QUEEN ELIZABETH. CLOSE CONNEXION OF ENGLISH AND SCOTCH AFFAIRS.

To appreciate the motives which led Henry VIII to attach such
importance to a male heir, and to exclude his daughter by the Spanish
marriage from the succession, we need only cast our eyes on what
happened under her, when in spite of all she had become Queen. The
idea with which the Tudors had ascended the throne, and administered
the realm, that of founding a political power strong in itself and
alike independent of home factions and foreign influence, was
sacrificed by Mary to her preference for the nation from which her
mother came and from which she chose her husband. The military power
of England served to support the Spanish monarchy at a dangerous and
doubtful moment in the course of its formation. And while Mary's
father and brother had made it the object of their policy to deprive
the hierarchy of all influence over England, she on the contrary
reinstated it: she put the power and all the resources of the State at
its disposal. Though historically deeply rooted, the Catholic tendency
showed itself, through the reactionary rule which it brought about and
through its alliance with the policy of Spain, pernicious to the
country. We have seen what losses England suffered by it, not merely
in its foreign possessions, but--what was really irreparable--in men
of talent and learning, of feeling and greatness of soul; and into
what a state of weakness abroad and dissolution at home it thereby
fell. A new order of things must arise, if the national element, the
creation of which had been the labour of centuries, was not to be
crushed, and the mighty efforts of later ages were not to succumb to
religious and political reaction.

CHAPTER I.

ELIZABETH'S ACCESSION. TRIUMPH OF THE REFORMATION.

During Mary's government, which had been endurable only because men
foresaw its speedy end, all eyes were directed to her younger sister
Elizabeth. She was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, who bore her under her
heart when she was crowned as Queen. After many changes, Henry VIII,
in agreement with Parliament, had recognised her right of inheritance;
the people had risen against the enterprise of the Duke of
Northumberland for her as well as for Mary. And it had also been
maintained against Mary herself. Once, in Wyatt's conspiracy, letters
were found, which pointed at Elizabeth's having a share in it: she was
designated in them as the future Queen. The predomin