n this head the archduke would have been satisfied with terms the
least favorable to himself that could be devised. He only stipulated for
the performance of Catholic worship in a private room of the palace, at
which none but himself and such servants of his own persuasion as he
should bring with him should have permission to attend. He consented
regularly to accompany the queen to the services of the church of
England, and for a time to intermit the exercise of his own religion
should any disputes arise; and he engaged that neither he nor his
attendants should in any manner contravene, or give countenance to such
as contravened, the established religion of the country. In short, he
asked no greater indulgence on this head than what was granted without
scruple to the ambassadors of Catholic powers. But even this, it was
affirmed, was more than the queen could with safety concede; and on this
ground the treaty was finally closed.

There is great room, however, to suspect that the real and the
ostensible reasons of the failure of this marriage were by no means the
same. It could scarcely have been expected or hoped that a prince of the
house of Austria would consent to desert the religion of his ancestors,
which he must have regarded himself as pledged by the honor of his birth
to maintain; and without deserting it he could not go beyond the terms
which Charles actually offered. This religion, as a system of faith and
worship, was by no means regarded by Elizabeth with such abhorrence as
would render it irksome to her to grant it toleration in a husband,
though on political grounds she forbade under heavy penalties its
exercise to her subjects. It is true that to the puritans the smallest
degree of indulgence to its idolatrous rites appeared a heinous sin, and
from them the Austrian match would have had to encounter all the
opposition that could prudently be made by a sect itself obnoxious to
the rod of persecution. The duke of Norfolk is said to have given great
offence to this party, with which he was usually disposed to act, by the
cordial approbation which he was induced, probably by his friendship for
the earl of Sussex, to bestow on this measure. Leicester is believed to
have thwarted the negotiations by means of one of his creatures, for
whom he had procured the second rank in the embassy of the earl of
Sussex; he also labored in person to fill the mind of the queen with
fears and scruples respecting it. But it is p