The rise of Elizabeth of England

 

The plenipotentiaries of France, Spain, and England, continued their conferences at Cercamp; and though each of them, with the usual art of negotiators, made at first very high demands in the name of their respective courts, yet as they were all equally desirous of peace, they would have consented reciprocally to such abatements and restrictions of their claims, as must have removed every obstacle to an accommodation.

The death of Charles V was a new motive with Philip to hasten the conclusion of a treaty, as it increased his impatience for returning into Spain, where there was now no person greater or more illustrious than himself. But in spite of the concurring wishes of all the parties interested, an event happened which occasioned an unavoidable delay in their negotiations. About a month after the opening of the conferences at Cercamp, Mary of England ended her short and inglorious reign [Nov. 17], and Elizabeth, her sister, was immediately proclaimed queen with universal joy. As the powers of the English plenipotentiaries expired on the death of their mistress, they could not proceed until they received a commission and instructions from their new sovereign.

Henry and Philip beheld Elizabeth's elevation to the throne with equal solicitude. As during Mary's jealous administration, under the most difficult circumstances, and in a situation extremely delicate, that princess had conducted herself with prudence and address far exceeding her years, they had conceived a high idea of her abilities, and already formed expectations of a reign very different from that of her sister. Equally sensible of the importance of gaining her favor, both monarchs set themselves with emulation to court it, and employed every art in order to insinuate themselves into her confidence.

Each of them had something meritorious, with regard to Elizabeth, to plead in his own behalf. Henry had offered her a retreat in his dominions, if the dread of her sister's violence should force her to fly for safety out of England. Philip, by his powerful intercession, had prevented Mary from proceeding to the most fatal extremities against her sister. Each of them endeavored now to avail himself of the circumstances in his favor. Henry wrote to Elizabeth soon after her accession, with the warmest expressions of gratitude and friendship. He represented the war which had unhappily been kindled between their kingdoms, not as a national quarrel, but as the effect of Mary's blind partiality to her husband, and fond compliance with all his wishes. He entreated her to disengage herself from an alliance which had proved so unfortunate to England, and to consent to a separate peace with him, without mingling her interests with those of Spain, from which they ought now to be altogether disjoined. Philip on the other hand, unwilling to lose his connection with England, the importance of which, during a rupture with France, he had so recently experienced, not only vied with Henry in declarations of esteem for Elizabeth, and in professions of his resolution to cultivate the strictest amity with her, but, in order to confirm and perpetuate their union, he offered himself to her in marriage, and undertook to procure a dispensation from the pope for that purpose.

Elizabeth weighed the proposals of the two monarchs attentively, and with that provident discernment of her true interest, which was conspicuous in all her deliberations. She gave some encouragement to Henry’s overture of a separate negotiation, because it opened a channel of correspondence with France, which she might find to be of great advantage, if Philip should not discover sufficient zeal and solicitude for securing to her proper terms in the joint treaty. But she ventured on this step with the most cautious reserve, that she might not alarm Philip's suspicious temper, and lose an ally in attempting to gain an enemy. Henry himself, by an unpardonable act of indiscretion, prevented her from carrying her intercourse with him to such a length as might have offended or alienated Philip. At the very time when he was courting Elizabeth's friendship with the greatest assiduity, he yielded with an inconsiderate facility to the solicitations of the princes of Lorrain, and allowed his daughter-in-law the queen of Scots to assume the title and arms of queen of England. This ill-timed pretension, the source of many calamities to the unfortunate queen of Scots, extinguished at once all the confidence that might have grown between Henry and Elizabeth, and left in its place distrust, resentment, and antipathy. Elizabeth soon found that she must unite her interests closely with Philip’s, and expect peace only from negotiations carried on in conjunction with him.

As she had granted a commission, immediately after her accession, to the same plenipotentiaries whom her sister had employed, she now instructed them to act in every point in concert with the plenipotentiaries of Spain, and to take no step until they had previously consulted with them. But though she deemed it prudent to assume this appearance of confidence in the Spanish monarch, she knew precisely how far to carry it; and discovered no inclination to accept of that extraordinary proposal of marriage which Philip had made to her. The English had expressed so openly their detestation of her sister's choice of him, that it would have been highly imprudent to have exasperated them by renewing that odious alliance. She was too well acquainted with Philip's harsh imperious temper, to think of him for a husband. Nor could she admit a dispensation from the pope to be sufficient to authorize her marrying him, without condemning her father's divorce from Catherine of Arragon, and acknowledging of consequence that her mother's marriage was null, and her own birth illegitimate. But though she determined not to yield to Philip's addresses, the situation of her affairs rendered it dangerous to reject them; she returned her answer, therefore, in terms which were evasive, but so tempered with respect, that though they gave him no reason to be secure of success, they did not altogether extinguish his hopes.

By this artifice, as well as by the prudence with which she concealed her sentiments and intentions concerning religion, for some time after her accession, she so far gained upon Philip, that he warmly espoused her interest in the conferences which were renewed at Cercamp, and afterwards removed to Chateau-Cambresis [Feb. 6, 1559]. A definitive treaty, which was to adjust the claims and pretensions of so many princes, required the examination of such a variety of intricate points, and led to such infinite and minute details, as drew out the negotiations to a great length. But the constable Montmorency exerted himself with such indefatigable zeal and industry, repairing alternately to the courts of Paris and Brussels, in order to obviate or remove every difficulty, that all the points in dispute were adjusted at length in such a manner, as to give entire satisfaction in every particular to Henry and Philip; and the last hand was ready to be put to the treaty between them.

The claims of England remained as the only obstacle to retard it. Elizabeth demanded the restitution of Calais in the most peremptory tone, as an essential condition of her consenting to peace; Henry refused to give up that important conquest; and both seemed to have taken their resolution with unalterable firmness.

Philip warmly supported Elizabeth's pretensions to Calais, not merely from a principle of equity towards the English nation, that he might appear to have contributed to their recovering what they had lost by espousing his cause; nor solely with a view of soothing Elizabeth by his manifestation of zeal for her interest; but in order to render France less formidable, by securing to her ancient enemy this easy access into the heart of the kingdom. The earnestness, however, with which he seconded the arguments of the English plenipotentiaries, soon began to relax. During the course of the negotiation, Elizabeth, who now felt herself firmly seated on her throne, began to take such open and vigorous measures not only for overturning all that her sister had done in favor of popery, but for establishing the protestant church on a firm foundation, as convinced Philip that his hopes of a union with her had been from the beginning vain, and were now desperate. From that period, his interpositions in her favor became more cold and formal, flowing merely from a regard to decorum, or from the consideration of remote political interests. Elizabeth having reason to expect such an alteration in his conduct, quickly perceived it. But as nothing would have been of greater detriment to her people, or more inconsistent with her schemes of domestic administration, than the continuance of war, she saw the necessity of submitting to such conditions as the situation of her affairs imposed, and that she must reckon upon being deserted by an ally who was now united to her by a very feeble tie, if she did not speedily reduce her demands to what was moderate and attainable. She accordingly gave new instructions to her ambassadors; and Philip's plenipotentiaries acting as mediators between the French and them, an expedient was fallen upon which, in some degree, justified Elizabeth's departing from the rigor of her first demand with regard to Calais. All lesser articles were settled without much discussion or delay. Philip, that he might not appear to have abandoned the English, insisted that the treaty between Henry and Elizabeth should be concluded in form, before that between the French monarch and himself. The one was signed on the second day of April, the other on the day following.

 

The Treaty of Chateau-Cambresis