History Of Scotland Vol. 1 - Part 24

( Originally Published 1909 )

Proposed Marriage between Mary of Scotland and Edward, Prince of Wales The Earl of Arran Regent An English Party formed —Henry VIII.'s Demands—Successful Intrigues of Cardinal Beaton—The Treaty with England broken—Incursions of the English—Battle of Ancram Moor—Martyrdom of Wisheart—Murder of Cardinal Beaton—Battle of Pinkie—Treaty of Marriage between Mary and the Dauphin of France—She is sent over into France—Arran is induced to resign the Government, and the Queen-Mother is declared Regent—Peace with England —The Queen-Regent's Partiality for France—Her Dissensions with the Scottish Nobles—Her Proposal for a standing Army is rejected—Progress of the Protestant Doctrines—Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrew's—Claim of Queen Mary to the Crown of England—Bold Answer of the Protestants to a Citation of the Queen-Regent—Death of five Commissioners sent to France—The Queen-Regent resolves to subdue the Protestants, who take Arms—Treaties of Accommodation are repeatedly broken—The Reformers destroy the Monastic Buildings—The Treaty of Perth violated, and the Protestants take Arms—They advance to Edinburgh—The Queen-Regent fortifies Leith—The Lords of the Congregation promulgate a Resolution that she has forfeited her Office of Regent

THUS was Scotland, by the death of an accomplished king, having only attained his thirty-first year, reduced once more to one of those long minorities which are the bane of her history, and which, in the present case, brought even more than the usual amount of misfortune.

The Scots, involved in a national war which had no national object, were, upon the decease of James V., willingly disposed to address Henry in a pacific tone, in which they reminded him that they now spoke in behalf of their infant queen, his own near relation, who could have wronged no one, since she did not as yet know good from evil.

Henry VIII. is said to have evinced some kind feelings toward the memory of his unfortunate nephew : he shed a tear over James's fate, and imputed his errors to evil counsellors. Monarchs, however, have little leisure to indulge in sentimental sorrows. The king of England soon lost the recollection of his nephew's faults and merits in considering how the events which had happened could be rendered avail-able to the increase of his own territories and authority. The road to the conquest of Scotland might, to a sanguine prince, appear to lie open; but it had been repeatedly attempted from the time of Severus downward, and had never been found practicable. The impetuous temper of Henry VIII. was, therefore, forced to stoop to the plan adopted by Edward I., ere the death of the Maid of Norway compelled his ambition to wear a sterner and more undisguised shape. A matrimonial alliance between the young heiress of Scotland and his son, afterward Edward VI., promised the English monarch all the advantages of conquest without either risk or odium. With this purpose he kept his eyes bent earnestly on the affairs of Scotland, to seize, as fast as they should occur, all means of furthering so desirable an object.

The government of the kingdom was claimed by the late Prime Minister, Cardinal Beaton, in virtue of a testament of the deceased king, which, however, was universally regarded as a forgery perpetrated by that ambitious churchman. He had, as before mentioned, succeeded his uncle, the turbulent archbishop of Glasgow, in James's councils, and was es-., teemed the author of most of the deceased king's unpopular measures, especially those in persecution of heresy. The nobles, who had no mind to perpetuate the power under which they had long groaned, unanimously rejected the claim, and preferred that of the Earl of Arran, representative of the House of Hamilton, and next heir to the Scottish crown, who was recognized accordingly as regent. Beaton was made prisoner by order of the regent, and detained in a species of honorable captivity, to prevent his embroiling the new government by the intrigues of which he was master ; and thus the Earl of Arran was placed at the head of affairs.

To this nobleman Henry addressed himself, March 15, 1542, for the purpose of accomplishing the matrimonial treaty which he had so much at heart. He did not neglect the obvious precaution of securing an interest and a party in the Scottish parliament. With this view the English ministers were directed to cultivate the intimacy of the various Scottish nobles and persons of rank who had been so strangely made prisoners at the rout of Solway Moss. Among these were the Earls of Cassilis and Glencairn, the Lords Maxwell, Somerville, Oliphant, and Gray. These nobles were dismissed free and without ransom by Henry VIII., upon their engaging to promote the views of that monarch by assisting in bringing about the desired alliance. Besides these, the English king had powerful auxiliaries in the banished Earl of Angus, and his brother Sir George, who returned to their native country, without waiting for a recall, as soon as the death of James V. was made public. Their forfeiture being instantly reversed in parliament, it became manifest that the displeasure of the king rather than the dread of the law had rendered them so long exiles. To these Douglases, indebted to him for protection and the means of support during an exile of fourteen years, the king of England communicated his purposes more fully than to the prisoners made at Solway, and by the means of both endeavored to form in the parliament of Scotland an English party, which might serve his interests more effectually than they could be advanced by force of arms. To this faction in the state was to be added the numerous men of influence who, being converts to the Protestant faith, were attached, on that account, to England, and held in abhorrence the power of France. But the temper of Henry was too impetuous to wait for the advantages which, with a little temper and patience, would certainly have arisen out of his own position toward Scotland, and the exertions of a numerous and powerful party, which was disposed to act unanimously in his behalf.

The king of England manifested the most eager and impetuous desire that the person of the infant queen should be delivered into his custody; and though it was represented to him that his proposal would certainly awaken the ancient jealousy which had so long subsisted between the kingdoms, it was with difficulty that he at last consented she should be suffered to remain in Scotland till she attained the age of ten years complete. Henry wasted so much time in these preliminary discussions that he lost the favorable moment in which the estates of Scotland were disposed to enter into terms with him concerning the marriage, and gave time for a politic adversary to recover the power of counteracting the whole project.

The adversary in question was Cardinal Beaton, who, as leader of the Roman Catholic party, and both in office and in talents head of the churchmen, was the devoted friend of France, and the no less determined enemy of England. While this intriguing priest was a prisoner of the regent, and while the rout at Solway and the death of James had overawed the minds of those nobles disposed to concur with him, Henry would have found little difficulty in accomplishing the matrimonial treaty which he meditated. But the moment the artful cardinal was free (having been liberated by the Lord Seton), his influence began to appear. By lavishing money, which his numerous Church preferments furnished in great store, by awakening all the ancient prejudices against England, and by dwelling on the imprudent tenacity with which Henry had clung to the rejected articles of the treaty, he contrived to unite a large and powerful body of the nobles, comprehending Argyle, Huntley, and Both-well, in opposition to the English alliance. A great number of the barons, chiefly from jealousy of the national independence, joined the same party; and the regent himself, after showing a vacillation of temper which in a less serious mat-ter would have been ludicrous, threw himself at last into the arms of the cardinal, and, within eight days after he had ratified the marriage treaty, renounced the friendship of Henry and declared himself for the French interest. This change in Arran's politics was attended with a corresponding alteration in his religion, for he had hitherto pretended great respect for the doctrines of the Reformation, and now he consented to every measure proposed by the cardinal for its suppression.

Henry was not to be trifled with in this manner with impunity. Resentment at what he termed the Scottish breach of faith prompted him to a vindictive invasion by sea and land : a strong army, under the Earl of Hertford, was em-barked in a numerous fleet. He took the Scots by surprise, landed in the Firth, plundered Edinburgh and the adjacent country, and thus destroyed for a time the English influence with the Scottish nobles. A series of destructive inroads on the frontier only added to the unpopularity of Henry with the people of Scotland.

Even Angus, the guest, pensioner, and brother-in-law of Henry by his marriage with the widowed queen of James IV., renounced the English monarch's friendship during the course of these ravages, and was distinguished by the share he took in an action by which they were in some degree revenged. The circumstances were these:

The ravages of the English during the campaign of 1554 were systematically conducted by Sir Ralph Ewers and Sir Brian Latoun, soldiers of great skill and activity, and wardens on the English marches. They cast down or burned a hundred and ninety-two towns, towers, bastle-houses, and parish churches, slew nearly a thousand Scots, and made upward of ten thousand captives. Ten thousand horned cattle, with twelve hundred horses, were but a part of the spoil made within three or four months. Many of the Scottish inhabitants of the western border, and the men of Liddisdale in particular, assumed from necessity a semblance of allegiance to England, and aided the invaders in these forays on Scotland.

To gratify the wardens for these achievements, the king of England conferred upon them in fief the two border counties of the Merse and Teviotdale, 1545. Sir Ralph, now Lord Ewers, and Sir Brian Latoun advanced to take saisin, as they said, of their new lordship, at the head of three thousand hired soldiers, paid by Henry, and two thou-sand borderers, the half of whom were Scots under English assurance. "I will write them an instrument of investiture with sharp pens and bloody ink," said the Earl of Angus, much of whose private estate was included in this liberal grant on the part of his royal brother-in-law. Accordingly, he urged the regent to pass hastily to the borders with such men as he had immediately around him, and put a stop to the dilapidation and dismemberment of the kingdom.

A small body of three hundred men was assembled, unequal, from their inferior number, to do more than observe the enemy, who moved forward with their full force from Jedburgh to Melrose, where they spoiled the splendid con-vent, in which lay the bones of many a heroic Douglas. The Scots were joined in the night by the Leslies and Lindesays, and other gentlemen from the western part of Fife; and apparently the English learned that the regent's forces were increasing, since they retreated toward Jedburgh at the break of day. The Scots followed, manoeuvring to gain the flank of the enemy. They were joined, near the village of Maxton, by Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch with his followers, by whose knowledge of the ground and experience in irregular warfare the regent was counselled to simulate a retreat. The English halted, formed, and rushed hastily to pursue, so that, encountering the enemy unawares, and at disadvantage, they were totally defeated. The two leaders fell, and very many of their followers, for the victors showed little mercy; and the Liddisdale men, who had come with the English as friends, flung away the red crosses which they had brought to the battle, and made a pitiless slaughter among the troops whom they had joined as auxiliaries. Many prisoners were taken, on whom heavy ransoms were levied, particularly on an alderman of London, named Read, whom Henry VIII. had obliged to serve in person in the wars, because he refused to pay bis share of a benevolence imposed on the city, it appearing that though the king of England could not invade a citizen's property, he had despotic power sufficient to impress his person.

King Henry was greatly enraged at the loss of this action, and uttered threats against Angus, whom he accused of in-gratitude. The Scottish earl little regarded his displeasure. "Is our brother," he said, "angry that I have avenged on Ralph Ewers the injury done to the tombs of my ancestors? They were better men than he, and I could in honor do no less. And will he take my life for that? Little knows King Henry the heights of Cairntable.1 I can keep myself safe there against all the power of England."

Thus all the nobility of Scotland, even those most nearly connected with Henry, and who had been most indebted to his favor, were, by his impetuous and harsh mode of wooing, rendered averse to the match which he had set his heart upon, and which in itself they approved, and had been so lately willing to further by every means in their power. Nor was his loss of partisans in that country compensated even by the accident which removed from his path Cardinal Beaton, by whom it had been chiefly interrupted.

This statesman had not reached the summit of affairs without making many private enemies, as well as acquiring the hatred of those who considered him as the prime opponent of the Protestant Church, and author of the death of those revered characters who had suffered for heresy. A recent instance of this kind, perpetrated under Beaton's own eye, was marked with unusual atrocity. A Protestant preacher, named George Wisheart, born of a good family, and respected for eloquence, learning, and for a gentleness and sweetness of disposition which made him universally esteemed, had distinguished himself much by preaching the reformed doctrines. Even the regent declined to proceed against him, or to commission lay judges to sit upon his trial. The cardinal, however, having treacherously got his person into his hands, proceeded to arraign the prisoner of heresy before an ecclesiastical court, by whom he was tried, found guilty, and condemned to the stake. Beaton himself sat in state to behold the execution of the sentence from the walls of the castle of St. Andrew's, before which it took place.

When Wisheart came forth to die, and beheld the author of his misfortunes reposing in pomp upon the battlements to witness his torments, he said to those around, either from a conviction that the country would not long abide the cardinal's violence, or from that spirit of prescience said some-times to inspire the words of those who are standing between time and eternity, "See yonder proud man : I tell you that in a brief space ye shall see him flung out on yonder ram-parts with infamy and scorn equal to the pomp and dignity with which he now occupies it." The martyr died with the utmost patience and bravery, and it is probable his words did not fall to the ground.

Meantime the cardinal, conscious of the danger in which he stood in a country where men's swords did not wait the sanction of legal sentence to exact vengeance for real or sup-posed injuries, usually dwelt in the castle of St. Andrew's, which stood on a peninsula overhanging the sea, and was strongly fortified. There were workmen employed to repair and strengthen the defences of the place at the very time that a desperate and irritated enemy contrived the death of the bishop within its precincts. Norman Lesley, called Master of Rothes, nourished deep resentment against the cardinal for some private cause; and associating with him about fifteen men, who shared his sentiments for sundry reasons, they surprised the castle at the break of day, expelled the garrison, and murdered the object of their enmity with many circumstances of cruelty. Execrable as the action was in conclusion and execution, they were able to assemble about one hundred and fifty men to defend the deed they had done, and defied all the forces which the regent could bring against them, until the French king sent to his assistance a body of auxiliaries, to whose superior skill the conspirators were compelled to surrender themselves, under promise of safety for their lives.

Even the death of Beaton, though his most inveterate political adversary, did not benefit the cause of Henry. The cardinal's place, both as primate and as counsellor of the re-gent, was supplied by a natural brother of the Earl of Arran, John Hamilton, abbot of Paisley, who, from possessing a superior firmness of mind, exercised much influence over his brother, and was as devoted a friend to France and the Catholic cause as the murdered cardinal had been during his lifetime.

So stood the English interests in Scotland, which had been ruined by the impetuous rudeness of Henry VIII., when that monarch was summoned to answer for his stewardship before an awful tribunal. It seemed, however, as if his spirit continued to animate his late council board. In emulative prosecution of the war between England and Scotland, the Duke of Somerset, protector of England, entered the eastern marches at the head of an army of seventy thou-sand men, many of whom were mercenary bands from Spain and Italy, experienced in war, and peculiarly formidable when their skill, experience, and discipline were opposed to an enemy so irregular as the Scottish forces. The regent, however, assembled an army almost doubling in numbers that of the invaders, and assuming a defensive situation on the north side of the Esk above Musselburgh, placed the lord protector of England in considerable danger, since he could not advance without fighting at disadvantage, could not keep his ground for want of provisions, and must have experienced great difficulty in attempting a retreat. Prudence and delay would probably have placed the victory in the hands of the Scots. But the military testament of Robert Bruce was once more forgotten, and the Scots, with national impetuosity, abandoned the vantage ground, to fight for the victory which time and patience would have given them without risk.

The English army occupied the crest of a sloping hill, on the southern side of the Esk, above Pinkie; that of Scotland, arranged in three large bodies, chiefly consisting of spear-men, having crossed the river, began slowly to ascend the acclivity. The English cavalry charged with fury on the foremost mass of spearmen ; but were received so firmly by the Scottish phalanx that they were beaten off with considerable loss. It is said that this commencement of the battle appeared so ominous to Somerset that he called for guides, and was about to order a retreat. His secret rival, and, as he afterward proved, his mortal enemy, Dudley, earl of Warwick, entertained better hopes, and directly commenced a flank fire with the cannon of the army and the arquebuses of the foreign mercenaries on the thick body of spearmen. Angus, by whom the Scottish vanguard was commanded, endeavored to change his position to avoid the cannonade. About the same time some Highlanders of the second division had broken their order, to hasten to the spoil, so that their irregular appearance, with the retrograde movement of Angus, communicated a panic to the rest of the Scottish army, who thought they were routed. At this decisive moment the Earl of Warwick, who had. rallied the English cavalry, brought them again to the charge, and introduced among the disordered forces of the Scots that terror which he had failed in producing upon these masses while they maintained their ranks. The numerous army of the Scots fled in total and irremediable confusion. Thus ended the battle of Pinkie, without either a long or bloody conflict. But the English horsemen, incensed at the check which they received in their first onset, pursued the chase almost to the gates of Edinburgh with unusual severity; and as many of the fugitives were drowned in the Esk, which was swelled with the tide, the loss of the Scots in the battle and flight amounted to ten thousand men. The whole space between the field of battle and the capital was strewed with dead bodies, and with the weapons which the fugitives had thrown away in their flight.

Yet this great battle was followed by no corresponding effects; for the Duke of Somerset, having garrisoned and fortified the town of Haddington, and received the compulsory submission of some of the border chiefs, withdrew to England with his victorious army. On the other hand, the loss of the battle, as it threw the Scottish nation into despair, compelled them in a manner to seek the assistance of France. An assembly of nobles met at Stirling, when it was agreed that the efficient support of their ancient ally should be purchased by offering the hand of their young queen in marriage to the Dauphin of France. They consented voluntarily to place her person in the hands of Henry II., the father of her bridegroom, on condition that he would furnish the Scottish nation with immediate and powerful assistance to recover Haddington and such other places as the English had garrisoned, and to defend the rest of the kingdom in case of a repetition of the invasions. The liberal terms thus freely offered to France were the more surprising, as the estates of Scotland had recently shown insurmountable reluctance to place similar confidence in Henry VIII. But from the prejudices created by a thousand years of war, the Scottish and the English nations were inspired with a jealousy of each other which did not exist in either country against other foreigners.

Henry II. of France caught at so favorable an opportunity of acquiring a new kingdom for his son. Six thousand veteran troops, under Monsieur d'Essé, were instantly despatched to Scotland, and it was in the camp which they formed before Haddington that the articles of the royal marriage were finally adjusted. The queen-regent used the utmost of her art and address, and no woman of her time possessed more, in order to gain over the opinions of such as could be influenced, and intimidate those who could not be so won. The regent, Earl of Arran, was induced to con-sent by a grant from Henry II. to accept the French title of Duke of Chatelherault, with a considerable pension from the same country. The opposition of meaner persons was silenced by very intelligible threats of violence from men that were extremely likely to keep their word; the fear of the French arms, among which they held their councils, imposed silence on others; and the person of the infant Queen Mary, suitably attended, was sent over to France by the same fleet which had escorted d'Essé and his troops to Scotland.' And thus, ere Mary knew what the word meant, she was bestowed in marriage upon a sickly and silly boy, a lot which might be said to begin her calamities.

The queen-dowager having perfected this great match in favor of the king of France, her kinsman, became naturally desirous of obtaining the interim administration of Scotland until her daughter should attain the years of discretion. For this purpose she dealt with the indolent and indecisive Earl of Arran for a cession of the regency. An augmented pension from France, high honors to himself and his friends, were liberally promised, together with a, public acknowledgment of his right as next heir to the Scottish throne. On the contrary, the threat of a minute inquiry into his legitimacy, which was not beyond question, a severe investigation of his management while regent, the ill-will of the queen and her party in the state, were arguments which shook his resolution. He acquiesced in the terms proposed; and though afterward he retracted, upon the upbraidings of his brother the primate, who irreverently exclaimed against the meanness that would resign the government when nothing stood between him and the crown but the life of a puling girl, he finally made the sacrifice required of him, and aware, perhaps, of his own unpopularity, resigned to the superior firmness of Mary of Guise the regency of Scotland.

In this capacity the queen-mother showed vigor and de-termination. With the assistance of d'Essé's French troops, she retook Haddington from the English, and drove out other petty garrisons which they had established after the battle of Pinkie. This warfare, though the actions were on a small scale, was uncommonly sanguinary. Many of the English officers had committed insolencies and atrocities during their hour of success which the Scots could not for-give; and not only did the latter themselves refuse quarter to the English, but there were instances of their purchasing English prisoners from the French, merely, like Indian savages, to have the pleasure of putting them to death. To such a height of animosity had mutual ravages and constant injuries heated the national resentment of two countries, which, save for an imaginary line of boundary, were in fact the same people.

The victory of Pinkie thus had no more effectual consequences in favor of England than those which had followed former defeats of the Scottish armies, and it furnished an additional proof, that while it was easy to inflict deep injuries upon Scotland, it seemed difficult or impossible absolutely to subdue the country. After so much expenditure of blood and treasure, the Scots were included in a peace between France and England, which, amid civil discord and party faction, the Duke of Warwick, now at the head of English affairs, was glad to accede to.

The queen-regent of Scotland, in her new acquisition of power, had one great disadvantage. She was a French-woman; and while she was in truth desirous of serving her country and sovereign, she found it very difficult to convince the people of Scotland that she was not willing to sacrifice the interests of the country which she ruled to that of which she was the native. The auxiliary army of d' Essé did not leave Scotland without a renewal of the hostile disposition which had on former occasions arisen between the French troops and the Scots, to whose assistance they had been sent. The rudeness, poverty, and haughty ignorance of the Scots took offence at the airs of superiority assumed by the brave and polished, but arrogant and petulant French. This had been the case in John de Vienne's time. But a large part of the Scottish nation had now additional reasons for disliking the auxiliary forces of d' Esse : they hated them not only as foreigners, but as papists. A brawl, arising out of a contention between a gunsmith of Edinburgh and a French soldier, about a culverin, ended in an open riot, to which both parties were previously well disposed. The Scots and French fought in the streets of Edinburgh, in which skirmish the lord provost of the town and the governor of the castle were both slain. Peace was restored with the utmost difficulty; but their having been guilty of such an insult in the capital of their ally added greatly to the growing unpopularity of the auxiliaries.

Although these ominous occurrences ought to have put the queen-regent on her guard against appearing to act by the advice of foreigners, and although the example of the Duke of Albany and the fate of the Sieur de la Bastie might have made her aware of the antipathy of the Scots to the rule of strangers, she did not hesitate to confer on French-men situations of trust and dignity in the Scottish state, and to use their advice in her councils. These new statesmen, better acquainted with the constitution and politics of France than those of Scotland, advised the queen to find means of supporting her government, by laying upon the landed proprietors taxes sufficient to maintain a standing army, and placing garrisons in the principal fortresses of the kingdom, of which, either by hereditary right or by grants from the crown, the nobility were the guardians. This proposal of the queen, made according to the advice of her French advisers, was in the highest degree unpalatable. The poverty of the nation was alarmed at the prospect of a land tax, and its pride at the supposition that the defence of the country could be better secured by intrusting it to mercenaries rather than to the children of the soil. As an experiment, the queen-regent requested the Earl of Angus's consent to put a French garrison into his castle of Tantallon. On hearing this proposal, the earl answered in words intended to apply to the queen, but directed to a hawk which sat on his fist, and which he was feeding at the time, "The devil is in the greedy kite; she will never be satisfied." But more directly and pointedly pressed on the subject, he said, "Tantallon is at your majesty's command as regent of the kingdom; but, by Saint Bride of Douglas, I must remain castellan of the fortress for your behoof, and I will keep it better for you than any foreigners whom you could place there."

When the plan of raising mercenary troops was proposed in parliament, about three hundred of the lesser barons came before the queen in a body, and asserted that they were as able to defend their country as their fathers had been, and that they would not permit the sacred task, which was the most honorable part of their birthright, to be transferred to mercenaries and strangers. The queen-regent, therefore, saw herself compelled to abandon her proposal.

The defeat of this scheme, which involved the embryo purpose of a standing army, was not more mortifying than the failure of another, by which Mary of Guise, out of a natural affection to her nation, hoped to serve the interests of France, now engaged in war with Spain and England, by embroiling Scotland in the quarrel. But although she contrived without much trouble to effect a breach of the peace between two countries which were equally jealous and irritable, yet the Scottish nation, taught by experience, entered into the contest as a defensive war only ; neither could the urgency of le Grocq, who commanded the French troops, nor the entreaties of the queen-regent, prevail on them to set a foot on English ground.

Meanwhile, in 1558, the marriage of the young queen of Scots was solemnly celebrated, and that union between France and Scotland achieved, so far as depended upon the execution of the marriage treaty. But by this time the subject of religion had become so interesting as to have greater weight in the scale of national policy than at any former period.

Thirty years had elapsed since the martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton for heresy; and during that period the Protestant doctrines, obvious as they were to the most ordinary capacities, had risen into that estimation which sense and firmness will always ultimately attain over craft and hypocrisy. They were promulgated by many daring preachers, who, with rude but ready eloquence, averred the truths which they were ready to seal with their blood. Among these, the most eminent was John Knox, a man of a fearless heart and a Ruent eloquence; violent, indeed, and sometimes coarse, but the better fitted to obtain influence in a coarse and turbulent age capable at once of reasoning with the wiser nobility, and inspiring with his own spirit and zeal the fierce populace. Toleration, and that species of candor which makes allowance for the prejudices of birth or situation, were unknown to his uncompromising mind; and this deficiency made him the more fit to play the distinguished part to which he was called. It was not alone the recluse and the solitary student that listened to these theological discussions. Men of the world, and those engaged in the affairs of life, lent an attentive ear to arguments against the doctrines of Rome, and declamations exposing their ambition, pride, and sensuality. The burgher and the peasant were encouraged to appeal to the Word of God itself from those who called themselves his ministers, and each was taught to assume the right of judging for himself in matters of conscience, and at the same time encouraged to resist the rapacity with which church dues were exacted in the course of life, and even in the hour of death. The impoverished noble learned to consider that the right of the Church to one-half at least of the whole land of Scotland was a usurpation over the lay proprietor; and the prospect of a new road to heaven was not the less pleasing that it promised, if trod courageously, to lie through paths of profit upon earth. The older generation had listened but slowly and unwillingly to a creed which shocked the feelings of awe and reverence for the practices of worship in which they had been educated; but the younger, who had risen into life while the discussions were common and familiar topics, embraced the reformed doctrines with equal zeal and avidity.

Since the death of Cardinal Beaton, there had been no attempt to turn the force of the existing laws against the growth of heresy. Hamilton, the archbishop of Saint Andrew's, though said to lead a life too irregular for a church-man, was more gentle and moderate than his predecessor, Beaton; and the queen-mother was too prudent, and too well acquainted with the state of Scotland and the temper of the people, to engage of her own accord in a struggle with so powerful a sect as the reformers, who now assumed the name of the Congregation. But when her daughter became queen of France, the celebrated Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine urged upon their sister the regent the absolute duty and necessity of rooting out the Scottish heresy. For this they had more reasons than mere zeal for the Catholic religion, though theirs was of the warmest temperature.

Mary of England was now dead; and the land, which had relapsed into popery at her accession, had again adopted the Protestant faith under her sister Elizabeth. The Catholics were not disposed to consider this great princess as a legitimate sovereign, but rather as the adulterous daughter of Henry VIII. by Anne Boleyne, his concubine, for whose sake he had broken the bonds of matrimony with Queen Catherine, and cast away the filial obedience due to the see of Rome. Failing Elizabeth, Mary, queen of Scotland, was heir of England in right of her grandmother Margaret, the sister of Henry VIII. In the eyes of all true Catholics, she had not only a contingent, but an immediate claim to succeed her namesake in the government. This title offered the most splendid visions to the two brothers of the House of Guise, who aimed at nothing less than subjecting England itself to the sway of their niece by means of the English Catholics, a numerous and powerful body. But this could only be accomplished by gaining for the Scottish queen the credit of a faithful nursing-mother of the Church, in destroying that branch of the great northern heresy which had raised its head in the kingdom of Scotland. She could not, with consistency, claim the character of a sound Catholic, a person likely to re-establish Catholicism in England, while the exercise of the reformed religion was publicly permitted in the realm which was properly her own.

Mary's mother, the queen-regent, was, therefore, against her better judgment, urged to pick a quarrel with the re-formers in Scotland, and she involved herself by the attempt in a train of consequences which poisoned all the future tranquillity of her regency and her life. The pretext was taken from some insults offered by the Protestants to the images of the Catholic faith, and particularly to Saint Giles, patron of the metropolis, whose effigy was first thrown into the North Loch, and then burned. To chastise this insolence, various among the most noted popular preachers were summoned to appear before the queen-regent and the bishops, and to undergo their trial as authors of the sedition. The preachers resolved to attend; and, that they might do so with safety, they availed themselves of a custom in Scotland (a right barbarous one), by which a person accused was wont to appear at the bar with as many friends as were willing to stand by him and defend his cause. The time was propitious; for a band of western gentlemen, zealous Protestants, were returning homeward from military services on the border, and willingly appeared in arms for the protection of their pastors. They were in vain charged by proclamation to depart from the city. On the contrary, they assembled themselves, and with little reverence forced themselves into the queen's presence, then sitting in council with the bishops.

Chalmers of Gadgirth, a bold and zealous man, spoke in the name of the rest "Madam, we know that this proclamation is a device of the bishops and of that bastard (the primate of Saint Andrew's) that stands beside you. We avow to God that ere we yield we will make a day of it.

These idle drones oppress us and our tenants, and now they seek the lives of our ministers, and our own. Shall we suffer this any longer? No, madam, it shall not be." As he concluded, every man put on his steel bonnet. The queen-regent was compelled to have recourse to fair words and entreaties, for little less was to be apprehended than the present massacre of the Roman Catholic churchmen. But by the queen's discharging the proclamation, and using gentle and kind words to Gadgirth and his companions, the danger was averted for the present.

The Scottish Protestants saw their advantage and were encouraged to further boldness. They made a popular tumult by attacking a procession of churchmen which paraded through the streets of the city. The images, which the insurgents termed Dagon and Bel, were dashed to pieces in contempt and derision; as for the churchmen, we may take John Knox's word, "that there was a sudden affray among them; for down goeth the crosses, off goeth the surplices, round caps, and cornets with the crowns : the grayfriars gaped, the blackfriars blew, the priests panted and fled, and happy was he who first got to the house, for such a sudden fray came never among the generation of antichrist within the realm before." This was the wild proceeding of a rabble; but an association and bond was immediately afterward entered into by the principal persons of the congregation, to defend their ministers, and assert the rights of hearing and preaching the Gospel. This avowal of faith, with an express determination to renounce the Catholic doctrines as delusions of Satan, was subscribed by many men of power and influence. The same leading Protestants, now called the "Lords of the Congregation," were also repeated petitioners to the queen-regent for some express legal protection; but, averse to place the new faith on so permanent a footing, she was liberal in promising such countenance from her own authority as should render a formal toleration unnecessary. An application to the con-vocation of popish clergy for some relaxation of the laws against heresy was, as might have been expected, refused by the churchmen with contempt.

A circumstance happened at this time which tended greatly to increase the suspicion with which the Scots regarded the House of Guise. Eight distinguished members had been sent from the Scottish parliament to witness the marriage ceremony between the dauphin of France and the young queen of Scotland. Four of these, by a singular coincidence, happened to die about the same time. The suspicious credulity of the age immediately imputed their death to poison, given, as was supposed, to facilitate the execution of some plan formed by the French statesmen against the independence of Scotland. As there existed no motive for such a crime, and no proof that it had taken place, and as the bishop of Orkney, a friend of the queen-regent, was one of the persons who died, the suspicion appears on the whole to have been unjust, and to have had no other foundation than the popular desire to assign extraordinary causes for uncommon events. But it was in the meantime highly calculated to place the queen-regent in a disadvantageous point of view to a great part of the subjects of Scotland.

Mary of Guise's government continued to be still further embarrassed by the zeal with which her brothers of Lorraine continued to press in the most urgent manner the adoption of violent measures against the Protestants. In compliance with instructions from France, the queen, forgetful of the violent scene with Chalmers of Gadgirth, again summoned the Protestant preachers to appear before a court of justice to be held at Stirling on the 10th May, 1559. Again the zeal of the congregation convoked a species of insurrectionary army to protect their ministers, which assembled at Perth, then animated by the preachings of John Knox. The queen-regent foresaw the danger which impended, and a second time appeared to retreat from her purpose, and engaged to put a stop to the prosecution of the ministers.

Through the whole eventful scene the subtlety of the queen-dowager made it manifest that she adopted and acted upon the fatal maxim of the Church of Rome, that no faith was to be kept with heretics. The Protestants had no sooner dispersed their levies than the queen caused the actions against their preachers to be anew insisted on; and upon the non-appearance of the parties cited, sentence of outlawry was pronounced against them.

The Protestants were incensed by this duplicity of the queen; and after a vehement discourse by John Knox against the idolatry of the popish worship, and a casual brawl which followed between an impudent priest and a petulant boy, the minds of the auditors were so much in-flamed that they destroyed, first the church in which the sermon had been preached, and then the other churches and monasteries of Perth, breaking to fragments the ornaments and images, and pillaging the supplies of provisions which the monks had provided in great quantity.

The queen in the meantime had drawn together her French soldiery, and, still more deeply irritated by the late proceedings of the multitude, prepared to march upon Stir-ling, and from thence to Perth, before the lords of the congregation could assemble their vassals. But she had to deal with prudent and active men, who were not willing a second time to be cheated into terms which might be kept or broken at the regent's pleasure. They assembled their forces so speedily that they could with confidence face Mary of Guise and her army, though above seven thousand strong. Still the principal Protestant nobles thought it best to come to an agreement with the queen-regent, rather than hurry the nation into a civil war. They agreed to admit Mary of Guise into Perth, on condition that her French troops should not approach within three miles of the city; that no one should be prosecuted on account of the recent disturbances; and that all matters in debate between the government and the lords of the congregation should be left to the consideration of parliament. No sooner, however, had this treaty been adjusted than the queen broke its conditions, by displacing the magistrates of Perth, and garrisoning the town with six hundred men. She endeavored to palliate this breach of faith by alleging that these troops did not consist of native Frenchmen, but of Scotsmen under French pay. Far from receiving this evasion as a good argument, the Earl of Argyle and Lord James Stewart retired to Saint Andrew's, and were there met by the Earl of Monteith, the Laird of Tulliebardine, and other professors of their religion. Although in an archiepiscopal see, and threatened by the primate, that, if he ventured to ascend his pulpit, he should be saluted with a shower of musket-balls, John Knox boldly preached before the congregation, and animated their resolution of defending their freedom of conscience. As it appeared plain that the violation of the treaty of Perth would once more put the lords of the congregation in arms, the queen on her part endeavored to seize an advantage by superior alacrity. She was again disappointed, although she early put her troops, now amounting to about three thousand men in the pay of France, into motion against Saint Andrew's, whither the principal reformers had retreated.

The lords of the congregation boldly determined to meet the queen-mother in the field; and though they set out from St. Andrew's with only one hundred horse, yet ere they had marched ten miles they were joined by such numbers as enabled them to remonstrate with the queen, rather than to petition for indemnity. Mary of Guise again resorted to the duplicity with which she was but too familiar. She obtained a pacification, but it was only on the condition that she should transport her French soldiery to the southern side of the Firth; and she agreed to send commissioners to St. Andrew's to settle on conditions of peace. The French-men were accordingly withdrawn for the time; but, with her usual insincerity, the queen altogether neglected to send the commissioners, or take any steps for the establishment of a solid composition.

The consequences were, that the congregation resumed arms a third time, and forcibly occupied Perth. From thence they advanced in triumph to the capital, the people, particularly the citizens of the burghs which they occupied, eagerly seconding them in the work of reformation; especially in the destruction of monasteries and the defacing the churches, by destroying what they considered the peculiar objects of Roman Catholic worship. The queen gave way to the torrent, and retreated to Dunbar, to await till want of money and of provisions should oblige the lords of the congregation to disperse their forces.

This period was not long in arriving. The troops of these barons consisted entirely of their vassals, serving at their own expense. When the provisions they brought with them to the camp (which never at the utmost exceeded food for the space of forty days) were expended, they had no means of keeping the field, and considered the campaign as ended. The burghers had their callings to pursue, and, however zealous for religion, were under the necessity of re-turning to their own residences when days and weeks began to elapse. These causes so soon diminished the army of the congregation, that the queen-regent, advancing with her compact body of mercenary troops, might have taken Edinburgh by storm, had it not been for a third treaty, patched up indeed, and acceptable to neither party, but which each was willing to receive for a time, rather than precipitate the final struggle. The articles of convention were, that the lords of the congregation should evacuate Edinburgh, to which the queen-regent should return, but that she should not introduce a French garrison there. The Protestants agreed to abstain from future violation of religious houses; while the queen consented to authorize the free exercise of the Protestant religion all over the kingdom, and to allow that in Edinburgh no other should be openly professed. These terms were reluctantly assented to on both sides. The Protestants were desirous that the French troops, the principal support of the queen-regent's power, should be removed out of the kingdom; while Mary of Guise, on the other hand, was secretly determined to augment their number, and place them in a commanding position.

She was the rather determined on following the violent policy suggested by the brothers of Guise, because the death of Henry II. and the accession of Francis and Mary to the throne had rendered the queen's uncles all-powerful at the court of France.

A thousand additional soldiers having arrived from France, the queen-regent, in conformity with the policy which she had adopted, employed them in fortifying as a place of arms the seaport of Leith. The lords of the congregation remonstrated against this measure; but their interference was not attended to. On the contrary, the queen-regent, influenced by the dangerous counsel of her brothers, the princes of Lorraine, shut herself up in the newly-fortified town, and haughtily disputed the right of the nobility to challenge her prerogative to establish her residence where she would, and to secure it by military defences when she thought proper.

The civil rights of the Scottish nation, as well as their religious liberties, were now involved in the debate; and the lords of the congregation were joined by the Duke of Chatelherault, and other noblemen who continued Catholics. Both parties, having convoked an assembly as numerous and powerful as a Scottish parliament, united in the decisive step of passing an act by which, under deep professions of duty to the king and queen, they solemnly deprived the queen-regent of her office, as having been exercised inconsistently with the liberties, and contrary to the laws, of the kingdom.