Elizabeth 23 July 1567, in Wright i. 260.

[230] Throckmorton to Cecil: 'upon other accidents [since Leith] they
have observed such things in H. My's doings, as have tended to the
danger of such as she had dealt withall.' Wright 251.

[231] Calderwood ii. 384: 'Modo cha ha usato la regina di Scotia per
liberarsi,' from the Florentine archives, in Labanoff vii. 135.

CHAPTER IV.

INTERDEPENDENCE OF THE EUROPEAN DISSENSIONS IN POLITICS AND RELIGION.

If we inquire into the reason why Philip II gave up his previous
relations with England and sided with the Queen of Scots, we shall
find it mainly in the fact that the victory of Protestant ideas in
England exercised a counter-action which was insupportable for the
government he had established in the Netherlands. But that he gave
Mary no help in her troubles, though information was once collected as
to how it might be done, may also be traceable to the disturbances
that had broken out in the Netherlands, the suppression of which
occupied all his attention and resources.

In 1568 the Duke of Alva was master of the Netherlands: he was already
able to send a considerable force to help the French government, which
had once more broken an agreement forced upon it by the Huguenots; the
stress of the religious war was transferred to France, and there too
the Catholic military force by degrees gained the upper hand.

It was under these circumstances that Mary Stuart appeared in England
with a demand for help. If in the Netherlands the attempts of the
nobles and the Protestant tendencies had been alike defeated, they had
on the other hand, by a similar union, achieved a decisive victory in
Scotland. Was Elizabeth to join Mary in combating them?

Elizabeth disliked the proceedings of the Scotch nobles towards their
lawful Queen; the adherents of the Scotch church-system were already
troublesome to her in England: but, however much she found to blame in
them, in the great contest of the world they were her allies. Mary on
the other hand held to that great system of life and thought with
which the English Queen and her ministers had broken. Whatever
Elizabeth might have previously promised, she did not mean to be bound
by it under circumstances so completely altered.[232] Had she chosen
to restore Mary, she would have opened the island to all the
influences which she desired to exclude. Nor did she wish to let her
retire to France, for while Mary had resided there previ