ABSTRACT
For the first decade of Elizabeth's reign, England's relations with Spain were uneasy but not especially strained. Neither Philip nor Elizabeth wanted to sever the traditional Anglo-Habsburg friendship. Philip II, for all his Catholicism, preferred a heretic to a French woman as queen of England and so twice during the 1560s dissuaded the pope from excommunicating Elizabeth. Similarly, at the council of Trent his cousin, Emperor Ferdinand, refused to countenance Pius IV's proposal to recognize the title of Mary Queen of Scots to the throne of England. Elizabeth, for her part, wanted peace with Spain to counteract the danger of hostility from the Guises in France. Consequently, despite mutual suspicions and the trade embargo of 1564, there was no open breach between England and Spain before 1568. On the contrary, efforts were made to negotiate a matrimonial alliance between Elizabeth and the Archduke Charles of Austria for the purpose of strengthening Anglo-Habsburg accord. During this time cordial relations were greatly assisted by the presence of Guzman de Silva as Spanish ambassador at Elizabeth's court, a man who was greatly liked by the queen and adept at smoothing over minor irritations [35; 147].
