That the restrictions and penalties of the July edict were unnecessary is clear enough from indisputable contemporaneous evidence. On April 25th of this very year De Crussol wrote to the queen-regent from Montpellier, that the Reformed had petitioned him to be allowed to live in peace; that he found in them nothing but “great obedience and reverence,” and that they were loyal subjects. He goes on to complain of the Parliament of Toulouse, infringing the edict and detaining the Huguenots in prison: “It looks as if they wanted to amend the said edict, or to make a new one.” Six months later we find Prosper de Sainte Croix (Santa Croce), the papal legate, equally emphatic in his praise of the Reformed. Writing to Cardinal Borromeo, the pope’s nephew, on the 16th October, 1561, he says: “In Gascony and other places, I saw no mutilated images, no broken crosses, no deserted churches, as I had been told I should;” and then proceeds to speak of the proper feeling of the people on the matter where a cross had been broken. Ever since the accession of Charles IX. the Huguenots had been growing in favor at court, and the true cause of this favor was not far to seek. Philip II. was known to be intriguing with the Guises to marry the widowed Mary Stuart to his son Don Carlos. This was the first step in a well-devised plot to aggrandize Spain and crush the Reformation. By this marriage Philip would become master of Scotland, paralyze England by exciting the hopes of the Romanists in both countries, and prevent Elizabeth from sending aid to the rebels in Flanders. The influence of the Guises would also be so far increased that France would be entirely under their control. All this Catherine saw, and to checkmate Spain she drew nearer to England, and only three years later (Sept. 1564) actually proposed a marriage between Charles IX. and Elizabeth.[229]