possession of the throne. Yet all these circumstances could not
remove her timorous suspicions; and so far from satisfying the nation by
a settlement of the succession, or a declaration of James's title, she
was as anxious to prevent every incident which might anywise raise his
credit, or procure him the regard of the English, as if he had been her
immediate rival and competitor. Most of his ministers and favorites were
her pensioners; and as she was desirous to hinder him from marrying and
having children, she obliged them to throw obstacles in the way of
every alliance, even the most reasonable which could be offered him; and
during some years she succeeded in this malignant policy.[***]

* Monson, p. 161.

** Winwood, vol. i. p. 41.

*** Melvil, p. 166, 177.

He had fixed on the elder daughter of the king of Denmark, who, being a
remote prince and not powerful, could give her no umbrage; yet did she
so artfully cross this negotiation, that the Danish monarch, impatient
of delay, married his daughter to the duke of Brunswick. James then
renewed his suit to the younger princess, and still found obstacles
from the intrigues of Elizabeth, who, merely with a view of interposing
delay, proposed to him the sister of the king of Navarre, a princess
much older than himself, and entirely destitute of fortune. The young
king, besides the desire of securing himself, by the prospect of issue,
from those traitorous attempts too frequent among his subjects had been
so watched by the rigid austerity of the ecclesiastics, that he had
another inducement to marry, which is not so usual with monarchs. His
impatience, therefore, broke through all the politics of Elizabeth: the
articles of marriage were settled; the ceremony was performed by proxy;
and the princess embarked for Scotland; but was driven by a storm into
a port of Norway. This tempest, and some others which happened near the
same time, were universally believed in Scotland and Denmark to have
proceeded from a combination of the Scottish and Danish witches; and
the dying confession of the criminals was supposed to put the accusation
beyond all controversy.[*] James, however, though a great believer in
sorcery, was not deterred by this incident from taking a voyage in
order to conduct his bride home: he arrived in Norway; carried the queen
thence to Copenhagen: and having passed the winter in that city, he
brought her next spring to Scotland, where they were