p of the most considerable men
of that party; but as he had been educated among the reformers, was
sincerely devoted to their principles, and maintained that strict
decorum and regularity of life by which the Protestants were at that
time distinguished, he thereby enjoyed the rare felicity of being
popular even with the most opposite factions. The height of his
prosperity alone was the source of his misfortunes, and engaged him in
attempts from which his virtue and prudence would naturally have forever
kept him at a distance.

Norfolk was at this time a widower; and being of a suitable age, his
marriage with the queen of Scots had appeared so natural, that it
occurred to several of his friends and those of that princess: but the
first person who, after Secretary Lidington, opened the scheme to the
duke, is said to have been the earl of Murray, before his departure for
Scotland.[*] That nobleman set before Norfolk, both the advantage of
composing the dissensions in Scotland by an alliance which would be
so generally acceptable, and the prospect of reaping the succession of
England; and in order to bind Norfolk's interest the faster with Mary's,
he proposed that the duke's daughter should also espouse the young
king of Scotland. The previously obtaining of Elizabeth's consent was
regarded, both by Murray and Norfolk, as a circumstance essential to
the success of their project; and all terms being adjusted between them,
Murray took care, by means of Sir Robert Melvil, to have the design
communicated to the queen of Scots. This princess replied, that the
vexations which she had met with in her two last marriages, had made her
more inclined to lead a single life; but she was determined to sacrifice
her own inclinations to the public welfare: and therefore, as soon as
she should be legally divorced from Bothwell, she would be determined
by the opinion of her nobility and people in the choice of another
husband.[**]

* Lesley, p. 36, 87.

** Lesley, p. 40, 41.

It is probable that Murray was not sincere in this proposal. He had two
motives to engage him to dissimulation. Heknew the danger which he must
run in his return through the north of England, from the power of the
earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, Mary's partisans in that
country; and he dreaded an insurrection in Scotland from the duke of
Chatelrault and the earls of Argyle and Huntley, whom she had appointed
her lieutenants during her absence. B