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deeply stirring the resentment of their co-religionists here. Whilst all Protestant England was thrilling with sympathy for the oppressed Flemings, the victims of Alba's cruelty, the Queen was strongly desirous of clearing herself from the suspicion of helping them, and she seems to have gone out of her way to reassure Guzman on the subject. With her usual clever evasion of responsibility, she assured Guzman that she knew nothing of the archbishop (Parker) of Canterbury's new attempt to force the oath of supremacy on the ecclesiastical lawyers of the Court of Arches. Guzman writes to the King (2nd February 1568, page 4): "This appears to be the case "from what she said to me about it, and what afterwards

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happened, which was that she was angry with the Archbishop and rated him on the subject, although subsequently the earl of Bedford, Knollys and Cecil pacified her and gave her to understand that it would "be unwise to be severe on the Archhishop for fear of "encouraging the Catholics too much." He writes again on 16th February 1568 (page 7): "News comes "from Scotland that some of the principal people have "risen against the Regent and the Government, and when "I asked the Queen whether it was true, she said it was, "and they even wanted to throw the blame on her, as "some malicious people had also tried to do respecting "the disturbances in France, and even those of Flanders, "which she said was entirely unfounded, as she is "strongly opposed to such proceedings of subjects against "their rulers, and particularly in the case of your Majesty "and your dominions, which should never be molested by "England, at least whilst she was Queen. I said that "she was quite free from any such suspicion, seeing the "loving goodwill your Majesty bore her, and she, like the great Princess she was, could not fail to reciprocate it, as I constantly advised your Majesty she did. As the "malice of the heretics is continually exercised in arousing her suspicion, no opportunity must be lost to dissipate it."

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But disclaim it as she might, Protestant feeling in the

country was deeply moved and was becoming aggressive instead of merely seeking toleration; and distrust and resentment against Philip and the Catholic league were being industriously fanned by the English agents in France and Germany, who constantly reported the intended invasion of England and its reduction to Catholicism. The attempt of England to assert equal international and religious rights with Spain and the Catholics, seems to have been precipitated at first accidentally, and resulted in a breach which grew ever wider until the final triumph of England over the Armada. In January 1568 the vicious lunacy of the miserable boy Don Carlos had reached a pitch which necessitated his isolation. Philip entered his room at 10 o'clock on the night of the 18th January and arrested his only son and heir with his own hands. It was known that he had had communications with the discontented Flemings; and John Man, the dean of Gloucester, who was English Ambassador in Madrid, thought the event of sufficient importance to dispatch a special messenger, one of his own secretaries, post haste, to carry the news to England. He arrived in the middle of February and gave an account of what had happened. In the course of conversation he told the Queen that the ambassador's household were not allowed to perform divine service according to the reformed rites, even in their own house, and Elizabeth immediately wrote to Man (21st February 1568, Foreign Calendar) peremptorily ordering him to demand the free exercise of his religion in accordance with international rights, saying that if this were refused she would at once recall him. Unfortunately, on the same day, both the Queen and Cecil also made the same request of Guzman (page 9), and Philip was therefore forewarned of the demand which was to be made by the English ambassador. That the hated heresy, which struck at the very root of the principle by which he ruled, should raise its head in his own capital, even in the house of an ambassador, was too much for Philip. The demand for international recognition of the dreaded thing alarmed him and he determined to forestall it. Before the am

bassador could formulate his complaint, he had a series of accusations drawn up against Dr. Man, and a number of the English Catholic refugees who lived in Madrid, mostly on Philip's bounty, were called to testify to unbecoming words pronounced by the ambassador against the Catholic religion and the Pope, at the dinner table and elsewhere in private conversation. An English spy called Robert Hogan or Huggins, who betrayed both Spain and England in turn, writes to Cecil (30th March 1568, Foreign Calendar) that he, like others, had been forced to testify against Man, who, he says, will certainly get into trouble, although entirely by his own fault and foolishness, and his "too liberal tongue." It is mainly the duke of Feria's doing, he says, as he is Man's deadly enemy; although elsewhere Hogan calls the Duke the friend of the English, which he certainly was not in any sense. Man was never afforded an opportunity of making his complaint. Philip saw him no more; he was hurried out of Madrid to a village called Barajas and thence contemptuously packed off to England, without being allowed even to take leave of the King. Guzman smoothed the matter over as best he could, with many loving messages from his master to the effect that another English ambassador who was more modest and respectful to the Catholic religion would be welcomed with open arms; but the blow was a heavy one to the pride of Elizabeth and her Protestant advisers, and their wrath was nursed silently until ample revenge could be taken. They were revenged a hundred-fold as will be shown, although the exaction of their retribution gave rise to events which, it is not too much to say, in the end left their indelible mark upon the fate of christendom.

In the meanwhile the rising of the Catholic lords in Scotland against Murray and the belief that French forces would be sent to aid them if the Huguenots were disposed of had caused more countenance to be given by the English Government to Condé and the Huguenots on the one hand and to the Flemish Protestants on the other, whilst the English Catholics were more vigorously prosecuted than they had been for some time. Guzman mentions a rumour

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(10th April 1568) that Cardinal Lorraine was raising 1,200 harquebussiers to send to Dumbarton, and this, together with the passage of a French envoy to Scotland, deeply alarmed the Queen, notwithstanding the solemn assurance of the king of France and his mother that, out of gratitude, for Elizabeth's neutrality in the French troubles, they would not allow any French force to be sent to Scotland; a covert threat that if she openly helped Condé they would retaliate by helping Mary. The apprehension was immensely increased by the news of Mary's escape from Lochleven (after her first unsuccessful attempt of which an interesting account is given by Guzman, page 26), but the policy which had been so successful before was promptly adopted again. Fresh encouragement was given to the Huguenots. Protestantism in the Netherlands was accorded a more hearty sympathy than ever, and expeditions of refugee Flemings were allowed to fit out in English ports to go over and help their compatriots. Against this Guzman protested over and over again, but only got vague promises of redress or hypocritical professions of ignorance; and when at last orders were given for the prohibition of such expeditions, they were easily evaded, and the current of help and sympathy still flowed, as it flowed for many years afterwards, from the Protestants in England to their struggling co-religionists across the North Sea.

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On the 21st May 1568 news reach Elizabeth and her advisers which, whilst increasing their perplexity and danger, changed the base of trouble and brought it nearer to their own doors. The battle of Langsyde had been fought six days before, and Mary was already a fugitive, and practically a prisoner, in England., Guzman, at this point, represents Elizabeth as being desirous of treating Mary as a sovereign, which, considering her views of the royal state, was probably her first impulse. He says (22nd May), "If this Queen has her way now, they will "be obliged to treat the queen of Scots as a sovereign, "which will offend those who forced her, to abdicate, se that, although these people are glad enough to have her in

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"their hands, they have many things to consider.

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they keep her as in prison, it will probably scandalise "all neighbouring princes, and if she remain free and "able to communicate with her friends, great suspicions "will be aroused. In any case it is certain that two "women will not agree very long together."

If it were ever Elizabeth's intention to receive her unfortunate cousin as a sovereign the idea must have disappeared promptly on the reports received from Drury and her other officers in the north of England. All the country side, they said, Catholic to the backbone, was in a ferment of excitement and rejoicing at the arrival in their midst of the Catholic princess, upon whom their hopes were fixed. Norris in Paris (4th June, Foreign Calendar) writes to say that an effort will be made to carry Mary to France, "but he is assured that Cecil will rather, as he "writes, help and counsel the Queen to make her profit "of her there than consent to her coming hither." any case Elizabeth did not hesitate long as to the course which would best serve her own interests. Her unceremonious treatment of Mary's envoys, Herries and Fleming, is fully detailed by Guzman, for whom and the duke of Alba they brought letters from their fugitive mistress. The envoys complained bitterly of their treatment, and threatened if aid was refused by England to appeal to France, your Majesty, or even the Pope." "The Pope,"

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said Bedford, as if shocked with the bare idea. "Yes," said Herries, "and even the Grand Turk, or the Sophi, seeing the need my Queen is in." Such talk as this was too dangerous to be endured for very long, and on the 24th June Guzman writes to the King, "The Queen has given a decided answer to Herries and Fleming, and has "refused to give leave to the latter to go to France respecting the Scotch queen's affairs. Her answer is "that she has ordered their Queen to approach nearer to her, and has sent word to the Scotch government to "send representatives to the same place, whither she "herself will also send persons to treat with both parties. "If she is assured that their Queen was not an accomplice

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