In November 1595 a book entitled A Conference About the Next Succession to the Crown of England appeared in England published under the pseudonym ‘R. Doleman.’ It took advantage of the fact that the Tudors had failed to assert the strict hereditary principle, and claimed that 'ancestry of blood alone’ was not enough to gain a crown. A monarch should have all the attributes of honor necessary to majesty and, the book argued, there was no such candidate within the Tudor family. The Doleman book took advantage of every consideration ever raised against the Tudor candidates, crystallized popular prejudices and added new disqualifications. Readers were invited to reflect that in the Suffolk line, Beauchamp and Lord Derby had damaged their royal status by marrying the daughters of mere knights (the daughters of Sir Richard Rogers and Sir John Spencer respectively). Beauchamp and Derby were therefore simply not royal enough to command respect. Of the senior Stuarts, Arbella was said to be of illegitimate descent because Margaret Tudor’s second husband, the Earl of Angus, had another wife living at the time of their marriage, while James was disqualified under the Bond of Association. The book further argued that James’s Scots nationality made him a particularly undesirable choice–and here Persons had hit on a raw nerve.
Historically, Scotland was 'the old, beggardly enemy,’ and although the Scottish Reformation of 1560 had ended three centuries of armed conflict the English still despised their impoverished northern neighbor. For many, the idea of a Scot becoming King of England suggested a ridiculous reversal of fortune. Doleman played up to these feelings, claiming that there was no possible advantage to England in joining with an impoverished country whose people were known for their 'aversion and natural alienation … from the English’ and for their close ties with England’s Irish and French enemies: James would fill English posts with Scottish nobles and might even oppress the English with foreign enemies.
Furthermore, Doleman warned, while some claimed that England and Scotland shared the same religion, the truth was that Scottish Calvinism was 'opposite to that form which in England is maintained,’ with its rituals and bishops. If James became king the nobility would find the Church hierarchy torn down and themselves subject to the harangues of mere Church ministers. His words echoed something the Earl of Hertford had once said of the Puritans: 'As they shoot at bishops now, so they will do at the nobility also, if they be suffered.’ The fact that episcopacy had been abolished in Scotland in 1593 added credence to the claims.
Having thus dismissed all the Tudor candidates as unworthy, the Doleman book announced that in seeking a successor to Elizabeth 'the first respect of all others ought to be God and religion.’ If this seems a strange argument now it is worth remembering that the rights of the present royal family have been based on this premise since the reign of William and Mary. It held still greater force at a time when kings were believed to rule by divine right.
The Doleman book accepted that each faith would prefer to choose a monarch of its own religion, but it expressed no doubt that a Catholic choice would win since Catholics were strengthened by the persecution 'as a little brook or river, though it be but shallow … yet if many bars and stops be made therein, it swells and rises to a great force.’ It was a belief shared within the Protestant establishment. Even Walsingham had once observed that the execution of Catholics 'moves men to compassion and draws some to affect their religion.’ The book’s comments were not, however, designed to spread dismay among Protestants so much as to attract the attention of Catholics. Doleman informed Catholics that they were not only bound to choose a Catholic candidate as a religious duty but also blessed with an excellent choice: Philip II’s favorite daughter, the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia. Her claim through her father (and thus Edward III) was strengthened by that of her mother, Elizabeth of Valois, a descendant of the Dukes of Brittany, to whom William the Conqueror had pledged feudal obedience.
The book claimed Isabella also had the personal attributes necessary in a great monarch. She was 'a princess of rare parts both for beauty, wisdom and piety’ and, as she came from a rich kingdom, she was less likely to 'pill and poll’ her English subjects than a poverty-stricken Scot. The arguments made the Infanta a powerful and believable candidate overnight. As a final touch, Persons mischievously dedicated the book to Spain’s leading enemy at court, the Earl of Essex–he who had attracted such a large Catholic following. 'No man is in more high and eminent place or dignity,’ Doleman wrote; 'no man likes to have a greater part or sway in deciding this great affair.’
