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 love:’ i.e. reconcile him to the unlooked-for new alliance of the cardinal with Arran. There was a rival suitor in the Earl of Bothwell, but, according to Lindsay, Lennox far excelled Bothwell in personal grace and strength, as well as in knightly accomplishments, for he ‘was ane strong man, of personage weill proportioned in all his members, with lustie and manlie visage, and vent verrie strecht up in his passage: quhairfoir he appeired verrie pleasant in the sight of gentlewomen’ (Chronicles, pp. 422–3). But Lindsay also records that she gave to both ‘nothing but fair words;’ and Lennox (suspecting that the cardinal was using him merely for his own aggrandisement, and had no desire, but the opposite, that he should be successful in his suit) began to look out for a new alliance. Of necessity it could be found only among the cardinal's enemies, and without any scruple or the least consideration either for France or Scotland, he gave Henry VIII, through the Earl of Glencairn, to understand that his services might be bought by the hand of Henry's niece, Lady Margaret Douglas [q. v.], daughter of Angus, and by Henry's help to recover ‘his right and title to this realm (Scotland), which he sayeth the governor now usurpeth’ (Hamilton Papers, ii. 56).

Than this offer of Lennox nothing at this crisis could have been more welcome to Henry. He could now make Lennox his trump card in place of Arran, who, in fear of Lennox's rivalry, had succumbed to the cardinal. That Lennox was next heir to the Scottish throne after Arran would have been sufficient for Henry's purpose; but the fact that his claims to be the rightful heir instead of Arran had already been backed by the cardinal and the catholics elevated him into an almost heaven-sent instrument. His pretensions to the hand of the Lady Margaret, far from being objected to, were merely an additional commendation, since his marriage with her would bind up his interests more completely with England. But both as an earnest of his good faith and as a most important step towards the attainment of Henry's purpose, it was deemed advisable to ask him, before negotiations proceeded further, to give up to England Dumbarton Castle, regarded as the key to the west of Scotland (the Privy Council to Sadler, 11 Oct. ib. p. 98). The difficulty was that Lennox supposed this to be his main trump card, and that to give it up would place him in Henry's power. He therefore point blank refused, Sadler reporting that Lennox would sooner part with his life, and that if Henry pressed him to give it up he would join the French party (Hamilton Papers, ii. 108;, State Papers, i. 308). Failing thus to obtain definite assurances from England, he broke his promise to attend a convention of Angus and other lords of the English party held in Douglas Castle about the end of October (ib. i. 325); but although the cardinal, alive to the danger of his alliance with England, made every endeavour to reconcile him to Arran's governorship, he failed, and on the arrival of a French fleet with a supply of stores, artillery, and treasures for the Scots against England, Lennox, to make sure of what in any case would be of vital assistance to himself, secured it in Dumbarton Castle (Diurnal, p. 29).

Profoundly distrusting the cardinal, Lennox in January 1544 definitely joined Angus and the English party, and united with them in an advance against Edinburgh. Their forces numbered over four thousand, but Arran being prepared to give battle with a much more powerful array, they were forced to pretend to come to terms (Hamilton Papers, i. 250; Diurnal, p. 30). An agreement was therefore signed, 23 Jan. 1543–4, between commissioners of Arran on the one side, and of Angus and Lennox on the other, for mutual obedience to the queen of Scotland (Cal. State Papers, Scot. i. 45); but, this notwithstanding, Lennox did not scruple to continue his negotiations with England, and on 17 March he and Glencairn agreed to put the king of England in possession of several of the strongest fortresses in Scotland, including Dumbarton, and to promote the marriage of the young Princess Mary of Scotland to Prince Edward. For reward Lennox was to obtain the hand of the Lady Margaret and to be appointed governor in place of Arran on the ground of Arran's illegitimacy, while Glencairn was immediately rewarded for his services in the negotiation by a grant of one thousand crowns per annum (ib. p. 46). Further, Lennox undertook to become a protestant and promote the preaching of ‘the word of God’ in Scotland.

Having thus broken his allegiance to his religion and his country, Lennox, on 28 May, set sail from Dumbarton to England (Hamilton Papers, ii. 399; Diurnal, p. 33), landing at Chester on 6 June (Hamilton Papers, i. 403). Proceeding to London, he there on 26 June signed a treaty with Henry's commissioners for his marriage to the Lady Margaret. On the one hand he not merely agreed to surrender to Henry the castle of Dumbarton and the Isle of Bute, but to give up to him what title he had to the Scottish throne, and to support him in his claim to be supreme lord of Scotland;