A.D. 1559.]

ARRIVAL OF ARRAN IN SCOTLAND.

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Lords of the Congregation, and promised to give additional maintain the power and interests of her daughter, their aid to Kirkaldy, Ormiston, Whitelaw, and others, who sovereign. expended considerable sums in the cause of the Congregation, and had their pensions from France stopped since they became its partisans.

Sir

Hereupon the Congregation prepared for direct hostilities. The Duke of Chatelherault came over to them; and a commission was issued to Glencairn and Erskine Three hours after the arrival of Balnaves at the castle of Dun, to proceed with the purgation of the religious of Berwick, and whilst he and Sadler were deep in their houses. The abbeys of Paisley, Kilwinning, and Dundiscussions, at midnight, Arran alighted at the gate. fermline were accordingly suppressed by them. Arran had been serving in the French army as a colonel Thomas Randall, or Randolph, who had become acof the Scottish guards, and in reality as a hostage for the quainted with Arran at Geneva, was secretly dispatched faith of his father in Scotland. He had been summoned by Cecil to Hamilton, to co-operate with the Scottish by Henry II. to attend the marriages of his sister and Reformers, affording them a direct means of counsel and daughter to the Duke of Savoy and Philip of Spain; but communion through him with the English court. Thus Arran, who was in the secret interest of Elizabeth, sent was Elizabeth in full and active connection with the an apology, and, as it was supposed, by the aid of Throck-insurgent subjects of the queen whose kingdom she was morton, the English ambassador, made his escape to Eng- bound by solemn treaty not to interfere with or prejudice land, where he had several secret interviews with Eliza- in any way; but perhaps she was not destitute of excuse, beth and Cecil, and then made his way to Scotland under in the fact that the French court was equally labouring, the assumed name of M. de Beaufort. through the sides of Scotland, to penetrate her realm. The chain of intelligence betwixt the English court and all that was going on in the Scottish one, was rendered complete by Maitland of Lethington, the secretary to the queen-regent, becoming the secret ally of the Congregation, and betraying all the councils and the most private designs of the Scottish Government to the Reformers.

France, on the one side, and England on the other, were now in active rivalry for the ascendancy in Scotland. The Sieur de Bettancourt arrived from the French court in the beginning of August with assurances of the speedy transmission of an army under the Marquis d'Elbœuf, and with letters to the Lord James, calling on him, by the benefits which he had received from France, to prove himself a faithful subject to his sister and queen. Towards the end of August, 1,000 men, under an Italian officer named Octavian, landed at Leith, and with these the queen-regent put that port into a tolerable state of defence; but at the same time she sent urgent despatches to France for four ships of war to cruise in the Frith, for an additional 1,000 men, and 100 barbed horse. She did not obtain all she wanted, but La Brosse arrived on the 22nd of September, with three ships, 200 men, and eighty horse. With these came the Bishop of Amiens and two learned doctors of the Sorbonne, to endeavour to reconcile the people to the ancient faith.

This was the most hopeless of missions. The people of Scotland had long grown weary of the French, and suspicious of their designs on the independence of the country. The reformed preachers had perambulated the country, exposing the corruptions of the Papal Church, and exciting indignation against the queen-regent for her bigoted attempts to put down the Reformation, for her decided leaning to French interests, and her perfidious and repeated breaches of her contracts with the Lords of the Congregation. This arrival of fresh forces confirmed all their charges, and inspired the population with augmented Jealousy of France.

No sooner was the arrival of Arran known, than it produced the highest enthusiasm in the Protestant party. He was regarded as the destined husband of the English queen; and the expectation of the influence which this Circumstance would give his party with England, together with the encouragement of the £2,000 just received, raised the spirits of the Congregation to the highest pitch. They accused the queen-regent of two breaches of the capitulation of Edinburgh, by celebrating mass in Holyrood House, and receiving fresh troops from France, and they ent her a message requiring her to desist from the fortification of Leith. The queen-regent bluntly refused, declaring that she was as determined as she was able to

On the 15th of October the Congregation assembled its forces, 12,000 in number, and marched on Edinburgh, which they occupied without resistance, the queenregent retiring before them to Leith. They established a council for civic affairs, consisting of Chatelherault, Arran, Argyll, Glencairn, the Lord James, Balnaves, Kirkaldy, and others, and another for religious affairs, under Knox, Goodman, and the Bishop of Galloway. They sent a message to the queen-regent, requiring her to order all foreigners and men-at-arms to quit the town, and leave it to the subjects of the realm. Mary of Guiso replied that the French were naturalised subjects, and Scotland united to France by marriage; and she, in her turn, commanded the Duke of Chatelherault and his associates to quit the capital, on pain of treason.

The council returned answer that, as an oppressor and an idolatress, they suspended her authority as a council of born subjects for the queen, on the ground that she was acting contrary to the will and interest of the sovereign.

On the 28th the Covenanters prepared for an assault on Leith, by constructing scaling-ladders in the High Church of St. Giles, to the great scandal of the preachers, who prognosticated that proceedings begun in sacrilege would end in defeat. This very soon appeared likely to be the result, for the money sent from England being exhausted, the soldiers clamoured for pay, and the army of 12,000 was on the verge of melting away very rapidly. In great alarm, the leaders vehemently entreated Elizabeth for more money, and making a struggle with her natural parsimony, she sent £4,000 to Cockburn of Ormiston, who undertook the perilous office of conveying it to head-quarters. But a man who afterwards became notorious for the audacity of his crimes, the Earl of Bothwell, who now professed to be a zealous supporter of the Congregation, and had by this means obtained the knowledge of the transmission of the treasure, waylaid

Lorraine, the uncles of his queen, brothers of the queen- seemed to have forgotten their skill, though they had regent of Scotland. They were placed at the head of lost none of their courage. Their lines of circumvalaffairs, and, as the determined champions of Popery, lation were ill-drawn; their guns were ill-directed, ther were doubly odious to Navarre and his adherents. trenches were opened in ground unfit for the purpose, Accordingly, having the secret countenance of the and they were repeatedly thrown into disorder by sorties Queen of England and other Protestant princes, Navarre, of the enemy. To make matters worse, the supplies of Condé, Coligny, admiral of France, D'Andelot, colonel the Scots became exhausted, and they began to make of the French infantry, and the cardinal of Châtillon, their usual cries to the English for more money. But nephews of the constable Montmorency, united in a from the English court came, instead of the all-needfal plot to seize the king and queen, the cardinal, and the money, signs of discouragement. Elizabeth still mainDuke of Guise, and place the government in the hands of tained her equivocal conduct, and the Lords of the Conthe princes of the blood. gregation were greatly alarmed to find her actually negotiating with the sick queen-regent for an accom modation. At the very time that the Scotch and the English were engaged in a smart action at Hawkhil!, near Lochend, during the siege, Sir James Croft and Sir George Howard were with the dying Mary of Guise in the castle of Edinburgh. Elizabeth still declared that she was not fighting against Francis and Mary, the king and queen of France and Scotland, but against their ministers in the latter country, and simply for the defence of her own realm against their attempts. She desired Sir Ralph Sadler to express her willingness to treat, and to make it clear that she was no party to any design to injure or depose the rightful queen. What she aimed at was the expulsion of the French from Scotland as dangerous to her own dominions, and he was instructed, if the old plea was raised, that the Fren.h only remained there to maintain the throne of their mistress against disaffected subjects, to state that his sovereign would not admit this plea, as it was only pretence, and would not lay down her arms till the Queci of Scots was also secured in her just power and claims.

At this moment the Duke of Norfolk received his orders to conclude the treaty with the Scottish lords at Berwick. The French ambassadors, rather than proceed to extremities, offered to withdraw the bulk of their troops from Scotland, and submit the points in dispute to the decision of Elizabeth herself. It is said that they even offered to restore Calais, and that Elizabeth replied that she could never place a fishing village in competition with the security of her dominions at large. This, however, is by no means probable, for we soon find Elizabeth herself demanding Calais as a condition of peace, and it is not to be supposed that she would not have at least deferred her plans against Scotland for the much-desired repossession of that town.

Whilst these negotiations were proceeding, the conspiracy of the French princes was defeated at Amboise through the sagacity of the Duke of Guise, and Elizabeth rather hesitated in completing her treaty with the Scots; but her Council urged her to advance, alleging that France was still on the eve of a civil war, and that she would, by backing out, lose a golden opportunity of driving the French from Scotland.

On the 27th of February, 1560, the treaty was concluded at Berwick, and in the month of March the English fleet appeared in the Forth in greater strength. D'Oyselles, the French general, managed to effect his retreat from Fife, and threw himself into Leith, where he resolved to defend himself. The queenregent, who was lying there worn out by her continual struggles for the maintenance of her daughter's throne and religion, removed, by the permission of Lord Erskine, the governor, to the castle of Edinburgh, as unable to endure the hardships and anxieties of a besieged town. On the other hand, the Duke of Norfolk had collected an army of 6,000 men in the northern counties of England, and sent it, under the command of Lord Gray de Wilton, into Scotland by land. Lord Gray marched from Berwick to Preston, where he joined the forces of the Lords of the Congregation; and whilst Winter's fleet blockaded Leith by sea, the united army invested it on the land side. It was soon known that the fleet of the Marquis d'Elbeuf had been dispersed by a tempest, and partly wrecked on the coast of Holland, so that the English and their allies had little to fear from the arrival of fresh enemies.

The siege was carried on against Leith in a manner little creditable to the ancient fame of the English; as for the Scots, Sadler said, "they could climb no walls;" that is, they were not famous for conducting sieges and taking towns by assault. The English, who had acquired great fame in that kind of warfare, now

These plausible arguments did not, however, abuz the suspicions of the Lords of the Congregation, that Elizabeth was prepared to make a peace without them nor that several of their own party, including the Dus of Chatelherault, who were lukewarm and dubious Protestants, were ready to join in it. Fortunately for the Congregation, Elizabeth and the queen-regent, undaunte and uncompromising in death, could not agree; the negotiations were broken off, and Elizabeth gave orders to renew the siege with fresh vigour, still command: her officers to "contemn no reasonable offers of agre ment" that might be made by the French.

No such offers, however, appeared likely to come fro the brave defenders of Leith. They continued to fig with a spirit and gallantry which gave them a brillian reputation all over Europe; and the English, on ther part, worked doggedly, if not skilfully, to make a brez in the walls. At length they accomplished such a breach, and rushed headlong and in blind fury to force their v into the town; but one of the storming parties lost : way, and the rest, when they reached the ramparts a raised their scaling-ladders, found them too short; 12 though they fought like bull-dogs, they were obliged: give way, leaving 1,000 of their comrades in the ditches, and mowed down by the enemy's artillery.

The queen, who had recommended treating in pr ference to fighting, was greatly chagrined by this fails. and the soldiers were much discouraged. The Govern ment sent down more money, with orders to continue the siege with all vigour, and the Duke of Norfolk

A.D. 1560.]

TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE.

patched fresh reinforcements of 2,000 men, with promises of more, declaring that the besiegers should not lack men whilst there were any betwixt the Trent and Tweed. The investment was thus continued with the utmost rigour, and famine became terrible within the walls. On the 10th of June the queen-regent died in the castle. On her death-bed she earnestly entreated the Lord James, in her presence, and some others of the Lords of the Congregation, as well as her own courtiers, to support the rightful power of her daughter; but, as the events showed, and the treacherous, ambitious character of the bastard brother of Queen Mary rendered probable, to very little purpose. The queen-regent's decease, however, opened a way to negotiation. The insurrectionary feeling in France made the French court readily tender such a proposition, and it was agreed that the French and English commissioners should meet at Berwick on the 14th of June. The English commissioners were Cecil and Dr. Wotton, Dean of Canterbury; the French, Monluc, Bishop of Valence, and Count de Randon. Perhaps four more acute diplomatists never met. On the 16th of June they proceeded to Edinburgh, passing through the English camp on the way, where they were saluted by a general discharge of firearms. By the 6th of July all the conditions of peace were settled, and it was announced both to the besiegers and besieged that hostilities were at an end. Leith was surrendered, and D'Oyselles, the French commander, entertained the English and Scotch officers, by whom he had been so nearly famished, at an entertainment, "where, says Stow," was prepared for them a banquet of thirty or forty dishes, and yet not one either of flesh or fish, saving one of a powdered horse, as was avouched by one that vowed himself to have tasted thereof."

The French commissioners stood stoutly for the rights and prerogatives of the crown, but they were compelled to yield many points to the imperturbable firmness of Cecil. Dunbar and Inchkeith were surrendered as well as Leith. The French troops, expecting a small garrison in Dunbar and another in Inchkeith, were to be sent home and no more to be brought over. An indemnity for all that had passed since March, 1558, in Scotland, was granted; every man was to regain the post or position which he held before the struggle, and no Frenchman was to hold any office in that kingdom. A convention of the three estates was to be summoned by the king and queen, and four-and-twenty persons were to be named by this convention, out of whom should be chosen a council of twelve for the government of the country, of whom the queen should name seven and the estates five. The king and queen were not to declare war, or conclude peace, without the concurrence of the estates; neither the lords nor the members of the Congregation should be molested for what they had done, and the Churchmen were to be protected in their persons, rights, and properties, and to receive compensation for their losses according to the award of the estates in Parliament.

On one point, and that the chief point of the quarrel, the leaders of the Congregation did not obtain their demand, which naturally was for the establishment of their religion. We may suppose that Cecil and his colleague were not very desirous of carrying this; for the Queen of England regarded the Scotch Reformers as

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fanatical and "outré," and she especially abominated the character and doctrines of Knox. It was conceded, however, that Parliament should be summoned without delay, and that a deputation should lay this request before the king and queen.

By a second treaty betwixt England and France, it was determined that the right to the crowns of England and Ireland lay in Elizabeth, and that Mary should no longer bear the arms or use the style of these two kingdoms. Another proposition, however, was refused in this treaty, and that was the surrender of Calais to England.

The war thus brought to an end reflected little credit on the diplomatic principles of Elizabeth and her ministers, however much it might display their ability and address. To excite the subjects of a neighbouring sovereign to rebellion, at the same time that she was bound by a treaty of peace, and was solemnly professing to maintain it, can never be vindicated on any system of morals, either public or private. If Mary of Scotland infringed, by her assumption of the arms or title of Elizabeth, the treaty betwixt them, that was a cause of fair but open appeal. If Elizabeth regarded her own national tranquillity as endangered, that was another just cause of protest; if she wished to protect the interests of the struggling Protestants in Scotland, nothing could have been more honourable, had the attempt been made by open and direct means, by earnest application to Francis and Mary; but so long as Elizabeth neglected these means and offices, by fomenting clandestine resistance amongst the subjects of the Scottish queen, she at once violated every honourable principle of international law, and perpetrated a felony on the rights of sovereigns.

Cecil, whilst busy with the negotiations now terminated, saw enough of the Reformers of Scotland to convince him that the French troops would be no sooner removed than they would trample under foot all the engagements into which they had entered whilst under that restraint. This was immediately verified. The Parliament assembled on the 1st of August, and the very first act which it passed was one of abolishing the Papal jurisdiction in Scotland, and decreeing severe punishment, in the very style of the church against which they had been battling, for those who presumed to worship according to the Romish creed. A crowd of lesser barons had attended at the call of the Lords of the Congregation, so that they carried everything their own way. They prohibited mass both publicly and privately, Whoever officiated at mass, or attended it in church, chapel, or private house, was amenable to confiscation of his goods and imprisonment at the discretion of the magistrate, for the first offence; to banishment for the second; and death for the third.

A confession of faith, according to the austere model of Geneva, was framed by Knox and his confederates, and the moment that this bill was passed, was put into execution. Every member of the Parliament who refused to subscribe to this new creed was instantly expelled, and, with a strange injustice, they then called over twice the names of the ejected, and, of course, receiving no answer, refused them all compensation for their losses during the war, according to the provisions of the treaty which they thus violated.

One of the most singular proceedings of the Parlia