his
consequence by marriage, and through innumerable intrigues with his
ministers and favorites she had hitherto succeeded in her object. When
he appeared to have set his mind on a union with the eldest daughter of
the king of Denmark, she contrived to interpose so many delays and
obstacles that this sovereign, conceiving himself trifled with, ended
the affair by giving the princess in marriage to another. To embarrass
matters still more, she next proposed to James a match with the sister
of the king of Navarre, a princess much older than himself, destitute of
fortune, and whose brother might be influenced to protract the
negotiation to any length convenient to his valuable ally the queen of
England. This proposal being declined by James, and overtures made in
his name to a younger daughter of the Danish house, she again set her
engines at work to thwart his wishes: but indignation and an amorous
impatience for once lent to James resolution sufficient to carry his
point. Disregarding a declaration of his privy-council against the
match, he instigated the citizens of Edinburgh to take up arms in his
cause, and finally accomplished the sending out of a splendid embassy,
by which the marriage-articles were speedily settled, and the princess
conducted on board the fleet which was to convey her to Scotland. A
violent storm having driven her for shelter into a port of Norway, the
young monarch carried his gallantry so far as to set sail in quest of
her; and re-conducting her, at the request of the king her father, to
Copenhagen, he there passed the winter in great joy and festivity; and
as soon as the season would permit, conducted his royal consort home in
triumph, and crowned her with all the magnificence that Scotland could
display. Seeing the turn which matters had taken, Elizabeth now made a
virtue of necessity, and dispatched a solemn embassy to express to her
good brother of Scotland her hearty congratulations on his nuptials, and
her satisfaction in his happy return from so adventurous a voyage.

In April 1590 died sir Francis Walsingham, principal secretary of state,
whose name is found in such intimate connexion with the whole domestic
policy of Elizabeth during several eventful years, that his character is
in a manner identified with that of the measures at this period pursued.

This eminent person, in his youth an exile for the protestant cause,
retained through life so serious a sense of religion as sometimes to