s a
third Power between the two great Powers; the opportunity presented
itself to her to begin open war with one of them, without breaking
with the other or even being exactly allied with it.

At first it was France that threatened and challenged her.

And to oppose the French, at the point where they might be dangerous,
a ready means presented itself; England had but to form an alliance
with those who opposed the French interests in Scotland. As these
likewise were in opposition to their Queen, it was objected that one
sovereign ought not to combine with the subjects of another.
Elizabeth's leading statesman, William Cecil, who stood ever by her
side with his counsel in the difficulties of her earlier years, and
had guided her steps hitherto, made answer that 'the duty of
self-preservation required it in this case, since Scotland would else
be serviceable to France for war against England.'

Cecil took into his view alike the past and the future. It was France
alone, he said, that had prevented the English crown from realising
its suzerainty over Scotland: whereas the true interest of Scotland
herself lay in her being united with England as one kingdom. This
point of view was all the more important, since the religious interest
coincided with the political. The Scots, with whom they wished to
unite themselves, were Protestants of the most decided kind.

NOTES:

[180] 'Ayant visage pale fier haultain et superbe pour desguyser le
regret qu'elle a.' Renard to the Emperor 24 Feb. 1554, in Tytler ii.
311. He adds, 'si pendant l'occasion s'adonne, elle (la reine) ne la
punyt et Cortenay, elle ne sera jamais assuree.'

[181] 'Manifesto el contentamiento grande que tendria el rey de saber
que se declaba la sucesion en favor de ella (Isabel), cosa que S. M.
habia descado sempre.' In Gonzalez, Apuntamientos para la historia del
rey Don Felipe II. Memorias de la real academia de historia, Madrid,
vii. 253.

[182] One of the documents which Mackintosh (History of England iii.
25) missed, the commission for the proposal to Elizabeth, which gives
its contents, was soon after printed in Gonzalez, Documentos I. 405.

[183] Feria: 'Dando a entender, que el pueblo la ha puesto en el
estado que esta, y de esto no reconoce nada ni a V. M., ni a la
nobleza del reino.'

[184] An oration of John Hales to the Queen delivered by a certain
nobleman, in Foxe, Martyrs iii. 978. 'It most manifestly appeareth,
that all their doings from