44 THE CECILS
father, and in 1561 he was sent to France with his tutor to improve his mind. Of his subsequent escapades some account will be given later, and also of his marriage and subsequent career.
Meanwhile Mary Stuart, left a widow at the age of eighteen through the death of Francis II., had returned to Scotland in August, 1561, and was for many years to be a thorn in the sides of Elizabeth and Cecil. Herself the legitimate heir to the English throne, she was the natural head of the Catholic reaction and the centre of Catholic intrigue. Her marriage with Darnley in 1565, though apparently approved at first by Elizabeth, raised the hopes of the Catholics throughout Europe still further ; and the birth of her son James in the following year, may well have appeared as an assurance of ultimate victory. From this catastrophe the country was saved by the crimes and tragedies of the next few months. The murder of Darnley and the marriage with Bothwell alienated all Mary's friends, and her capture and imprisonment on Loch Leven were followed by her abdication in July, 1567. But the troubles of the English government with regard to Mary were only just beginning. With her escape from Loch Leven and flight into England they became acute. All the forces of discontent rallied round her on her arrival in England, and from this time onward Cecil, in whom the Catholics at home and abroad had long recognised the main obstacle to the realisation of their hopes and of Mary's claims, was the object
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