[1475] Ibid., No. 1,739, May 25, 1571; No. 1,813, Francis Walsingham to Lord Burghley: He told her that he had delivered a form of the English prayers to Monsieur de Foix, which form the Pope would have by council confirmed as Catholic if the Queen would have acknowledged the same as received from him (Note in margin, “an offer made by the Cardinal of Lorraine as Sir N. Throgmorton showed me”). That the Queen was bound to prefer the tranquillity of her realm before all other respects. There was never before offered to France like occasion of benefit and reputation.
[1476] Report of conference between Walsingham and De Foix, C. S. P. For., No. 1,732, May 25, 1571.
[1477] Anecdote reported by Walsingham to Burghley, C. S. P., For., No. 1,813, June 21, 1571.
[1478] Ibid., Ven., No. 576, August 16, 1571; ibid., For., No. 1,928, August 17, 1571.
[1479] Ibid., No. 1,883, July 27, 1571. De Foix and Montgomery were deeply discouraged, the former protesting to Walsingham that he had “never travailled more earnestly in any matter in his life” (ibid., No. 1,732). “The queen mother never wept so much since the death of her husband” (ibid., No. 1,886, July 30, 1571). “The queen mother was in tears.... M. de Limoges said that ... he never saw the King in greater chafe, and the Queen Mother wept hot tears” (ibid., January 8, 1572).
[1480] Ibid., No. 1,886, July 30, 1571.
[1481] C. S. P. For., No. 20, January 7, 1572.
[1482] C. S. P. For., No. 23, January 9, 1572, Smith to Burghley.
[1483] The Queen to Walsingham: Directs him to express her great regret to the French king and the queen mother that she cannot assent to their proposal brought by M. de Montmorency for her marriage with the duke of Alençon, and to assure them that the only impediments arise from the great disparity in their age, and from the bad opinion that the world might conceive of her thereby (C. S. P. For., No. 496, July 20, 1572; cf. No. 375, May 25, instructions to the earl of Lincoln).
[1484] This objection was one so difficult to make without giving offense that it required all the delicacy of the English envoys to say anything at all. In C. S. P. For., No. 494 under date of July 20, 1572, will be found a draft of instructions to Walsingham in Burghley’s handwriting on this matter, and by him endorsed: “Not sent.” Burghley evidently preferred to leave this delicate subject to his sovereign. See the queen to Walsingham, ibid., No. 502, July 23, 1572, printed in full by Digges, p. 226.