Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/133

 REVIEWS 119

sion of England to the ranks of the Reformation, had practically thrown England into the balance with France against Spain. The accession of Catharine's daughter, however, her marriage with the heir to the Spanish possessions, and the return of England to the Catholic fold, once more caused a shifting of the balance, and now threatened to undo all that had been accomplished under Henry and Edward. England apparently was at last caught in the toils of the Hapsburg net. Should an heir be born to Philip and Mary, or failing that, should a third Hapsburg marriage be brought about with the House of Tudor through the princess Elizabeth, that which had so frequently happened before, might now happen again, and another people and another king'dom be merged in the huge Hapsburg agglomeration. France could not be oblivious to the results portended by this alliance, and hence the marriage of the Dauphin Francis in the winter of 1557-8 with a second Mary, with the secret proviso that the bride was to confer with her hand the Scottish throne, cannot be looked upon as other than a counter move of the House of Valois to the successful alliance made by its old rival. If England was once more moving in the current of her ancient traditions and prejudices, not less also was Scotland. If England now promised at no distant day to complete the girdle of Hapsburg domains which Hapsburg princes had been so patiently weaving about France, Scotland, as a Valois possession, always traditionally and bitterly hostile to England, threatened a no less serious counter diversion when the day should come for universal war. But this French-Scotch marriage promised even more. Mary of Scots was the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor. After Mary and Elizabeth she was the next heir to the English throne. But both Mary and Elizabeth had been declared illegitimate, and Mary of Scotland and her friends affected to regard them as such even now. Here was the basis of a claim to the English throne as well. Who could tell what change in the tide of fortune might some day enable the young Francis, or his heir, to make this claim good, when a prince of the House of Valois would reign not only over France and Scotland but over Eng- land as well.

It is not necessary to follow the history of these luckless alliances further. It is enough to show the kind of policy that dominated in the respective courts at Madrid and Paris, and the position of England relative to the two rivals. It has little dignity, little that Englishmen are proud of today.