rn Europe together under the rule of a single family
seemed at last to draw to its realization.

[Sidenote: Its political grounds.]

It was no doubt from political as well as religious motives that Mary
set her heart on this union. Her rejection of Gardiner's proposal that
she should marry the young Courtenay, Earl of Devon, a son of the
Marquis of Exeter whom Henry had beheaded, the resolve which she
expressed to wed "no subject, no Englishman," was founded in part on
the danger to her throne from the pretensions of Mary Stuart, whose
adherents cared little for the exclusion of the Scotch line from the
succession by Henry's will and already alleged the illegitimate births
of both Mary Tudor and Elizabeth through the annulling of their mothers'
marriages as a ground for denying their right to the throne. Such claims
became doubly formidable through the marriage of Mary Stuart with the
heir of the French Crown, and the virtual union of both Scotland and
France in this claimant's hands. It was only to Charles that the Queen
could look for aid against such a pressure as this, and Charles was
forced to give her aid. His old dreams of a mastery of the world had
faded away before the stern realities of the Peace of Passau and his
repulse from the walls of Metz. His hold over the Empire was broken.
France was more formidable than ever. To crown his difficulties the
growth of heresy and of the spirit of independence in the Netherlands
threatened to rob him of the finest part of the Burgundian heritage.
With Mary Stuart once on the English throne, and the great island of the
west knit to the French monarchy, the balance of power would be utterly
overthrown, the Low Countries lost, and the Imperial Crown, as it could
hardly be doubted, reft from the house of Austria. He was quick
therefore to welcome the Queen's advances, and to offer his son Philip,
who though not yet twenty-six was already a widower, as a candidate for
her hand.

[Sidenote: Opposition of Parliament.]

The offer came weighted with a heavy bribe. The keen foresight of the
Emperor already saw the difficulty of holding the Netherlands in union
with the Spanish monarchy; and while Spain, Naples, and Franche Comte
descended to Philip's eldest son, Charles promised the heritage of the
Low Countries with England to the issue of Philip and Mary. He accepted
too the demand of Gardiner and the Council that in the event of such a
union England should preserve complete