The Year after the Armada, and Other Historical StudiesHume, Martin A. S. (Martin Andrew Sharp)
Philosophy
The Year after the Armada, and Other Historical Studies
Hume, Martin A. S. (Martin Andrew Sharp)
Armada, 1588; Europe -- History -- 1517-1648; Europe -- History -- 17th century
From that time a change was apparent in Philip's policy. When he heard
of the Raid of Ruthven and the flight of Lennox he saw that English
Protestant intrigue had conquered, and that the Scottish-Catholic
enterprise was at an end for a time. Guise was to be flattered and
conciliated, but it is clear that henceforward Philip wished to confine
his (Guise's) attention to France. He was told how dangerous it would
be for him to leave France with his enemies, the Huguenots, in
possession, and was emphatically assured of Spanish support in his own
ambitious plans at home.
Guise was flattered, but he could hardly be expected to look upon
Scottish affairs from Philip's point of view. So he got one of his
adherents, young de Maineville, sent to Scotland to revive the idea of
the landing of foreign troops there. {191} Beaton, who was thoroughly
French, was just as anxious to keep the matter afoot in Paris, but
Philip had lost faith in the enterprise, and only kept up an appearance
of negotiation in order to maintain his hold upon the Guises and
prevent them from undertaking anything except under his patronage. De
Maineville soon got on intimate terms with James, but the Protestant
lords were holding him at the time, and Guise was informed by his agent
that the time was not now propitious for a Catholic descent upon
Scotland.
Guise thereupon came to the Spaniards in May, 1583, with a fresh plan.
He had decided, he said, to begin with the English Catholics.
Elizabeth was first to be murdered and the country raised, whilst he
landed on the coast, but Philip and the Pope must provide 100,000
crowns to pay for it. His plans, as usual, however, were vague and
incomplete, and the English Catholics, as well as Philip, looked coldly
upon them. Father Allen and the English exiles were in deadly earnest,
"and thought all this talk and intricacy were mere buckler-play."
Mendoza in Paris reports to Philip that "they suspected a tendency on
the part of the Scots to claim a controlling influence in the new
empire, and as the Scots are naturally inclined to the French, they
would rather the affair were carried through with but few Spaniards,
whilst the English hate this idea, as their country is the principal
one ... and they think it should not lose its predominance."
The English Catholics had a plan of their own which they urged upon
Philip. The English North Country was to be raised simultaneously with
the {192} landing of a Spanish force in Yorkshire, accompanied by the
Earl of Westmoreland, Lord Dacre, and other nobles, with Allen as
Nuncio and Bishop of Durham, and some of the extreme Catholic party,
even in Scotland, distrusting the French, favoured some such plan as
this under purely Spanish auspices.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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