One of the few positive things to come out of the Newhaven campaign was the realisation that Elizabeth no longer had to fear the French navy. The formidable fleet that had confronted her father in 1545 no longer existed. Consequently a close relationship with Spain was neither necessary nor desirable. Anglo-Spanish relations had not been good since the 1530s, and Mary's marriage to Philip had made the situation worse. In so far as they wanted employment in Philip's armies, English aristocrats might proclaim themselves to be ‘Spanish’, but that was sheer opportunism, and the rest of the country did not share their profession. Mary had been deeply troubled by this hostility, and Elizabeth had made it perfectly clear to the count of Feria that she felt no obligation of gratitude to Philip at the time of her accession. ‘She trusts’, Feria wrote,‘in the people’. The king's proposal of marriage to her in January 1559 was undertaken solely in the cause of duty. She was still officially an ally in an ongoing war, and he knew perfectly well that, left to her own devices, she would take her country back into heresy. This he hoped to prevent, but was hugely relieved when she turned him down. His proposal was made in the course of duty, but he had placed the onus for refusal upon her. Thereafter the queen had played a double game. Neither her intervention in Scotland in 1560 nor that in France in 1563 were directly hostile to Spain, but both were contrary to Philip's interests. On the other hand she issued proclamations against the French pirates who were attacking Spanish shipping, and in September 1563 even ordered her subjects to defend Spanish ships which came under such attacks. There were crises in relations with Philip's agents in the Low Countries from 1563 to 1566, and again from 1568 to 1572, but in both cases the king himself gritted his teeth and refrained from any retaliation more formidable than a trade embargo. However Elizabeth realised that in backing Hawkins in 1568, she had sailed a shade too close to the wind, and thereafter drew back from similar commitments.