body of persons, some of whom were of high rank, and none of the lowest, resolved to revenge the martyr by the slaughter of the cardinal. * They procured an entry into the castle of St. Andrew's by one of the falsehoods called stratagems, and they executed their purpose on a defenceless man, with all the precipitate rage which commonly attends such deeds. + Though the queen regent had employed protestants as her occasional instruments, she could habitually trust none but catholics; and the rapid progress of the reformation obliged her to resort to French succour, —a measure too insidious and unpopular to be adopted without imminent danger. The lords of the congregation (so the protestant nobility were called) were driven by an imperious necessity to address themselves to England as soon as that kingdom was ruled by a protestant princess. Their success in Scotland was indispensable to the safety of Elizabeth: hence arose her inducement to favour them, and hence also sprung her justification for entering into a connection with them. Although Scotland was represented at Câteau-Cambresis by the French plenipotentiaries, and had been expressly comprehended in the general pacification concluded at that place ‡, yet the pretensions, not renounced, of Mary to the crown of England, kept up an irritation and caused hostilities between the two courts, of which the particulars are sufficiently narrated by the historians of Scotland. English troops entered Scotland to protect the protestants against the French auxiliaries who were employed by the queen: the death of that princess, in June, 1560, contributed to prolong the Scottish troubles; while that of Henry II., in the summer of 1559, hastened the approach of civil war in France, by Among them were two Leslies, the son and brother of the earl of Rothes, together with Kirkaldy of Grange. The court of Henry VIII. had previously assured the conspirators against Beaton of a secure asylum. Hamilton Papers, quoted by Robertson. Knox vindicates the slaughter on the same principle with the famous exclamation of Cicero, "Omines boni, quantum in se fuit, Cæsarem occiderunt!” Sir David Lindsay expresses the general feelings of protestants :"Although the loun (fellow) was well away, 1559. The deed was foully done." Dumont, Corps Diplom. v. part. i. 28. 12th March, 2d and 3d April, giving full scope to the vast projects of the family of Guise. The progress of the reformation was rapid and universal in Scotland. The ignorant multitude continued to frequent the churches of their establishment long after most of them had caught a vague inclination towards the reformed faith, easily combining in their unreflecting practice what was irreconcilable in principle. The ascendancy of the protestant lords, and the presence of an English force, encouraged them to throw off the mask, and to give the rein to their strong preference for the reformation. The Scottish nation, which had one day appeared faithful to the church of Rome, on the next day took up arms for the protestant cause. The commerce of the Lowlands with England and Flanders naturally spread the new opinions in those more cultivated and better peopled provinces. It is not so easy to discover how the Highlanders, instead of imitating their Irish brethren in attachment to traditional opinions, transferred their veneration so lightly to novelties which might have been expected to be unacceptable to rude and uninquisitive mountaineers. They seemed to be secured from the contagion of innovation by their language, which was radically different from that of their southern neighbours, and marked them as belonging to a perfectly different race of men. But the few natives, who were thinly scattered over a rugged country, in which a parish was often as large as a diocese, and among whom the religious houses were too rare to supply the want of parochial care, were so slightly tinctured with religious opinions, or rather with superstitious usages, that they without difficulty followed the fashion of their chiefs, who were themselves partly tempted to assume the name of protestant by the lure of a share in the spoils of the church, and were possibly also influenced by the example of the southern barons, from whom the greater part of the Highland chiefs professed to derive their pedigree. In the summer of 1560, the princes of Lorrain, anxious to prepare, by the concentration of all their force, for 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 forces 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. This 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. 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. |