i68 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 64- political alliance, but they told him it must be the mar- riage or nothing. 'We will not break with Spain alone,' said the Marshal de Cosse significantly to Cob- ham ; ' there would be many that would be contented to see two others in a quarrel whereby they being the third might live more safely/ 1 Nor would Alenc.on consent to suspend any longer his reply to the offer of the States. 1581. In the convention of Bordeaux, on the 23rd January. Q j anuarV) h e accepted the sovereignty of the Netherlands. Elizabeth recognized the necessity, and seemingly submitted to it. She appeared willing to take part in what she could not prevent. She had already promised Mauvissiere that she would supply Alencon with means to equip his army ; 2 and as the marriage treaty which had been drawn with Simier a year and a half before required revision, she professed herself willing to receive a second set of commissioners whenever it might please the King of France to send them. She wrote to Henry with some dignity, excus- ing her past irresolution as a weakness for which he 1 Cobham to Walsingham, Jan- uary 6. 1581 : MSS. trance. 2 ' Ha dado la Reyna esperan(jas al Embajador de Francia que como vengan los ciudadanos dara 200 mil ducados a Alencon de los que ha traydo Draques para hacer en com- pafiia del de Berne y Conde, la Jornada de Flandes, y juntamente que hara que Casiiniro entre al misino tiempo con ejercito por la parte de Gueldres, asegurando aquel Estado y divirtiendo las fuer^as de V. Hag* ; y aunque para semejante empresa no les faltan difficultades, la Reyna aliraenta a. Alencon con estas esperanijas, de las cuales se imagina, y assimismo los Franceses, que les ban de ser aseguradamente de gran fruto, lo cual creen con facilidad por lor mucho que lo desean.' Don. B. de Mendoza al Key, 9 Enero, 1581 : MSS. Simancas.
