500 THE SUCCESSION QUESTION October of a definitive answer ; but it was an ill-placed hope that demanded for its realization more skill in parliamentary tactics than they possessed. The line of action that they should have taken had already been suggested; for, if we may believe Quadra, before the presentation of the petition and perhaps when the subsidy bill was first mooted, there had been a motion ' that the successor to the throne should be declared before the supplies were voted ' : but in the face of much difference of opinion it had been ineffective. 1 The commons, therefore, failed to make use of their control of supplies, and in consequence the only step they took to hasten the queen's definitive answer was to send a reminder to her through the privy councillors on 12 February, the effect of which was to evoke a rebuke four days later, when she sent a message ' that she doubted not, but the grave Heads of this House did right well consider, that she forgot not the Suit . . . for the Succession, the Matter being so weighty, nor could forget it ; but she willed the young Heads to take Example of the Ancients 2 And so, deprived by its own neglect of its one tactical advantage over the queen, the lower house was easily outmanoeuvred. As a result it is to the lords that we must turn for what subsequent interest attaches to the question this session. It is hard to believe that Elizabeth seriously thought of settling the succession, at least in any final sense. Apart from the diffi- culty of deciding the rival claims, the uncertainty was itself a diplomatic asset, whilst her experience of plots as the heire£> of Mary had convinced her that the step could not be taken without danger to herself. 3 Certainly Cecil was without hope that anything would come of the agitation. 4 Nevertheless, on 28 March Quadra first reported to his master what on 3 April he declared to be ' a proposition . . . made on behalf of the Queen to the lords ... to regulate the succession ... by a public Act, reducing the right to succeed to four families, amongst which the Queen might nominate the person who appeared nearest and fittest to succeed her. They have been discussing this matter all the week ', he continued, ' trying to discover some solution which will satisfy the needs of the nation, and at the same time fulfil the Queen's plans and keep the queen of Scotland in sus- pense.' In the meanwhile Lethington was defending the Scottish claim by threats of hostile alliances, and at length, so Quadra understood, ' in order to satisfy all these divergent interests ', the lords have agreed to pass an Act providing that in case the Queen dies no office, either judicial or in the household, shall become vacant, and twenty- 1 Spanish Cal., Eliz., i. 294. 2 Co7nmons > Journals, i. 65. 3 See p. 515, below. * Wright, i. 121, 124.
