Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/234

214 hands of the man whom all England most hated. Nature, birth, circumstances, all seemed to point to him as the king-consort of the realm. The Emperor had thought of Mary for his son; and it has been seen that the fear of such an alliance induced the French to support Northumberland. To prevent the injury which the report, if credited in England, would have done to her cause, Mary, on her first flight to Keninghall, empowered Renard to assure the council that she had no thought at all of marrying a stranger. The Emperor and the Bishop of Arras, in assuring Sir Philip Hoby that the French intended to strike for the Queen of Scots, declared that, for themselves they wished only to see the Queen settled in her own realm, as her subjects desired; and especially they would prevent her either from attempting innovations in religion without their consent, or from marrying against their approbation.