Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/439

A.D. 1564.] Darnley was the son of Mary's aunt, the Lady Margaret Douglas, and grandson of Elizabeth's aunt, Margaret Tudor. He was thus near enough to have laid claim to the crowns of England, and Scotland too, in case of the failure of issue by the present queens. His nearness to the thrones of both kingdoms seems to have suggested the idea of marrying him to the Queen of Scots, whereby her claim on the English throne would receive augmentation. Mary was induced to favour the family, her near relatives. She corresponded with the Countess of Lennox, and invited Lennox to return to Scotland and reversed his attainder. He did not recover the patrimony of Angus, his father, for that was in possession of the powerful Earl of Morton, chancellor of the kingdom, but Mary promised to make that up to him by other means. Once restored to favour and rank in Scotland, Lennox pushed on the scheme of marrying his son Darnley to the queen. Melville was commissioned to intercede for his return to Scotland, but Elizabeth, who could not be blind to the danger of Darnley's wedding the Queen of Scots, for a time would not listen to it. We may believe too that Cecil did his best to prevent this, for of all his desires, the most earnest was that of the removal of Leicester from the Court, and therefore he used all his eloquence to get Leicester chosen for that honour. The great favourite was a perpetual thorn in his side, usurping all favour, all honour, all power and patronage. Whilst he was in the ascendant Cecil was never safe, for they hated one another. Cecil, therefore, watched every motion of both Leicester and the queen. He soon perceived that though Elizabeth pretended to urge the marriage of Leicester with Mary, so soon as matters appeared coming to a point, she always slackened her negotiations. He conceived hope again when he perceived any symptoms of the queen's returning to a foreign courtship. "This I see in the queen's Majesty," he wrote to his confidant, Sir Thomas Smith, "a sufficient contentation to be moved to marry abroad; and, if it may so please God Almighty to lead by the hand some meet person to come and lay hand on her to her contentation, I then could wish myself more health to endure my years somewhat longer, to enjoy such a world here as I trust will follow; otherwise, I assure you, as now things hang in desperation, I have no comfort to live."

Matters were in this position, when Melville spent his nine days at the English Court. She saw him, he says, every day, often three times a day, "aforenoon, afternoon, and after supper." The great topic was Mary's marriage, and she declared if Mary would take Leicester she would set the best lawyers in England to ascertain who had the best right to the succession, and that she had rather her dear sister had the crown than any other. "She herself, she said, 'never minded to marry except compelled by the queen her sister's hard behaviour to her.' I said, 'Madam, ye need not tell me that; I know your stately stomach. Ye think, gin ye were married, ye would be but Queen of England; and now ye are king and queen baith, ye may not suffer a commander.'"

Elizabeth, who was assuredly one of the most finished dissemblers that ever lived, affected great kindness for Queen Mary, kept her portrait by her, often gazed on it in Melville's presence, and would then kiss it. She showed Melville a fair ruby like a racket-ball and the portrait of Leicester, and told him that his mistress would get them both in time if she followed her counsel, and all that she had. She interrogated Melville regarding every particular of Mary's person, dress, and habits. She had female costume from various countries, and would appear in a fresh dress every day, and ask Melville which best became her. Melville replied the Italian, because it best displayed her golden coloured hair under a caul and bonnet. He adds, as it were aside, her hair was redder than yellow, and curled apparently by nature. She then wanted to know which had the handsomest hair, she or Mary, and there Melville was obliged to be evasive; then which had the handsomest person, and Melville was at his wits'-end, but replied they were both the handsomest women in their own Courts, but that Elizabeth was whitest. Then she wanted to know which was tallest; and Melville thought he might speak the truth there without offence, and said his queen. "Then she is over high," said Elizabeth, "for I am neither too high nor too low." She next wanted to know what were Mary's amusements and accomplishments; and learning that she played well on the lute and virginals, the same day he was taken, as it were without the queen's knowledge, to where he could hear her playing on the virginals. Then Elizabeth asked which played best, Mary or her, and, of course, Melville was obliged to say she did. She spoke to Melville in French, Italian, and Dutch, to display her knowledge of languages; and she detained him two days, that he might see her dance, after which came the regular question, which danced best, she or Mary? and Melville got out of that by saying that his queen danced not so high or disposedly as she did. A more exquisite exhibition of female vanity is nowhere to be found, and well would it have been if this womanly jealousy had produced no worse fruits.

On returning from Hampton Court, where this last scene took place, Leicester conducted Melville to London by water, and on the way he asked him what the Queen of Scots thought of him as a husband. The answer of Melville, who did not care so nicely to flatter the favourite, was not very complimentary, and thereupon Leicester made haste to assure the Scotch envoy that he had never presumed so much as to think of marrying so great a queen; that he knew that he was not worthy to wipe her shoes, but that it was the plot of Cecil to ruin him with both the queens.

Melville, on his return to Edinburgh, assured the Queen of Scots that she could never expect any real friendship from the Queen of England, for that she was overflowing with jealousy, and was made up of falsehood and deceit. These Royal courtships and rivalries went on still for some time: Queen Mary finally determined to refuse the Archduke Charles of Austria, probably to avoid giving umbrage to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth received one more suitor in no less a personage than the young King of France. This was a scheme of the busy and intriguing Catherine de Medici, who thought it would be a fine thing to link England and France together by marriage, but Elizabeth was not likely to perpetrate anything so shallow. The king was only