tion. The small number of the English prevented their taking more prisoners. As sooner as this affair reached the king, all the violent passions which are the enemies of life preyed on his mind; the deepest melancholy and despair succeeded to the furious transports of his rage. Death relieved him from his anxiety; but whether from the diseases of his mind, or by poison, is not sufficiently ascertained. It took place in December. 1542.

CHAPTER III.

THE REIGN OF MARY.—HOUSE OF STUART.

A. D. 1543.—Mary, only child of James V. and Mary of Guise, who was born only a few days before the death of her father, succeeded to the crown. The situation in which he left the kingdom, and the perils to be apprehended from a lengthened regency, alarmed all ranks of men with the prospect of a turbulent and disastrous reign. Cardinal Beaton, who for many years had been considered as prime minister, was the first that claimed the high dignity of regent; in support of his pretensions, he produced a will, which he himself had forged in the name of the late king, and, without any other right, instantly assumed the title of regent. He hoped, by the assistance of the clergy, the countenance of France, the connivance of the queen-dowager, and the support of the whole popish faction, to hold by force what he had seized on by fraud. But Beaton had enjoyed power too long to be a favourite of the nation. James Hamilton, earl of Arran, the next heir to the queen, was called forth, by the general voice of the nation, to take upon himself the high office; and the nobles, who were assembled for that purpose, unanimously proclaimed him regent. Arran had scarcely taken possession of his new dignity, when a negotiation was opened with England, which gave rise to events of the most fatal consequence to himself, and to the kingdom. This negotiation em braced a proposal from Henry, of the marriage of Edward, his only son, with the young queen of Scots. All those who feared the cardinal, or who desired a change in religion, were pleased with the idea of an alliance that would afford protection to the doctrine which they had embraced, as well as to their own persons, against the rage of that powerful and haughty prelate. The designs which Henry had formed upon Scotland, were ob vious from the marriage which he had proposed, and he had not dexterity enough to disguise them. He demanded that the young queen should be put under his care, and the government of the kingdom placed in his hands during her minority. The Scotch parliament consented to a treaty of marriage and of union, but upon terms somewhat more equal. The Scots agreed to send their sovereign into England as soon as she had attained the age of ten years, and to deliver six persons of the first rank, to be kept as hostages by Henry till the queen's arrival at his court. On the side of Henry, it was agreed that the queen should continue to reside in Scotland, and himself remain excluded from any share in the government of the kingdom. The cardinal complained loudly that the regent had be trayed the kingdom to its most inveterate enemies, and sacrificed its hon our to his own ambition; he lamented to see an ancient kingdom consent. ing to its own servitude, and descending into the ignominious station of a province, and in one hour, by the weakness or treachery of one man, sur rendering everything for which the Scottish nation had struggled and fought during so many ages. These remonstrances of the cardinal were not without effect, and the whole nation declared against the allaince which had been concluded. Argyll, Huntley, Bothwell, and other powerful barons, declared openly against the alliance with England; by their as

sistance the cardinal seized on the persons of the young queen and he mother.

On the 25th of August, 1543, the regent ratified the treaty with Henry, and proclaimed the cardinal, who still continued to oppose it, an enemy to his country. On the 3d of September, he secretly withdrew from Edinburgh, and had an interview with the cardinal at Callandar, where he not only renounced the friendship of England, and declared for the interests of France, but also changed his sentiments concerning religion, and pub licly renounced the doctrine of the reformers in the Franciscan church a Sterling. The cardinal was now in possession of everything his ambition could desire, and exercised all the authority of a regent, without the envy and opprobrium attached to the name. Henry VIII. was not of a temper to bear tamely the indignity with which he had been treated both by the regent and the parliament of Scotland, and determined on invading that country. The earl of Hertford had the command of the army destined for the enterprise, and landed it, without opposition, a few miles above Leith. He marched directly for Edinburgh, which city he entered May 3d, 1544. After plundering the adjacent country, he set fire to both these towns; then putting his booty on board the fleet, reached the English borders in safety. Peace followed soon after; but Cardinal Beaton had previously been murdered by the means of Norman Leslie, eldest son of the earl of Rothes, whom the cardinal had treated not only with injustice, put contempt. The prelate resided at that time in the castle of St. Andrew's, which he had fortified at a great expense, and, in the opinion of the age, had rendered it impregnable. His retinue was numerous, the town at his devotion, and the neighbouring country full of his dependents. In this situation Leslie, with fifteen others, undertook to surprise his castle, and assassinate him; and their success was equal to the boldness of the attempt. May 20th, 1546, early in the morning, they seized on the gate of the castle, which was open for the accommodation of the workmen who were employed in finishing the fortifications; and having placed sentries at the door of the cardinal's apartment, they awakened his domestics one by one, and turning them out of the castle, they murdered him without offering violence to any other person, thereby delivering their country from a man whose pride was insupportable, and whose cruelty and cunning were great checks to the reformation. The death of Beaton was fatal to the catholic religion, and to the French interest in Scotland. The regent threatened vengeance, but the threat was as impotent as it was unwise. The death of Henry VIII., which happened January 28th, 1547, blasted the hopes of the conspirators, by whom they were supported both with money and provisions. Henry II. of France, sent powerful succours to the regent, under the command of Leon Strozzi; and the conspirators, after a short resistance, surrendered, with the assurance of their lives, and were sent prisoners to France. The castle, the monument of Beaton's power and vanity, was demolished in obedience to the canon law, which denounces its anathemas even against the house in which the sacred blood of a cardinal happens to be shed, and ordains it to be laid in ashes.

Edward VI. was now king of England, and the earl of Hertford, now duke of Somerset, and protector of the kingdom, entered Scotland at the head of eighteen thousand men; at the same time a fleet of sixty ships appeared on the coast, to second his land forces. The Scots had for some time seen this storm gathering, and were prepared for it. Their army was almost double that of the enemy, and posted to the greatest advantage on a rising ground above Musselburg, not far from the banks of the Esk. Confident of success, they attacked the English, under the duke of Somerset, near Pinkey, September 10th, 1547, who, taking advantage of their impetuous haste, routed them with considerable loss. The encounter in the field was not long, but the pursuit was continued for som

ame, and to a great distance; the three roads by which the Scots fled, were strewed with spears, swords, and targets, and covered with the bodies of the slain. More than ten thousand men fell on this day, one of the most fatal Scotland had ever seen. A few were taken prisoners, and among them some persons of distinction.

A. D. 1548.—The Scottish nobles falling in with the prejudices of the queen dowager in favour of France, in the violence of their resentment against England, voluntarily proposed to Henry II. of France, a marriage of their young queen, only six years old, with the dauphin, eldest son of Henry II., and to send her to his court for education. Henry without hesitation accepted these offers, and prepared for a vigorous defence of his new acquisition. On the 15th of June, 1549, the treaty was concluded by the parliament assembled in the camp before Haddington; and Mary was immediately sent to France, at that time notoriously the most corrupt court in Europe. Here she acquired every accomplishment that could add to her charms as a woman, and contracted many of those prejudices which occasioned her misfortunes as a queen. Peace was soon afterwards made with England; and both the British and Scottish nations lost power by this unhappy quarrel, while France obtained a decided advantage. The reformation, however, gained ground. At this time appeared the famous John Knox, a man whose natural intrepidity of mind placed him far above fear. He began his public ministry at St. Andrew's, in 1547, with that success which always accompanies a bold and popular eloquence. He was patronized by the conspirators while they kept possession of the castle, which he had made the place of his abode. At this time the queen-dowager, Mary of Guise, aspired to the office of regent. She had already nearly engrossed the administration of affairs into her hands. Her designs were concealed with the utmost care, and advanced by address and refinement; her brothers entered warmly into the scheme, and supported it with all their credit at the court of France. The queen-dowager visited France in 1550; from thence overures were made to the regent to resign his situation in her favour, which he king of France enforced, by an artful admixture of threats and promises; so that he was induced to relinquish his power, which he formally laid down in 1554, and the parliament raised Mary of Guise to that dignity. Thus was a woman, and a stranger, advanced to the supreme authority in Scotland!

A. D. 1558.—On the 14th of April, the marriage of the young queen took place with the dauphin Francis, and the parliament of Scotland sent eight of its members to represent their whole body at the nuptials. In the treaty of marriage, the dauphin was allowed to assume the title of king of Scotland as an honorary title. The French king, however, soon after insisted that the dauphin's title should be publicly recognized, and all the right appertaining to the husband of a queen should be vested in his person, upon which the Scotch parliament, (Nov. 29), passed an act conferring the crown matrimonial on the dauphin. The earl of Argyll, and James Stuart, prior of St. Andrew's, were appointed to carry the crown and other ensigns of royalty to the dauphin. But from this they were diverted by the part they were called upon to act in a more interesting scene, which now began to open. The bigoted Queen Mary, of England, whose religious persecutions had earned for her a still more offensive name, died on the 17th of November, 1558; and Elizabeth, her sister, took possession of the English throne. In order to gratify the arbitrary caprice of Henry, Elizabeth as well as her predecessor, Mary, had been declared illegitimate by the parliament; but in his last will he declared them the successors on the throne to their brother Edward; at the same time passing by the posterity of his sister Margaret, queen of Scotland, and continuing the line of succession to his sister, the duchess of