But it takes two persons to make a marriage, and Elizabeth, unlike her sister, had no notion of allowing herself and England to be made the tools of another’s ambitions, for she had ambitions of her own, and in most cases they were not identical with those of her brother-in-law. In one particular alone they coincided, namely, in the need for excluding the French from gaining control of England by means of Mary Stuart or otherwise, and this was the point that restrained Philip from proceeding to extremities with Elizabeth for thirty years of provocation. Feria, who was in closer touch with the progress of affairs in England than his master, must have seen the impracticability of proposing for Elizabeth’s hand in the spirit of his instructions, and, although he saw her in the little chamber at Whitehall on the eve of the opening of Parliament on the 25th January, where she chatted very affably with him, he did not venture to mention the question of marriage, as he had been told that Parliament would press her to choose a husband, and thought that he had better wait until then. But Philip was impatient, the English Peace Commissioners at Cateau Cambresis, who had now been joined by Lord William Howard, were standing out firmly for the restoration of Calais as a condition of the general peace.[139] If Elizabeth showed herself ready to become Philip’s wife and the obedient tool of his policy, he was willing to make a stand too on the subject of Calais; but he was determined not to be kept at war for the sake of the English if Elizabeth persevered in her proposed Parliamentary action with regard to religious reform, and he peremptorily instructed Feria to remonstrate earnestly with her on the subject, and to tell her from him, “as a good and true brother, who really wishes her well, both on account of our relationship and because I wish to see her firmly established on the throne, that I warn her to ponder deeply the evils which may result to England, particularly so early in her reign, from any change in religion.... You will enforce this by all the good arguments and persuasions that you can employ, ... but if you can obtain no success in that way you will consider whether it will be well to press the Queen by saying that if this change is made, all idea of my marriage with her must be broken off. If she has any thoughts that way this may be effective.”[140] [Illustration: QUEEN ELIZABETH FROM A PAINTING BY ZUCCHERO IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY]