Elizabeth owed even more to her good fortune on this occasion than to the prudence and dexterity of her favourite minister. A singular fatality attended all the movements of her enemies. The succession of disasters which befell the French armaments at sea, and the impossibility at the time of supplying their loss—the procrastinating policy of Philip—and, finally, the death of Mary of Lorraine—were circumstances which all essentially contributed, and perhaps were all indispensable, to her success….
But [the newly crowned French King] Francis and [his Queen] Mary [(also Queen of Scots)] refused to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh, mainly on the ground that their undertaking not to wear the arms or assume the title of England “in all times coming” might bar the claim of the Queen of Scots [to the English throne] even after the death of Elizabeth; and the words had no doubt been introduced by Cecil with that intent.
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The young king died on the 6th of December, and the event was hailed with indecent exultation by the leaders of the [Scottish] Congregation, who did not hesitate to announce it as a special interposition of Providence on their behalf.”
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...two envoys sailed for France to invite the widowed queen to return to her native country. The Catholic party sent for this purpose John Leslie, afterwards the celebrated Bishop of Ross; the Protestants were represented by the Lord James Stewart, the natural [half-]brother of the queen. The Lord James was received with extreme cordiality as well by his sister as by her uncles, who sought by the most flattering offers of preferment in France to induce him to resume his original profession of the Church. But he remained faithful to his new convictions; nor does there appear to be any ground for doubting his sincerity. We find, however, that his spiritual zeal did not render him by any means indifferent to his temporal welfare. Although he refused all offers of ecclesiastical preferment in France, he had previously sought, through his sister's influence, to obtain a restoration of his pension from that country, which had been discontinued during the religious war in Scotland.
A charge of a much more serious kind has been made against the Lord James. He had visited the Court of Elizabeth on his way to France; and it is asserted that, after having insinuated himself into his sister's confidence and ascertained her real wishes and intentions, he immediately thereafter communicated them to the English queen. The evidence of this charge is contained in a letter of [Nicholas] Throgmorton, who was still at this time ambassador in France. Mary had told her brother, among other matters, that she had no intention at that time of ratifying the treaty of Edinburgh—that she preferred the friendship of France to that of England—and that she would prefer marrying a foreign prince to any of her own subjects.
She was at this time at Rheims, where the Lord James took his leave of her; but on his arrival in Paris he immediately communicated all to Throgmorton. In a letter to Elizabeth the ambassador describes the interview as follows: “The Lord James being the same day, the 22d of April, arrived at this town, came to my lodgings secretly unto me, and declared unto me at good length all that had passed between the queen his sister and him, and between the Cardinal Lorraine and him, the circumstances whereof he will declare to your majesty particularly when he cometh to your presence. I suppose he will be in England about the 10th or 12th of May.” In the same letter Throgmorton plainly informs his mistress how, in his opinion, the services of the Lord James, in thus performing the office of a spy, ought to be rewarded.
From: Hosack, John. Mary Queen of Scots and her Accusers (1870), I.51-3, 56, 61-2.
Also at Virtual Grub Street:
- Tudor London Man About Town: Ordinaries. July 17, 2023. “The voider having cleered the table, Cardes & Dice (for the last Messe) are served up to the boord”.
- Catherine Gray Elopes and Honeymoons in The Tower. June 15, 2023. “The Queen went one morning to Eltham to hunt, when Lady Jane and Lady Catherine,...”
- Papers on the Earl of Derby's Mysterious Death. April 8, 2023. “Strange events, of course, occurred at Lathom, according to statements later given under oath.”
Queen Elizabeth I’s Heart and the French Ambassador. March 21, 2023. "The reason to delay his first audience under this pretext would soon be known."
A Brief Introduction to the Tudor Inn. February 5, 2023. "A London inn was homey enough, it would seem."
Check out the English Renaissance Article Index for many more articles and reviews about this fascinating time and about the Shakespeare Authorship Question.
- Check out the Queen Elizabeth I Biography Page for many other articles.
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