Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 36.djvu/398

Mary of Guise an assured prospect of an heir that she was crowned in February 1540 (ib. pp. 170-1). New regalia were used, made of gold raised from a mine at Crawfurdmuir by miners from Lorraine (, p. 381). On Friday, 22 May, James wrote to inform Henry of the birth of a prince (State Papers, v. 177). But the sudden death of this son James and also of another infant a few days old, christened Arthur or Robert, at the end of April 1541, left the queen 'very sickly and full of heaviness,' Rumours of poison were heard (ib. pp. 177, 188; Hamilton Papers, i. 73). In the summer of 1542 she had again hope of offspring, and went with James on foot (some say barefoot) to the chapel of Our Lady of Loretto at Musselburgh (, p. 402). But it was reported in England that James had a mistress at Tantallon, and set 'not much store by the queen' (Hamilton Papers, i. 329). Before the disaster at Solway Moss [see under ] she had 'taken her chamber' at Linlithgow, and the birth of a child, erroneously thought to be a son, was proclaimed in Jedburgh on 2 Dec. The child was Mary Queen of Scots (ib. pp. 323–4, 328, 333; cf. ). The news of the death, at midnight on the 14th, of the unhappy James is said by Knox (i. 92) to have been brought to the mother by Beaton. Knox insinuates that she received the tidings with ill-concealed pleasure, and repeats the scandal heard in Edinburgh a few months later by Sadler of her alleged over-familiarity with Beaton, which had aroused the jealousy of James (Hamilton Papers, ii. 92). But the source of these stories is suspicious.

In the crisis of Scottish affairs produced by Solway Moss and the death of James, Beaton, as head of the catholic and anti-English party, had a strong common interest with the French queen-dowager. But they were unable to prevent the nomination as governor or regent, on 22 Dec, in accordance with constitutional precedent, of the next heir to the crown after the infant princess, James Hamilton, earl of Arran [q. v.], who favoured religious reform and an understanding with England, Reports that the Duke of Guise was on his way to assume 'thole regiment of Scotland' in the name of his niece led Arran, moreover, to arrest the cardinal (ib. i. 398). A parliament which assembled on 12 March 1543 confirmed Arran's regency and accepted Henry's offer of a marriage between Edward and the child Mary (, v. 267–71; Acta Parl. Scot. ii. 411). When Sir Ralph Sadler, the English envoy, arrived in Edinburgh (Hamilton Papers, i. 464), he approached the queen-dowager, who professed to desire the English marriage and the removal of her daughter to England, on the ground that Arran wanted to marry her to his son. She also suggested that if the cardinal were released he would forward Henry's view (ib. i. 497). Beaton, who was soon virtually at liberty, caused Arran disquietude by proposing to marry the queen-dowager to Francis I's emissary, Matthew Stewart, earl of Lennox, whom some maintained to be heir-presumptive, on the ground that Arran was illegitimate. On 23 July 1543 the cardinal and his supporters, at the head of a large force, carried off the two queens from surveillance at Linlithgow to the freedom of Stirling (Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 28). Henry VIII ordered Sadler to procure the separation of the mother from the daughter (, Works, i. 108; Hamilton Papers, i. 633–43), but public feeling in Scotland was with the cardinal's party, and Arran, on 4 Sept., reconciled himself with Beaton.

When the young queen was crowned at Stirling on 9 Sept., a new council of sixteen was created to 'direct and order' the governor, and the queen-dowager, who was rumoured to have at first desired to place her jointure lands in its hands and depart for France, was appointed principal member (ib. ii. 40, 45, 56). Arriving in Edinburgh on the night of 17 Sept., she summoned Sadler on the 19th before the council, to discuss with her and her colleagues the situation with regard to England. On 28 Sept. she went to St. Andrews with the cardinal and Patrick Hepburn, third earl of Bothwell [q. v.], and remained there some time, 'whereof,' says Sadler, 'the people speak largely, remembering her over-much familiarity with Beaton in the lifetime of the late king ' (ib. pp. 81, 92). The arrival on 6 Oct. of the French ambassador, De la Brosse, accompanied by a papal legate, to offer renewed alliance and immediate assistance against the designs of England, greatly strengthened the hands of the cardinal and queen-dowager against Henry (ib. p. 92; Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 28). The parliament which met on 3 Dec. 1543 accepted the French offers. Henry replied with a declaration of war, on the arrival of which Mary made a pilgrimage on foot to her favourite shrine of Our Lady of Loretto at Musselburgh, 'to pray for peace among her lords and with the realm of England' (State Papers, v. 350;, ii. 64).

There can be no doubt that Mary had by this time formed the design of marrying her daughter into France. But such a marriage was certain to be opposed by Arran, who intended her for his son, and by Beaton, who saw