Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/19

 1569-] ENGLISH PARTIES. 5 Except for the support of the Great Powers, the Papacy, he said, would have either fallen or would have been reformed. France and Spain, in their mutual jealousies, had both supported the Pope, in order to secure his friendship or to be safe from his enmity; and one or both of them would, sooner or later, assist him to recover England. The Queen had escaped so far, ' rather by accident than by policy or strength/ The death of Henry II., the civil war, the difficulties of Spain in Flanders and in the Mediterranean, had obliged both Catherine de Medici and Philip to temporize and affect a desire for her friendship. But Conde appeared at his last gasp, and, without help, would speedily fall ; Alva was absolute in Flanders, and the favour shown to Mary Stuart had given renewed strength and spirits to the party opposed ito the Regent in Scotland. At the first convenient moment either France or Spain, or both, would throw an army across the Channel. An excuse, if excuse was wanted, could be found in the asylum offered by England to the Protestant refugees, and in the forced detention of the Queen of Scots. Henry VIII. and Edward VI. had quarrelled with the Church of Rome. But in their time there was no pretender to the Crown. The^Queen of Scots stood now before the world if not as legitimate Sovereign of England, yet as indisputably the next in blood. She had been deposed from her own throne for reasons which, however well understood in the beginning, yet had been rendered doubtful by the impotent results of the investigation, and she could represent herself as held a prisoner for no