, in the nation generally,
was such as is described in the preceding chapter, the lords who were in
the council of state chafed more and more under their exclusion from
business. As the mask was now thrown away, they no longer maintained the
show of deference which they had hitherto paid to the minister. From
opposition to his measures, they passed to irony, ridicule, sarcasm;
till, finding that their assaults had little effect to disturb
Granvelle's temper, and still less to change his policy, they grew at
length less and less frequent in their attendance at the council, where
they played so insignificant a part. This was a sore embarrassment to
the regent, who needed the countenance of the great nobles to protect
her with the nation, in the unpopular measures in which she was
involved.

Even Granvelle, with all his equanimity, considered the crisis so grave
as to demand some concession, or at least a show of it, on his own part,
to conciliate the good-will of his enemies. He authorized the duchess to
say that he was perfectly willing that they should be summoned to the
_consulta_, and to absent himself from its meetings; indeed, to resign
the administration altogether, provided the king approved of it.[557]
Whether Margaret communicated this to the nobles does not appear; at all
events, as nothing came of these magnanimous concessions of the
minister, they had no power to soothe the irritation of his
enemies.[558]

On the contrary, the disaffected lords were bending their efforts to
consolidate their league, of which Granvelle, it may be recollected,
noticed the existence in a letter of the preceding year. We now find the
members binding themselves to each other by an oath of secrecy.[559] The
persons who formed this confederacy were the governors of the
provinces, the knights of the Golden Fleece, and, in short, most of the
aristocracy of any consideration in the country. It seemed impossible
that any minister could stand against such a coalition, resting,
moreover, on the sympathies of the people. This formidable association,
seeing that all attempts to work on the cardinal were ineffectual,
resolved at length to apply directly to the king for his removal. They
stated that, knowing the heavy cares which pressed on his majesty, they
had long dissembled and kept silence, rather than aggravate these cares
by their complaints. If they now broke this silence, it was from a sense
of duty to the king, and to save the cou