In July, 1565, Mary Stuart had been swept by her passion along the rapids that led to her marriage with Darnley and her ruin. Up to this period her policy had been consistent and sagacious, directed mainly to the recognition of her present or prospective right to succeed to the throne of England. She had tried to attain the end alternately by the only two means open to her, by seeking marriage with a Catholic prince strong enough to enforce her claims, and by winning Elizabeth’s acknowledgment of them by submission to her will. So long as she was under the influence of Cardinal Lorraine, and the Guises were powerful, her main efforts had been in the first direction, but after her arrival in Scotland the influence of Murray and Lethington had led her into the second course. In a former chapter it has been related how, despairing of obtaining recognition from Elizabeth, Mary and her Protestant Anglophil advisers had on one occasion, in 1563, reverted to her earlier plans, and had attempted to secure Philip’s aid through her marriage with Don Carlos. She had never since quite abandoned this hope—her only one in this direction, since Guise was dead and Catharine de Medici was her deadly enemy. It is true that she had satisfied herself before Darnley arrived in Scotland that Don Carlos was unlikely or unfit to be a husband for her,[157] but prudence would have dictated delay in her marriage in order that Philip might have provided her with another Consort who would take with him the support of Spain. But Mary lost her head, if not her heart, when she saw “the long lad” Darnley, and took the step which made it, at first sight, appear the more difficult for Philip to help her, and which yet alienated from her Murray and the Protestants and brought her into open enmity with the Queen of England. On the other hand, the wedding of both the Catholic claimants to the Crown of England consolidated the Catholic elements in the north, making Elizabeth’s position more dangerous than at any time since her accession, and Mary had undoubtedly not lost sight of this feature, which she saw might yet enable her to obtain Spanish support when the time for action came.