The next day there was a meeting of the Council, where it was proposed to settle matters by granting to Alençon a pension of 10,000 marks a year, the King of France a subsidy of £100,000, and the States £80,000 on condition of a similar amount being contributed by the King for the purpose of making war upon Spain in the Netherlands under the leadership of Alençon. If the King of France refused this it was proposed to make an immediate grant of £200,000 to Alençon, in consideration of the relief of Cambrai, and that the marriage negotiations be dropped. This was Leicester’s plan, who undertook to answer for Alençon’s acquiescence and the raising of the money by privy-seal loans and exchequer bills, but when they sent the proposal to the Queen as the result of their deliberation she was furious. Her plans were working as she intended them to work, and she could throw the whole blame for the failure of her marriage upon the King of France, whilst raising enmity between him and his brother, and pledging Alençon to her hard and fast without marriage. And yet these dense councillors of hers, and jealous, shallow Leicester, would keep thwarting her with their officious interference. Cecil was the only one who refused to do so, and always had a diplomatic attack of gout at critical times. Crofts gave an account to Mendoza of the way in which the Queen received the proposal of her Council. “She made, he says, a great show of anger and annoyance, saying that her councillors only thought of their own profit, wasting the substance of the country without reflection, and buying, under cover of her authority, that which suited them best. As Alençon thought fit to forget her in exchange for her money, she would neither marry him nor give him any money, and he might do the best he could.” Then she sent for Alençon and angrily told him the same, and a quarrel between them ensued. When she had thus upset the results of her Council’s officiousness, she began her own game again. Pinart had made clear to her that her demands for the restitution of Calais, a rupture with Spain, and the cessation of the old alliance between France and Scotland were unreasonable, and that if the marriage were broken off in consequence of such preposterous conditions the responsibility would be cast upon her and not upon his master. So she harked back to somewhat more moderate-sounding claims, which she knew would be also refused. She said that she had given the ring and pledge to Alençon on condition that he should make war on Spain in the Netherlands at the expense of the King of France, whilst she sent assistance from England in form of men. She said she had distinctly understood that this was to be the condition of the marriage; but of course if the French King could not fulfil it, there was the end of the matter. She was extremely sorry, but it was not her fault if there was a misunderstanding, or the French failed to carry out the condition, and she urged that Marchaumont, her