Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 21.djvu/524

Rh 500 SCOTLAND [HISTORY. 1545-1558. taken from Calvin, and burnt at St Andrews. The war of religion, now openly declared, could not be carried on without bloodshed on both sides. Beaton was assassinated less than three months after Wishart's death in his own castle by Norman Leslie and other young men, some with private grievances, all desiring to avenge Wishart. The effect was adverse to the Reformers. Leslie and his asso- ciates, joined by a few others, of whom Knox was one, being shut in the castle, held it for a short time against the regent, but were forced to surrender to Strozzi, the French admiral. The death of Henry VIII. (1547) did not put a stop to the war with England. The protector Somerset proved to be an implacable enemy, and, partly to strengthen his position as regent, determined to strike a more signal Somer- blow. Invading Scotland simultaneously with a large fleet 8e t' s and army, he defeated the Scottish regent at Pinkie (18th raids. September 1547), took Edinburgh, and placed garrisons in several castles. Scotland had suffered no such reverse since Flodden. The progress of the capital was thrown back at least a century ; scarcely a building remains prior to the date of his savage raids. Somerset was not in a position to follow up his advantage, for he had to return home to counteract intrigues. The young queen was sent from Dumbarton in the following summer (August 1548) to the court of France, where she was brought up with the children of Henry II. by Catherine de' Medici. Before she went a French force had been sent to Scotland, and in the camp at Haddington the estates had, by a majority led by the regent and queen dowager, agreed to Mary's betrothal to the dauphin. The regent was promised the dukedom of Chastelherault in return for his part in the treaty. For two years a fierce inter- mittent war continued between England and Scotland ; but the former country was too much engaged in home affairs and the French war to send a large force, and the Scots recovered the" places they had lost except Lauder. The issue of the French war was also adverse to the English, who were forced to agree to the treaty of Bou- logne (24th March 1550), in which Scotland was included. In September the queen dowager went to France and ob- tained the transfer of the regency from Arran to herself. On her return, Arran not being prepared to relinquish his office, she proved herself a skilful diplomatist, gaining over the nobles by promises and the people by abstaining from persecution of the Reformers. A single execution that of Adam Wallace, " a simple but very zealous man for the new doctrines" took place in 1550 under the sanction of Archbishop Hamilton, natural brother of Arran, who had succeeded Beaton; but that prelate, whose natural dis- position was towards compromise, authorized a Catechism in 1552 which minimized the distinctions in doctrine be- tween the church and the Reformers, and was conspicuous for omitting all reference to the supremacy of the pope. At this time a large section of the clergy and people were still wavering, and the necessity of retaining them by moderation and reform was evident. The death of Edward VI. and the accession of Mary in 1553 had an important influence on the progress of the Scottish Reformation. The Scottish Reformers who had taken refuge in England had to escape persecution by returning home or going abroad, and the powerful preaching of Harlaw, Willock, and Knox, who came to Scotland towards the end of 1555, promoted the new doctrines. Regency In the spring of 1554 the queen dowager at last suc- ceeded in obtaining from the reluctant Arran a surrender of the regency. Mary had now attained her twelfth year and a nomination by her of her mother as tutor gave the form of law to what was really the act of the queen dowager, the French king, and the nobility. The people acquiesced, of Guise. for all classes were tired of a governor whose chief object was money. His actual investiture in the French dukedom removed any scruples in relinquishing a dangerous dignity. For the next six years the queen dowager was regent and conducted the government with such prudence that her real aims were only seen through by the most penetrating. Knox has been accused of a harsh opinion of her; but the upshot of her policy if successful would have been to subject Scotland to France and to that party in France so soon to be the relentless persecutors of the Reformers. She knew well how to bide her time, to yield when re- sistance was impolitic, to hide her real object, but this she pursued with great tenacity of purpose. A variety of circumstances favoured her, the condition of England under Mary Tudor, the ill-will Arran had incurred, the absence of any leading noble who could attempt to seize the supreme power, the safety at the French court of her daughter, in whose name she governed, and the knowledge of her adopted country acquired by long residence. Yet her first step was a mistake so serious as to have well- nigh provoked revolution. In appointments to offices she showed such preference for her own countrymen as created intense jealousy on the part of the Scottish nobility, and would probably have led to open action but for the fact that many Scotsmen got offices and pensions from the French king. The new regent applied herself at once to the perennial work of every Scottish Government, the re- pression of disorder in the Highlands, and first Huntly, afterwards Argyll and Athole, were sent to Argyll and the Isles ; but the presence of royalty was, as had before been found, the best remedy, and she made next year a circuit in person with more success than any of her lieutenants. Under the advice of her French counsellors she now garri- soned Dunbar with French soldiers and built a fort at Eyemouth (1556). She even ventured to propose to levy a tax for the maintenance of a standing army ; but the remonstrance of 300 barons, headed by Sir John Sandi- lands, forced her to abandon a project so fatal in that age to liberty. Next year, at the instigation of the French king, she endeavoured to force the country into an English war. No time could have been worse chosen, for com- missioners from England and Scotland had actually met at Carlisle to adjust differences between the two countries. The Scottish barons refused to fight, and from that date, Bishop Lesley notes, the queen regent could never agree with the nobility, and sundry of them sought by all means to raise sedition against her and the French. In the parliament at the close of the year commis- Marys sioners were appointed to go to France for the marriage marriaj between Mary and the dauphin. Their instructions were * tl) . to obtain a promise from both to observe the liberties and privileges of Scotland and its laws, and a ratification of the Act passed in 1548, when it was first proposed to send the young queen to France. The contract of marriage pro- vided that their eldest son was to be king of France and Scotland and the eldest daughter (should there be no son) queen of Scotland, to be given in marriage by the joint consent of the king of France and the Scottish estates. In the event of her husband's death Mary was to be free to stay in France or return to Scotland. The marriage was solemnized at Notre Dame on 24th July 1558. But prior to the public contract a secret arrangement had been made, by which Mary, in three several deeds, made over the kingdom of Scotland to the king of France and his heirs if she died childless, assigned to him possession of the kingdom until he was reimbursed in a million pieces of gold for her entertainment in France, and declared that, whatever documents she might afterwards sign by decree of parliament, this arrangement expressed her genuine in- tention. After the return of the commissioners the crown