!" But Elizabeth had to front more than her
Puritan Commons. The Lords joined with the Lower House in demanding the
Queen's marriage and a settlement of the succession, and after a furious
burst of anger Elizabeth gave a promise of marriage, which she was no
doubt resolved to evade as she had evaded it before. But the subject of
the succession was one which could not be evaded. Yet any decision on it
meant civil war. It was notorious that if the Commons were resolute to
name the Lady Catharine Grey, the heiress of the House of Suffolk,
successor to the throne, the Lords were as resolute to assert the right
of Mary Stuart. To settle such a matter was at once to draw the sword.
The Queen therefore peremptorily forbade the subject to be approached.
But the royal message was no sooner delivered than Wentworth, a member
of the House of Commons, rose to ask whether such a prohibition was not
"against the liberties of Parliament." The question was followed by a
hot debate, and a fresh message from the Queen commanding "that there
should be no further argument" was met by a request for freedom of
deliberation while the subsidy bill lay significantly unnoticed on the
table. A new strife broke out when another member of the Commons, Mr.
Dalton, denounced the claims put forward by the Scottish Queen.
Elizabeth at once ordered him into arrest. But the Commons prayed for
leave "to confer upon their liberties," and the Queen's prudence taught
her that it was necessary to give way. She released Dalton; she
protested to the Commons that "she did not mean to prejudice any part of
the liberties heretofore granted them"; she softened the order of
silence into a request. Won by the graceful concession, the Lower House
granted the subsidy and assented loyally to her wish. But the victory
was none the less a real one. No such struggle had taken place between
the Crown and the Commons since the beginning of the New Monarchy; and
the struggle had ended in the virtual defeat of the Crown.

[Sidenote: Shane O'Neill.]

The strife with the Parliament hit Elizabeth hard. It was "secret foes
at home," she told the House as the quarrel passed away in a warm
reconciliation, "who thought to work me that mischief which never
foreign enemies could bring to pass, which is the hatred of my Commons.
Do you think that either I am so unmindful of your surety by succession,
wherein is all my care, or that I went about to break your liberties?
No! it never was