History of the United Netherlands, 1584-85 | Page 3

the magnanimity
to request Walsingham not to mention the fact to the Queen, lest she
should be thereby prejudiced against the States.
"For my part," said he, "I would be glad in any thing to further them,
rather than to hinder them--though they do not deserve it--yet for the
good the helping them at this time may bring ourselves."

Meantime, the deputies went away from France, and the King went to
Lyons, where he had hoped to meet both the Duke of Savoy and the
King of Navarre. But Joyeuse, who had been received at Chambery
with "great triumphs and tourneys," brought back only a broken wrist,
without bringing the Duke of Savoy; that potentate sending word that
the "King of Spain had done him the honour to give him his daughter,
and that it was not fit for him to do any thing that might bring
jealousy."
Henry of Navarre also, as we have seen, declined the invitation sent
him, M. de Segur not feeling disposed for the sudden flight out of
window suggested by Agrippa D' Aubigne; so that, on the whole, the
King and his mother, with all the court, returned from Lyons in
marvellous ill humour.
"The King storms greatly," said Stafford, "and is in a great dump." It
was less practicable than ever to discover the intentions of the
government; for although it was now very certain that active exertions
were making by Des Pruneaux in the Provinces, it was not believed by
the most sagacious that a serious resolution against Spain had been
taken in France. There was even a talk of a double matrimonial alliance,
at that very moment, between the two courts.
"It is for certain here said," wrote Stafford, "that the King of Spain doth
presently marry the dowager of France, and 'tis thought that if the King
of Spain marry, he will not live a year. Whensoever the marriage be,"
added the envoy, "I would to God the effect were true, for if it be not
by some such handy work of God, I am afraid things will not go so well
as I could wish."
There was a lull on the surface of affairs, and it was not easy to sound
the depths of unseen combinations and intrigues.
There was also considerable delay in the appointment and the arrival of
the new deputies from the Netherlands; and Stafford was as doubtful as
ever as to the intentions of his own government.
"They look daily here for the States," he wrote to Walsingham (29th
Dec. 1584), "and I pray that I may hear from you as soon as you may,
what course I shall take when they be here, either hot or cold or
lukewarm in the matter, and in what sort I shall behave myself. Some
badly affected have gone about to put into the King's head, that they
never meant to offer the sovereignty, which, though the King be not

thoroughly persuaded of, yet so much is won by this means that the
King hearkeneth to see the end, and then to believe as he seeth cause,
and in the meantime to speak no more of any such matter than if it had
never been moved."
While his Majesty was thus hearkening in order to see more, according
to Sir Edward's somewhat Hibernian mode of expressing himself, and
keeping silent that he might see the better, it was more difficult than
ever for the envoy to know what course to pursue. Some persons went
so far as to suggest that the whole negotiation was a mere
phantasmagoria devised by Queen Elizabeth--her purpose being to
breed a quarrel between Henry and Philip for her own benefit; and
"then, seeing them together by the ears, as her accustomed manner was,
to let them go alone, and sit still to look on."
The King did not appear to be much affected by these insinuations
against Elizabeth; but the doubt and the delay were very harrassing. "I
would to God," wrote the English envoy, "that if the States mean to do
anything here with the King, and if her. Majesty and the council think it
fit, they would delay no time, but go roundly either to an agreement or
to a breach with the King. Otherwise, as the matter now sleepeth, so it
will die, for the King must be taken in his humour when he begins to
nibble at any bait, for else he will come away, and never bite a full bite
while he liveth."
There is no doubt that the bait, at which Henry nibbled with much
avidity, was the maritime part of the Netherlands. Holland and Zeeland
in the possession of either England or Spain, was a perpetual
inconvenience to France. The King, or rather the Queen-Mother and
her advisers--for