Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/523

Rh Lyndsay, his old tutor, and Buchanan, the tutor of one of his bastards, exposed its abuses. In 1537 he went to France to see his bride, but, falling in love with Madeleine, daughter of Francis L, obtained her hand instead. After an absence of nine months he returned ; but the young queen died within a few weeks after landing. The following year he married Mary, dowager duchess of Longueville, daughter of Claude of Lorraine, duke of Guise. Next year (1539) Henry made another attempt to gain James through his envoy Sir Ralph Sadler, but, though the succession to the English crown in the event of Prince Edward's death was held out as a bait, James remained unmoved. In 1540 the king made a voyage round Scotland, the first circum- navigation of his dominions by a Scottish sovereign. The Irish are said to have offered him their crown, and the barons of the north of England, whose sympathies were Catholic, were inclined to favour him. The position was perilous for Henry, many of whose subjects still remained Catholics at heart. He made a last attempt to induce James to meet him at York, but the Scottish king would not go so far across the border. Henry now ordered the marches to be put in a state of war, and Sir James Bowes, accompanied by Angus and Sir George Douglas, crossed the border, but was defeated in Teviotdale by Huntly and Home. The duke of Norfolk advanced with a large force, and, efforts to avert war having failed, James assembled the whole Scottish army and marched to Fala on the Lammermuirs, where he was reluctantly obliged to disband his force through the refusal of the nobles to go farther ; they even thought of repeating the tragedy of Lauder, but could not agree as to the victims. James raised a smaller force and gave the command of it to Oliver Sinclair, whose promotion was ill received by the barons. Their discord allowed an easy victory to Dacre, who routed them as they were passing over Solway Moss (25th November 1542), taking Sinclair and several of the leaders prisoners. The news, brought to James at Caerlaverock, together with the disaffection of the nobles, broke his heart. A few weeks later at Falkland he heard of the birth of Mary Stuart, but the news brought him no comfort. His saying, " The crown came with a lass and will go with a lass," has passed into history, although the prophecy was not fulfilled. Outwardly his reign had been, with the exception of the closing scene, successful. He had restored order along the borders, and put down all attempts of the nobles against his person. He had maintained the church, supporting the bishops by severe laws against heresy. He had secured by his marriage the alliance of France and was on good terms with other Continental states. His powerful neighbour had not succeeded in wresting any land from Scotland. He was, like his father, a popular king, mingling with the people in their sports, and respected because of his strict administra- tion of justice. But his foreboding was not without cause. The power of the nobles had only been restrained, not de- stroyed. The aristocracy had too many heads to be cut off by one or several blows. The principles of the Reformation were gradually spreading in spite of the attempts to stifle them, and the infant to whom he left the crown had to encounter rebellion at home and the hostility of England, not the less dangerous that she was heir to the English crown and its rulers veiled their hatred of her by professions of friendship. Knox describes James as " a blinded and most vicious king." Buchanan, who knew him better, is more fair, ascribing his faults to his time and bad education and doing justice to the qualities which made him loved by the people. Mary Stuart was deemed queen of Scotland from 14th December 1542 till 29th July 1567, when her son James VI. was crowned in her stead. This period of a quarter of a century is more crowded with events than any other part of the Scottish annals, except the War of Independence. 1534-1545. It was the epoch of the Reformation, and it became a question of European as well as national importance which side Scotland would take. Closely connected with the religious question was the political, affecting the union of Scotland and England. The life of Mary, who united the personal charm of her race and its evil fortune, adds tragic interest to the national history. It falls into three parts, from her birth to her return from France as the young widow of Francis II. in 1561 ; from her arrival in Scotland till her flight in 1568; and from her arrival in England till her execution in 1587; but only the second of these enters into the direct current of Scottish history. During the first Scotland was under the regency, first of Arran, then of Mary of Guise. It was rumoured that Cardinal Beaton forced James V. on his deathbed to sign a will naming him regent, or had forged such a document ; but the principal nobles proclaimed the earl of Arran heir-presumptive to Regency the crown, governor of the realm, and tutor to the queen, of Arran. and this was confirmed by parliament in the following spring. Beaton was thrown into prison, but soon released. The death of James suggested to Henry a new scheme for the annexation of Scotland by the marriage of the infant heiress to his son Edward, and he released the nobles taken at Solway Moss on easy terms under an assurance that they would aid him. Angus and his brother George Douglas also returned to Scotland from their long exile on the same promise. Sir Ralph Sadler, one of the ablest English resi- dents at the Scottish court half envoys, half spies was sent to conduct the negotiations. Arran was tempted to favour the marriage by the offer of the princess Elizabeth for his son and the government north of the Forth. But the queen dowager, though she pretended not to be averse to it, and Beaton did all they could to counteract Henry's project. One part of it, the immediate delivery of Mary and the principal castles to the English king, was specially objected to. A mutual alliance between the two kingdoms was agreed to on 1st July 1543, and Mary was to be sent to England when ten years old. Soon after a party of the nobles opposed to the match got possession of the young queen and removed her to Stirling. The English treaty was ratified by parliament ; but Beaton and his partisans did not attend, and a few days later the regent, as Sadler expresses it, revolted to the cardinal. It was evident that the assured lords, though in English pay, were not to be relied on, and Henry resolved on war. His first act Warwith the seizure of Scottish merchantmen in English ports Henry roused the patriotic feeling of Scotland. Before the close of the year the Scottish estates declared the treaty with England null and renewed the old league with France. Lord Lisle was sent with a fleet to the Firth of Forth, along with Hertford (afterwards the protector Somerset) as commander of the army, and Leith was sacked and Edinburgh burnt, though the castle held out. Lisle on his voyage home ravaged the ports of the Forth, while Hertford destroyed the towns and villages of the Lothians, aided by the English wardens, who made a raid across the border. Hertford returned .the following year and de- stroyed the abbeys of Kelso, Jedburgh, Melrose, Dryburgh, Roxburgh, and Coldingham, besides many castles, market- towns, and villages. Such barbarous warfare renewed the memory of the War of Independence and the intense hatred of England, which had greatly abated. Lennox and Glen- cairn alone of the nobles sided with the English, and the Reformers saw with regret the nation driven to a French alliance as at least preferable to English conquest. Beaton at this time really governed, imposing his will Death on the vacillating regent and sternly repressing heresy. L Wls ! 1 ~ George Wishart, the chief preacher of the Reformers, was seized, found guilty of eighteen articles of heresy, mostly

