scholar.' One thing was still wanting to the father's wishes; that in addition to the crown of Spain, the diadem of the Germanic empire should be secured to his son; and earnest was Charles with his brother Ferdinand to induce him to waive his prospective claim in favour of his nephew. But Ferdinand was unyielding; while to the suggestion that Philip might at least become king of the Romans, the plea that this was in the gift of the electors was urged-a plea unanswerable, and at once fatal to the claims of Philip of Spain; for, as Sorriano remarks, while his manners had been 'little pleasing to the Italians, and 'positively displeasing to the Flemings, they were altogether 'odious to the Germans.' A kind of compromise was at length entered into between the two brothers, and Philip prepared for his departure. He had now accomplished the object of his visit in regard to his Flemish subjects; but even then the symptoms ' of alienation between the future sovereign and his people, which 'was afterwards to widen into a permanent and irreparable breach, 'might be discovered,' and when Philip again visited Flanders, there was little of that wild enthusiasm which hailed his first appearance.

It was with no reluctant feelings, therefore, that Philip returned to Spain. In July, 1551, he relanded at Barcelona, proceeding to Valladolid, and there quietly resumed the duties of the regency during the next three years; while his father, humiliated by his flight from Innspruck, and the disastrous results of the siege of Metz, at length began to meditate that abdication which ere long was to startle Europe. Ere this step had been arranged-probably ere it was definitely decided upon-death, which, if it so often extinguishes ambitious hopes, so often, on the other hand, awakens or aids them, offered a new prize to the still grasping emperor. Young Edward of England had died, and Mary, the cruelly-used daughter of Katharine of Arragon, the persecuted sister of the protestant boy-king, the desolate princess, on whose behalf, and for the free exercise of whose faith, Charles, as her nearest maternal relative, had repeatedly interfered, was now actually queen, and unwedded! What a prize for his still widower

son!

The history of Philip of Spain now links itself with that of England; and in entering upon it we shall refer to English affairs more largely than Mr. Prescott has done, since scarcely any portion of our annals requires so much to be re-written as those of the reign of Mary.

Few kings' daughters, from their very cradle up to womanhood, have been the object of so many marriage treaties as Mary Tudor. Giustinian has told us how Bonnivet placed the diminutive ring

Mary of England-her Education, her Marriage Treaties. 9

on the little child's finger as she stood on her mother's knee, thus betrothing her to the Dauphin, then a babe in his nurse's arms. (B. Q., No. XLII., page 462). But the peace thus solemnly ratified between Henry and Francis was ere long again broken, and then Charles V. sought a closer alliance with his cousin, still the heir-presumptive of the English crown, although then but six years old, and by the treaty of Windsor stipulated that at the age of twelve she should be sent to Spain to complete her education. This treaty is very important, for we find that it was there stipulated that Mary should be brought up in the habits, the language, even the costume of Spain. And who is so well qualified to instruct her in all this as the queen, her mother?' said Henry.*

Charles, well acquainted with the inveterate nationality of his aunt, willingly acquiesced, and thus the princess royal of England was educated as an alien in her own land! Up to the year 1525, this engagement was still considered binding; and an emerald ring, in token of constancy, was presented by the grave ambassadors to Charles, as a love-token from the little princess, which he as gravely received, saying 'he wolde weare it for hir sayke.' But Charles was now twenty-six years of age, and, naturally enough, his subjects desired to see him married without delay, rather than wait some years longer for his English cousin; so only two months later he wrote to the king and cardinal requesting their assent to his marriage with another first-cousin of more suitable age, Isabella of Portugal, who became, as we have seen, mother of Philip II. Ere long, Henry and Francis again made peace, and then Francis, now a widower, obligingly offered either himself or his second son. After many negotiations, the subject was dropped, and during the subsequent years the divorce of Katharine fully occupied Henry's mind, while, cast out from court favour and disgracefully branded with illegitimacy, few European princes would be likely to seek alliance with the portionless Lady Mary.' Soon after Katharine's death, however, we find Charles again interfering on behalf of his cousin, and proposing a marriage with his nephew the Infant of Portugal; but ere the arrangements were completed, Francis again came forward with a renewed offer of his second son. Soon after there were proposals from the Duke of Cleves, and then from the Duke of Urbino, both at the suggestion of Charles, who dreaded above

*For if her father shuld seke a maistresse for hir to frame hir after the maner of Spayne, and of whom she myghte take example of vertue, he shulde not fynde in all Xtendome a more mete than she now hathe, the quene's grace, her mother, who is comen of this house of Spayne, and who for th' affection she berith to the emperer will norish her, and bringe her up, as may hereafter be to his most contentacion.'-Letter of the Ambassador's, July 8th, Cotton MSS.

all a French alliance, and to these a third was subsequently added, from Duke Philip of Bavaria. The latter visited England and presented Mary with a diamond cross; but all these negotiations, like the former ones, were broken off.

On the death of her father, with the exception of a proposal from the Marquess of Brandenburgh, Mary was allowed to remain in quiet obscurity, the emperor no longer proposing alliances, but keeping close watch over her interests, and, on the occasion of Edward's council arresting her chaplains for performing mass, directing his ambassador to threaten war unless her religious tenets were respected. This was in 1551, and as Edward was then a sickly youth, it is not improbable that Charles, far-sighted as he had always shown himself, began to form his plans, should the premature death of the young king open the succession to Mary. At length, in July, 1553, Edward died-from natural causes there is little doubt, for most important to the maturing the projects of Northumberland would a few months, even a few days, have been. The story of the joy that pervaded England when Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed queen must be dismissed as a palpable falsehood. The poor girl, whose father was as despised as her mother, the proud lady of Bradgate,' was hated, who was raised to a fifteen days' royalty by that most detested of all the parvenu nobles of that age, Dudley, the upstart assumer of the proud title of the Percies-the murderer-not the less so because 'in course of law-of Somerset, the king's uncle, and who was well known to sway the young king as a mere puppet-it was impossible that his daughter-in-law could ever have been the object of the people's choice, even had not the king's two sisters been living. But, then, can we believe that Mary's accession was hailed with rejoicings? Contemporary testimony, protestant as well as catholic, assures us it was so; and when we remember how much reason the people had to dread a disputed succession-how their fathers had suffered from that very cause in the wars of the Roses-how they themselves had suffered from the feuds of rival nobles-we can well believe that they would be content with any ruler who would but set them free from the unbearable tyranny of the Somersets and Northumberlands of that day. We must remember, too, that among the catholic nobility and their followers-then a large majority-the accession of the catholic princess, who, through such cruel persecution, had stood firm to her faith, was indeed a triumph. Thus we think it will be found that Mary, notwithstanding her foreign habits, and the slight impression which, notwithstanding her wrongs, she had made upon the people, was yet welcomed by them. They

Mary's Accession-the Emperor's Proposal.

11

had yet to learn how devoted she was to Spain, and how willing to lay their liberties at the feet of a foreign despot.

The

Edward died on the 6th of July; and however Northumberland might plot to keep his death secret, we find the wary emperor so quickly apprised of it, that in a letter dated from Brussels only five days afterwards, he gives his first directions to his ambassador. In his second, dated the 22nd, he bids him hint to the queen that the time had come when it was desirable that she should marry, and that his advice and aid would always Charles was not the man to allow a be heartily at her service. good opportunity to pass by, for the sake of etiquette. Upon this hint, doubtless, the ambassador enlarged, although as yet the suitor was not indicated. Many writers have pointed out Courtenay, the young and handsome Earl of Devonshire, who had just been released from his long captivity in the Tower, as the probable object of Mary's choice; and that there was some ground for this belief another letter from the emperor in August In this there was an especial message to Renard, seems to prove. then in London, to approach the subject of Courtenay with the greatest caution, lest he should fix the attention of the queen more strongly upon it. We are not inclined to believe, with Mr. Prescott, in the frivolous disposition' of this young man. prisoner, who beguiled his long captivity with literature and music, and in the accomplishment so unusual in that age, painting, could not have deserved so slighting an epithet. Whether Mary ever felt partiality toward him is very questionable, but that he speedily became no common favourite with the people is certain; and hence, doubtless, the hostility with which he was viewed by the emissaries of Spain. Renard, who seems to have merited his name, without further delay proposed Philip, and in his letter tells us that the queen took the proposal so merrily, that she laughed not once, but several times, and gave me a 'significant look, showing that the offer was very agreeable to her, ' and giving me also to know that she neither sought nor de'sired an English marriage.' This is most important. In a subsequent conversation, she begged Renard to assure the emperor that she was ready to obey, and please him, as though he were her father, but requesting him to open the subject to her council himself. The emperor was now secure of success, but he went to work warily; and in the subsequent letters we have ample proof how distasteful he well knew this alliance would prove to the nation, for we find him urging the necessity of secrecy, and especially that Mary should beware of advising with her council before her final decision.

But, cautiously as these negotiations were carried on, rumours of them reached the ears of some of Mary's council, and they, with Gardiner-ultra-catholic as he was-at their head, determined to use every effort to defeat it. And most justly, for―

'The name of Spaniard had become terrible from the remorseless manner in which their wars had been conducted during the present reign, especially in the New World. . . . . The English, too, looked with apprehension on so close an alliance with a prince who had shown too little regard for the liberties of his own land, to make it probable that he, or his son, would respect those of another. Above all, they dreaded the fanaticism of the Spaniards; and the gloomy spectre of the Inquisition moving in their train, made even the good Catholic shudder at the miseries that might ensue from this ill-omened union.'

While these fears might naturally enough arise in the minds of the higher classes, it is very important to bear in mind that, to the mass of the people, Spain, of all the countries of Europe, scarcely excepting the most remote, was the most unknown. Representatives of southern and northern Europe, of Venice, and 'Genoway,' of Germany, and the Hanse Towns, even the Levant, dwelt in our cities. The young noble visited France and Italy, the young trader the cities of Italy, or the more flourishing cities of Flanders, or sailed to the ports of the Baltic for his freight of precious furs; but although fleets of English vessels each year passed the Straits of Hercules, Spain was almost as unknown as the kingdom of Prester John. Nor were there any historical memories, as we have before remarked, to link Spain or the Spaniard with popular feeling. But one queen, and that was ages past, had ever, before Katharine of Arragon, worn the English crown. No glorious battle had ever been won in that land, nor had the Spaniard ever fought side by side with the Englishman. Even popular literature, the metrical romance, and the balladalthough taking an amusingly wide geographical range-concerned itself not with Spain. There were Soldans of Damascus and Aleppo, Kings of Jerusalem's sons, and the King of Hungary's fair daughter, but we cannot recal a single popular narrative relating to the Spaniard.

Although these remarks may seem a digression, yet we shall find it important, as going far to account for the singular hostility with which the very first rumour of the Spanish match' was met by the common people, who hitherto seemed to have looked quietly enough on, throughout all the marriages, and divorces, and beheadings; on the deadly feuds, and the murderous attainders of the last two reigns.

Soon after Mary's coronation, which took place on the 1st of