him to bid for Northumberland's help ; and one of the considerations that led him to accept the terms imposed upon him by Maurice and the Germans was that thereby he might the better enlist his old ally England against the monstrous coalition of France, the Pope, and the Turk. The suggestion for an alliance had reached Northumberland from Charles' sister, Mary Queen of Hungary, his Regent of the Netherlands ; and Moryson had received his answer from England whilst he was following a day's march behind the Emperor and his army, who were on their way from Austria to Flanders when Charles had fallen ill at Landau.

Much dulcet verbiage there was in Moryson's address, and much vague desire expressed on the part of the English King — or, rather, the Duke of Northumberland — to join a coalition against the Turk; but what Charles so eagerly listened for — a declaration against the French — came not ; though he knew that the English had just then a bitter quarrel of their own with France about the seizure of English ships and cargoes by French privateers. Charles lisped and mumbled much at the best of times, but now that he had the green leaf on his lip, it was difficult for Moryson to understand what he said in reply to the speech, which, indeed, the Emperor interrupted more than once in his anxiety to get at the important point of it. "He could not forget," he said, "the love of Henry VIII. for him, shown at sundry times, nor betray the trust the late King had put in him in asking him to protect his young son. He would never forget the amity that for many years had lasted between England and his House, and he had perpetually tried to preserve this ancient friendship." Then, raising his voice and speaking more emphatically, he said that friendships that had long been tried and found good should be made much of. Charles was not a man to wear his heart upon his sleeve ; and his stolid face and leaden eyes as a rule gave no key to his thoughts ; but Moryson says that on this occasion "he did so use his eyes, so move his head and order his countenance, ... as I do surely think he meant the most of what he said. Sure am I that he is too wise not to wish the King's Majesty surely his."

That Charles was sincere in his wish to gain the help of England against France on this, as on all other similar opportunities, did not require much penetration to understand ; but when Moryson left the Imperial presence and came to close quarters with Charles's minister de Granvelle, the wily ecclesiastic and future Cardinal tried what cajolery could do the further to persuade the Englishman of the goodwill of the Emperor, and his wish for England's friendship. "He [the Emperor] only wished," he said, " that he found in the rest of the Princes the like godly mind as in King Edward, his good brother, and did trust he should be a king of as great honour as hath been in England this hundred years. This and a

ENGLAND AND THE EMPEROR 5

hundred times as much he spake with such affection as, if words may be thought to mean what they say, there can be no more wished for than is to be hoped for." I There was no thought yet of the young King's premature death ; but Northumberland had many bitter enemies at home, and to him it was a matter of policy to secure for himself a powerful supporter on the Continent. The Catholic and Spanish interest being naturally against him for his religious action and his treatment of the Princess Mary, he had always hitherto looked towards France as his friend ; but the maritime aggression of the French and ancient prejudice had aroused a bitter feeling against them generally in England ; and it behoved Northumberland at this juncture to make an appearance at least of conciliating the ancient ally of England, the Emperor-king of Spain and monarch of the Netherlands. To Northumberland in the circumstances this was a passing expediency : to Charles the alliance or benevolent neutrality of England was a permanent necessity if his cause and country were to prevail.

This necessity became more pressing still three months after the interview just described. The Emperor with a demoralised and discontented army laid siege to Metz, which the French had captured from him, and after months of effort and hardship in the depth of winter he was obliged to retreat, defeated and heartsick ; already swearing that he would turn monk: "for fortune, like a very strumpet, doth reserve her favours for the young." In his palace at Brussels — sick, sorry, and dejected — he was obliged to haggle with the German Princes as to

^ Moryson to the Council, 7th October 1552. Record Office.

the price of their aid to fight the French. His darling son PhiHp, they stipulated, must be separated from the succession to the Empire, and the dream of the Emperor's life to leave Philip strong enough to triumph where he himself had failed must be forfeited. The French had stirred up trouble, too, in the Emperor's Italian dominions ; the Turk was dominatinof the Mediterranean with the blessing: of the Christian Pope ; the Netherlands were sore and angry at the war taxes and the presence of marauding Spanish soldiery ; the Imperial ministers were at deadly feud with each other ; and on all sides Charles was surrounded by debts and difficulties. If only England could be prevailed upon to divert the French by attacking them in the Channel during the coming spring campaign, the tide of victory for the Emperor might yet be turned and France be rendered powerless. That, however, was the last thing that suited Northumberland's book.

The continuance of the war, nevertheless, was a standing danger to England itself, for it would have been impossible for her very long to have stood by idly whilst the French overran Flanders ; and Northumberland made desperate efforts to bring about peace between the two antagonists. To all approaches in this sense the Emperor and his sister, the Queen- Regent of the Netherlands, could only point to the aggressive action and impossible demands of the King of France. "And," writes Moryson in April, 1553, "whyle all these sturres ar growing great in Germanie, and whyle the French King is plying both sides with secret aydes and unseen practices, th' Emperor keepyth his bed as unfyt to hear of the myschiefs that grow rownd about

ENGLAND AND THE EMPEROR 7

him, as unable to devise how to remedie them if they were told him."

All through the spring, however, the Emperor's officers worked hard to muster his armies in Germany and Flanders to face the French and save the Netherlands. Northumberland still pressed upon both sides the mediation of the King of England in their quarrel, but in the midst of these negotiations in April, 1553, the new Imperial general, young Prince Emmanuel Philibert of Savoy, suddenly dashed upon the French frontier-fortress of Th^rouenne and inflicted a heavy defeat upon the Emperor's enemies. Northumberland's new embassy to urge peace upon Charles found less ready response even than before, whilst the King of France in no wise abated his extravagant claims now that the Emperor was looked upon as sick unto death. When the English envoys at length gained audience of Charles in Brussels early in June, 1553, they found him with his gouty limbs propped up, "looking very pale, weak, lean, and feeble," though his eyes were still bright and his mind clear. " Marry, to judge him by our sight, we must say that he appeareth unto us rather a man of short time rather than continuance." ^

How important the life or death of the Emperor ' was at that juncture to England, few people outside the immediate circle of Northumberland's friends fully understood. Already dark rumours were spreading abroad that the slight indisposition of the boy King of England was really a mortal malady. If Charles died first, it might easily be foreseen that the break up of his Empire and the confusion resulting from the

^ Thirlby, Hoby, and Moryson to the Council. State Papers, Germany.

demise of his many Crowns would deprive his successor of the power at the critical moment to interfere with Northumberland's plans to exclude the Princess Mary from the throne and to perpetuate the Protestant regime in England under his own Dudley descendants. If, on the other hand, Edward died whilst the Emperor's power was intact, it was certain that such support as he could give would go to his cousin Mary Tudor. To Spain and Flanders the goodwill of England was the crucial point upon which their future power and prosperity turned. To gain that, Charles had already condoned and suffered much, and there was hardly any sacrifice too great for him if he could win it now. With Mary on the throne and at his bidding — for he had been her only friend in all her tribulations — the sympathy of her country would be secure to him, and he and his could face France with confidence. So Charles and his Ministers were alert for every whisper as to Edward's sickness, and the English envoys who were at his Court grew daily more apprehensive at what would happen to them and their master if the young King died before the old Emperor.

On the 24th June Sir Philip Hoby, one of the English envoys in Brussels, received a visit from Evered, "the King's jeweller dwelling at Westminster," who had just come from Antwerp. In that city, he reported, it was current, and wagers laid on it, that King Edward was already dead, and that Mary had succeeded. To make matters more threatening for Northumberland's friends, it was further stated that the Emperor was sending to England with all speed three Catholic Flemish statesmen to be councillors of the new Queen of England.

DEATH OF EDWARD VI 9

Well might Hoby in his private letter to Cecil, written the next day, exclaim in dismay : " Pray God that England's wickedness may not be the cause of His taking away the King"; for if the country was to be guided by Charles's councillors, of whom Hoby held but a poor opinion, then goodbye to Northumberland's ambitions and to the prosperity of all his friends. ''England would go to utter ruin," he said, "if ruled by such men." ^

The three envoys sent by the Emperor to capture England for Spanish ends when Edward should die had indeed received their instructions two days before Hoby wrote his letter to Cecil. They were all men of mark — Jean de Montmorenci, Lord of Courrieres, Jacques de Marnix, Lord of Tholuze, both members of the highest Flemish nobility, and one of the Emperor's Masters of Requests, a keen, sagacious lawyer named Simon Renard. Charles had maintained a minister resident in London, one Schefyne, who became Chancellor of Brabant, but for so important a mission as that now in hand he was considered inadequate ; and in right of his experience and ability Simon Renard, though inferior in point of rank to his colleagues, became the real leader of the embassy. The envoys were to seek audience of Northumberland and Edward, and to say that, as the King of France had sent a secretary to visit him on account of his sickness, the Emperor, whose affection for him was infinitely greater, could do no less. All sorts of assurances of friendship and goodwill towards England were to be given, and care was to be taken in any case to conciliate Northumberland. " But," continue the instructions, "if you arrive too late, you must take

' Sir Philip Hoby to Cecil. Hatfield Papers and Haynes.

lo TWO ENGLISH QUEENS AND PHILIP

counsel together and act for the best for the safety of our cousin the Princess Mary, and secure, if possible her accession to the Crown : whilst doing what you see necessary to exclude the French and their intrigues. You must endeavour also to maintain the confidence and good neighbourship which it is so important that our Flemish States and Spain should enjoy with England for mutual trade and intercourse ; and especially to prevent the French from getting their foot in, or gaining the ear of the men who now rule England, the more so if it be for the purpose of troubling us." ^

Already news had reached Flanders that Northumberland would endeavour to exclude Mary from the throne on the death of her brother ; and although the Emperor foresaw that in such case the life of his cousin would be in grave peril, especially if French aid were given to Northumberland, the principal efforts of the envoys were to be directed to assuring the English Government, in any case, that the Emperor was their real friend and not France, the ancient foe of England. If Northumberland and his friends feared that Mary would contract a foreign marriage under the Emperor's influence, they were to be assured that no such thing was thought of, and Northumberland was to be given to understand that any husband chosen by him for the Princess as future Queen would be willingly accepted, though the actual fulfilment of the promise was to be postponed as long as possible in order that Mary might, if she was strong enough later, avoid compliance with it altogether. The envoys, indeed, were to promise anything and everything to secure the throne for Mary. No change ^ Papiers d'Etat du Cardinal de Granvelle, vol. iv.

DEATH OF EDWARD VI ii

should be made in the government or in religion, and full indemnity should be given for all past acts against her. It is clear throughout these instructions, however, that, much as Charles desired the accession of his cousin Mary, he was prepared to accept any solution that would enable him to remain friendly with England and exclude French influence from the country.

Before Renard and his colleagues arrived in England, Schefyne wrote to the Emperor the news of the King's expected death, and the patent intrigues of Northumberland to exclude Mary from her inheritance ; and when, on the 6th July, 1553, the Imperial ambassadors entered London, though Northumberland's officers greeted them as though all was well, they promptly discovered that Edward was no more for the world, and that everything was prepared for the elevation of Jane Grey to the English throne. On the day after their arrival, the 7th July, the ambassadors learnt secretly that Edward had died the previous night, and that Mary in fear for her life had fled to Norfolk and had resolved to proclaim herself Queen as soon as her brother's death was officially announced. In their perplexity at this critical state of affairs, and their dread at driving the ruling power of England into enmity with the Emperor, the envoys took the unheroic course of blaming Mary's bold action instead of supporting it. Certain it is that if the Princess had waited upon her Imperial kinsman's effective aid, her opportunity would have been missed and she would never have been Queen of England. She had, indeed, no one to thank for her crown but herself; and the attitude of the Imperial envoys towards her in her hour of trial proves once more the impossibility of the Emperor and his son allowing any considerations, either of religion or kinship, to stand in the way of their securing the co-operation of England to their ends.

Renard and his colleagues were weak reeds for Mary to depend upon, and she did well to go her own way, understanding the feeling of her countrymen better than they did. The envoys found Mary's action in defying Northumberland : " Strange, difficult, and dangerous. . . . All the forces of the country are in the hands of the Duke, and the Lady has no hope of obtaining forces nor aid to oppose him, whilst her proclamation of herself as Queen will justify the new King and Queen in attacking her by force, and she will have no means of resisting them unless your Majesty stands by her. Considering your war with the French, it seems unadvisable for your Majesty to arouse English feeling against you, and the idea that the Lady will gain Englishmen on the orround of relisfion is vain."i Serious remonstrances were sent to Mary herself by the Imperial envoys, pointing out her danger and the hopelessness of her position in the face of Northumberland's supposed strength ; and at the same time they laboured hard to dissuade the Duke frorh the idea that they had been sent to England to sustain Mary's cause.

The Emperor himself was no bolder than his envoys. " If you cannot draw the Duke of Northumberland to our cousin's cause, you may see if you can gain over some of the nobles by promises about religion or otherwise, in order to alarm the Duke into

^ The envoys to the Emperor. Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, vol. iv.

CHARLES AND MARY 13

showing some favour to the Princess." ^ Renard and his colleagues had been in London five days and had already assumed the attitude towards Mary just referred to, before Secretary Petre came officially from Northumberland on the loth July to inform them of the King's death. They merely begged the Council to be kind to Lady Mary, although they well knew that she was mustering her forces and issuing her decrees in Norfolk, and that Jane was to be crowned in the Tower of London on the following day ; after which they feared that Mary would be captured and done to death as a rebel.

All through the critical time, whilst Mary was sturdily asserting her rights and gathering her friends, the envoys of her cousin were thus paltering, in mortal fear of driving the new government into the arms of France, limiting themselves to a repetition of the mission originally intended for Edward, and : ** recommending Lady Mary to them with all softness and modesty, without entering into any contention as to the succession, which would be of no use." In the meanwhile Northumberland's cause grew more and more hopeless, though the Imperial envoys did not even yet understand it. English Catholics and others came to them begging for information as to the Emperor's attitude, and urging him to make at least some declaration in his cousin's favour ; but all the answer they got was a mild deprecation of violence of any sort, and an appeal to the Emperor for instructions. The over-cautious ambassadors first began to pluck up courage when the heralds proclaimed in London the accession of Jane and

^ The Emperor to the envoys. Papiers d'Etat de Granvelle, vol. iv.

her Dudley husband on the nth July amidst the silence of the frowning citizens ; but when on the following day, 12th July, a deputation of Jane's Council, Lord Cobham and Dr. Mason, came to inform them of the accession of the new Queen, and told them haughtily that their embassy had come to an end, as they were known to be in England only to help Mary, the ambassadors replied with bated breath and whispering humbleness, and with perfect truth, that they had done ^.nothing of the sort. Their only mission, they said, which they had hitherto no opportunity of carrying out, was to thank King Edward for his efforts to bring about peace, and to assure the Government of the Emperor's desire to be friendly with England in spite of French lies and intrigue.

On the 13th July the ambassadors had their first audience with the Council. Northumberland, of course, was absent : he had just started on his disastrous expedition to Cambridge, already a beaten man in the face of Mary's growing popularity ; but Arundel, Shrewsbury, Pembroke, Mason, Petre, and others received them. Renard was the spokesman of the envoys, and he laboured hard, even now, to persuade the Englishmen of the Emperor's desire to banish from their minds all suspicion of his motives — a suspicion, he said, engendered solely by French misrepresentations. He was naturally anxious for the safety and good treatment of his cousin, Lady Mary, but he had no desire whatever to use her as a political instrument, or to promote her marriage with a foreigner, or indeed to interfere in any way with the established order of affairs in England. The Emperor's message was received

CHARLES AND MARY 15

courteously, as well it might be, for the Councillors were already trembling in their shoes, and the envoys were requested to defer their departure from England until further instructions came from the Emperor — a notable change of tone since their interview with Cobham and Mason the day before. The ambassadors, however, were still as far as ever from understanding the real state of affairs, even at the date of their next letter (i6th July). " We consider it certain that before four days are over the Lady will be in the Duke's power if she has no force to resist him. . . . He is raising troops everywhere and is strong on land and sea, so that we do not see how those who secretly hold with the Lady will be able or dare to declare themselves. We have no confirmation that the Lady is aided by so many people as was reported. . . . On the contrary, a messenger from the Lady brought us to-day the copy of the Council's reply to her letter to them, and a verbal message from her telling us that she saw the ruin into which she would fall unless your Majesty helped her." ^ If this had really been the case, Mary would never have been Queen of England, for the Emperor plainly told his envoys that, for an infinity of extremely sage and prudent reasons which he detailed at great length, he could not give the help that Mary hoped for. New credentials, indeed, were sent to them, and instructions that they were again to ply the Council with assurances that nothing was farther from the Emperor's thoughts^ than to interfere in any way in England. A mild word or two was to be introduced on behalf of Mary ;