the extremities which were now approaching, resolved to withdraw their troops from Scotland, and to be content, for a season, with obtaining as favourable terms from England, and for the royal authority, as circumstances would allow. A treaty of peace between England and France, comprehending the affairs of Scotland, which were the cause of difference, was concluded at Edinburgh, on the 6th of July, 1560, after long negotiations, which were principally conducted by sir William Cecil, on the one part, and on the other by Monluc bishop of Valence, a prelate of profligate manners*, but an experienced negotiator, who had more than once exercised his abilities among the fierce Scots, and was known as a minister to the haughty and fanatical court of Constantinople. The principal stipulations of the treaty were, the evacuation of Scotland by the military forees of both parties, and a solemn engagement that Francis and Mary should desist from assuming the title or bearing the arms of England.† It was found difficult to prevail on the French ministers to consent to any stipulations on behalf of the Scottish insurgents. These were proposed by the English queen on behalf of her allies; for though, in diplomatic forms, Francis and Mary represented their Scottish subjects, in truth Elizabeth was bound to secure the rights of the Scottish nation against the vengeance of their sovereigns. An article couched in courtly and mysterious language was devised, which, after stating that Francis and Mary had been pleased to show their clemency to the nobles and people of Scotland, by assenting to the prayer of their petitions presented on the day of the treaty, declared the desire of these illustrious princes to make known this proof of their benignity towards their own subjects, to their dear sister Elizabeth, whose requests had increased their readiness to grant these concessions; and it was finally Sir James Melvil's Memoirs, 10. Edin. 1827; where the amours of the bishop in the house of O'Docharty, an Irish chief, are freely and calmly described. † Rymer, xv. 593, agreed that the most Christian king and queen should fulfil all that they had promised to the Scottish nation, so long as the nobles and people of Scotland fulfilled the terms to which they on their part had agreed.* The particulars of the petitions thus incorporated in the treaty, are stated in a despatch from Cecil to the queen. That great minister, with justice, tells his mistress, "As for the surety and liberty of Scotland, we have been the means to obtain all things requisite; so as the nobility here acknowledge the realm more bounden to your majesty than to their sovereign. In getting of things we have so tempered the manner of granting thereof, that the honour of the French king and queen is as much considered as may be. The country is to be governed by a council of twelve, out of twenty-four to be named by parliament; and of the twelve, seven are to be chosen by the queen, and five by the three estates." + But the most immediately important of the concessions was the engagement of Monluc that an assembly of the states should be holden on the 10th of July, "which should be in all respects as valid as if it were called and appointed by the express commandment of the king and queen." The adjournment of the meeting from the 10th of July, was probably intended to give time for the royal negative from Paris, if it were thought advisable. The only exception made by Monluc related to religion, as not being within his commission; with respect to which it was agreed, that a deputation of the three estates should proceed to Paris with their own ratification, in order to satisfy the queen of the necessity of ratifying the concessions. treaty was a master stroke of policy, which bound to Elizabeth that growing majority of Scotsmen who favoured the reformation. They were now taught to feel that she whose safety and faith were embarked with Rymer, xv. 595. This Secretary Cecil to the queen. Camp before Leith, 6th July, 1560. Haynes, 351. Keith, 137. Cott. MS. Calig. b. ix. 126. It is astonishing that, in defiance of this document, Keith should venture to call the assembly a pretended parliament. them, ought to be regarded by them as their sole pro tectress. We have already noted some of the causes of offence given by the princes of Lorrain to Elizabeth, and some of the grounds of just alarm which they had afforded to her, by asserting the pretensions of their niece Mary to the English throne. In relating facts so important, it may be pardonable to remind the reader that the title and arms of England were assumed by Francis and Mary immediately on the death of Mary Tudor, so as to mark without doubt that they were then used because the possessor was an usurper. The bull, by which the dying hand of Caraffa had deprived all heretical princes of their dominions, was obtained by Francis and Mary as an additional weapon against Elizabeth *: and it has already been seen, that the threatening titles were introduced into private legal documents, to familiarise the minds of men to them, and to interweave them with the ordinary securities of property.† A constant succession of the like acts followed, equivalent to a perpetual claim of the English crown. The heralds of Francis were, at a tournament in Paris, apparelled in the arms of England; the ushers cried out in going before Mary, "Make way for the queen of England;" and the arms of England, as those of Mary, at the marriage of Philip II. with the princess Elizabeth of France, were inscribed on arches erected for that occasion, with Scottish verses, one of which designed her, "Of Scotland queen and England too." The same proclamations and inscriptions followed her in her progress throughout the provinces.§ The secret acts of the French government corresponded with their avowed pretensions for Mary. In the summer of 1559, they privily sent to Scotland a staff of state with a great seal, on which were engraved *Cecil in "a Brief Consideration of the Weighty Matter of Scotland." 1 Forbes's State Papers, 387. + It is very observable that the grant of land to lord Fleming by Francis and Mary bears date on the 16th of January, 1559, two months after Elizabeth's accession, and within a few days of her coronation. June 28. 1559. July 16. July 27. Cecil's Diary, in Murdin, 747, 748. * the arms of France, Scotland, and England; of which John Knox, a passenger in the ship which bore these symbols of ambitious claims, obtained a sight under injunctions of profound secrecy. We are assured by Castelnau, that though the English ambassador was amused by promises, the French ministers did not desist from the use of the arms of England; "because," says that minister, they were fearful of doing irreparable injury to Mary, by impairing her title to the crowns of England and Ireland.” † 66 The treaty of Edinburgh was ratified by Elizabeth within two months of its completion; but the Guises prevented their ill-fated niece from ceasing to provoke and alarm England. For nearly a year she refused, deferred, or evaded the ratification demanded repeatedly by Elizabeth, by resident ministers at Paris, and even by solemn embassies expressly charged to obtain it, as well after the death of Francis, in December, 1560, as before; and such was the pertinacity of her guides, that she would not consent to an act which renounced a present claim to the English crown, in order to obtain a safe return to Scotland. It is here necessary to inform the reader, that the states of Scotland had assembled on the 1st of August, 1560, which was the prescribed day. The attendance, especially of the more popular estates, the untitled gentry, and the burgesses, was greater than in any former parliament. The session began with a debate on the legality of the assembly, which was questioned on account of the absence of any representative of the sovereigns, and of any commission from them. The express words of the concession justified the majority in over-ruling the objection. A statute was passed to abolish the papal authority in Scotland. A confession of faith, founded on the doctrine of Calvin, and a book of discipline, on the worship and government of the church according to the republican equality of the Genevese clergy, were + Castelnau, liv. ii. c. 4. * M'Crie's Life of Knox, i. 243. September 2. 1560. Rymer, xv. 602. established by the assembly. They passed one remarkable act in civil matters, in which they offered the hand of the earl of Arran, the presumptive heir to their kingdom, in marriage to queen Elizabeth, and agreed to settle the Scottish crown upon them and their heirs, in failure of queen Mary and her posterity.* From circumstances related by a writer nearly contemporary, it should seem that these great measures were almost unanimously assented to. The catholic prelates were silent: only three lay peers, the earl of Athol, the lords Somerville and Borthwick, muttered their dissent, saying, "We shall continue to believe as our fathers before us have believed." + Sir James Sandilands, a knight of Rhodes, was despatched to lay these proceedings before the queen, but he was rejected with scorn. A specimen of the negotiations in one of the attempts to persuade queen Mary to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh, is preserved in a despatch from sir Nicholas Throgmorton to Elizabeth ‡, in which that able minister relates his conversation with the cardinal of Lorrain, who joined the arts and manners of Rome with the aspiring spirit of his family. The cardinal's main plea against ratification was, that the Scots had not performed their part, by a complete return to their obedience. "The Scots, I will tell you frankly," said he to Throgmorton, "perform no point of their duties: the king and the queen have the name of their sovereigns, and your mistress hath the obedience. They would bring the realm to a republic. Though you say your mistress has in all things performed the treaty; we say the Scots, by her countenance, perform no point of the treaty." The same argument was repeated by Francis II., Catherine de Medicis, and queen Mary, at the audiences which they gave to Throgmorton. "To tell you of the particular disorders," said the cardi * Acta Parl. Scot. ii. 525.; and for the statute relating to Arran, same vol. Appendix, 605. The records of Scotland appear to be peculiarly deficient in this turbulent period. + Archbishop Spotswood's History of the Church of Scotland, 151. Throgmorton to Elizabeth, 17th Nov. 1560.1 Hard, State Papers 125 146. |