15 Nov.
Brussels
Archives.
B. M. MS.,
Add. 28,173a. |
143. Bishop Quadra to the Duchess Of Parma.
Two days ago there arrived here a gentleman from Scotland,
named Graeme, sent by the queen of Scots' council respecting the
ratification which is still in dispute, but with great hopes of a friendly
settlement, according to this man. I have not yet been able to
learn in what particulars the English dissent. This man says that
his Queen has reduced the number of her Council to seven members,
neither the duke of Chatelherault nor his son the earl of Arran
being amongst them. On the contrary, they demanded that the
Duke should surrender the Castle of Dumbarton, which he did at
once, and both he and his son are now absent from the court,
dissatisfied as are all their adherents. Those in the confidence of
the Queen are her brother Mr. James (fn. 1) (who has placed the castles
of Edinburgh and Stirling in the hands of her uncles), and the earl
of Huntly (Ontelet), who has taken the lead of the Catholic party
in the country, and they are daily through him urging the Queen
to restore the old religion. They say that he (Huntly) has presented
a petition to the Queen to this effect, accompanied by a long and
prudent discourse proving that unless religion is restored, ruin to
the country must result. Notwithstanding this, Mr. James is of
exactly the contrary opinion, and is trying to get married, and be
made an earl in exchange for the Priory of St. John, which he now
holds. He is already Treasurer-General, and is endeavouring to
appropriate to the Crown the revenues of the abbeys and monasteries
to which the Queen does not object, as it is said that these
revenues will bring her in nearly 300,000 ducats, without touching
the bishoprics and secular benefices. This man from Scotland also
says that such is the hatred of the earl of Arran that nobody now
opposes the marriage of the Queen with a foreigner or anyone else
the Queen wishes. There are many who approve of the suit of the
king of Denmark. (fn. 2) Two days ago six young Oxford students were
thrown into the Tower or London. They were brought before the
Council on a charge of having resisted the Mayor who had gone to
take away the crucifix from their college chapel, and they not only
confessed that they had done so, but said they were Catholics and
took the sacrament as such, and they even offered to dispute publicly
or privately with the heretics respecting the sacrament. The Council
were quite scandalized to hear such freedom of talk, but the Mayor
assured them the whole place was of the same opinion, and there
were not three houses in it that were not filled with papists ; whereat
the Council were far from pleased, and told the Mayor to take care
not to say such a thing elsewhere.
Dionisius. the former ambassador of the king of Sweden here, is
expected. They say he is coming to reside here, which does not look
as if the King were coming at present.
Proclamation was made here to-day that no Spanish gold or silver
money shall be current, and that anyone possessing such is to take
it to the Mint, where it will be paid for according to its weight.
This is no doubt to give the Queen a profit on it, as was done in
the case of other prohibited monies, English and foreign.—London,
15th November 1561. |
| 27 Nov. |
144. Bishop Quadra to the King.
I wrote to your Majesty on the 11th ultimo (fn. 3) the news from here,
and have since then kept the duchess of Parma and Cardinal de
Granvelle informed of events.
Your Majesty will have learnt the answer they gave me here
lately about the navigation of the Mina when I broached the subject
by instructions of the duchess of Parma, and on the 16th instant I
received despatches from the king of Portugal, enclosing letters for
the Queen and some of the Council, in which he orders me to
endeavour to obtain the disarming of the ships which are being
fitted out here for that voyage. I again spoke to the Queen about
it at a propitious moment when I thought I might persuade and
not shock her. She answered me the same as before, as your
Majesty will see by copies of all the letters enclosed. Discussing
this matter with Cecil alone the other day he said to me that the
Pope had no right to partition the world and to give and take
kingdoms to whomever he pleased. As I saw some time ago this
idea is the real reason which has moved them to oppose the legality
of these denunciations much more than any profit they expect to
get, although it is certain that their action goes hand in hand with
Vendôme's claims in Navarre, and both of them think that this
navigation business will be a good pretext for breaking the peace.
They believe that your Majesty must necessarily uphold the Pope's
authority against which both here and in Germany all will join.
I feigned not to understand Cecil's meaning, and treated the matter
as concerning the king of Portugal only, without showing any
particular feeling. The said ships left Portsmouth three weeks ago
under convoy, with five French ships well armed. The four English
ships belong to the Queen, although they say she has sold them to
London merchants to whom their cargoes belong, but I am assured
that Gunston, the Controller of the Navy, has been promised 15 per
cent. of what the ships bring back. They carry cut-timber, artillery,
munitions, arms, and victuals, for a year in greater quantity than
is required for their own use.
On the 16th instant both Protonotary Foix, a relative of Madam
de Vendôme, and Señor Moreta (Morette), the ambassador of the
duke of Savoy, arrived here and have since gone on to Scotland,
although Foix went four days before Moreta, who visited the French
ambassador as soon as he arrived. He afterwards came to see me and
gave me a letter of recommendation from his master, which, however,
he did not explain to me until he had spoken twice with the Queen.
I understand from him and from others that he came at the instance
of Cardinal Ferrara with the idea that he might persuade the Queen
to send ambassadors to the Concilio. He was led to this by what
the earl of Bedford declared when he was in France last winter to
the effect that the Queen wished the Concilio to be held. This was
the cause, as I understand, of the coming also of the Abbé Martinengo,
Moreta having been deceived by the Earl then as he has been now. If
they had understood that Bedford's professions were only a device
for uniting these people here with the French heretics and hindering
the Concilio, as they have done, under the pretence of favouring it,
there would have been no need either for the duke of Savoy to send
the Abbé, nor for Cardinal Ferrara to send Moreta on such a
hopeless errand. I believe that the Queen has answered him by
referring to the reply which was given to me in May about the
visit of the Abbé, and when he said that he would discuss the
matter with me if the Queen wished she said there was no need to
speak about it to me or anyone else, as it was a subject which might
cause uneasiness in the country. She said she would answer a
letter he handed her from Cardinal Ferrara through her ambassador,
Throgmorton. I also imagined that he tried to persuade her to
marry, and mentioned the Emperor's sons, the dukes of Ferrara and
Nemours and the prince of Florence, but this talk about the
marriage was only to smooth over the question of the Concilio with
something more agreeable. I think he bears instructions seriously
to propose marriage to the queen of Scots, and is to submit the
names of Nemours and Ferrara. This was the reason for Vendôme,
as soon as he heard of his coming, sending Foix in the name of the
king of France, on pretence of a mere visit, to prevent Nemours'
being accepted, alleging his pending matrimonial dispute in France,
and the Queen (of England) being advised of this kept Moreta here
some days after the other had left, so that the latter should arrive
and settle his business first. These people here are ill-pleased at
what Moreta has proposed on the part of the Duke, his master, as
it is very different from their desires, and even from what they
think Vendôme and his brother and the admiral of France aim at. I
understand that Lord Robert lately sent a letter secretly and
despatched a servant of his to Vendôme and the admiral offering
them friendship and alliance, they on their part promising to help
and sustain him in his marriage with the Queen. It is certain that
this was done by her wish, as I know Lord Robert would never
dare to do it otherwise. Last year when he wished to write and
send a special messenger to your Majesty on a similar errand he
was unable to do so as she would not allow it.
In conversation with the Queen about the intelligence written
from France by a certain Juan Battista Beltran, a native of Venice,
to the effect that the duke of Nemours had tried to abduct the
duke of Orleans and poison the duke of Vendôme, I said that the
first seemed most improbable for several reasons, and as to the second,
it was not by any means to be believed of a gentleman like the
Duke, and above all on the statement of such a man as this Beltran,
whom I knew well as being unworthy of credit. She asked me a
great many questions about him, and seeing that I answered frankly
she said she wished to divulge a secret of me, which was that when
Beltran was here some months ago he had informed her that your
Majesty was trying to have her killed by poison, and that for this
purpose a certain Greek had come hither and I was concerned in it.
I made light of it and laughed, but told her that if she had acted
as I should have expected from her prudence she would have
informed me of this in time to have the man punished. When she
saw that I might have good reason to take offence at this she said
that Beltran had not revealed it here but in France, and that her
ambassador had only written it to her two days ago, to which I had
no answer to make, although I knew the excuse was false. On the
contrary I pretended to believe her, and appeared satisfied. I have
since endeavoured to get to the bottom of this and find it is true
that this Beltran, who was here two or three months ago, told Cecil
that the Greek Vergecio, of whom I have already written to your
Majesty, had come hither on behalf of the Pope to arrange an
agreement by which the papists were to kill the Queen and Lord
Robert. It is said that Cecil was very busy investigating the
matter, but satisfied himself at last that the man was simply a
swindler, and had only come to get money from them. I am much
surprised at the Queen's inventing the other story and prevaricating
thus without any reason, although I thought that as soon as she
had said it she repented and tried to get over it by appearing to
consider it the absurdity it is. I know however that it was not
looked upon at all as a joke at first, and that Cecil himself was
waiting at a door for many hours on the watch for two men described
by Beltran who were to be arrested. This would not have been
done, at least by Cecil himself, if they had not taken the thing
seriously.
The Queen has sent a summons to Lady Margaret Douglas to
come hither with her husband and children. It is said publicly
that the reason of this is that she shows favour to the Catholics in
the province of York, and that consequently the Bishop dares not
visit his diocese or punish any papist. This reason, however, is a
pretended one, and has been made public to deceive the people as
to the reality which is that the Queen hears that Lady Margaret
is trying to marry her son to the queen of Scots. This has been
divulged by one of her servants whom the Queen has taken into her
service and rewarded for the information, and inquiries are now
being made as to those who may have taken part in the matter.
The earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland and the duke of
Norfolk have been brought hither at once with the excuse that the
Queen wished them to pass Christmas with her. I understand that
Lady Margaret is much distressed, as she thinks she will be thrown
into the Tower, and that her son's life is in danger. I am told that
she is resolved not to deny the allegation about the marriage of the
queen of Scots as she says it is no crime, and as that Queen is her
niece, the daughter of her brother, she thinks she has done no harm
in advising her to do what she believes would be the best for her,
namely, to marry her son, by which the succession of this kingdom
would be secured to the Scotch Queen, and all reason for strife would
be avoided in case of the queen of England dying without issue.
If the English should allege that the queen of Scots could not
succeed in consequence of her being a foreigner, she would nevertheless
reign over the kingdom by right of this youth, the son of
Lady Margaret, if she married him, as he is an Englishman and
beyond doubt the nearest heir to the crown after her. This Queen,
however, bases her security on there being no certain successor to
whom the people could turn if they were to tire of her rule, and I
understand she is in great alarm about this business, and determined
to obtain possession of the persons without the reason being made
public, as she fears that if the people were to understand the business
it might please them and cause a disturbance if Lady Margaret were
free. In order to summon her without turmoil they have taken the
pretext of finding fault with her about religion, which will make
her unpopular with London people. This gives great pain to the
faithful, as they had placed all their trust in this woman and her
son, and if they dared I am sure they would help her, and forces
would be forthcoming in the country itself if they had any hopes of
help from without.—London, 27th November 1561. |