An Outline of the Relations between England and Scotland (500-1707) Part 5

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ENGLISH ALLIANCE

1500-1542

When, in 1501, negotiations were in progress for the marriage of James IV to Margaret Tudor, Polydore Virgil tells us that the English Council raised the objection that Margaret or her descendants might succeed to the throne of England. "If it should fall out so," said Henry, "the realm of England will suffer no evil, since it will not be the addition of England to Scotland, but of Scotland to England." It is obvious that the English had every reason for desiring to stop the irritating opposition of the Scots, which, while it never seriously endangered the realm, was frequently a cause of annoyance, and which hampered the efforts of English diplomacy. The Scots, on the other hand, were separated from the English by the memories of two centuries of constant warfare, and they were bound by many ties to the enemies of England. The only King of Scots, since Alexander III, who had been on friendly terms with England, was James III, and his enemies had used the fact as a weapon against him. His successor had already twice refused the proffered English alliance, and when he at length accepted Henry's persistent proposal and the thrice-offered English princess, it was only after much hesitation and upon certain strict conditions. No Englishmen were to enter Scotland "without letters commendatory of their own sovereign lord or safe conduct of his Warden of the Marches". The marriage, though not especially flattering to the dignity of a monarch who had been encouraged to hope for the hand of a daughter of Spain, was notable as involving a recognition (the first since the Treaty of Northampton) of the King of Scots as an independent sovereign. On the 8th of August, 1503, Margaret was married to James in the chapel of Holyrood. She was received with great rejoicing; the poet Dunbar, whom a recent visit to London had convinced that the English capital, with its "beryl streamis pleasant ... where many a swan doth swim with wingis fair", was "the flower of cities all", wrote the well-known poem on the Union of the Thistle and the Rose to welcome this second English Margaret to Scotland. But the time was not yet ripe for any real union of the Thistle and the Rose. Peace continued till the death of Henry VII; but during these years England was never at war with France. James threatened war with England in April, 1505, in the interests of the Duke of Gueldres; in 1508, he declined to give an understanding that he would not renew the old league with France, and he refused to be drawn, by Pope Julius II, into an att.i.tude of opposition to that country. Even before the death of Henry VII, in 1509, there were troubles with regard to the borders, and it was evident that the "perpetual peace" arranged by the treaty of marriage was a sheer impossibility.

Henry VIII succeeded to the throne of England in April, 1509; three years and five months later, in September, 1513, was fought the battle of Flodden. The causes may soon be told. They fall under three heads.

James and Henry were alike headstrong and impetuous, and they were alike ambitious of playing a considerable part in European affairs. They were, moreover, brothers-in-law, and, in the division of the inheritance of Henry VII, the King of England had, with characteristic Tudor avarice, retained jewels and other property which had been left to his sister, the Queen of Scots. In the second place, the ancient jealousies were again roused by disputes on the borders, and by naval warfare. James had long been engaged in "the building of a fleet for the protection of our sh.o.r.es"; in 1511, he had built the _Great Michael_, for which, it was said, the woods of Fife had been wasted. The Scottish fleet was frequently involved in quarrels with Henry's s.h.i.+ps, and in August, 1511, the English took two Scottish vessels, which they alleged to be pirates, and Andrew Barton was slain in the fighting. James demanded redress, but, says Hall, "the King of England wrote with brotherly salutations to the King of Scots of the robberies and evil doings of Andrew Barton; and that it became not one prince to lay a breach of a league to another prince, in doing justice upon a pirate or thief".[60] These personal irritations and petty troubles might have proved harmless, and, had no European complications intervened, it is possible that there might have "from Fate's dark book a leaf been torn", the leaf which tells of Flodden Field. But, in 1511, Julius II formed the Holy League against France, and by the end of the year it included Spain, Austria, and England. The formation of a united Europe against the ancient ally of Scotland thoroughly alarmed James. It was true that, at the moment, England was willing to be friendly; but, should France be subdued, whither might Scotland look for help in the future? James used every effort to prevent the League from carrying out their project; he attempted to form a coalition of Denmark, France, and Scotland, and wrote to his uncle, the King of Denmark, urging him to declare for the Most Christian King. He wrote Henry offering to "pardon all the damage done to us and our kingdom, the capture of our merchant s.h.i.+ps, the slaughter and imprisonment of our subjects", if only Henry would "maintain the universal concord of the Church". He made a vigorous appeal to the pope himself, beseeching him to keep the peace. His efforts were, of course, futile, nor was France in such extreme danger as he supposed. But the chance of proving himself the saviour of France appealed strongly to him, and, when there came to him, in the spring of 1513, a message from the Queen of France, couched in the bygone language of chivalry, and urging him, as her knight, to break a lance for her on English soil, James could no longer hesitate. Henry persevered in his warlike measures against France, and James, after one more despairing effort to act as mediator, began his preparations for an invasion of England. His wisest counsellors were strongly opposed to war: most prominent among them was his father's faithful servant, Bishop Elphinstone, the founder of the University of Aberdeen. Elphinstone was a saint, a scholar, and a statesman, and he was probably the only man in Scotland who could influence the king. During the discussion of the French alliance he urged delay, but was overborne by the impetuous patriotism of the younger n.o.bles, whose voice was, as ever, for war. So, war it was. Bitter letters of defiance pa.s.sed between the two kings, and, in August, 1513, James led his army over the border. Lowlanders, Highlanders, and Islesmen had alike rallied round his banner; once again we find the "true Scots leagued", not "with", but against "the Saxons farther off". The Scots took Norham Castle and some neighbouring strongholds to prevent their affording protection to the English, and then occupied a strong position on Flodden Edge. The Earl of Surrey, who was in command of the English army, challenged James to a pitched battle, and James accepted the challenge. Meanwhile, Surrey completely outmanoeuvred the King of Scots, crossing the Till and marching northwards so as to get between James and Scotland. James seems to have been quite unsuspicious of this movement, which was protected by some rising ground. The Scots had failed to learn the necessity of scouting.

Surrey, when he had gained his end, recrossed the Till, and made a march directly southwards upon Flodden. James cannot have been afraid of losing his communications, for his force was well-provisioned, and Surrey was bound by the terms of his own challenge to fight immediately; but he decided to abandon Flodden Edge for the lower ridge of Brankston, and in a cloud of smoke, which not only rendered the Scots invisible to the enemy but likewise concealed the enemy from the Scots, King James and his army rushed upon the English. The battle began with artillery, the superiority of the English in which forced the Scots to come to close quarters. Then

"Far on the left, unseen the while, Stanley broke Lennox and Argyle";

on the English right, Sir Edmund Howard fell back before the charge of the Scottish borderers, who, forthwith, devoted themselves to plunder.

The centre was fiercely contested; the Lord High Admiral of England, a son of Surrey, defeated Crawford and Montrose, and attacked the division with which James himself was encountering Surrey, while the archers on the left of the English centre rendered unavailing the brave charge of the Highlanders. With artillery and with archery the English had drawn the Scottish attack, and the battle of Flodden was but a variation on every fight since Dupplin Moor. Finally the Scots formed themselves into a ring of spearmen, and the English, with their arrows and their long bills, kept up a continuous attack. The story has been told once for all:

"But yet, though thick the shafts as snow, Though charging knights as whirlwinds go, Though bill-men ply the ghastly blow, Unbroken was the ring; The stubborn spearmen still made good Their dark impenetrable wood, Each stepping where their comrade stood The instant that he fell.

No thought was there of dastard flight; Link'd in the serried phalanx tight Groom fought like n.o.ble, squire like knight, As fearlessly and well; Till utter darkness closed her wing O'er their thin host and wounded king."

No defeat had ever less in it of disgrace. The victory of the English was hard won, and the valour displayed on the stricken field saved Scotland from any further results of Surrey's triumph. The results were severe enough. Although the Scots could boast of their dead king that

"No one failed him; he is keeping Royal state and semblance still",

they had lost the best and bravest of the land. Scarcely a family record but tells of an ancestor slain at Flodden, and many laments have come down to us for "The Flowers of the Forest". But, although the disaster was overwhelming, and the loss seemed irreparable at the time, though the defeat at Flodden was not less decisive than the victory of Bannockburn, the name of Flodden, notwithstanding all this, recalls but an incident in our annals. Bannockburn is an incident in English history, but it is the great turning-point in the story of Scotland; the historian cannot regard Flodden as more than incidental to both.

When James V succeeded his father he was but one year old, and his guardian, in accordance with the desire of James IV, was the queen-mother, Margaret Tudor. Her subsequent career is one long tale of intrigue, too elaborate and intricate to require a full recapitulation here. The war lingered on, in a desultory fas.h.i.+on, till May, 1515. Lord Dacre ravaged the borders, and the Scots replied by a raid into England; but there is nothing of any interest to relate. From the accession of Francis I, in 1515, the condition of politics in Scotland, as of all Europe, was influenced and at times dominated by his rivalry with the Emperor. The unwonted desire of France for peace and alliance with England placed the Scots in a position of considerable difficulty, and the difficulty was accentuated by the more than usually distracted state of the country during the minority of the king. In August, 1514, Margaret (who had in the preceding April given birth to a posthumous child to James IV) was married to the Earl of Angus, the grandson of Archibald Bell-the-Cat. It was felt that the sister of Henry VIII and the wife of a Douglas could scarcely prove a suitable guardian of a Stewart throne, and the Scots invited the Duke of Albany, son of the traitor duke, and cousin of the late king, to come over to Scotland and undertake the government. Despite some efforts of Henry to prevent him, Albany came to Scotland in May, 1515. He was a French n.o.bleman, possessed large estates in France, and, although he was, ere long, heir-presumptive to the Scottish throne, could speak no language but French. When he arrived in Scotland he found against him the party of Margaret and Angus, while the Earls of Lennox and Arran were his ardent supporters. The latter n.o.bleman was the grandson of James II, being the son of the Princess Mary and James, Lord Hamilton, and he was, therefore, the next heir to the throne after Albany. The interests of both might be endangered should Margaret and Angus become all-powerful, and so we find them acting together for some time. Albany was immediately made regent of Scotland, and the care of the young king and his brother, the baby Duke of Ross, was entrusted to him. It required force to obtain possession of the children, but the regent succeeded in doing so in August, in time to defeat a scheme of Henry VIII for kidnapping the princes. The queen-mother fled to England, where, in October, she bore to Angus a daughter, Margaret, afterwards Countess of Lennox and mother of the unfortunate Darnley. She then proceeded to pay a visit to Henry VIII. Meanwhile, in Scotland, Albany was finding many difficulties. Arran was now in rebellion against him, and now in alliance with him. In May, 1516, Angus himself, leaving his imperious wife in England, made terms with the regent. The infant Duke of Ross had died in the end of 1515, and only the boy king stood between Albany and the throne. In 1517 Albany returned to France to cement more closely the old alliance, and remained in France till 1521. Margaret immediately returned to Scotland, and, had she behaved with any degree of wisdom, might have greatly strengthened her brother's tortuous Scottish policy.

But a Tudor and a Douglas could not be other than an ill-matched pair, and Margaret was already tired of her husband. In 1518, she informed her brother that she desired to divorce Angus. Henry, whose own matrimonial adventures were still in the future, and to whom Angus was useful, scolded his sister in true Tudor fas.h.i.+on, and told her that, alike by the laws of G.o.d and man, she must stick to her husband. A formal reconciliation took place, but, henceforth, Margaret's one desire was to be free, and to this she subordinated all other considerations.

In 1519, she came to an understanding with Arran, her husband's bitterest foe, and in the summer of the same year we find Henry marvelling much at the "tender letters" she sent to France, in which she urged the return of Albany, whose absence from Scotland had been the main aim of English policy since Flodden. While Francis I and Henry VIII were on good terms, Albany was detained in France; but when, in 1521, their relations became strained, he returned to Scotland to find Angus in power. Scotland rallied round him, and in February, 1522, Angus, in turn, retired to France, while Henry VIII devoted his energies to the prevention of a marriage between his amorous sister and the handsome Albany. The regent led an army to the borders and began to organize an invasion, for which the north of England was ill-prepared, but was outwitted by Henry's agent, Lord Dacre, who arranged an armistice which he had no authority to conclude. Albany then returned to France, and the Scots, refusing Henry's offer of peace, had to suffer an invasion by Surrey, which was encouraged by Margaret, who was again on the English side. When Albany came back in September, 1523, he easily won over the fickle queen; but, after an unsuccessful attack on Wark, he left Scotland for ever in May, 1524.

No sooner had Albany disappeared from the scene than Margaret entered into a new intrigue with the Earl of Arran; it had one important result, the "erection" of the young king, who now, at the age of twelve years, became the nominal ruler of the country. This manoeuvre was executed with the connivance of the English, to whose side Margaret had again deserted. For some time Arran and Margaret remained at the head of affairs, but the return of the Earl of Angus at once drove the queen-mother into the opposite camp, and she became reconciled to the leader of the French party, Archbishop Beaton, whom she had imprisoned shortly before. Angus, who had been the paid servant of England throughout all changes since 1517, a.s.sumed the government. The alliance between England and France, which followed the disaster to Francis I at Pavia, seriously weakened the supporters of French influence in Scotland, and Angus made a three years' truce in 1525. In the next year, Arran transferred his support to Angus, who held the reins of power till the summer of 1528. The chief event of this period is the divorce of Queen Margaret, who immediately married a youth, Henry Stewart, son of Lord Evandale, and afterwards known as Lord Methven.

The fall of Angus was brought about by the conduct of the young king himself, who, tired of the tyranny in which he was held, and escaping from Edinburgh to Stirling, regained his freedom. Angus had to flee to England, and James pa.s.sed under the influence of his mother and her youthful husband. In 1528 he made a truce with England for five years.

During these years James showed leanings towards the French alliance, while Henry was engaged in treasonable intrigues with Scottish n.o.bles, and in fomenting border troubles. But the truce was renewed in 1533, and a more definite peace was made in 1534. Henry now attempted to enlist James as an ally against Rome, and, by the irony of fate, offered him, as a temptation to become a Protestant, the hand of the Princess Mary.

James refused to break with the pope, and negotiations for a meeting between the two kings fell through--fortunately, for Henry was prepared to kidnap James. The King of Scots arranged in 1536 to marry a daughter of the Duc de Vendome, but, on seeing her, behaved much as Henry VIII was to do in the case of Anne of Cleves, except that he definitely declined to wed her at all. Being in France, he made a proposal for the Princess Madeleine, daughter of Francis I, and was married to her in January, 1536-37. This step naturally annoyed Henry, who refused James a pa.s.sport through England, on the ground that "no Scottish king had ever entered England peacefully except as a va.s.sal". So James returned by sea with his dying bride, and reached Scotland to find numerous troubles in store for him--among them, intrigues brought about by his mother's wish to obtain a divorce from her third husband. Madeleine died in July, 1537, and the relations between James and Henry VIII (now a widower by the death of Jane Seymour) were further strained by the fact that nephew and uncle alike desired the hand of Mary of Guise, widow of the Duke de Longueville, who preferred her younger suitor and married him in the following summer. These two French marriages are important as marking James's final rejection of the path marked out for him by Henry VIII.

The husband of a Guise could scarcely remain on good terms with the heretic King of England; but Henry, with true Tudor persistency, did not give up hope of bending his nephew to his will, and spent the next few years in negotiating with James, in trying to alienate him from Cardinal Beaton--the great supporter of the French alliance,--and in urging the King of Scots to enrich himself at the expense of the Church. As late as 1541, a meeting was arranged at York, whither Henry went, to find that his nephew did not appear. James was probably wise, for we know that Henry would not have scrupled to seize his person. Border troubles arose; Henry rea.s.serted the old claim of homage and devised a scheme to kidnap James. Finally he sent the Earl of Angus, who had been living in England, with a force to invade Scotland, and this without the formality of declaring war. Henry, in fact, was acting as a suzerain punis.h.i.+ng a va.s.sal who had refused to appear when he was summoned. The English ravaged the county of Roxburgh in 1542; the Scottish n.o.bles declined to cross the border in what they a.s.serted to be a French quarrel; and in November a small Scottish force was enclosed between Solway Moss and the river Esk, and completely routed. The ignominy of this fresh disaster broke the king's heart. On December 8th was born the hapless princess who is known as _the_ Queen of Scots. The news brought small comfort to the dying king, who was still mourning the sons he had lost in the preceding year. "'Adieu,' he said, 'farewell; it came with a la.s.s and it will pa.s.s with a la.s.s.' And so", adds Pitscottie, "he recommended himself to the mercy of Almighty G.o.d, and spake little from that time forth, but turned his back unto his lords, and his face unto the wall."

Six days later the end came. With "a little smile of laughter", and kissing his hand to the n.o.bles who stood round, he breathed his last.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 60: Gregory Smith, p. 123.]

CHAPTER VIII

THE PARTING OF THE WAYS

1542-1568

Mary of Guise, thus for the second time a widow, was left the sole protector of the infant queen, against the intrigues of Henry VIII and the treachery of the House of Douglas. Fortunately, Margaret Tudor had predeceased her son in October, 1541, and her death left one disturbing element the less. But the situation which the dowager had to face was much more perplexed than that which confronted any other of the long line of Scottish queen-mothers. During the reign of James V the Reformed doctrines had been rapidly spreading in Scotland. It was at one time possible that James V might follow the example of Henry VIII, and a considerable section of his subjects would have welcomed the change. His death added recruits to the Protestant cause; the greater n.o.bles now strongly desired an alienation of Church property, because they could take advantage of the royal minority to seize it for their private advantage. The English party no longer consisted only of outlawed traitors; there were many honest Scots who felt that alliance with a Protestant kingdom must replace the old French league. The main interest had come to be not nationality but religion, and Scotland must decide between France and England. The sixteenth century had already, in spite of all that had pa.s.sed, made it evident that Scots and English could live on terms of peace, and the reign of James IV, which had witnessed the first attempt at a perpetual alliance, was remembered as the golden age of Scottish prosperity. The queen-mother was, by birth and by education, committed to the maintenance of the old religion and of the French alliance. The task was indeed difficult. Ultimate success was rendered impossible by causes over which she possessed no kind of control; a temporary victory was rendered practicable only by the folly of Henry VIII.

The history of Henry's intrigues becomes at this point very intricate, and we must be content with a mere outline. On James's death he conceived the plan of seizing the Scottish throne, and for this purpose he entered into an agreement with the Scottish prisoners taken at Solway Moss. They professed themselves willing to seize Mary and Cardinal Beaton, and so to deprive the national party of their leaders. Then came the news that the Earl of Arran had been appointed regent in December, 1542. He was heir-presumptive to the throne, and so was unlikely to acquiesce in Henry's scheme, and the traitors were instructed to deal with him as they thought necessary. But the traitors, who had, of course, been joined by the Earl of Angus, proved false to Henry and were falsely true to Scotland. They imprisoned Beaton, but did not deliver him up to the English, and they came to terms with Arran; nor did they carry out Henry's projects further than to permit the circulation of "haly write, baith the new testament and the auld, in the vulgar toung", and to enter into negotiations for the marriage of the young queen to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward VI. The conditions they made were widely different from those suggested by Henry. Full precautions were taken to secure the independence of the country both during Mary's minority and for the future. Strongholds were to be retained in Scottish hands; should there be no child of the marriage, the union would determine, and the proper heir would succeed to the Scottish throne. In any case, no union of the kingdoms was contemplated, although the crowns might be united. These terms were slightly modified in the following May. Beaton, who had escaped to St. Andrews, did not oppose the treaty, but made preparations for war. The treaty was agreed to, and the war of intrigues went on, Henry offering almost any terms for the possession of the little queen. Finally, in September, Arran joined the cardinal, became reconciled to the Church, and left Henry to intrigue with the Earl of Lennox, the next heir after Arran.

Hostilities broke out in the end of 1543, when the Scots, enraged by Henry's having attacked some Scottish s.h.i.+pping, declared the treaty annulled. In the spring of 1544, the Earl of Hertford conducted his expedition into Scotland. The "English Wooing", as it was called, took the form of a ma.s.sacre without regard to age or s.e.x. The instructions given to Hertford by Henry and his council read like quotations from the book of Joshua. He was to leave none remaining, where he encountered any resistance. Hertford, abandoning the usual methods of English invaders, came by sea, took Leith, burned Edinburgh, and ravaged the Lothians.

Lennox attempted to give up Dumbarton to the English, but his treachery was discovered and he fled to England, where he married Margaret, the daughter of Angus and niece of Henry VIII, by whom he became, in 1545, the father of Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, who thus stood within the possibility of succession, in his own right, to both kingdoms. Angus and his brother, Sir George Douglas, seized the opportunity given them by the misery caused by the English atrocities to make a move against Arran and Beaton, and seized the person of the queen-mother. But their success was brought to an end by the meeting of a Parliament, summoned by Arran, in December, 1544, and the Douglases were reconciled and restored to their estates, deeming this the most profitable step for themselves.

Their breach with Henry was widened by the events of the next two months. A body of Englishmen, under Sir Ralph Eure, defeated Arran at Melrose, and desecrated the abbey, the sepulchre of the Douglas family.

In revenge, Angus, along with Arran, fell upon the English at Ancrum Moor in Roxburghs.h.i.+re, and inflicted on them a total defeat. This was followed by a second invasion of Hertford (this time by land). He ravaged the borders in merciless fas.h.i.+on. A counter-invasion by an army of Scots and French auxiliaries had proved futile owing to the incompetence or the treachery of Angus, who almost immediately returned to the English side. About the same time a descendant of the Lord of the Isles whom James IV had crushed made an agreement with Henry, but was of little use to his cause. Beaton, after some successful fighting on the borders, in the end of 1545, went to St. Andrews in the beginning of 1546. On the 1st March, George Wishart, who had been condemned on a charge of heresy, was hanged, and his body was burned at the stake. On May 29th the more fierce section of the Protestant party took their revenge by murdering the great cardinal in cold blood. We are not here concerned with Beaton's private character or with his treatment of heretics. His public actions, as far as foreign relations are concerned, are marked by a consistent patriotic aim. He represented the long line of Scottish churchmen who had striven to maintain the integrity of the kingdom and the alliance with France. He had shown great ability and tact, and in politics he had been much more honest than his opponents.

But for his support of the queen-dowager in 1542-43, and but for his maintaining the party to which Arran afterwards attached himself, it is possible that Scotland might have pa.s.sed under the yoke of Henry VIII in 1543, instead of being peacefully united to England sixty years later.

With him disappeared any remaining hope of the French party. "We may say of old Catholic Scotland", writes Mr. Lang, "as said the dying Cardinal: 'Fie, all is gone'."

Though Beaton was dead, the effects of his work remained. He had saved the situation at the crisis of December, 1542, and the insensate cruelty of Henry VIII had made it impossible that the Cardinal's work should fall to pieces at once. It seemed at first as if the only difference was that the castle of St. Andrews was held by the English party. Ten months after Beaton's death, the small Protestant garrison was joined by John Knox, who was present when the regent succeeded, with help from France, in reducing the castle in July, 1547. Its defenders, including Knox, were sent as galley-slaves to France. Henry VIII had died in the preceding January, but Hertford (now Protector Somerset) continued the Scottish policy of the preceding reign. In the summer of 1547 he made his third invasion of Scotland, marked by the usual barbarity. In the course of it, on 10th September, was fought the last battle between Scots and English. Somerset met the Scots, under Arran, at Pinkiecleuch, near Edinburgh, and by the combined effect of artillery and a cavalry charge, completely defeated them with great slaughter. The English, after some further devastation, returned home, and the Scots at once entered into a treaty with France, which had been at war with England since 1544. It was agreed that the young queen should marry the dauphin, the eldest son of Henry II. While negotiations were in progress, she was placed for safety, first in the priory of Inchmahome, an island in the lake of Menteith, and afterwards in Dumbarton Castle. In June, 1548, a large number of French auxiliaries were sent to Scotland, and, in the beginning of August, Mary was sent to France. The English failed to capture her, and she landed about 13th August. The war lingered on till 1550. The Scots gradually won back the strongholds which had been seized by the English, and, although their French allies did good service, serious jealousies arose, which greatly weakened the position of the French party. Finally, Scotland was included in the peace made between England and France in 1550.

All the time, the Reformed faith was rapidly gaining adherents, and when, in April, 1554, the queen-dowager succeeded Arran (now Duke of Chatelherault) as regent, she found the problem of governing Scotland still more difficult. The relations with England had, indeed, been simplified by the accession of a Roman Catholic queen in England, but the Spanish marriage of Mary Tudor made it difficult for a Guise to obtain any help from her. She continued the policy of obtaining French levies, and the irritation they caused was a considerable help to her opponents. Knox had returned to Scotland in 1555, and, except for a visit to Geneva in 1556-57, spent the rest of his life in his native country. In 1557 was formed the powerful a.s.sembly of Protestant clergy and laymen who took the t.i.tle of "the Congregation of the Lord", and signed the National Covenant which aimed at the abolition of Roman Catholicism. Their hostility to the queen-regent was intensified by the events of the year 1558-59. In April, 1558, Queen Mary was married to the dauphin, and her husband received the crown-matrimonial and became known as King of Scots. Scotland seemed to have pa.s.sed entirely under France. We know that there was some ground for the Protestant alarm, because the girl queen had been induced to sign doc.u.ments which transferred her rights, in case of her decease without issue, to the King of France and his heirs. These doc.u.ments were in direct antagonism to the a.s.surance given to the Scottish Parliament of the maintenance of national independence. The French alliance seemed to have gained a complete triumph, while the shout of joy raised by its supporters was really the swan-song of the cause. Knox and the Congregation had rendered it for ever impossible.

Nor was it long before this became apparent. In November, 1558, Mary Tudor died, and England was again Protestant. Henry II ordered Francis and Mary to a.s.sume the arms of England, in virtue of Mary's descent from Margaret Tudor, which made her in Roman Catholic eyes the rightful Queen of England, Elizabeth being born out of wedlock. The Protestant Queen of England had thus an additional motive for opposition to the government of Mary of Guise and her daughter. It was unfortunate for the queen-regent that, at this particular juncture, she was entering into strained relations with the Reformers. Hitherto she had succeeded in satisfying Knox himself; but, in the beginning of 1559, she adopted more severe measures, and the lords of the congregation began to discuss a treasonable alliance with England, which proved the beginning of the end. The Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis set the French government free to pay greater attention to the progress of Scottish affairs, and Mary of Guise forthwith denounced the leading Protestant preachers as heretics.

It was much too late. The immediate result was the Perth riots of May and June, 1559, which involved the destruction of the religious houses which were the glory of the Fair City. The aspect of affairs was so threatening that the regent came to terms, and promised that she would take no vengeance on the people of Perth, and that she would not leave a French garrison in the town. The regent kept her word in garrisoning the town with Scotsmen, but her introduction of a French bodyguard, in attendance on her own person, was regarded as a breach of her promise.

The destruction of religious buildings continued, although Knox did his endeavour to save the palace of Scone. The Protestants held St. Andrews while the regent entered into negotiations which they considered to be a mere subterfuge for gaining time, and, on the 29th June, they marched upon Edinburgh. In July, 1559, occurred the sudden death of Henry II; Francis and Mary succeeded, and the supreme power in France and in Scotland pa.s.sed to the House of Guise. The Protestants who had been making overtures to Cecil and Elizabeth declared, in October, that the regent had been deposed. This bold step was justified by the help received from England, and by the indignation caused by the excesses of the regent's French troops in Scotland. So far had religious emotion outrun the sentiment of nationality that the Protestants were willing to admit almost any English claim. The result of Elizabeth's treaty with the rebels was that they were enabled to besiege Leith, by means of an English fleet, while the regent took refuge in Edinburgh Castle. The English attack on Leith was unsuccessful, but the dangerous illness of the queen-mother led to the conclusion of peace. A truce was made on condition that all foreign soldiers, French and English alike, should leave Scotland, and that the Scottish claim to the English throne should be abandoned. On the 11th June, 1560, Mary died. The wisdom of the policy of her later years may be questioned, but her conduct during her widowhood forms a strange contrast to that of her Tudor mother-in-law in similar circ.u.mstances. It is probable that her intentions were honest enough, and that the Protestant indignation at her "falsehoods" was based on invincible misunderstanding. Her gracious charm of manner was the concomitant of a tolerance rare in the sixteenth century; and she died at peace with all men, and surrounded by those who had been in arms against her, receiving "all her n.o.bles with all pleasure, with a pleasant countenance, and even embracing them with a kiss of love".

Her death set the lords of the congregation free to carry out their ecclesiastical programme. In August Roman Catholicism was abolished by the Scottish Parliament and the celebration of the ma.s.s forbidden, under severe penalties. There remained the question of the ratification of the Treaty of Edinburgh, the final form of the agreement by which peace had been made. The young Queen of Scots objected to the treaty on the ground that it included a clause that "the most Christian King and Queen Mary, and each of them, abstain henceforth from using the t.i.tle and bearing the arms of the kingdom of England or of Ireland".[61] She interpreted the word "henceforth" as involving an absolute renunciation of her claim to the English throne, and so prejudicing her succession, should she survive Elizabeth. Cecil had suggested to the Scots that it might be advisable to raise the claim of the Lord James Stewart, an illegitimate son of James V, and afterwards Earl of Moray, to the throne, or to support that of the House of Hamilton. The Scots improved on this suggestion, and proposed that Elizabeth should marry the Earl of Arran, the eldest son of the Duke of Chatelherault, who might succeed to the throne. There were many reasons why Elizabeth should not wed the imbecile Arran, and it may safely be said that she never seriously considered the project although she continued to trifle with the suggestion, which formed a useful form of intrigue against Mary.

The situation was considerably altered by the death of Francis II, in December, 1560. That event was, on the whole, welcome to Elizabeth, for it destroyed the power of the Guises, and Mary Stuart[62] had now to face her Scottish difficulties without French aid. She was not on good terms with her mother-in-law, Catherine de Medici, who now controlled the destinies of France, and it was evident that she must accept the fact of the Scottish Reformation, and enter upon a conflict with the theocratic tendencies of the Church and with the Scottish n.o.bles who were the pensioners of Elizabeth. On the other hand, although Francis II was dead, his widow survived, young, beautiful, charming, and a queen.

The dissolution of her first marriage had removed an actual difficulty from the path of the English queen, but, after all, it only meant that she might be able to contract an alliance still more dangerous. As early as December 31st, 1560, Throckmorton warned Elizabeth that she must "have an eye to" the second marriage of Mary Stuart.[63] The Queen of England had a choice of alternatives. She might prosecute the intrigue with the Earl of Arran, capture Mary on her way to Scotland, and boldly adopt the position of the leader of Protestantism. There were, however, many difficulties, ecclesiastical, foreign, and personal, in such a course. Arran was an impossible husband; Knox and the lords of the congregation made good allies but bad subjects; and the inevitable struggle with Spain would be precipitated. The other course was to attempt to win Mary's confidence, and to prevent her from contracting an alliance with the Hapsburgs, which was probably what Elizabeth most feared. This was the alternative finally adopted by the Queen of England; but, very characteristically, she did not immediately abandon the other possibility. On the pretext that Mary refused to confirm the Treaty of Edinburgh, her cousin declined to grant her request for a safe-conduct from France to Scotland, and spoke of the Scottish queen in terms which Mary took the first opportunity of resenting. "The queen, your mistress," she remarked to the English amba.s.sador who brought the refusal, "doth say that I am young and do lack experience. Indeed I confess I am younger than she is, and do want experience; but I have age enough and experience to use myself towards my friends and kinsfolk friendly and uprightly; and I trust my discretion shall not so fail me that my pa.s.sion shall move me to use other language of her than it becometh of a queen and my next kinswoman."[64]

When, in August, 1561, Mary did sail from France to Scotland, Elizabeth made an effort to capture her. It was characteristically hesitating, and it succeeded only in giving Mary an impression of Elizabeth's hostility.

Some months later Elizabeth imprisoned the Countess of Lennox, the mother of Darnley, for giving G.o.d thanks because "when the queen's s.h.i.+ps were almost near taking of the Scottish queen, there fell down a mist from heaven that separated them and preserved her".[65] The arrival of Mary in Scotland effectually put an end to the Arran intrigue, but the girl-widow of scarcely nineteen years had many difficulties with which to contend. As a devout Roman Catholic, she had to face the relentless opposition of Knox and the congregation, who objected even to her private exercise of her own faith. As the representative of the French alliance, now but a dead cause, she was confronted by an English party which included not only her avowed enemies but many of her real or pretended friends. Her brother, the Lord James Stewart, whom she made Earl of Moray, and who guided the early policy of her reign, was constantly in Elizabeth's pay, as were most of her other advisers. Her secretary, Maitland of Lethington, the most distinguished and the ablest Scottish statesman of his day, had, as the fixed aim of his policy, a good understanding with England. Furthermore, she was disliked by all the n.o.bles who had seized upon the property of the Church and added it to their own possessions. Up to the age of twenty-five she had, by Scots law, the right of recalling all grants of land made during her minority, and her greedy n.o.bles knew well that the victory of Roman Catholicism meant the restoration of Church lands. Her relations with France were uncertain, and the Guises found their attention fully occupied at home.

As the next heir to the throne of England, she was bound to be very careful in her dealings with Elizabeth. United by every tie of blood and sentiment to Rome and the Guises, she was forced, for reasons of policy, to remain on good terms with Protestantism and the Tudor Queen of England. The first years of Mary's reign in Scotland were marked by the continuance of good relations between herself and her half-brother, whom she entrusted with the government of the kingdom. In 1562 she suppressed the most powerful Catholic n.o.ble in Scotland, the Earl of Huntly. The result of this policy was to raise an unfounded suspicion in England and Spain that the Queen of Scots was "no more devout towards Rome than for the sustentation of her uncles".[66] The indignation felt at Mary's conduct among Roman Catholics in England and in Spain may have been one of the reasons for Elizabeth's adopting a more distinctly Protestant position in 1562. In the Act of Supremacy of that year the first avowed reference is made to the authority used by Henry VIII and Edward VI, _i.e._ the Supreme Heads.h.i.+p of the Church. It at all events made Elizabeth's position less difficult, because Spain and Austria were not likely to attack England in the interests of a queen whose orthodoxy was doubtful.

Meanwhile Elizabeth was directing all her efforts to prevent Mary from contracting a second marriage, and, at all hazards, to secure that she should not marry Don Carlos of Spain or the Archduke of Austria. Her persistent endeavours to bribe Scottish n.o.bles were directed, with considerable acuteness, to creating an English party strong enough to deter foreign princes from "seeking upon a country so much at her devotion".[67] She warned Mary that any alliance with "a mighty prince"

would offend England[68] and so imperil her succession. Mary, on her part, was attempting to obtain a recognition of her position as "second person" [heir presumptive], and she professed her willingness to take Elizabeth's advice in the all-important matter of her marriage. The English queen made various suggestions, and found objections to them all. Finally she proposed that Mary should marry her own favourite, Leicester, and a long correspondence followed. It was suggested that the two queens should have an interview, but this project fell through.

Elizabeth, of course, was too fondly attached to Leicester to see him become the husband of her beautiful rival; Mary, on her part, despised the "new-made earl", and Leicester himself apologized to Mary's amba.s.sador for the presumption of the proposal, "alleging the invention of that proposition to have proceeded from Master Cecil, his secret enemy".[69] While the Leicester negotiations were in progress, the Earl of Lennox, who had been exiled in 1544, returned to Scotland with his son Henry, Lord Darnley, a handsome youth, eighteen years of age. As early as May, 1564, Knox suspected that Mary intended to marry Darnley.[70] There is little doubt that it was a love-match; but there were also political reasons, for Darnley was, after Mary herself, the nearest heir to Elizabeth's throne, and only the Hamiltons stood between him and the crown of Scotland. He had been born and educated in England, as also had been his mother, the daughter of Angus and Margaret Tudor, and Elizabeth might have used him as against Mary's claim. That claim the English queen refused to acknowledge, although, in the end of 1564, Murray and Maitland of Lethington tried their utmost to persuade her to do so.

On the 29th July, 1565, Mary was married to Darnley in the chapel of Holyrood. Elizabeth chose to take offence, and Murray raised a rebellion. There are two stories of plots: there are hints of a scheme to capture Mary and Darnley; and Murray, on the other hand, alleged that Darnley had entered into a conspiracy to kidnap him. It is, at all events, certain that Murray raised a revolt and that the people rallied to Mary, who drove her brother across the border. Elizabeth received Murray with coldness, and asked him "how he, being a rebel to her sister of Scotland, durst take the boldness upon him to come within her realm?"[71] But Murray, confident in Elizabeth's promise of aid, knew what this hypocritical outburst was worth, and the English queen soon afterwards wrote to Mary in his favour. The motive which Murray alleged for his revolt was his fear for the true religion in view of Mary's marriage to Darnley, nominally a Roman Catholic; but his position with regard to the Rizzio Bond renders it, as we shall see, somewhat difficult to give him credit for sincerity. It is more likely that he was ambitious of ruling the kingdom with Mary as a prisoner. About Elizabeth's complicity there can be no doubt.[72]

Mary's troubles had only begun. On the 16th January, 1566, Randolph, the English amba.s.sador, wrote from Edinburgh: "I cannot tell what mislikings of late there hath been between her grace and her husband; he presses earnestly for the matrimonial crown, which she is loth hastily to grant". Darnley, in fact, had proved a vicious fool, and was possessed of a fool's ambition. Rizzio, Mary's Italian secretary, who had urged the Darnley marriage, strongly warned Mary against giving her husband any real share in the government, and Darnley determined that Rizzio should be "removed".[73] He therefore entered into a conspiracy with his natural enemies, the Scottish n.o.bles, who professed to be willing to secure the throne for this youth whom they despised and hated. The plot involved the murder of Rizzio, the imprisonment of Mary, the crown-matrimonial for Darnley, and the return of Murray and his accomplices, who were still in exile. The English government was, of course, privy to the scheme.[74] The murder was carried out, in circ.u.mstances of great brutality, on the night of the 9th March. Mary's condition of health, "having then pa.s.sed almost to the end of seven months in our birth", renders the carrying out of the deed in her presence, and while Rizzio was her guest, almost certainly an attempt upon the queen's own life. There were numberless opportunities of slaying Rizzio elsewhere, and the ghastly details--the sudden appearance of Ruthven, hollow, pale, just risen from a sick bed, the pistol of Ker of Faudonside,--are so rich in dramatic effect that one can scarcely doubt what _denouement_ was intended. The plot failed in its main purpose. Rizzio, indeed, was killed, and Murray made his appearance next morning and obtained forgiveness. The queen "embracit him and kisset him, alleging that in caice he had bene at hame, he wald not have sufferit her to have bene sa uncourterly handlit". But the success ended here. Mary won over her husband, and together they escaped and fled to Dunbar. Darnley deserted his accomplices, proclaimed his innocence, and strongly urged the punishment of the murderers. They, of course, threw themselves on the hospitality of Queen Elizabeth, who sent them money, and lied to Mary,[75] who did not put too much faith in her cousin's a.s.surances. On June 19th, a prince was born in Edinburgh Castle, but the event brought about only a partial reconciliation between his unhappy parents. Mary was shamefully treated by her worthless husband, and in the following November her n.o.bles suggested to her the project of a divorce. Darnley, however, was not doomed to the fate which overtook his descendants, the life of a king without a crown. He had awakened the enmity of men whose feuds were blood-feuds, and the Rizzio conspirators were not likely to forgive the upstart youth whose inconstancy had foiled their plan for Mary's fall, and whose treachery had involved them in exile. Darnley had proved useless even as a tool for the n.o.bles, he had offended Mary and disgusted everybody in Scotland, and there were many who were willing to do without him. At this point a new tool was ready to the hands of the discontented barons. The Earl of Bothwell, whether with Mary's consent or not, aspired to the queen's hand, and devised a plan for the murder of Darnley. On the night of the 10th February, 1566-67, the wretched boy, not yet twenty-one years of age, was strangled,[76] and the house in which he had been living was blown up with gunpowder. Public opinion accused Bothwell of the murder; he was tried and found innocent, and Parliament put its seal upon his acquittal. On the 24th April he seized the person of the queen as she was travelling from Linlithgow to Edinburgh, and Mary married him on the 15th May. _Mense malum Maio nubere vulgus ait._ The n.o.bles almost immediately raised a rebellion, professedly to deliver the queen from the thraldom of Bothwell. On June 15th she surrendered at Carberry Hill, and the n.o.bles disregarded a pledge of loyalty to the queen given on condition of her abandoning Bothwell, alleging that she was still in correspondence with him. They now accused her of murdering her husband, and imprisoned her in Lochleven Castle. The whole affair is wrapped in mystery, but it is impossible to give the Earl of Morton and the other n.o.bles any credit for honesty of purpose. There can be little doubt that they used Bothwell for their own ends, and, while they represented the murder as the result of a domestic conspiracy between the queen and Bothwell, they afterwards, when quarrelling among themselves, hurled at each other accusations of partic.i.p.ation in the plot, and their leader, the Earl of Morton, died on the scaffold as a criminal put to death for the murder of Darnley. This, of course, does not exclude the hypothesis of Mary's guilt, and while the view of Hume or of Mr. Froude could not now be seriously advanced in its entirety, it is only right to say that a majority of historians are of opinion that she, at least, connived at the murder. The question of her implication as a princ.i.p.al in the plot depends upon the authenticity of the doc.u.ments known as the "Casket Letters", which purported to be written by the queen to Bothwell, and which the insurgent lords afterwards produced as evidence against her.[77]

Moray had left Scotland in the end of April. When he returned in the beginning of August he found that the prisoner of Lochleven, to whom he owed his advancement and his earldom, had been forced to sign a deed of abdication, nominating himself as regent for her infant son. On the 15th August he went to Lochleven and saw his sister, as he had done after the murder of Rizzio, when she was a prisoner in Holyrood. Till an hour past midnight, Elizabeth's pensioner preached to the unfortunate princess on righteousness and judgment, leaving her "that night in hope of nothing but of G.o.d's mercy". It was merely a threat; Mary's life was safe, for Elizabeth, roused, for once, to a feeling of generosity, had forbidden Moray to make any attempt on that. Next morning he graciously accepted the regency and left his sister's prison with her kisses on his lips.[78]

On the 2nd May, 1568, Mary escaped from Lochleven, and her brother at once prepared a hostile force to meet her. Her army, composed largely of Protestants, marched towards Dunbarton Castle, where they desired to place the queen for safe keeping. The regent intercepted her at Langside, and inflicted a complete defeat upon her forces. Mary was again a fugitive, and her followers strongly urged her to take refuge in France. But Elizabeth had given her a promise of protection, and Mary, impelled by some fateful impulse, resolved to throw herself on the mercy of her kinswoman.[79] On the 16th day of May, her little boat crossed the Solway. When the Queen of Scots, the daughter of the House of Guise, the widow of a monarch of the line of Valois, set foot on English soil as a suppliant for the protection which came to her only by death, the last faint hope must have faded out of the hearts of the few who still longed for an independent Scotland, bound by grat.i.tude and by ancient tradition to the ally who, more than once, had proved its salvation.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 61: Cf. the present writer's "Mary, Queen of Scots" (Scottish History from Contemporary Writers).]

[Footnote 62: The spelling "Stuart", which Queen Mary brought with her from France, now superseded the older "Stewart".]

[Footnote 63: Foreign Calendar: Elizabeth, December 31st, 1560.]