During the night of 13 September 1575, Alençon fled from the French court after being alienated from his brother King Henry III as they had had some differences.

This combined army was enough to force Henry III, without a pitched battle of any sort, to capitulate and sign the very pro-Protestant "peace of Monsieur", or Edict of Beaulieu, on 6 May 1576.

Among members of Elizabeth's Privy Council, only William Cecil, Lord Burghley, and Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, supported the marriage scheme wholeheartedly.

Most notable councillors, foremost among them Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and Sir Francis Walsingham, strongly opposed it, even warning the Queen of the hazards of childbirth at her age.

[citation needed] In these years, Walsingham became friends with the diplomat of Henry of Navarre in England, the anti-monarchist Philippe de Mornay.

[citation needed] Alençon was a Catholic, and as his elder brother, Henry III, was childless, he was heir presumptive to the French throne.

According to the Earl of Leicester, Elizabeth tolerated his blunt opinions and often unwelcome advice, referring to Walsingham as "her Moor who cannot change his colour" with regard to his strong beliefs.

In spite of the Joyous Entries he was accorded in Bruges and Ghent and his ceremonious installation as Duke of Brabant and Count of Flanders, Anjou was not popular with the Dutch and Flemish, who continued to see the Catholic French as enemies; the provinces of Zeeland and Holland refused to recognise him as their sovereign, and William, the central figure of the "Politiques" who worked to defuse religious hostilities, came under extensive criticism for his "French politics".

[10] When Anjou's French troops arrived in late 1582, William's plan seemed to pay off, as even the Duke of Parma feared that the Dutch would now gain the upper hand.

However, Anjou himself, dissatisfied with his limited power, decided to take control of the Flemish cities of Antwerp, Bruges, Dunkirk, and Ostend by force.

To fool the citizens of Antwerp, Anjou proposed that he should make a "Joyous Entry" into the city, a grand ceremony in which he would be accompanied by his French troops.

[13] Catherine de' Medici brought him back to Paris, where he reconciled with his brother, King Henry III of France, in February 1584.