Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 59.djvu/241

 desired England to take a firm stand.

With an irony that exasperated him to the uttermost, Walsingham was in 1578 sent to the Low Countries to pursue a policy that was diametrically opposed to his principles. In June 1578 he and Lord Cobham were sent on a diplomatic mission to the Netherlands with a view to bringing about a pacification between Don John of Austria, the Spanish ruler of the Low Countries, and the prince of Orange, the leader of the protestant rebels. The mission was doomed to failure, and Walsingham came home in September more convinced, he declared, than before that Elizabeth's pusillanimous indifference to the fortune of her Dutch coreligionists not merely destined her to infamy in the sight of posterity, but rendered England contemptible in the sight of contemporaries.

Soon after Walsingham's return to London from the Low Countries he sold his property at Foot's Cray, where he had frequently resided. He thus broke off his connection with the county of Kent. In 1579 he obtained from the crown a lease of the manor of Barn Elms, near Barnes in Surrey, which was within easier reach of London. There he subsequently spent much time. He maintained a somewhat dignified establishment, despite his constant pecuniary embarrassment, and he entertained Queen Elizabeth at Barn Elms in 1585, in 1588, and in 1589.

Walsingham's position in the council was strengthened after 1580 by the consistent support which was accorded his views by the Earl of Leicester. The French marriage was still vaguely contemplated by the queen, although since 1575, when her suitor, the Duc d'Anjou, succeeded to the throne of France as Henri III (on the death of Charles IX), that duke's brother Francis, known at first as the Duc d'Alençon, and later as the Duc d'Anjou, had taken the place of Elizabeth's first French suitor. Gradually, however, Walsingham reached the conclusion that the cause of protestantism, with which the interest of England was in his mind identical, was compromised by the queen's halting attitude to the proposed match. Like Leicester, he believed it was the wisest course to break it off, but at the same time France must not be alienated. In July 1581 he personally undertook the task of negotiating a new treaty with France which should destroy the possibility of any agreement between France and Spain. Arrived in France, he lost no opportunity of deprecating the continuance of the matrimonial negotiations. The queen had given him no definite instructions on the marriage question, and she resented his independent handling of it. On 12 Sept. 1581 Walsingham wrote to her, defending himself with exceptional plainness of speech. He ridiculed her views of matrimony. Her parsimony would ruin, he told her, all her projects. She had thereby alienated Scotland, and, unless she regarded her responsibilities with a greater liberality of view, there was not, he warned her, a councillor in her service ‘who would not wish himself rather in the furthest part of Ethiopia than to enjoy the fairest palace in England’. He managed to ingratiate himself with the Duc d'Anjou, who on 18 Sept. wrote to the queen that he was ‘the most honest man possible, and worthy of the favour of the greatest princess in the world’ (Cal. Hatfield MSS. ii. 428). But the queen declined to ratify his proceedings, and he returned home leaving the situation unaltered.

Such an experience made Walsingham reluctant to undertake other diplomatic missions. The queen's indecision had allowed the king of Scotland to fall under the influence of the catholic party among his councillors; but when Elizabeth realised the danger in which a breach with Scotland would involve her, she bade Walsingham go to Edinburgh and judge at close quarters the position of affairs. James was to be dissuaded at all hazards from negotiating with Spain in behalf of his mother. Walsingham did not complacently face a repetition of the humiliation that he had suffered in France. On 6 Aug. he wrote to Bowes that he never undertook any service with ‘so ill a will in his life’ (State Papers, Scotl. i. 452). On 19 Aug. 1583 Mendoza wrote that Walsingham ‘strenuously refused to go, and went so far as to throw himself at the queen's feet and pronounce the following terrible blasphemy: “he swore by the soul, body, and blood of God, that he would not go to Scotland, even if she ordered him to be hanged for it, as he would rather be hanged in England than elsewhere. … Walsingham says that he saw that no good could come of his mission, and that the queen would lay upon his shoulders the whole of the responsibility for the evils that would occur. He said that she was very stingy already, and the Scots more greedy than ever, quite disillusioned now as to the promises made to them; so that it was impossible that any good should be done.’ Elizabeth turned a deaf ear to his expostulation, and bade him obey her orders. Ill-health compelled that he should travel to Scotland