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question. She wished Elizabeth to acknowledge this, and to have the
English Parliament enact it. If Elizabeth would take this course,
Mary was willing to waive her claims during Elizabeth's life.
Elizabeth, however, was not willing to do this decidedly. She wished
to reserve the right to herself of marrying if she chose. She also
wished to keep Mary dependent upon her as long as she could. Hence,
while she would not absolutely refuse to comply with Mary's
proposition, she would not really accede to it, but kept the whole
matter in suspense by endless procrastination, difficulties, and
delays.

I have said that, after Elizabeth, Mary's claim to the British crown
was almost unquestioned. There was another lady about as nearly
related to the English royal line as Mary. Her name was Margaret
Stuart. Her title was Lady Lennox. She had a son named Henry Stuart,
whose title was Lord Darnley. It was a question whether Mary or
Margaret were best entitled to consider herself the heir to the
British crown after Elizabeth. Mary, therefore, had two obstacles in
the way of the accomplishment of her wishes to be Queen of England:
one was the claim of Elizabeth, who was already in possession of the
throne, and the other the claims of Lady Lennox, and, after her, of
her son Darnley. There was a plan of disposing of this last
difficulty in a very simple manner. It was, to have Mary marry Lord
Darnley, and thus unite these two claims. This plan had been
proposed, but there had been no decision in respect to it. There was
one objection: that Darnley being Mary's cousin, their marriage was
forbidden by the laws of the Catholic Church. There was no way of
obviating this difficulty but by applying to the pope to grant them a
special dispensation.

In the mean time, a great many other plans were formed for Mary's
marriage. Several of the princes and potentates of Europe applied for
her hand. They were allured somewhat, no doubt, by her youth and
beauty, and still more, very probably, by the desire to annex her
kingdom to their dominions. Mary, wishing to please Elizabeth,
communicated often with her, to ask her advice and counsel in regard
to her marriage. Elizabeth's policy was to embarrass and perplex the
whole subject by making difficulties in respect to every plan
proposed. Finally, she recommended a gentleman of her own court to
Mary--Robert Dudley, whom she afterward made Earl of Leicester--one
of her special favorites. The positi