Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 edition. Excerpt: ... chapter viii Elizabeth's Triumph (1558--1559) Mary's last days--Philip unable to come--The Count de Feria's mission--Mary recognises Elizabeth's right to the Succession--Death of the Queen--Elizabeth's Proclamation--Cardinal Pole's deathbed message to Elizabeth--Spain's vanishing influence--Feria's letter to Philip--Elizabeth's Court removes from Hatfield to London--Her letter to Philip--Early talk of Philip's plan to marry Elizabeth--France and Mary Stuart's claim to the English Crown--The Peace negotiations--Elizabeth and her rival suitors--The religious question--First signs of change--Philip's lost opportunity--Condescends to offer his hand to Elizabeth--French attempt to negotiate secret Peace Treaty--Elizabeth's Coronation--Opening of her first Parliament--The struggle for Calais--Philip decides to marry Elizabeth de Valois--His indecisive policy in England--Peace, and the parting of the ways. Mary's end was now fast approaching, an attack of fever aggravating her constitutional disorder. Few gleams of sunshine brightened her last days, save those which came from the faith which had been her sheet-anchor all her life. It was one of the dramatic situations that by joining in the war she had come into open hostility with the Pope, the ally of France. No one had felt more deeply than the Queen the national humiliation when the fall of Calais, followed by that of Guisnes, robbed England of her last hold on French soil. Disappointed in her tenderest hopes, tormented by anxieties concerning her consort, as well as by the personal animosity of Pope Paul iv. towards her kinsman Cardinal Pole, it is not surprising that the weight of all these burdens proved more than she could bear. Philip heard of the alarming development of her illness...