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Dudley , but warned the queen that if she, as in her irritation she hinted, intended to ally herself with Spain against the Low Countries, she would have to prepare for war with France as well as with the Netherlands.

Leicester's presumption was now at its zenith. With an eve on the Low Countries as an appanage for himself, he in December 1582 proposed that Arabella Stuart should marry Robert, his infant son by his wife Lettice, and thus the crown might possibly enter his own family. He also suggested that one of his stepdaughters would make a good wife for James of Scotland. The latter proposal led to a passionate protest from Elizabeth, who loathed Leicester's wife, and denounced her with terrible vehemence (June 1583). In 1584 Leicester suggested the formation of the well-known association for the protection of the queen's person, chiefly with the object of circumventing the catholic nobility, whom the queen's treatment of Queen Mary was drawing into treasonable devices. In the same year Leicester was held up to the nation's detestation in an anonymous pamphlet, first issued at Antwerp as 'The copye of a letter wryten by a Master of Arte at Cambridge,' but better known as 'Leicester's Commonwealth.' The author, who is assumed on highly doubtful grounds to be the jesuit Parsons, tried to prove that the ancient constitution of the realm was practically subverted, and that the government of the country had been craftily absorbed by Leicester, whose character was that of an inhuman monster. All offices of trust were, it was alleged, in his hands or those of his relations. The corporation of Leicester replied to these charges by entertaining the earl at an elaborate banquet on Thursday 18 June, while he was staying with his sister, the Countess of Huntingdon. Sir Philip Sidney, Leicester's nephew, circulated a vindication of his uncle and his family (prints by Collins in the 'Sydney Papers'). On 26 June 1585 Elizabeth issued an order in council forbidding the book's circulation, and asserting on her own knowledge that its charges were false. As an historical authority it certainly has no weight, but as an indication of the hatred that Leicester had succeeded in exciting, it is of importance to his biographer. In August 1585 Burghley wrote to Leicester to complain of certain contemptuous speeches which the earl was reported to have made concerning him. Leicester replied at great length, denying the imputation. He lamented the envy which his position at court excited, but deprecated the notion that he wished for Burghley's place, and asserted that he had always been Burghley's friend (, Annals, . i. 503-6).

In the autumn of 1585 Elizabeth at length resolved to intervene in the Low Countries. A great English army was to be sent to the aid of the States-General in their war with Spain, and the command of the expedition was bestowed on Leicester (September 1585). His intimacy with the queen made the appointment satisfactory to England's allies, but his incapacity soon showed its imprudence. In December he reviewed his troop of six hundred horse in London, and marched to Harwich. He disembarked at Flushing 10 Dec. The Dutch received him triumphantly. Gorgeous pageants and processions were arranged in his honour. At Utrecht Jacobus Chrysopolitanus and Arnold Eyck issued extravagant panegyrics; the former added a brief history of the earl's reception, and on 23 April 1586 Leicester celebrated with abundant pomp the feast of St. George in the city. At Leyden the memory of similar festivities lasted so long that the students on 7 June 1870 gave an imitation of them to celebrate the 295th anniversary of the Leyden High School. At the Hague was published in 1586 an elaborate series of twelve engravings representing the triumphal procession whicn welcomed Leicester to the town. Leicester had good grounds for writing home to the queen that the Netherlanders were devoted to her, but he was in no hurry to take the field. On 14 Jan. 1585-6 a deputation from the States-General offered him the absolute government of the United Provinces. Leicester declared that he was taken by surprise, and pointed out that his instructions only permitted him to serve the States-General and not to rule them. Further entreaties followed, and Leicester yielded. On 25 Jan. he was solemnly installed as absolute governor, and took an oath to preserve the religion and liberty of his subjects. On 6 Feb. a proclamation was issued announcing his new dignity (translation printed in Somers Tracts, 1810, i. 420-1). Davison, the English envoy at the Hague, with whom Leicester had long been on intimate terms, was sent home to communicate the news to Elizabeth.

All was known before Davison arrived. The queen was indignant, and threatened to recall the earl. It was reported that Leicester's wife was about to join her husband with a great train of ladies, and the queen's wrath increased. Burghley, Walsingham, and Hatton urged that Leicester's conduct had been politic. Leicester, who soon learned of the disturbance created by his action, argued in a despatch that he had been modest in accepting the mere title of governor, and blamed Davison for not defending him