ad now to fly from
England before a Queen, as he had previously from Scotland before a
Queen-regent, and whose word was of weight, poured forth his feelings
in a piercing call, which he himself named 'a blast of the trumpet,'
against the right of women to the government of a country, which ought
to be exercised only by men. And while Knox went no further than the
immediate case, others examined into the powers of all State
authority: above all, to prevent its taking part in religious
persecution, they brought forward the principles according to which
sovereignty issues originally from the people. Mary's government had
awakened in Protestantism, and that not merely in England, the
hostility of political theory.

But besides no man could hide from himself, that discontent, even
without theory, had grown in England in an alarming manner. The French
and Imperial ambassadors both gave their courts information of it,
the former with a kind of satisfaction, the latter with apprehension
and pain. He laments the bad effect which the religious persecution
produces, makes pressing objections to it and demands that the bloody
zeal of the bishops shall be moderated; but the matter was regularly
proceeding in a kind of legal way; we do not find that he effected
anything.

The Queen had hitherto flattered herself and her partisans with the
hope that she would give the country an heir to the throne. When this
expectation proved fallacious in the summer of 1555 it produced an
impression which, as the imperial ambassador says, no pen could
describe. The appearance had been caused by an unhealthy condition of
body, which was now looked on rather as a prognostic of her fast
approaching death. It is already clear, remarks the ambassador, that
least confidence can be placed in those who have been hitherto most
trusted: many a man still wears a mask: others even show their
ill-will quite openly. For so badly is the succession at present
arranged that my lady Elizabeth will without doubt ascend the throne
on Mary's death and will restore heresy.

While things were in this state, Philip II was led to resolve on going
to the Netherlands by the vicissitudes of the French war and his
father's state of health; he wished either to bring about peace, or to
push the war with energy.

He had hitherto exercised a moderating influence on the government.
Not to let all fall back into the previous party-strife, he thought it
best to give the eight le