of his policy, a good understanding with England.  Furthermore, she was disliked by all the nobles who had seized upon the property of the Church and added it to their own possessions.  Up to the age of twenty-five she had, by Scots law, the right of recalling all grants of land made during her minority, and her greedy nobles knew well that the victory of Roman Catholicism meant the restoration of Church lands.  Her relations with France were uncertain, and the Guises found their attention fully occupied at home.  As the next heir to the throne of England, she was bound to be very careful in her dealings with Elizabeth.  United by every tie of blood and sentiment to Rome and the Guises, she was forced, for reasons of policy, to remain on good terms with Protestantism and the Tudor Queen of England.  The first years of Mary’s reign in Scotland were marked by the continuance of good relations between herself and her half-brother, whom she entrusted with the government of the kingdom.  In 1562 she suppressed the most powerful Catholic noble in Scotland, the Earl of Huntly.  The result of this policy was to raise an unfounded suspicion in England and Spain that the Queen of Scots was “no more devout towards Rome than for the sustentation of her uncles".[66] The indignation felt at Mary’s conduct among Roman Catholics in England and in Spain may have been one of the reasons for Elizabeth’s adopting a more distinctly Protestant position in 1562.  In the Act of Supremacy of that year the first avowed reference is made to the authority used by Henry VIII and Edward VI, i.e. the Supreme Headship of the Church.  It at all events made Elizabeth’s position less difficult, because Spain and Austria were not likely to attack England in the interests of a queen whose orthodoxy was doubtful.

Meanwhile Elizabeth was directing all her efforts to prevent Mary from contracting a second marriage, and, at all hazards, to secure that she should not marry Don Carlos of Spain or the Archduke of Austria.  Her persistent endeavours to bribe Scottish nobles were directed, with considerable acuteness, to creating an English party strong enough to deter foreign princes from “seeking upon a country so much at her devotion".[67] She warned Mary that any alliance with “a mighty prince” would offend England[68] and so imperil her succession.  Mary, on her part, was attempting to obtain a recognition of her position as “second person” [heir presumptive], and she professed her willingness to take Elizabeth’s advice in the all-important matter of her marriage.  The English queen made various suggestions, and found objections to them all.  Finally she proposed that Mary should marry her own favourite, Leicester, and a long correspondence followed.  It was suggested that the two queens should have an interview, but this project fell through.  Elizabeth, of course, was too fondly attached to Leicester to see him become the husband of her beautiful rival; Mary, on her part,