Before leaving Ghent, the King arranged a meeting between the two Duchesses in the garden of the Prinzenhof, and afterwards invited Christina to visit him at Flushing, where he spent some days before he embarked. They dined together for the last time on the 12th of August, and seem to have parted friends.[581] Then Christina returned to Brussels to prepare for her own departure, and Chaloner wrote home:
"I heare say the Duchess of Lorraine repaireth shortly hence into Lorraine, smally satisfied with the preferment of the other, for old emulations' sake."[582]
Sept., 1559] RIVALRY OF THE DUCHESSES
During the next two months Christina had much to endure. She found a marked change in the Prince of Orange. He treated her with profound respect and courtesy in public, but kept aloof from her in private, and appeared to have transferred his attentions to Margaret of Parma. All idea of his marriage with Renée—"the Duchess of Lorraine's soundlimbed daughter," as she was called by Chaloner—seemed to be abandoned, and in September he left Court to attend the French King's coronation at Reims. There was a general feeling of discontent abroad.
"The new Regent is greatly disliked," wrote John Leigh, an English merchant of Antwerp, "by all estates, who wished to have the Duchess of Lorraine for their ruler, and some of her own ladies have told her that she is a bastard, and not meet for the place."
The States refused to grant the subsidies asked for, and the people clamoured for the removal of the Spaniards. The nobles showed their displeasure by retiring to their country-houses, and the ladies absented themselves from Margaret's receptions to meet in the Duchess of Lorraine's rooms.[583] This naturally provoked quarrels and jealousies, which, as Arras remarked in his letters to Philip, might easily prove serious.
"Then there is rivalry between the Duchess of Lorraine and her of Parma," wrote the Bishop on the 4th of October, at the end of a long tale of troubles. "The best way would be to keep them apart, for all these comings and goings can produce no good result. Fortunately, the former is about to go to Lorraine. We shall see if she leaves her daughters here, or takes them with her. What is certain is that, wherever she and her daughters may be, it will be better for Your Majesty's service they should be anywhere but here, as long as Madame de Parma remains in these parts, and discord prevails between her and the Duchess."[584]
When Arras wrote these words, Christina was already on her way to Lorraine. Philip received a letter from her at Toledo, informing him of her final departure, and wrote to tell Arras that all strife between the Duchesses was now at an end.[585] In the same month a marriage was arranged between William of Orange and Anna of Saxony, the Elector Maurice's daughter. Arras was greatly alarmed when he heard of this alliance with a Protestant Princess, and used all his powers of persuasion to induce the Prince to return to his old suit and marry Mademoiselle de Lorraine. But it was too late. The Prince knew that the Duchess would never forgive the studied neglect with which he had treated her, and, as he told the Bishop, his word was already pledged. A year later he married the Saxon Princess, but lived to repent of this ill-assorted union, and to realize that he had been the dupe of Philip and his astute Minister.[586]
II.
Oct., 1559] MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS