at year the first avowed
reference is made to the authority used by Henry VIII and Edward VI,
_i.e._ the Supreme Headship of the Church. It at all events made
Elizabeth's position less difficult, because Spain and Austria were not
likely to attack England in the interests of a queen whose orthodoxy was
doubtful.

Meanwhile Elizabeth was directing all her efforts to prevent Mary from
contracting a second marriage, and, at all hazards, to secure that she
should not marry Don Carlos of Spain or the Archduke of Austria. Her
persistent endeavours to bribe Scottish nobles were directed, with
considerable acuteness, to creating an English party strong enough to
deter foreign princes from "seeking upon a country so much at her
devotion".[67] She warned Mary that any alliance with "a mighty prince"
would offend England[68] and so imperil her succession. Mary, on her
part, was attempting to obtain a recognition of her position as "second
person" [heir presumptive], and she professed her willingness to take
Elizabeth's advice in the all-important matter of her marriage. The
English queen made various suggestions, and found objections to them
all. Finally she proposed that Mary should marry her own favourite,
Leicester, and a long correspondence followed. It was suggested that the
two queens should have an interview, but this project fell through.
Elizabeth, of course, was too fondly attached to Leicester to see him
become the husband of her beautiful rival; Mary, on her part, despised
the "new-made earl", and Leicester himself apologized to Mary's
ambassador for the presumption of the proposal, "alleging the invention
of that proposition to have proceeded from Master Cecil, his secret
enemy".[69] While the Leicester negotiations were in progress, the Earl
of Lennox, who had been exiled in 1544, returned to Scotland with his
son Henry, Lord Darnley, a handsome youth, eighteen years of age. As
early as May, 1564, Knox suspected that Mary intended to marry
Darnley.[70] There is little doubt that it was a love-match; but there
were also political reasons, for Darnley was, after Mary herself, the
nearest heir to Elizabeth's throne, and only the Hamiltons stood between
him and the crown of Scotland. He had been born and educated in England,
as also had been his mother, the daughter of Angus and Margaret Tudor,
and Elizabeth might have used him as against Mary's claim. That claim
the English queen refused to acknowledge, although, in the