grandeur, and
dashed all his ambitious hopes. Maurice, elector of Saxony, enraged that
the landgrave of Hesse, who, by his advice, and on his assurances, had
put himself into the emperor's hands, should be unjustly detained a
prisoner, formed a secret conspiracy among the Protestant princes; and,
covering his intentions with the most artful disguises, he suddenly
marched his forces against Charles, and narrowly missed becoming master
of his person.

* Burnet, vol ii. p. 258.

** Thuanus. lib. iv. c. 17.

The Protestants flew to arms in every quarter; and their insurrection,
aided by an invasion from France, reduced the emperor to such
difficulties, that he was obliged to submit to terms of peace which
insured the independency of Germany. To retrieve his honor, he made an
attack on France; and laying siege to Metz with an army of a hundred
thousand men, he conducted the enterprise in person, and seemed
determined, at all hazards, to succeed in an undertaking which had fixed
the attention of Europe. But the duke of Guise, who defended Metz with
a garrison composed of the bravest nobility of France, exerted such
vigilance, conduct, and valor, that the siege was protracted to the
depth of winter; and the emperor found it dangerous to persevere any
longer. He retired with the remains of his army into the Low Countries,
much dejected with that reverse of fortune which in his declining years,
had so fatally overtaken him.

No sooner did Charles hear of the death of Edward, and the accession of
his kinswoman Mary to the crown of England, than he formed the scheme of
acquiring that kingdom to his family; and he hoped by this incident to
balance all the losses which he had sustained in Germany. His son Philip
was a widower; and though he was only twenty-seven years of age, eleven
years younger than the queen, this objection, it was thought, would be
overlooked, and there was no reason to despair of her still having a
numerous issue. The emperor, therefore, immediately sent over an agent
to signify his intentions to Mary; who, pleased with the support of so
powerful an alliance, and glad to unite herself more closely with
her mother's family, to which she was ever strongly attached, readily
embraced the proposal. Norfolk, Arundel, and Paget, gave their advice
for the match: and Gardiner, who was become prime minister, and who
had been promoted to the office of chancellor, finding how Mary's
inclinations lay, seconde