At one time it had been proposed to give Margaret to Sebastian of Portugal, the same romantic king who died battling valiantly against the Moors in Africa. But that match failing through the hostility of Philip II., who grossly insulted the French court, an alliance was sought nearer home. Margaret tells us how the matter was first broached, and what was her reply: “I begged my mother to remember that I was very Catholic.” Joan of Navarre, who had since adopted the Reformed creed, was not so eager for the marriage as she had once been. Far from being dazzled by the prospect of such a brilliant alliance for the heir of the petty house of Navarre, she said: “I would rather descend to be the lowliest woman in France, than sacrifice my son, or my son’s soul, to grandeur.”[491] It would have been well for Prince Henry had the obstacles raised against the marriage proved insurmountable. It was naturally opposed by the Guises; not, as some write, because the duke aspired to Margaret’s hand; for he had been married several months to Catherine of Cleves, the widow of Prince Porcien;[492] but because it would strengthen the throne, and make the Huguenot influence predominant. The nuncio and the Spanish embassador also opposed the match;[493] but Charles was not to be diverted from his purpose.[494] Thus the summer of 1571 passed away: on the one side, Spain, the pope, and the house of Lorraine striving to prevent a reconciliation between the two religious parties; on the other the “Politicians,” with Coligny and the English embassador, trying to bring about two marriages that would, it was hoped, counterbalance the influence of the Catholic powers. Catherine was ostentatiously sincere,[495] and Charles anxious to do what was right, and in his weakness leaning on Coligny, whom he had learned to trust as a child trusts his father. There was much in the admiral to attract the king: he was a man of probity and honor, actuated by no mean or selfish motives, but by the purest desire for the greatness of France. Charles had never possessed such a friend before. What he thought of those about him may be conjectured from his remarks one day to Teligny: “Tavannes is a good councilor, but jealous of any encroachment upon his fame; Vieilleville loves nothing but good wine; Cossé is a miser, who would sell every thing for ten crowns; Montmorency is a good man, but then he is always away with his hawks and hounds; Retz is a Spaniard in heart, and the rest of my court and council are fools. My secretaries are traitors, so that I do not know whom to trust.”[496] The censure is too sweeping; but the language shows how weary Charles had grown of his old councilors, and how he clung to the new. At another time, conversing with the admiral about the Flemish campaign, he said: “Father, there is another matter which you must carefully heed. The queen, my mother, is always poking her nose everywhere, as you well know, and she must not be told of this