Letter from de Quadra to Philip of Spain
Alvarez de Quadra

De Quadra To Philip.

London, June 30.

`Five or six clergy have been exposed on the pillory as conjurors and necromancers. They were found making a figure of the nativities of the Queen and Lord Robert, with I know not what other strange things -- trifles all of them, had they not fallen into the hands of men who were glad to make priests ridiculous.

`The Queen invited me to a party given by Lord Robert on St. John's day. I asked her whether she thought her ministers had done good to their country by making a laughing-stock of Catholics in this way. She assured me the secretary was not to blame. In speaking of your Majesty, she said that as long as you were in England you had been a general benefactor, and had never injured a creature.

`I professed myself shocked at the doings of the Council. I told her she should look better to them, and not allow these headstrong violent men to guide her in so serious a matter as religion.

`She listened patiently and thanked me for my advice. In the afternoon we were in a barge, watching the games on the river. She was alone with the Lord Robert and myself on the poop, when they began to talk nonsense, and went so far that Lord Robert at last said, as I was on the spot there was no reason why they should not be married if the Queen pleased. She said that perhaps I did not understand sufficient English. I let them trifle in this way for a time, and then I said gravely to them both, that if they would be guided by me they would shake off the tyranny of those men who were oppressing the realm and them; if they would restore religion and good order; and they could then marry when they pleased -- and gladly would I be the priest to unite them. Let the heretics complain if they dared. With your Majesty at her side the Queen might defy anger. At present it seemed she could marry no one who displeased Cecil and his companions.

`I enlarged on this point, because I see that unless I can detach her and Lord Robert from the pestilential heresy with which they are surrounded, there will be no change. If I can once create a schism, things will go as we desire. This therefore appears to me the wisest course to follow. If I keep aloof from the Queen, I leave the field open to the heretics. If I hold her in good humour with your Majesty, there is always hope -- especially if the heretics can be provoked into some act of extravagance. They are irritated to the last degree to see me so much about the Queen's person.

`Your Majesty need not fear that I shall alienate the Catholics. Not three days ago, those persons whom your Majesty knows of, sent to me to say that their party was never so strong as at this moment, nor the Queen and Council so universally abhorred.'

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