Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/509

 1579- THE ALEN^ON MARRIAGE. 489 in his desk, written two years before, when the matter was last talked of, that a French marriage would be the ruin of the realm, that the real object of it was the death of the Queen, and the liberation of Mary Stuart. 1 The inveterate suspicion was confirmed by the complaisancy of the Queen of Scots, whose expectations the alliance, if meant in sincerity, would rather tend to destroy. She had been heard to say that ' if the marriage was accomplished, it would at least take the administration out of the hands of her enemies, and restore her friends among the Catholics to their places at the Court/ She looked for Simier to communicate with her, and she ex- pected Monsieur to take immediate steps for the recog- nition of her presumptive title. 2 The King of Navarre and the Prince of Conde did not. share in the expectations of Sussex, that Alencon's posi- tion in England would be a benefit to themselves. They rather expected that it would withdraw England further from its Protestant connection. They advised Elizabeth to avoid Catholic alliances, and prefer the Huguenots to the princes of the house of Yalois. The opposition was strengthened by the adhesion of Sir Thomas Bromley, to whom the Great Seal passed on Bacon's death. Alencon, on Simier's report of the Queen's disposition, enlarged his demands. He expected to be crowned as King Consort. He asked for one of the two duchies of York or Lancaster, or an allowance of 6o,oco/. a year, 1 Descifrada de Don Bernardino, April 8. 2 Mary Stuart to the Archbishop of Glasgow, January 20, 1580 : LA- BANOFP, vol. v.