For the scheme was surely growing now into a vast expedition, ostensibly to place Mary Stuart upon the throne of England, but really to make Philip master of the country, with or without the nominal sovereignty. Deeply though France was plunged in civil war, with Guise in arms tyrannising over the King, the French interest was still strong, and, both at Rome and elsewhere, would struggle its hardest against anything like a Spanish domination of England. Nor were the Italians in love with the idea of a conquest that would make Philip supreme in Europe, and consequently all the skill, boldness, and cunning of Spanish diplomacy was concentrated in Rome to obtain by false pretences from the Church the vast sums required for the conquest of England. With the weak attempts of the French Government itself to avert the danger Philip could easily deal. The French ministers proposed to Mendoza in June, 1585, that Spain and France jointly should invade England in favour of Mary Stuart. Philip understood the object at once, and in his usual way, with much sanctimonious verbiage, asked for a multitude of pledges and particulars, as if he entertained the proposal, whilst he continued his own stealthy preliminaries in Rome for the purely Spanish enterprise, for which others might pay but he alone must direct.[263] When the leader of the French party in the Vatican, Cardinal D’Este, soon after this tried to persuade the Pope that the best and safest course for the Church would be to aid Guise to direct the English enterprise and make James Stuart King of Britain after his mother’s death, another line had to be taken by Philip. Then Olivares boldly told the Pope that D’Este, like so many of his house, was a bad Catholic, who sought to bring about the victory of heresy in France and the consequent downfall of the Guises. Let the Pope secure the triumph of Guise and the faith in France first, urged Olivares, and the English enterprise could be undertaken afterwards.