To de Noailles, polished, urbane and ceremonious, an ultra Frenchman, the Chancellor was peculiarly obnoxious. Gardiner had always had a reputation for want of courtesy, and on his release, the French ambassador was the first to observe that imprisonment had not civilised him.[347] But if these two, who were working to some extent for the same ends,[348] had joined forces, they might together have defeated the Emperor’s schemes. They were however natural enemies, the invincible element of deceit and treachery in de Noailles revolting Gardiner, even more than his own want of tact disgusted the Frenchman. Pugnacious, outspoken, and strong in the integrity of his intention, the Chancellor held his own in the Council, although he was opposed throughout by Arundel and Paget, who favoured the imperial policy. But highly as she esteemed him for his probity, he was powerless to influence the Queen. The subject of her marriage exercised the minds of all parties in the State. Even her ladies talked to her of nothing else, and Mary herself, who had hitherto preferred to remain unmarried, acquiesced in the general understanding, that it was for the common weal she should now choose a husband. Before her public entry into London, Renard had secretly waited upon her at New Hall, to treat of the matter. She had told him, that before succeeding to the throne, she had resolved to end her days as a celibate, but that now another duty had been imposed on her. She was resolved, she said, to follow the Emperor’s advice, and to choose the consort whom he approved, for after God, she desired to obey him as a father. Only she besought him to consider her age, and not to press her to treat of matrimony with any whom she had not seen and heard. She gave Renard to understand that she had not been deceived by the Emperor’s feigned advice to her ambassadors at Brussels, that she should marry one of her own nobles, and that she even suspected them of having interpolated the sentence in which it was contained, to suit their own inclinations. On receiving Renard’s letter, containing an account of this audience, Charles replied that the Queen plainly showed by what she had said, that she inclined towards marriage with a foreigner.[349] A few days later (according to de Noailles, on the 12th August) Mary repeated formally what she had already said to Renard, that for State reasons she had resolved to marry, and that seeing no suitable match in her own kingdom, she would form an alliance with a foreigner, trusting that the Emperor would propose a Catholic, and arrange for her to see and speak with the aspirant to her hand. She stipulated earnestly that he should not be too young.[350]