It was more important now than ever that Elizabeth should be conciliated. Don Juan, in despair at his hateful position and at the cold irresponsiveness of his brother, had in February, 1578, cast all considerations to the winds, had fortified himself in Namur, and had defied the States to do their worst. Philip, by the rash impetuosity of his brother, thus found it necessary to fight not only for the maintenance of orthodoxy in his Netherlands dominions, but for his sovereignty. The Archduke Mathias, one of his own kin, had been invited by the Flemings to accept the Catholic Crown of Flanders, and on his failure to unite the country, Alençon, the French Prince, had bidden for the prize. If Elizabeth could be won over by Orange to help or co-operate with the French in Flanders, then nothing could save Philip’s sovereignty; and so, until the great Alexander Farnese, Don Juan’s successor, with warcraft and diplomacy combined, was able gradually to separate the Catholic Flemings from the Protestant Dutchmen, it behoved Philip at any sacrifice to win again the good graces of Elizabeth, to arouse her jealousy of French interference in Flanders, and hold her, notwithstanding all that had passed, to the traditional alliance with his House with the ancient object. Nor was Elizabeth loath to meet her brother-in-law half-way this time, for a French domination in Flanders she could never allow, and whilst on the one hand she conjured the danger by befooling Alençon into the firm belief that she would marry him if he would obey her, on the other she held out her hand to Philip. Wilkes, the Clerk of the Privy Council, was sent off to Spain to vindicate the Queen’s action in Flanders: to say how hard she had tried to bring about peace, notwithstanding Don Juan’s impracticability, to beg for Don Juan’s recall,[222] and to urge that some sort of peace should be brought about with the States on the basis that Don Juan had violated, failing which she will be obliged, as before, to aid those who are battling for freedom of conscience.