|
|
||
|
m KNTKANOK INTO COURT-LIFE AND EMBASSY 47
of groat important which had recently been mooted
between them on tho Oontinont. It involved the participation of eminent foreigners. It required the .sanction and active assistance of the queen. What this was wo do not know. Some of Sidney's bio- graphers are of opinion that it concerned his marriage with a Gorman noblewoman. Others—perhaps with bettor reason conjecture that his candidature for the Polish Crown had then been mooted. When Henri III resigned the throne of Poland for that of France in 1574 Stephen Bathori was elected king. He lived until 1585. But in 1577, the year of Languors mysterious letters, ho had not yet given substantial proof of his future policy ; and tho Protestant party in Europe might have boon glad to secure a nominee of the English queen as candidate in the cano of a vacancy. There is no doubt that a belief prevailed after Sidney's death that the crown of Poland had m Homo sort been offered him. Tho author of The, Life, and Jkath of $/V Philip Sidney mentions it. Sir .Robert Naunton assorts that the queen rofuHed u to further his advancement, not only out of emulation, but out of fear to lose tho jewel of her times." Fuller fiayn that Sidney doclinod tho honour, preferring to bo "a Buhjoct to Queen Elizabeth than a sovereign beyond tho mm" It would be far too flattering to Philip to HUppuBo that a simple English gentleman in his twenty- third your received any actual oiler of a throne which a king of Franco hud recently vacated, and which was generally given by election to nueh us could afford to pay dourly for tho honour. Yet, it in not impossible that the Reformed princes of Germany may have thought him a good pawn to play, if Kltouboth were willing to back |
||
|
|
||