Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/50

RETGN OF ELIZABETH [CH. 52. be seen whether France and Spain, in resentment at their common injuries, could agree at last to attack England together ; whether, if they could not move in concert, either one or the other would look on ; or whether the jealousies which had held them so long apart could resist these new provocations, and continue as before to protect Elizabeth from attack. The persist- ence of the political traditions of the great war, long after the conditions out of which they had risen had past away, is one of the most remarkable features in the history of the sixteenth century. Having given in its ultimatum through La Mothe, the French Government dared not move actively till it had consulted and received the sanction of Philip. The Cardinal of Guise went to Madrid to learn his pleasure, and Philip at once recom- mended France to settle its difficulties at home before quarrelling with its neighbours. 1 Philip, expecting daily a change of government in England which would bring back into power the friends of Spain, had no de- sire to sacrifice his own game. The conquest of Scot- land and the invasion of England by the French friends of Mary Stuart were more terrible to him than heresy there, or than the destruction of his commerce by the privateers ; a too triumphant France might stretch its 1 ' Parece que en ninguna raanera le conviene romper con los de fuera, sino de attender al assiento de sus cosas propias, y acabar de castigar y deshacer sus rebeldes, llevando ade- lante la victoria que Dios contra ellos ie ha dado ; pues esta claro que mien- tras estos duraren no le cumple por ninguna via tomar otras empresas fuera de su casa, ni mover los liu- mores y zelos que de la liga que se apunta podrian nacer.' Respuesta de su Magestadal Cardenal de Guisa sobre las cosas de Inglaterra, ultimo de Abril 1569 : MSS. Simancas.