In the meanwhile every day that passed made it more difficult, and yet more necessary, for the King of Spain to gain the friendship or control of England. Affairs were going worse and worse with him in the Netherlands, where the struggle was assuming the character of a duel to the death between the old traditions of Flemish self-government and the newer absolutism which had already been fixed upon Castile and now threatened the ancient patrimony of Burgundy under Philip. The Reformed religion, or, indeed, any assertion of the lay right of judgment in matters of faith, was to Philip the embodiment of a rebellious spirit against the absolute centralised authority which was the essence of his system of government, and as such had to be crushed at any cost or sacrifice. Almost openly the English Protestants were sympathising with their Flemish brethren, and many Protestant refugees were flocking into England to establish their industries and seek security under a Protestant Queen. Boldness and good fortune had enabled Elizabeth, on the other hand, to take advantage of the jealousy of her neighbours and to gather around her the growing Protestant party which welcomed the national independence she had attained in so few years, whilst Philip’s hesitancy had succeeded entirely in disheartening the English Catholics, who had at first looked upon him as their champion. The attitude of Elizabeth throughout her intercourse with the Spanish ambassadors had been such, that she had been able to beguile them when it suited her, and to checkmate them at pleasure; for whilst they had to wait for tardy instructions, which when they came always enjoined impracticable conditions, Elizabeth was opportunist and able to change her tack at an hour’s notice, to the utter confusion of her slow antagonist. The hard treatment of Catholics in England and the welcome accorded to the Flemish Protestant refugees had been met by Philip by the cruel persecution in Spain of Englishmen, upon the barest suspicion of heterodoxy; and this had been resented by the recrudescence of the pillage of Spanish and Flemish ships at sea by English rovers. Not content with this, Elizabeth attempted to foster the new Flemish industries in England by imposing restrictions upon the entrance into her ports of certain manufactured goods coming from Flanders. In retaliation the Spanish rulers began a regular war of tariffs against England; and this, by the middle of 1564, had resulted in a general prohibition being issued on both sides, which practically forbade commercial intercourse altogether. Envoys went backwards and forwards for months, trying unsuccessfully to arrange matters; and in these efforts the Flemings were much more anxious than the English; for the latter had secured a good inlet for their cloths to the Continent through Embden, and Elizabeth had given permission for unrestricted export to all other countries but Flanders and Spain.