Читать книгу The Queens and the Hive - Edith Sitwell - Страница 18

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France and the heretics—the heretics and France! ... Something must be done, and that quickly—for the Queen’s suitors were increasing in number. Soon it might be too late.

In addition, the King of Spain had been considerably alarmed by the suggestion that Elizabeth might marry ‘in a quarter whence France had nothing to fear’.

This could not be risked.

But was there to be no end ever to the sacrifices the King was required to make?

The Ambassador urged him to come to an immediate decision. But the time was not an auspicious one. The King was at that moment plagued with the million points that had to be made at the Peace Conference, with the details of his own delegates’ interviews, with preparing arguments for his allies the English, and with making arrangements to bribe the French. If the Conference broke down, there would be another immediate war, and that would mean finding all the money available. The Pope insisted that heresy must be suppressed among the King’s subjects in the Low Countries, and that immediately. His generals harassed him ceaselessly with demands to know how they were to proceed with the fortifications of Metz.

But letter after letter reached him from England, adding to the burdens on his mind.

On the 9th of January 1559, he was still undetermined. On the 10th, he was resolved. The sacrifice should be made.

He did not doubt this would be accepted. For how was it possible that any woman could be so foolish as to refuse him as a husband? Was he not, by the grace of God, King of Spain, Naples, and Jerusalem, Duke of Milan, Burgundy, and Brabant, Prince of Sicily; Archduke of Austria, Count of Hapsburg, Flanders, and the Tyrol? Had he not, also, roused in Mary’s heart a desperate and undying passion?

•••••

The man who had been the deeply disinclined husband of Mary, and who now resolved, once more, to sacrifice himself on the altar of his duty, wrote to his Ambassador: ‘Touching the Queen’s marriage, I directed you in one of my last letters to throw all possible obstacles in the way of her marriage with a subject. For myself, were the question asked, I bade you say nothing positively to commit me, yet so to answer as not to leave her altogether without hope. In a matter of so great importance I had to consider carefully; and I wished before coming to a resolution to have the advice both of yourself and others. At length, after weighing it on all sides, I have concluded thus:

‘There are many and serious reasons why I should not think of her. I could spend but little time with her; my other dominions require my constant presence. The Queen has not been what she ought to be in religion; and to marry with any but a Catholic will reflect upon my reputation. I shall be committing myself, perhaps, to an endless war with France, in consequence of the pretensions of the Queen of Scots to the English crown; my subjects in Spain require my return to them with indescribable anxiety; while so long as I remain in this country [Flanders] the hospitalities expected of me are, as you well know, a serious expense; and my affairs, as you know also, are in such disorder that I can scarce provide for my current necessities, far less encounter any fresh demands upon me.

‘There are other objections besides these, equally considerable, which I need not specify. You can yourself imagine them.

‘Nevertheless, considering how essential it is in the interests of Christendom to maintain that religion which by God’s help has been restored to it—considering the inconveniences, the perils, the calamities which may arise, not only there but in these states also, if England relapse into error—I have decided to encounter the difficulty, to sacrifice my private inclination in the service of our Lord, and to marry the Queen of England.

‘Provided only and always that these conditions be observed: First and chiefly, that you will exact an assurance from her that she will profess the same religion which I profess, that she will persevere in it and maintain it, and keep her subjects true to it; and that she will do everything which in my opinion shall be necessary for its augmentation and support.

‘Secondly, she must apply to the Pope for the absolution of her past sins, and for the dispensation which will be required for the marriage; and she must engage to accept both these in such a manner that when I make her my wife she will be a true Catholic, which hitherto she has not been.

‘You will understand from this the service which I render to our Lord. Through my means her allegiance will be recovered to the Church. I should mention that the condition that gave the Low Countries to the issue—should any such be born—of my marriage with the late Queen cannot be again acceded to. It is too injurious to the rights of my son Don Carlos.’

He was particularly insistent that he could spend but little time with the Queen, but must come and go. But it would be better if the Ambassador did not mention this, or any of the other conditions which would have to be made, until he had found out if the Queen was inclined to accept his proposal and see his self-sacrifice in its true light. On no account must the King be exposed to ‘a refusal which would make his condescension appear ridiculous’. The Count must use tact.

He did. The first thing for him to do, he realised clearly, was to consult with the Queen’s ladies and inform them of the gist of the letter—including, one imagines, the reference to the sacrifice of the King’s personal inclinations, and his condescension.

The ladies, enchanted, rushed to Her Majesty with the news.