During the first half of the sixteenth century, England had played but a subordinate part in the politics of Europe, and during Edward’s reign, the Government had been so weak that Charles V. had been able to demand Mary’s religious rights without compromise. France and the Empire had disputed the honours, the wealth, the prestige of the civilised world, and Mary had some reason to hope that by her marriage, she would raise her country to the rank of a first-rate power. But de Noailles and his friends had sown the seeds of discord too carefully, party and religious feeling ran too high for dispassionate counsels to prevail, and when, on the 14th and 15th January, the Chancellor read aloud the articles of the treaty, first in the Upper, then in the Lower House, calling attention in each, to the favourable terms stipulated for, and to the provisions made to secure the national independence, no satisfaction was expressed.[388] Immediately afterwards, the French King ordered his ambassador to demand an audience, and to represent to Mary his master’s grief at her projected union with his enemy, “having desired more than anything in this world, to perpetuate friendship with her all their lives”. Nevertheless, Henry wanted not peace, but England as well as Scotland, for his daughter-in-law’s dowry, for together, France, England and Scotland would have formed a compact bulwark against the Empire. Spain and the Netherlands would have been completely sundered, with no possibility of intercourse, and the Low Countries would have fallen a facile prey to France.[389] At the very time when he was charging his ambassador to reproach the Queen with a want of friendship, de Noailles was secretly interviewing a number of the malcontents, and organising a plot so widespread in its ramifications, that had it succeeded, Mary must have been utterly undone. Devonshire and Cornwall were to rise under Sir Peter Carew, in favour of Elizabeth and Courtenay; Sir Thomas Wyatt, a young Kentish gentleman, son of the poet of that name, was to disaffect the home counties. The Duke of Suffolk was to incite to rebellion his tenantry in the Midlands; Sir James Croft undertook to cause a revolt on the borders of Wales, while the French fleet was under orders to be in readiness to help the insurgents wherever the need should be greatest. De Selve, formerly French ambassador in England, now envoy at Venice, wrote to the Constable of France, advising him to do his utmost to stir up and keep alive the discontent in England. This was done by circulating the grossest and most self-contradictory falsehoods. It was reported that Edward was still alive, that the Spaniards were coming with an army of 8,000 men to take possession of the Tower, the ports and the ships, that they possessed every vice and evil propensity that could enslave and disgrace a nation, that the Queen had been false to her promises not to make any change in religion or to marry a