Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/311

1565.] THE EMBASSY OF DE SlLVA. 291 several years at least, obliged them to advise their mis* tress to decline his proposals.' x The next day Elizabeth sent for the ambassador of the Duke of Wurtemberg who was acting in England in behalf of Maximilian. She told him that she had once resolved to live and die a maiden Queen ; but she deferred to the remonstrances of her subjects, and she desired him to tell the Emperor that she had at last made up her mind to marry. 2 She had inquired of the Spanish ambassador whether the King of Spain still wished to see her the wife of his cousin. The ambas- sador had assured her that the King could not be more anxious if the Archduke had been a child of his own. She said that she could not bind herself to accept a person whom she had never seen ; but she expressed her earnest wish that the Archduke should come to England. The minister of Wurtemberg in writing to Maxi- milian added his own entreaties to those of the Queen ; he said that ' there was no fear for the Archduke's hon- our ; the Queen's situation was so critical that if the Archduke would consent to come she could not dare to affront the Imperial family by afterwards refusing his hand/' Sl 1 MIGNET'S Mary Stuart, vol. i. p. 146. 5 ' Se constituisse mine nwbere.' 3 Adam Schetowitz to Maximilian, June 4, 1565 : BurghUy Papers^ vol. i