Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/54

 34 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 41. It was admitted on all sides, this person said, that the Queen of Scots' succession had been 'barred' by the will of Henry the Eighth ; but some people pre- tended that the will had not been signed with his hand, some that he had never made a will at all ; there was no mention of it on the Patent Rolls ; 1 and if the original had existed why was it not produced ? This last question could not be answered ; 2 but there was proof enough of the reality of the will ; there were abundant entries of this and that detail of it which had been acted upon ; and of the executors there were still many who survived. The dispute however was not narrowed to that single issue. The Queen of Scots was an alien, and no person could inherit in England who was not born of English parents on English soil. Lady Lennox was an alien also ; for though she was born at York it was but in a passing visit ; her father Angus was a Scot, and when he married her mother he had another wife living. The only legal heir was the heir appointed by Henry the Eighth Lady Catherine Grey, the injured and imprisoned wife of Hertford. 3 1 This is true. Neither is there any record of the will on the Roll, nor any sign of erasure where the entry ought to have been. - This mysterious concealment can only be explained as the deliber- ate act of Elizabeth, who was deter- mined to maintain Mary Stuart's rights, and who felt that it would be impossible if the will was pro- duced. 3 Oration spoken in Parliament. Domestic MSS., Elizabeth, vol. xxvii. Lady Catherine Grey's po- pularity had been increased by an accident which had redoubled Eli- zabeth's displeasure. Sir Edmund Warner, taking pity on his young prisoner, had allowed her husband to have access to her room ; the re- sult was a second infant ; and fe- cundity was a virtue especially valued in an English princess. 1 Este negocio de Catalina,' wrote De