nd Norfolk was soon wrapped anew in the net
of papal intrigue. But it was not so much on Norfolk that Rome counted
as on the nobles of the North. The three great houses of the northern
border--the Cliffords of Cumberland, the Nevilles of Westmoreland, the
Percies of Northumberland--had remained Catholics at heart; and from the
moment of Mary's entrance into England they had been only waiting for a
signal of revolt. They looked for foreign aid, and foreign aid now
seemed assured. In spite of Elizabeth's help the civil war in France
went steadily against the Huguenots. In March 1569 their army was
routed at Jarnac, and their leader, Conde, left dead on the field. The
joy with which the victory was greeted by the English Catholics sprang
from a consciousness that the victors looked on it as a prelude to their
attack on Protestantism across the sea. No sooner indeed was this
triumph won than Mary's uncle, the Cardinal of Lorraine, as the head of
the house of Guise, proposed to Philip to complete the victory of
Catholicism by uniting the forces of France and Spain against Elizabeth.
The moment was one of peril such as England had never known. Norfolk was
still pressing forward to a marriage with Mary; he was backed by the
second great Conservative peer, Lord Arundel, and supported by a large
part of the nobles. The Northern Earls with Lords Montague and Lumley
and the head of the great house of Dacres were ready to take up arms,
and sure--as they believed--of the aid of the Earls of Derby and
Shrewsbury. Both parties of plotters sought Philip's sanction and placed
themselves at his disposal. A descent of French and Spanish troops would
have called both to the field. But much as Philip longed for a triumph
of religion he had no mind for a triumph of France. France now meant the
Guises, and to set their niece Mary Stuart on the English throne was to
ensure the close union of England and the France they ruled. Though he
suffered Alva therefore to plan the despatch of a force from the
Netherlands should a Catholic revolt prove successful, he refused to
join in a French attack.

[Sidenote: The revolt of the Earls.]

But the Papal exhortations and the victories of the Guises did their
work without Philip's aid. The conspirators of the north only waited for
Norfolk's word to rise in arms. But the Duke dissembled and delayed,
while Elizabeth, roused at last to her danger, struck quick and hard.
Mary Stuart was given in charge to th