History Of Scotland Vol. 2 - Part 1

( Originally Published 1909 )

Disadvantages of the Protestants—They receive Supplies of Treasure from England: a large Sum of which is intercepted by the Earl of Bothwell—The Protestants are repulsed from Leith, and retire to Stirling much discouraged—They recover Courage at the Exhortation of John Knox; and send Lethington to the Court of England—Aid is granted to the Reformers by Elizabeth—A Detachment of the French ravage the Coast of Fife—The Protestant Gentlemen skirmish with them—Critical Arrival of the English Fleet—The French retreat

THE lords of the congregation were not long in discovering that in the task of besieging a fortified town like Leith, defended by veteran and disciplined troops, they had greatly overrated their own strength. The town, being open to the sea, could not easily be reduced by famine ; and the insurgents, however brave in the battlefield, were far inferior to the French in the attack and defence of fortified places. Brantome gives us reason to believe that the talents of the general of the French were of the first order, and affirms that it was sufficient to gain a high name in arms to have assisted at the siege of Leith.

But the Scottish nobles labored under other disadvantages besides inferiority in military skill. A still greater difficulty arose from the want of money to pay and maintain an army in the field, without which the feudal array of the reformed chiefs was sure to crumble to pieces anew in the space of a month or two. Meantime the necessary suspension of hostilities gave the queen an opportunity of disuniting the league of the reformed party by tampering with its leaders individally, and several who had been proof against the regent's threats were found not inaccessible to her promises. To guard against such pressing evils, the lords of the congregation resolved upon invoking the assistance of England, the only neighbor of power and wealth whose alliance or countenance could counterpoise that of France.

The cause of the reformation had been espoused and defended by Queen Elizabeth, whose right to the crown and whose title to legitimacy depended upon her father Henry's having disowned the authority of the Church of Rome. Indeed, if she herself had not seen her danger from the queen of Scots' title being set up in preference to her own, the princes of Lorraine had, with arrogance peculiar to their house, called her attention to the subject by making open pretence to the throne of England in behalf of their niece, Mary of Scotland. Money had been struck in France bearing the arms of England; proclamations had been made in the names of Francis and Mary, as king and queen of that country, as well as of France and Scotland ; and an open and avowed claim to the crown of Eng and was brought forward in Queen Mary's behalf by ever ' mode short of a direct challenge of Elizabeth's title. The English Catholics were known to be favorable to these views It was natural, therefore, that Elizabeth, whose birth and title of succession were thus openly impugned by the princes ces of Lorraine, should foster and encourage those Scottish insurgents who were in arms to dispossess their sister, th queen-regent, of the government of Scotland. According y, though accustomed to act with great economy, she was readily induced to advance considerable sums to the lords of the congregation, by which assistance, in 1559, they were enabled to form the siege of Leith.

Their undertaking was, at first, very unfortunate. A large sum of the subsidy furnished by Queen Elizabeth fell into the hands of the Earl of Bothwell, whose ill-omened name now first appears in history, and who had adopted the faction of the queen-mother. Two skirimishes, in which the Protestants were defeated, filled the besiegers with consternation : they renounced their enterprise precipitately, and retreated from Edinburgh to Stirling with fallen hopes and an army diminished by desertion. But Knox encouraged them by his fulminations from the pulpit : he sternly up-braided the hearers with their confidence in the arm of flesh, and promised them victory as soon as they should humble themselves to acknowledge the power of the Divine Disposer of events. The severe minister reminded them of the former errors of some among them, of the selfish views of others, of the want of concord among their leaders, the deficiency of zeal among the followers, and charged on their own faults and follies those losses which men of more timorous spirit ascribed to the superiority of the enemy. The eloquence of this extraordinary and undaunted preacher was calculated to work on the stubborn and rough men to whom it was addressed. The lords of the congregation resumed their purpose of resistance to the last, and resolved to despatch William Maitland of Lethington, one of the most distinguished statesmen of his time, to show the queen of England the pressuré of the circumstances under which they labored, and to demonstrate the necessity of assisting them in their defence, unless she would be content to see the Protestant party in Scotland utterly destroyed. The negotiator selected on this occasion had recently held the office of secretary to the queen; but as he dissented from the counsels which were transmitted to her from Paris, and had remonstrated with firmness against the measures to which she was instigated by attachment to her faith and family, he incurred the hatred and suspicion of the French to such a degree that he considered his life in danger from their resentment. Under such personal apprehension he fled from Leith to join the lords of the congregation at Stirling; for although he professed the reformed faith, he was never believed to be deeply animated with religious zeal. The great reputation which Lethington enjoyed as a statesman did not exceed his reel abilities; and his judicious remonstrances easily persuaded the sagacious Elizabeth to grant the succors required by his constituents.

It was the marked attribute of this great princess's administration, that, slow and cautious in adopting steps of importance, she was equally prompt and determined in the execution of them; and she took her meas res on this occasion with her characteristic wisdom and activity.

In the meantime the queen-regent of Scotland, who had received some additional assistance from France, and was in expectation of a much larger force, resolved to press the moment of advantage before the power of England could be put in motion. A body of French infantry, and a considerable party of horse, amounting altogether to about four thousand men, were sent into Fife, the most civilized part of Scotland, and where the inhabitants w-re most devoted to the Protestant faith, to punish the rebellious, and to destroy the power of the barons of that district. The invaders passed by the bridge of Stirling, and then arched eastward along the coast of the Firth of Forth, burning and wasting the villages and gentlemen's houses with which the shores were thickly studded. This was not done without much resistance and retaliation. The prior of Saint Andrew's, Lord Ruthven, Kirkcaldy of Grainge, a gentleman of Fife distinguished for his pre-eminent courage in an age when courage was a universal attribute, with other active leaders of the congregation, attended upon the motions of the French detachment, limited their forays, skirmished with them on every occasion, and conducted their resistance with such zeal and activity that though in number only five or six hundred men, they gained occasional advantages, and maintained by their zeal and courage, even in these arduous circumstances, the character of their country and the spirit of their party. The two armies continued for several days to move along the coast; the flames of towns and villages marking the progress of the French, and the sudden and vigorous charges of the Protestants interrupting from time to time the work of devastation, when the sight of a gallant navy of ships of war sailing up the Firth of Forth attracted the attention of both parties. D'Oysel, the French general, concluded that they were the fleet expected from France, and in that belief made his soldiers fire a general salute. But he was soon painfully undeceived by the capture of two of his own transports, which sailed along the shore to supply his men with provisions, and presently after this act of decisive violence the fleet showed English colors.

It was now the turn of the French to fly, as the invading detachment must otherwise have stood in considerable danger of being cut off from their friends on the southern side of the Forth. So that, instead of marching onward to Saint Andrew's and Dundee, both which towns had been especially devoted to plunder and destruction, d'Oysel attempted a retreat to Stirling, by a dangerous march in the opposite direction. The Scots had broken down a bridge over the Devon, hoping to intercept the enemy's return; but the French, well acquainted with the duties of the engineer, threw over a temporary bridge, composed of the roof or timbers of a church, which afforded them the means of passage. They effected with difficulty their retreat to Stirling, and from thence to Lothian. The critical arrival of the English fleet being considered as an especial interference of Providence in the Protestant cause, gave new courage to the lords of the congregation, who assembled forces on every side. The English land army, amounting to six thousand men, under Lord Grey de Wilton, now entered Scotland, agreeably to the engagement of Elizabeth, and united their forces with those of the Protestants. The French troops retired into Leith, and prepared to make good their defence, in hopes of receiving succor from France. The town was instantly blockaded by the English fleet on the side of the sea, and beleaguered on the landward side by the united armies of Scotland and England.

In 1560, the eyes of all Britain were bent on this siege of Leith, which the English and Scottish, now for the first time united in a common cause carried on with the utmost perseverance, while the French defended themselves with such skill and determination as was worthy the character they bore of being the best troops in Europe. They were, indeed, defeated at the Hawkhill, near Loch End, where the Scottish cavalry charged them with great fury, and gained considerable advantage; but the garrison of Leith shortly after avenged themselves by a successful sally, in which they killed double the number they had lost at the Hawkhill. On this occasion it became evident that the English, who had not lately been engaged in any great national war, had in some degree lost the habit of discipline. The attack on the besiegers found their Iines carelessly watched; and the ground where they opened their trenches being unfit for the purpose, argued inexperience on the part of the engineers.

The loss which they had sustained taught the English greater vigilance and caution; but so intimately were the French acquainted with defensive war that the siege advanced very slowly. At length a breach was effected and an assault both terrible and persevering was made on the town. The ladders, however, which were prepared for the occasion proved too short for the purpose, and the besiegers were finally repulsed with great loss. The English were at first depressed by this repulse; but they were encouraged to continue the siege by the Duke of Norfolk, commanding in the northern counties of England with the title of lieutenant. He sent a reinforcement of two thousand men, with an assurance that the besiegers should not lack men so long as there were any remaining between Tweed and Trent. The siege was renewed more closely than ever, with reliance rather on famine than force for reducing the place. But the garrison endured without murmur the extremity of privation to which they were reduced, and continued to maintain the defence of Leith with the most undaunted firmness.

While the affairs of Scotland were in this unpropitious condition, Mary of Guise, whose misrule had been the cause of these civil hostilities, died in the castle of Edinburgh. That strong fortress had remained during the civil war under the charge of the Lord Erskine, who remained neutral between the parties, and would admit neither of them in any numbers into the important national citadel. But when the siege of Leith was about to commence, the queen-regent, weak in health and broken in spirits, and unable to partake in the dangers and hardships to which the town was about to be exposed, requested to be received into the castle of Edinburgh for the safety of her person. This was readily granted by the Lord Erskine, on condition that she should be attended by a train so limited as to excite no apprehension for the security of the place. Here her disease, which was of a dropsical nature, gradually increased, aggravated, no doubt, by mental distress, arising out of the difficulties which multiplied around her.

On her death-bed she desired an interview with the prior of Saint Andrew's and some of the lords of the congregation, and expressed her sorrow for having listened to the councils which had brought the country to the pass in which it now stood. Having thus confessed her own errors, she pressed on them the necessity of keeping in view their duty to their infant sovereign. She heard with respect the admonitions of Willox, a Protestant divine of eminence, not, as we may suppose, with any idea of renouncing her own faith, but to give a sign of the candor toward those of a different persuasion, from which, in her life, she had too often departed. In these melancholy circumstances died Mary of Guise, of whom it was justly said that her talents and virtues were her own; her errors and faults the effect of her deference to the advice of others, and especially of her aspiring brothers.

Her death was speedily followed by proposals of peace from France. The ambitious views of the House of Lorraine had engaged France in a war not only with Scotland but with all Britain; and their sister's death deprived them of that interest in the Scottish government which Bothwell, Seton, and a very few other Scotsmen of influence hitherto acknowledged. Leith was now reduced to the last extremity, and must be either effectually reinforced or surrendered. The position of affairs in France afforded strong reasons against detaching any considerable force for relief of the town.

The enterprise of Amboise had opened to view a deep and extended conspiracy against the power of the House of Lorraine; and though it was discovered and prevented for the time, yet its elements existed all over France, and a single spark might unexpectedly extend a conflagration over the whole. It was, therefore, a point not of prudence only but necessity on the part of the French government, instead of sending fresh troops to Scotland, to make such an accommodation with the nobles of the kingdom as would permit them to withdraw the veteran troops who were cooped up in Leith, in order to their being employed in more pressing service at home.

In managing a difficult negotiation, where France was confessedly the weaker party, the princess of Lorraine employed Monluc, bishop of Valence, and the Sieur de Randan, men of consummate talent. Cecil, and Wotton, dean of Canterbury, were present at the conferences, on the part of England. The removal of the foreign troops was quickly agreed on; for the French government now desired their presence at home as much as the Scots wished their absence. The fortified places of Leith, Dunbar and Inch Keith were to be surrendered, and the fortifications destroyed. It was made a condition that no foreign forces should be introduced into Scotland without consent of parliament. The administration of government was vested in a council of twelve per-sons, of whom seven were to be named by the king and queen, and the other five by parliament. An indemnity' was stipulated for whatever violences had been committed by either party during the civil war. On the matter of religion, it was declared that the estates should report to the king and queen their opinion on that matter; and it was agreed that the parliament should be convoked without further summons.

A treaty was at the same time made between France and England, by which Francis and Mary recognized in the fullest manner the claim of Elizabeth to the English crown, and agreed that Mary, in time to come, should neither assume the title nor bear the arms of England. By this pacification, which was called the Treaty of Edinburgh, the civil wars of Scotland were conducted to a termination highly favorable to the cause of the Protestant religion, and very different from what seemed at first probable.