use she had made of that
right, by giving the preference to an old ally, descended from the house
of Burgundy; and remarked the failure of Henry VIII.'s posterity, of
whom there now remained none but the queen and the lady Elizabeth. He
added, that, in order to obviate the inconveniencies which might arise
from different pretenders, it was necessary to invest the queen, by law,
with a power of disposing of the crown, and of appointing her successor:
a power, he said, which was not to be thought unprecedented in England,
since it had formerly been conferred on Henry VIII.[*]

* Depeches de Noailles.

The parliament was much disposed to gratify the queen in all her
desires; but when the liberty, independency, and very being of the
nation were in such visible danger, they could not by any means be
brought to compliance. They knew both the inveterate hatred which she
bore to the lady Elizabeth, and her devoted attachment to the house of
Austria: they were acquainted with her extreme bigotry, which would lead
her to postpone all considerations of justice or national interest to
the establishment of the Catholic religion: they remarked, that
Gardiner had carefully avoided in his speech the giving to Elizabeth
the appellation of the queen's sister; and they thence concluded that a
design was formed of excluding her as illegitimate: they expected that
Mary, if invested with such a power as she required, would make a will
in her husband's favor, and thereby render England forever a province
to the Spanish monarchy; and they were the more alarmed with these
projects, as they heard that Philip's descent from the house of
Lancaster was carefully insisted on, and that he was publicly
represented as the true and only heir by right of inheritance.

The parliament, therefore, aware of their danger, were determined to
keep at a distance from the precipice which lay before them. They could
not avoid ratifying the articles of marriage,[*] which were drawn very
favorable for England; but they declined the passing of any such law as
the chancellor pointed out to them: they would not so much as declare it
treason to imagine or attempt the death of the queen's husband while she
was alive; and a bill introduced for that purpose was laid aside after
the first reading. The more effectually to cut off Philip's hopes of
possessing any authority in England, they passed a law in which they
declared, "that her majesty, as their only queen, sho