Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/287

] mystery is not very deep when we reflect that the Lord Seaton, in whose custody he was, was a man, though related to the Hamiltons, yet of a most loyal temper, and a decided Romanist. Seaton negotiated with Beaton to give up his castle of St. Andrews; and, as if this could not be accomplished without the cardinal's presence on the spot, Seaton allowed him to accompany him, but with so small a force, that the moment the cardinal stood in his own castle, he declared himself at liberty, and Seaton had no power to say nay, had he wished it. As no punishment or even censure befell Lord Seaton on this account, it is most probable that Arran himself was cognisant of the scheme. What makes this more likely is that Hamilton, the abbot of Paisley, the natural brother of Arran, the regent, had returned just before from France; and that he was at the bottom of the plot it may not unreasonably be supposed, from the fact that he very soon exercised a powerful influence over the weaker mind of the regent. Through the means of the abbot, Beaton even attempted to accommodate matters with Henry. He declared that he was sincerely desirous of the union of the young queen and the Prince of Wales, so that there should be peace betwixt the countries, yet a peace preserving the independence of each. But this independence of Scotland was the very thing which Henry was determined to annihilate, and he pressed his desires for it with such violence, that all hopes of an amicable arrangement vanished.

The Scottish ambassadors—who, meantime, had arrived in London—found the king so impolitically and overbearingly determined on having his own way, regardless of the expressed sentiments of the Scotch, that the breach was only widened. Henry insisted on the immediate delivery of the infant queen; when he could not obtain that, he demanded that she should be given up to him on reaching two years of age, and told the ambassadors in a high and pompous strain that the realm of Scotland belonged of right to him, and that it ought to be resigned into his hands without question or delay. This absurd conduct excited a universal burst of indignation throughout Scotland, and completely levelled all the careful approaches to the same end which the Douglas faction had raised. Even Arran, whom Sir George Douglas represented to Sadler as a very gentle creature, resented the indignity with which his ambassadors and his proposals had been treated, and Beaton gained from the folly and violence of Henry a new accession of popularity.

This popularity the cardinal did not neglect to exercise. The Earl of Lennox, who had been engaged in the Italian wars of Francis I., was invited by the cardinal to return to Scotland, and was set up by him as a rival to Arran. Lennox was nearly related to the royal family; and whilst Beaton and his party propagated a rumour that Arran, through some informality in the divorce of his father and his second wife—Arran being issue of the third marriage—had no legitimate right to the title or the paternal property which he held, and none, therefore, to the office of regent, based upon them, it was circulated with equal assiduity that the late king, in the event of his dying without children, had selected Lennox for his successor.

Lennox did not at once fall into the cardinal's plans, but that bold and able churchman did not on that account pause in them. He held him up as the true opponent of Arran, proposed to marry him to the Queen Dowager, and entered into successful negotiations with Francis I., who sent over Lennox, as requested, and empowered him to furnish assistance to the Romanist party, both of arms and money, to check the designs of Henry.

Arran, alienated from the English Government by the imperious demands of Henry, and alarmed at the progress of the Papist faction, took care to proclaim his resolute resolve to oppose the aims of Henry, even to the extremity of war, and he dismissed his Protestant chaplains, friar Williams and John Rough; and such was the spirit of the people that Glencairn and Cassilis, the most devoted partisans of England, declared that they would sooner die than agree to the surrender of the French alliance. Such, in fact, was the popular exasperation that Sadler dared not appear in the streets; and the peers in the interest of Henry were equally the objects of the public resentment.

To induce Henry to pause in his fatal career, Sir George Douglas hastened to London, and prevailed on him to abate the extravagance of his demands. The immediate delivery of the infant queen, the surrender of the fortresses and of the Government into the hands of Henry, were waived, and Douglas returned to Scotland, bearing proposals of marriage of a more reasonable kind. Henry, however, did not abandon his schemes in secret. In the State Paper Office there is a memorandum in the hand of Wriothesley, saying that "the articles be so reasonable, that if the ambassadors of Scotland will not agree to them, then it shall be mete the king's majesty follow out his purpose by force." Sir George Douglas renewed the offer formerly made by Henry to Arran, of marrying the Princess Elizabeth and his eldest son, and Sir George and Glencairn were sent to London to assist the ambassadors in bringing the negotiation to a close.

But Arran was assailed as vehemently on the other side by the cardinal, and the queen-dowager, who was the real head of the party. They sent Lennox to endeavour to win him over to their side, so that all Scotland might unite against Henry. Lennox delivered a very flattering message from Francis I. to the regent, offering him both men and money to resist any attempt of invasion by the English, but this failing, the queen-dowager and Beaton prosecuted the negotiation with France, and it was agreed that 2,000 men, under Montgomerie, Sieur de Lorges, should be sent to Scotland. The queen and cardinal called on their partisans to assemble their followers and garrison their castles, whilst Grimani, the Pope's legate, was entreated to hasten to Scotland with a formidable store of anathemas and excommunications. The clergy assembled in convention at St. Andrews, and so ardent were they in the cause which they believed to be that of the very existence of the Church, that they pledged themselves to raise the sum necessary for the war against England, and, if necessary, not only to melt down the church plate, and to sacrifice their private fortunes, but to fight in person.

Whilst these belligerent proceedings, which were zealously supported by the people, and by a large majority of the nobility, justified the warning voice of Sir George