SPELTHORNE HUNDRED 



her illnesss seemed, however, to be over, and the 

 queen recovered rapidly. By 1 1 November she 

 was sufficiently well to be moved to Somerset 

 Place."* 



Elizabeth still continued to welcome suitors for 

 her hand. Hans Casimir, the eldest son of the 

 Elector Palatine, asked Sir James Melville, the 

 Scotch envoy, who was going from the Electoral 

 Court to London, to carry his portrait to the 

 queen, in April 1564. Elizabeth received Mel- 

 ville at Hampton Court, and he brought her the 

 pictures of the ' Duke Casimir ' and of his father 

 and mother to see. The next morning she met 

 him in the garden, and gave him back the por- 

 traits : ' She would have none of them,' Melville 

 said, and wrote to the duke and his father 'dissuad- 

 ing them to meddle any more in that marriage.' 3S 



In October Melville returned to Hampton 

 Court on a special mission from Mary Queen of 

 Scots, 391 and stayed at the palace for nine days, 

 seeing Elizabeth constantly, and trying to appease 

 her insatiable curiosity about Mary. 



Like Wolsey, Elizabeth often made appoint- 

 ments with the ambassadors to meet her in the 

 gardens, where she habitually walked every morn- 

 ing at eight o'clock, being careful, when she was 

 likely to be observed, not to walk with undignified 

 haste ; ' she, who was the very image of majesty and 

 magnificence, went slowly and marched with 

 leisure, and with a certain grandity rather than 

 gravity.' 39f 



Melville tells a story of his being taken by Lord 

 Hunsdon to hear the queen play on the virginals. 

 He was apparently led into ' a quiet gallery,' 

 where he might hear without being seen, but after 

 a time pushed aside the tapestry which hung over 

 the door and entered the room where she sat. She 

 stopped playing when she found that she was not 

 alone, and expressed surprise at his entrance, but 

 made him ' kneel on a cushion,' and at last drew 

 from him the compliment the old courtier had 

 hitherto skilfully evaded, as he was obliged to own 

 that she played better than his own queen did. 393 

 He also conceded that Mary ' danced not so high 

 or disposedly as she did.' 394 She was really fond of 

 music, and always had a great number of musicians 

 to play and sing while she dined or supped, as 



HAMPTON 



well as on state occasions, at masquerades, balls 

 and banquets. 396 She was also particular about 

 the music in the chapel at Hampton Court, and 

 used to send sometimes to tell her organist Tye 

 that 'he played out of tune,' to which he re- 

 turned, in uncourtier-like phrase, that ' her ears 

 were out of tune.' S9e 



In 1568 an important council was held at 

 Hampton Court on 30 October, to decide on the 

 further action of England with regard to the con- 

 ference then being held in London concerning the 

 chances of reconciliation between Mary Queen of 

 Scots, who was a prisoner at Carlisle, and her rebel 

 lords. 397 It was probably on this occasion that 

 Elizabeth was made aware of the growing excite- 

 ment among her Roman Catholic subjects, and the 

 likelihood of a rising in the north on Mary's be- 

 half. 398 The queen gave Mary's commissioners an 

 audience at Hampton Court on 23 November, and 

 assured them that the proceedings were to be in 

 no way judicial.' 99 



During the sitting of the conference Elizabeth 

 remained at Hampton Court, where she received 

 the new French ambassador, La Motte F6nelon, 

 and also the Cardinal de Chatillon, brother of 

 Coligny, who was the envoy of Conde and the 

 Huguenots. 400 



On Friday 3 December Mary's commissioners 

 again appeared at Hampton Court, and protested 

 against the attitude of the Regent Murray and of 

 the English commissioners. 401 An answer was 

 not given at once, and they returned to the 

 palace the next day, when they asked to see Leicester 

 and Cecil, and suggested a compromise. 402 On 

 8 December the celebrated Casket letters were 

 produced by Murray and laid before the English 

 commissioners, and a great council of peers was 

 summoned at Hampton Court to discuss the pro- 

 ceedings of the conference and to see these proofs. 403 

 The first meeting was on 1 3 December, the 

 opinion of the peers was not unanimous, and for 

 some time afterwards negotiations were carried on 

 incessantly between Elizabeth and Mary's com- 

 missioners. 401 



Before Murray's departure 405 he had an inter- 

 view with the Duke of Norfolk in the park, talking 

 with him and encouraging him in his aspirations 



889 Froude, Hist. Engl. vii, 429. De 

 Quadra wrote that 'when the Queen 

 feared she might die she protested 

 solemnly before God that although she 

 loved Robert dearly nothing unseemly 

 had ever passed between them.' Cal. 

 S.P. Spanish, 1562,!, 190, vide Martin 

 Hume, Courtship! of Queen Eliz. 68. 



890 Melville, Memoirs, 79. 



891 He was sent to apologize to 

 Elizabeth for an angry letter written to 

 her by Mary, because Elizabeth had 

 suggested a marriage between the Queen 

 of Scots and Lord Robert Dudley. 

 When Melville left the palace he was 

 conveyed by Dudley in his barge from 

 Hampton Court to London. He 

 asked what the Queen of Scots thought 

 of the proposal that she should marry 

 him, but Melville answered 'very 

 coldly,' and Lord Robert declared the 



proposal an invention of his enemies ; 

 Melville, Memoirs, 97, 101. 



8M Digges, Comfleat Ambassador, 

 300 ; Melville, Memoirs, 97. 



898 Melville, Memoirs, 101. 



894 She asked him constantly whether 

 she or Mary were the more lovely, the 

 taller, the better dancer, &c. 



896 Nichols, Progresses of Queen Elix. 



', 487, 5*9- 



898 Ibid, i, 193. In Hawkins's 

 Hist, of Music, v, 201, he says that 'in 

 the hour of her departure she ordered 

 her musicians into her chamber and 

 died hearing them.' 



89 7 Goodall, Examination of the Let- 

 ten of Mary Queen of Scots, ii, 179. 



898 Froude, Hist, of Engl. ix, 335, 

 quoting a letter from Cecil to Sir H. 

 Sydney. MSS. Ireland, P.R.O. 



899 Goodall, op. cit. ii, 189. 



345 



< Dlpeches de la Motte Fenelon, i, 

 1-16. 



<M The Bishop of Ross was spokes- 

 man for the Scottish commissioners. 

 Froude, Hist, of Engl. ix, 344 ; Goodall, 

 Journ. ofP.C. 223. 



403 These proceedings at Hampton 

 Court were more or less private, and 

 not meetings of the conference ; Law, 

 Hist, Hampton Court Palace, i, 307, 

 n. 3. 



108 The Earls of Westmorland,North- 

 umberland, Derby, Shrewsbury, Wor- 

 cester, Huntingdon, and Warwick, be- 

 sides members of the Privy Council, 

 Sir Nicholas Bacon, Clinton, Leicester, 

 Cecil, &c. 



< Hist. MSS. Com. Ref. iv, App. 

 209-10. 



<os Hosack, Mary Queen of Scott and 

 her Accusers, i, 425. 



44 



