History of the United Netherlands, 1595-96 | Page 9

with her assistance, he
should succeed in recovering the place. He assigned as her Majesty's
reasons for this peremptory summons that she would on no other terms
find it in her power to furnish the required succour. Her subjects, she
said, would never consent to it except on these conditions. It was
perhaps not very common with the queen to exhibit so much deference
to the popular will, but on this occasion the supposed inclinations of the
nation furnished her with an excellent pretext for carrying out her own.
Sidney urged moreover that her Majesty felt certain of being
obliged--in case she did not take Calais into her own safe-keeping and
protection--to come to the rescue again within four or six months to
prevent it once more from being besieged, conquered, and sacked by
the enemy.
The king had feared some such proposition as this, and had intimated
as much to the States' envoy, Calvaert, who had walked with him down
to the strand, and had left him when the conference began. Henry was
not easily thrown from his equanimity nor wont to exhibit passion on
any occasion, least of all in his discussions with the ambassadors of
England, but the cool and insolent egotism of this communication was
too much for him.
He could never have believed, he said in reply, that after the repeated
assurances of her Majesty's affection for him which he had received

from the late Sir Henry Umton in their recent negotiations, her Majesty
would now so discourteously seek to make her profit out of his misery.
He had come to Boulogne, he continued, on the pledge given by the
Earl of Essex to assist him with seven or eight thousand men in the
recovery of Calais. If this after all should fail him--although his own
reputation would be more injured by the capture of the place thus
before his eyes than if it had happened in his absence--he would rather
a hundred times endure the loss of the place than have it succoured with
such injurious and dishonourable conditions. After all, he said, the loss
of Calais was substantially of more importance to the queen than to
himself. To him the chief detriment would be in the breaking up of his
easy and regular communications with his neighbours through this
position, and especially with her Majesty. But as her affection for him
was now proved to be so slender as to allow her to seek a profit from
his misfortune and dishonour, it would be better for him to dispense
with her friendship altogether and to strengthen his connections with
truer and more honourable friends. Should the worst come to the worst,
he doubted not that he should be able, being what he was and much
more than he was of old, to make a satisfactory arrangement with, the
King of Spain. He was ready to save Calais at the peril of his life, to
conquer it in person, and not by the hands of any of his lieutenants; but
having done so, he was not willing--at so great a loss of reputation
without and at so much peril within--to deliver it to her Majesty or to
any-one else. He would far rather see it fall into the hands of the
Spaniards.
Thus warmly and frankly did Henry denounce the unhandsome
proposition made in the name of the queen, while, during his vehement
expostulations, Sidney grew red with shame, and did not venture to
look the king for one moment in the face. He then sought to mitigate
the effect of his demand by intimating, with much embarrassment of
demeanour, that perhaps her Majesty would be satisfied with the
possession of Calais for her own life-time, and--as this was at once
plumply refused--by the suggestion of a pledge of it for the term of one
year. But the king only grew the more indignant as the bargaining
became more paltry, and he continued to heap bitter reproaches upon
the queen, who, without having any children or known inheritor of her
possessions, should nevertheless, be so desirous of compassing his

eternal disgrace and of exciting the discontent of his subjects for the
sake of an evanescent gain for herself. At such a price, he avowed, he
had no wish to purchase her Majesty'a friendship.
After this explosion the conference became more amicable. The
English envoy assured the king that there could be, at all events, no
doubt of the arrival of Essex with eight thousand men on the following
Thursday to assist in the relief of the citadel; notwithstanding the
answer which, he had received to the demand of her Majesty.
He furthermore expressed the strong desire which he felt that the king
might be induced to make a personal visit to the queen at Dover,
whither