James Stuart, by his tergiversation, had made himself quite impossible, from Philip’s point of view, as a successor to his mother on the throne of Catholic England. Philip’s own descent from John of Gaunt was undoubted, and already had been quietly mentioned as giving him a claim to succeed to the Crown in default of other Catholic heirs. If England had to be conquered by sheer force and by Spanish arms, Philip was determined to make a complete job of it, and to suffer no more backsliding such as had happened after the death of his wife Mary; so that the suggestion of the Jesuits that the attack should be a frontal one on England itself, and that the Spaniards should retain their hold upon the country even after Mary Stuart had been substituted for Elizabeth, met a ready but cautious echo from the King himself. Some months before this, when, in August, 1583, the Marquis of Santa Cruz, the great Alvaro de Bazan, had scattered off the Azores the mercenary French and English fleet in the service of the unfortunate Portuguese Pretender, Don Antonio, and the Spanish squadrons, flushed with victory, were ready for more fighting, the famous admiral wrote in exalted strains to the King, praying for his permission to make him King of England. “Your Majesty,” he wrote, “is now so well prepared, and with an army so victorious, that I supplicate you not to miss this chance; for believe me, sire, I have the will to make you King of England and of other realms as well, whence you might with confidence hope to subdue Flanders.” Philip was hardly ready for the step yet; for he had the hard task before him of hoodwinking the Vatican as well as parrying French opposition and Guisan interference, but he wrote to his great admiral: “These are things of which we can hardly speak just yet, for they must depend upon time and circumstances; but in any case I will order the preparations you propose to be made, biscuits to be provided, the building of galleons hastened, and men sent to Flanders to be ready.”[260]