agree; the treaty in Edinburgh Castle was broken | present, they well knew that the conspirators off, and in a few days the English queen resolved that the siege of Leith should be more earnestly prosecuted, and her forces both by sea and land augmented. At the same time the English commanders were instructed not "to contemn or neglect any reasonable offers of agreement" that might be made by the French. But these veterans for a long time had no inclination to make any offers, and they continued to defend Leith with a skill and bravery which gained for them high honour among soldiers in every part of Europe. According to Brantome, a seal was put to a soldier's reputation if he could say that he had served in this gallant defence of Leith.' On the side of the English and Scots the operations advanced very slowly, and their labour was repeatedly rendered of no avail by the ingenuity of the French engineers. At last a bad breach was made, and towards this the English, who at least had lost none of their physical courage, rushed in blind fury, heedless of the well-directed artillery of the enemy: but when they came to use their scalingladders they found them far too short for the purpose, and after a dreadful struggle they were repulsed and obliged to flee to their intrenchments, leaving a ditch half filled with dead-the victims of the ignorance or inconsiderateness of their officers. The English were so much dispirited by their failure on this and other occasions, that they talked of a retreat; but more money was sent down to their Scottish allies, and the Duke of Norfolk, in addition to several smaller bodies despatched already, forwarded a reinforcement of 2000 men. Thus the siege was carried on more closely than ever, or, rather, it was converted into the closest of blockades. would never be reconciled to them. At such a moment they could not spare fresh troops for the very doubtful and expensive struggle in Scotland, and even the veteran force blocked up in Leith was much missed and its return anxiously desired. Elizabeth opened a ready ear to some overtures made by the house of Lorraine, and it was finally agreed that her commissioners should have a meeting with certain French commissioners in the town of Berwick on the 14th of June. The able men appointed by Elizabeth were Cecil and Dr. Wotton, dean of Canterbury; the French negotiators were Montluc, Bishop of Valence, and the Count de Randan, both men of consummate abilities. These diplomatists, who seem to have been very fairly matched, met, and proceeded on the 16th of June to Edinburgh. Several days were consumed in settling conditions; but on the 6th of July, about three o'clock in the afternoon, the Lord Grey de Wilton, Sir William Cecil, and Sir Ralph Sadler, gave orders in the besiegers' camp that there should no piece be shot nor show of hostility be made; and on the following day Sir Francis Leake and Sir Gervase Clifton, accompanied by two French gentlemen, were sent into the town of Leith to signify unto M. d'Oisel, the Bishop of Amiens, La Brosse, Marigny, and other the French lords and captains, that they were come thither by command of the commissioners of France and England to cause the peace already concluded to be proclaimed, which accordingly was done. Leith was then surrendered, and the French governor D'Oisel regaled the captains of the besiegers with a banquet of thirty or forty dishes, in which the only flesh used was that of a salted horse-a circumstance which, as it has been observed, marks national manners and French skill, as well as the extremity to which the place had been reduced." Matters were in this state when, on the 10th of June, the queen-regent breathed her last in Edinburgh Castle. On her death-bed she sent for her daughter's half-brother, the prior of St. Andrews, and some others of the Lords of the Congregation, to whom she earnestly recommended her absent child their queen. The death of Mary of Guise hastened the conclusion of a peace, which, however, the French government was made to desire by other circumstances and alarming demonstrations, which, at the least, threatened France with a fierce civil war. The two brothers of the deceased Queen-regent of Scotland, the Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise, who in fact governed the French kingdom in the name of Francis and Mary, had excited the deadly animosity of the French Protestants, and of other great and powerful factions: they had recently discovered an extensive conspiracy directed against the whole house of Lorraine, and 2 Walter Scott. Stow says, "Where was prepared for them a though they had prevented its outbreak for the banquet of thirty or forty dishes, and yet not one either of fleah VOL. II. 1 Vies des Grands Capitaines François. The treaty, which was the joint production of Cecil and Sadler, was highly advantageous to Elizabeth. Besides Leith, Dunbar and Inchkeith were to be surrendered, and the fortifications destroyed; the administration of affairs in Scotland was to be vested in a council of twelve Scottish noblemen, of whom seven were to be named by the queen, and five by the parliament; no foreign forces were thenceforward to be introduced into Scotland without the full consent and will of the Scottish parliament; an indemnity was stipulated for all things passed in Scotland since March, 1558; and every man was to be restored to the office he held before these hostilities, while no French or fish, saving one of a powdered horse, as was avouched by one man was ever to hold any office in Scotland. On | Sir Ralph Sadler, who was then at Berwick, wrote the subject of religion, the main cause of the late war, it was agreed that the estates of the kingdom should report to Queen Mary and her husband their opinion and their wishes touching that matter. At the same time there was a separate treaty made between France and England, by which France recognized the right of Elizabeth to her crown, and agreed that Mary, in time to come, should neither assume the title nor bear the arms of England.' The removal of the foreign troops secured the triumphant supremacy of the Protestant party, now the majority of the Scottish nation of all classes, and which henceforward had the field almost entirely to itself. to Randolph in Scotland, that the King of Sweden While the Scottish affairs were as yet unsettled, the English queen's vanity was flattered by another pressing offer of marriage from her old suitor Eric, who had now ascended the throne of Sweden. In his extreme anxiety for this match, Eric sent his own brother, the Duke of Finland, to plead in his behalf. The Duke arrived at Harwich, where he was honourably received, and conducted to London. Those who knew her best, knew well that Elizabeth had never the intention of making any such marriage. | tenders.3 CHAPTER XIV.-CIVIL AND MILITARY HISTORY.-A.D. 1560-1566. ELIZABETH. The Scots discard Popery-They establish Protestantism and the Presbyterian church polity-Mary Stuart resolves to return to Scotland-She is refused a safe-conduct by Elizabeth-Mary's arrival in Edinburgh-Her reception-Disturbance in Holyrood Chapel-Mary's interview with John Knox-Dislike of Mary's subjects to her amusements-Knox's republicanism-Poverty of the Scottish Reformed clergy-Knox's rem onstrances on the subject-Increase of Elizabeth's resources-Her jealousy of rivals-She allies herself with the Protestants of the Continent-Huguenot war in France-Elizabeth aids the Huguenots-Again urged by the parliament to marry-New laws in favour of the royal supremacy-Opposition of the Popish party-Laws against witches, &c.-Huguenot war continued in France-Treaty of Catherine de' Medici with the Huguenots-The English garrison in Havre compelled to capitulate-They bring the plague into London-A peace with FranceTroubles of Queen Mary in Scotland-Her progress into the Highlands-Battle of Corrichie-Mary's suitorsElizabeth's duplicity-She proposes the Earl of Leicester as a husband to Mary-Worthless character of Leicester-His favour with Elizabeth-Interview of Mary's ambassador with Leicester-Lord Darnley appears as a suitor of Mary-His relationship to her-His character-Progress of his suit-He is accepted by MaryIntrigues connected with this union—The Protestant lords oppose it-The "Round-about Raid"-Flight of the insurgents into England-Their reception from Elizabeth-Mary's complaints against the Earl of Moray— She joins the Catholic alliance against Protestantism. S soon as the Scots were relieved of, to receive and discuss a petition from the chief the presence of the French army Lords of the Congregation, who required a formal they proceeded to settle their religion. The parliament assembled on the 1st of August, 1560, in greater numbers than had ever been known before; and their first business was 2 Aikin Mem of Queen Elizabeth. 1 Rymer. 66 3 In the words of Camden, there were not wanting at home some persons who fed themselves (as lovers use to do) with golden dreams of marrying their sovereign;" and he mentions particularly Sir William Pickering, "a gentleman well born, of a narrow estate, but much esteemed for his learning, his handsome way of living, and the management of some embassies into France and Germany;" Henry, Earl of Arundel, a vain, formal man; and Robert Dudley, afterwards the notorions Earl of Leicester. rine de' Medici, who had no affection for the beautiful young widow. Catherine, in an unhappy hour for France, was appointed regent. Mary was now treated both disrespectfully and harshly, upon which she retired wholly from the court, and took up her residence at Rheims. The destinies of these two relations were so cast, that whatever was prejudicial to Mary was beneficial to Elizabeth. By the death of Francis, the English queen was freed from the perils attending the close union of Scotland and France, and from pretensions which might have been dan power of the French monarchy. On the death of her husband, Mary had desisted from bearing the arms and title of Queen of England; and now Throgmorton,' a diplomatist of the school of Cecil and Sadler, who was residing in France, as ambassador, received instructions to work upon the mind of the young widow, and induce her to ratify the treaties of Edinburgh. This Mary refused to do, principally on the ground that, by one of the clauses of the French treaty, her undisputed right of being at least next in succession to Elizabeth, would, as she had been taught to consider, be committed or impaired. Soon after, when Mary was making up her mind to return to her native country, she requested Elizabeth to grant her a safe-conduct to cross the seas into Scotland, and allow her to pass through England if absolutely necessary. This application was made through D'Oisel, who had returned from France as Mary's ambassador; and it should appear that Elizabeth, in refusing the permission, gave way to anger and indecorous expressions of resentment in public.2 and national manifesto against the Church of Rome. Without much debate the parliament adopted the declaration that the authority of the Roman church was an usurpation over the liberties and consciences of Christian men, an odious tyranny not to be borne. This manifesto was accompanied by a confession of faith, in which they renounced all the tenets and dogmas of the church that had been attacked by the Reformers of Germany, Switzerland, and England, and disowned for ever the whole authority of the pope. A few years before, the Reformers would have been contented—or, at least so they affirmed-gerous if urged at the moment with the whole with liberty to follow the dictates of their own conscience, and to worship God in the way they thought best; but now that they were the powerful party, they showed a most fixed resolution not to allow to others the sweet and precious liberty they had claimed for themselves. They menaced with secular punishments those who continued to worship according to the manner of their fathers, and proceeded to enact the most oppressive laws against the Catholics. Whosoever officiated in, or was present at a mass, was, in the first instance, to be punished with confiscation of goods and imprisonment at the discretion of the magistrate; for the second offence he was to be banished; and for the third to suffer death. The Presbyterian form of discipline was adopted, and bishops and other dignitaries were declared to be limbs of Papal superstition and tyranny. When they had proceeded thus far, they consulted with their absent queen, and sent over Sir James Sandilands, formerly prior of the Knights Hospitallers, to France, to demand the ratification of their acts. Mary not only refused her assent to the statutes passed against the religion in which she had been brought up, but denied the validity of the parliament which had been summoned without her consent, and she and her husband would not even ratify the treaties of Edinburgh. It is said that Mary's uncles, the Princes of Lorraine, openly expressed their resentment, and secretly made preparations for invading Scotland with a French fleet and army, and in order to renew the civil war there, immediately called together all those who, like the Lord Seaton, still adhered to the ancient religion; but if these intentions were really entertained, they were all frustrated by the sudden death of Francis II., Mary's weak and imbecile husband, who expired on the 5th of December, 1560, after a reign of seventeen months. His brother and successor, Charles IX., was in his eleventh year, and with small promise of being healthier or more intellectual than Francis. By this accident, however, the chief power of the government fell out of the hands of Mary's uncles into those of her mother-in-law, the infamous Cathe There was one party in Scotland that would gladly have left Mary where she was; and there were some men who would as gladly have seen her-even at this moment when she was untried, and when little was known of her, except her attachment to the old religion—a state prisoner in the hands of Queen Elizabeth; but the mass of the nation retained a certain loyalty and romantic affection for the orphan descendant of their kings; and it was found indispensable to recal her in an honourable manner. The person 1 This was Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, or Throckmorton, who had saved his head by his able defence and the courage of the jury, in the preceding reign. 2 Some of Elizabeth's motives for refusing the safe-conduct are pretty plainly stated by Cecil in a letter to Throgmorton. The secretary says "By this our denial, our friends in Scotland shall find us to be of their disposition." These friends meant the enemies of Mary who had so recently been in arms, and who were almost ready to take up arms again, even before they had tried their young queen. Cecil adds in the same letter, "I think plainly the longer the Scottish queen's affairs shall hang in an uncertainty, the longer will it be ere she shall have such a match in marriage as shall offend us."-Hardwicke State Papers. All this was part of a system which was never interrupted by the English court till Mary was ruined and disgraced. chosen to negotiate this return, and to conduct | spect, and nothing to enliven it but a youthful Mary to her native country, was her half-brother, hope, not likely to be strong in such a moment: James Stuart, prior of St. Andrews, who had there was also the dread of being captured by been a principal agent in all the changes and re- Elizabeth, who had refused her a safe-conduct; volutions which had taken place during the last nor, though the matter is debated, is it quite clear three eventful years. The Catholics of Scotland, that an English fleet in the Channel had not alarmed at the choice of this agent, and fearing orders to intercept her. As her own little fleet the effect he might produce on his half-sister, re- glided from the port, she kept her eyes fixed on solved to send an ambassador of their own at the the coast of France, often repeating, "Farewell, same time; and they selected for this office Lesley, France-farewell, dear France I shall never see Bishop of Ross, an historian of credit and ability, thee more!" She arrived safely at Leith on the whose fidelity to Mary during her afflictions 19th of August, and her spirits revived on seeing commands honour from all honourable and feel- the honest enthusiasm of the common people, ing hearts. Three of her French relatives, the who crowded the beach to salute the only relic Duke of Aumerle, the grand prior, and the Mar- of their kings, who had been torn from them in quis of Elbœuf, together with the Marquis Dam- her childhood, and whom they had scarcely hoped ville and other French noblemen, agreed, how- ever to see again. But the lords had taken small ever, to accompany her into Scotland, and to see pains to do honour to her reception, or to "cover her safely lodged in her capital. In the month over the nakedness and poverty of the land." of August Mary embarked at Calais with a heavy Tears came into the young queen's eyes as she heart. As she had been brought up in France saw the wretched ponies, with bare wooden sadfrom her infancy, she was naturally more French dles or dirty and ragged trappings, which had than Scotch, and it needed no great power of ex- been provided to carry her and her ladies from aggeration to view Scotland as a very turbulent the water-side to Holyrood, then a small and disand very unattractive country; while, if Mary mal place, consisting only of what is now the north wing. But again her spirits revived at the enthusiastic plaudits of the people, who seem to have been enraptured at her youth and beauty and graceful and condescending demeanour. For a time even religious intolerance was soothed into tranquillity by the ingratiating manners and conduct of the young queen, who intrusted the chief management of affairs to her half-brother, James Stuart, and to Maitland of Lethington, both men standing well with the people and the preachers. It should appear that when James Stuart went over to France he had promised to Mary the free exercise, within her own house, of her own religion, notwithstanding the warning of John Knox and the rest, that to import one mass into the kingdom of Scotland would be more fatal than to bring over a foreign army of 10,000 men. The Protestants, however, were resolved to stop the queen's masses at starting. On the Sunday after her landing, when preparations were made in the chapel at Holyrood, they said to one another, "Shall that idol, the mass, again have place? It shall not!" And the young Master of Lindsay called out in the court-yard was at all conversant with its history, she must of the palace, that the idolatrous priest should have known that the people had murdered all die the death according to God's law. Mary's the kings of her most unhappy race, or sent them half-brother had great difficulty in appeasing this to the grave broken-hearted. She had been tumult, and saving the Catholic priest from being queen, though but for a short time, in the rich murdered at the foot of the altar. But it did and fertile country she was leaving: until very not suit James Stuart to set himself forward as recently she had been gay, and happy, and hon- the defender of idolatry; and while he stood with oured, among a cheerful people; but what might his drawn sword by the door of the chapel, he await her in a poor and barren land? There was ingeniously pretended that it was only to prevent nearly everything to sadden and darken the pro- | any Scot from entering to witness the abominable MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.-After Paillau. ceremony within.' It was immediately after this riot, that John Knox, in the first of his many celebrated interviews, undertook to convert the queen. Of the perfect honesty of his zeal, of his thorough conviction that the cause of the kingdom and of Christ was in danger so long as there was a Papist on the throne, there can be no doubt; yet it has been often objected that Knox was singularly unfit to be an apostle in high places, and that the course he pursued from the very beginning, when, as it has been remarked, Mary had probably never heard a single word of argument against the faith she professed, was calculated only to alienate a high-spirited sovereign. It is said that he knocked at her heart until she shed tears; but these were tears of offended pride-tears forced from her by longcherished feelings. The sagacious Randolph, who, like his employers, was an utter stranger to this religious enthusiasm, plainly intimated to Cecil that Knox was pursuing a wrong course. "I commend," says he, "better the success of his doctrine and preachings than the manner of them, though I acknowledge his doctrine to be sound. His daily prayer for her is, that God will turn her heart, now obstinate against God and his truth; and if his holy will be otherwise, that he will strengthen the hearts and hands of the chosen, and the elect, stoutly to withstand the rage of tyrants." This was, in other words, to pray that the Protestants might rise in general rebellion against their young queen, and depose her, unless she forthwith abjured her religion. As for rage and tyranny, they were certainly not at this time on the side of the throne: the Catholics, as a political party, were crushed, and Mary had not the daring zeal to attempt their re-elevation at the expense of a civil war. When Mary removed from Edinburgh to Stirling she found the same intolerance of her now persecuted church: the people, inflamed by their preachers, rose tumultuously, and threatened with death all such as should partake in the idolatry of the mass. Here the queen wept again; but seeing no remedy, she followed the advice of her half-brother, and by issuing proclamations of banishment against the monks and friars, and by other steps in favour of the Protestants, she obtained for a time a tacit permission to worship 1 Knox. ?" I assure you," writes Randolph to Cecil, "the voice of one man is able, in one hour, to put more life in us than 500 trumpets continually blustering in our ears. Mr. Knox spoke upon Tuesday unto the queen: he knocked so hastily upon her heart that he made her weep, as well you know there he of that sex that will do that as well for anger as for grief, though in this the Lord James will disagree with me. She charged him with his book, with his severe dealing with all men that disagree with him in opinions. She willed him to use more meekness in his sermons."-Queen Elizabeth and her Times, a Series of Original Letters, edited by T. Wright, M.A. (2 vols. 8vo, Lon. 1898). God in her own way--but always in private. But almost as much as their hatred or dread of the mass, was that of the Scots against the amusements of Mary, and especially that of dancing, which she imported from the French court, and endeavoured to naturalize in Scotland. Nothing could be more unsuitable to the temper of such a people, especially amidst the stern realities of a religious revolution; and the Reformers were scandalized at the levity of these festivals, which were kept up in Holyrood till the unwonted hour of midnight. John Knox denounced this dancing from the pulpit, under the contemptuous epithets of "fiddling and flinging," and not only condemned the practice as a covert for worse indulgences, but as an insult to the afflicted condition of the realm. It was in vain Mary tried to win the favour of the zealous Reformer. She promised him ready access to her whenever he should desire it; and entreated him, if he found her conduct blameable, to reprehend her in private, rather than vilify her in the kirk before the whole people. But Knox, whose notion of the rights of his clerical office was of the most towering kind, and who, upon other motives besides those connected with religion, had declared a female reign to be an abomination, was not willing to gratify the queen in any of her demands. He told her that it was her duty to go to the kirk to hear him-not his duty to wait upon her. There was certainly a proud Calvinistic republicanism interwoven with this wonderful man's religious creed. Elizabeth afterwards blamed Mary that she had not sufficiently conformed to the advice of the Protestant preachers; but if Elizabeth herself had had to do with such a preacher as John Knox, she would, having the power, have sent him to the Marshalsea in one week, and to the pillory, or a worse place, in the next. Notwithstanding their avowed contempt of worldly riches and honours, we are justified in believing that the poverty to which the Presbyterian clergy were condemned by a grasping and selfish aristocracy had much to do with their over-severity. It would lead them to exclaim against pleasures from which they were excluded by an iron barrier; and then, except in the pulpit, where, correctly and incorrectly, they could enlist the gospel in their service, they were little or nothing, being condemned, through want of worldly means, to a stinted and obscure way of life. In the same manner, the mendicant orders of monks the preaching friars, the Dominicans, and others were fierce and intolerant against all worldly pomp and pleasure; but when these monastic orders attained ease and competence, and some of them wealth, they became mild and 3 In his Blast of the Trumpet against the monstrous Regiment of Women. |