Note 215 — Chapter VII · 1564-1566

Castelnau de la Mauvissière was in London in May 1565 on his way to France from Scotland, and gives, in a letter to the Queen-mother, a most entertaining account of a conversation with Elizabeth at a night garden-party given by Leicester in his honour (the letter itself is in a private collection, but is printed in Chéruel’s Marie Stuart et Catharine de Medici). She said how much more popular in England Frenchmen were than Spaniards; praised the young King as “the greatest and most virtuous prince on earth.” She asked Castelnau whether he would be vexed if she married the King. “Although she had nothing,” she said, “worthy of so great a match: nothing but a little realm, her goodness and her chastity, on which point at least she could hold her own against any maiden in the world,” and much more to the same effect. Castelnau says he never saw her look so pretty as she did. Catharine took the hint, and her industrious approaches to Smith were largely prompted by Elizabeth’s coquetry to Castelnau on this occasion.