r case if
she were to marry her sister's husband. Besides she would have needed
the Pope's dispensation for such a union--as Philip had already
explained to her--while her birth and crown were the results of a
Papal dispensation being declared a nullity. She would thus have
fallen into a self-contradiction, to which she must have succumbed in
course of time. When told that Philip II had done her some service,
she acknowledged it: but when she meditated on it further, she found
that neither this sovereign nor any other influence whatever would
have protected her from her enemies, had not the people shown her an
unlimited devotion.[183] This devotion, on which her whole existence
depended, she would not forfeit. After a little delay she let Philip
know that she felt some scruples as to the Papal dispensation. She
gave weight to the point which had been under discussion, but added
that she was altogether disinclined to marry. We may doubt whether
this was her immoveably formed resolution, considering how often
afterwards she negociated about her marriage. It might seem to her
allowable, as an instrument of policy, to excite hopes which she did
not mean to fulfil: or her views may in fact have again wavered: but
these oscillations in her statements can mean nothing when set over
against a great necessity: her actual conduct shows that she had a
vivid insight into it and held firm to it with tenacious resolution.
She was Henry's daughter, but she knew how to keep herself as
independent as he had thought that only a son could possibly do. There
is a deep truth in her phrase, that she is wedded to her people:
regard to their interests kept her back from any other union.

But if she resolved to give up the relation of close union in which
England had hitherto stood with Spain, it was indispensable to make
peace with France. It was impossible to attain this if she insisted on
the restoration of Calais; she resolved to give it up, at first for a
term of years. Of almost the same date as her answer of refusal to
Philip's ambassador is her instruction empowering her ambassador to
let Calais go, as soon as he saw that the Spaniards would conclude
their peace with France without stipulating for its restoration. She
was able to venture this, for however deeply the nation felt the loss
of the place, the blame for it could not be imputed to her. Without
repeating what was then asserted, that her distinct aim was to turn
the hatred of t