business which, like all Border disputes, could be of the chief port and entrance into that part of lengthened ad infinitum. During these discus- Scotland;" and the Lords of the Congregation sions Knox sent his preachers over the country; attempted to get possession of Edinburgh Castle, the queen-regent "fell into a great melancholy in which, however, they were defeated by Lord and displeasure;" the Congregation began to as- Erskine the governor, who professed to observe semble, and the Frenchmen began to devise means neutrality between the contending parties, and for their own defence. Had she but known half refused to admit either Protestants or Catholics. the intrigues that were at work, the queen-regent In spite of all the precaution of the English had good reason to be melancholy. Her secre- queen and the marvellous address of her agent, tary, William Maitland, wrote to Sadler's asso- Mary's mother was not altogether blind to what ciate, Sir James Croft, desiring him to have no was passing, and she complained, through her less good opinion of him than heretofore, and commissioners, that, without her license and offering his service to the queen's majesty (Eliza- knowledge, many of the Scottish insurgents were beth) in anything that he could: "and further," allowed to pass through England into Scotland. says Croft in a joint letter, "he sent me word that and also out of Scotland into England, to work he attended upon the regent in her court no longer mischief to her government. It is indeed certain. than till he might have good occasion to revolt that the Cardinal of Lorraine, and others who unto the Protestants." At the same time, how-directed the councils of that very youthful couple, ever, more troops arrived from France, and more French money was placed at the disposal of the queen-regent and her party. John Knox was greatly alarmed as to the French money, and he immediately besought Elizabeth to counteract its dangerous effects to the Protestant interests by sending more English money into Scotland. On his recent return from Geneva through England he had had an interview with Cecil, and evidently had arranged beforehand the plan of his operations. He corresponded afterwards with the English secretary and others in England; and on the 21st of September, under the feigned name of John Sinclear, he wrote to Sadler's colleague, Croft, a remarkable letter from St. Andrews. After mentioning the return of the younger Arran, and how the Lords of the Congregation had departed for Stirling to join him and his father, the Duke of Chatellerault, at Hamilton Castle, he passed at once to the question of money, and told Mr. Secretary that unless more money was sent, especially for some chiefs whom he had named in writing, it would be impossible for them to serve in this action.2 Those who take the least favourable view of the character of John Knox can hardly suspect that he wanted money for himself, but he knew the world and the mercenary character of most of the Scottish chiefs; and, besides, the sinews of war appear really to have been wanting, and the Catholic party, as we have seen, were drawing funds from France. For a time it was a struggle of the purse between England and France. Elizabeth, at all times parsimonious, was at the present poor and embarrassed, and yet, under the wise guidance of Cecil and Sadler, she continued to send gold down to Berwick. Meanwhile the French fortified Leith, as if "intending to keep themselves within that place, and so to be masters Knox had arrived in Scotland only on the 2d of May of this present year, 1559. 2 Sadler, Papers. would have made Francis and Mary quarter the English arms under any circumstances; but notwithstanding this, Elizabeth, with reference to her own conduct, could not justly allege that the first provocation to their mortal quarrel proceeded from Mary. It is almost idle to consider this as a moral question, or as an affair directed personally by the two rival princesses; but as many writers have viewed it in this light, it may be proper to make prominent one or two little facts. Mary was only in her seventeenth year, her husband was nearly a year younger, and both were entirely guided by others. Elizabeth was in her twenty-sixth year, the mistress of her own council and actions, an experienced and most competent person. If, therefore, a false and unfair direction was given to the policy of Mary, it was her misfortune, or an offence for which morally she was not accountable, but in Elizabeth such a thing would be her own crime. The ex- Regent Chatellerault took occasion openly to declare himself on the French fortifying Leith, and he told the queen-regent that she must either dislodge them, or be sure that the nobility of Scotland would not suffer nor endure it. The regent replied that it was surely as lawful for her daughter to fortify where she pleased in her own realm as it was for him, the duke, to build fortifications for himself at Hamilton Castle, and that she would not remove the French from Leith unless she were compelled by force. As soon as these matters were known at Berwick, where agents and spies were constantly going and coming, Sadler wrote a short but sententious letter to his old acquaintance the duke, assuring his grace that if it might lie in so poor a man as he was to do his grace any service, he should find him most willing and ready thereto, to the uttermost of his power at all times. The duke and the Lords of the Congregation suppressed the abbeys of Paisley, Kilwinning, and Dunfermline, burning all the images, idols, and | making in that country against Scotland, with earnest advice to the lords to seek aid of England; "which letter," adds the adroit agent, “I guess to savour too much of Knox's style to come from France, though it will serve to good purpose." Popish stuff in the same, and by means of Alexander Whitlaw, a godly man and most affectionate to England," they assured Sadler that they would take the field after harvest against the French-only they wanted some more money, without which they should not be able to keep their men together. At the same time Knox sued again for relief for certain Scottish leaders whom he would not name, but whom Sadler set down as the Earl of Glencairn, the Lairds of Dun, Ormeston, and Grange, and Alexander Whitlaw. La Brosse and the Bishop of Amiens had arrived with a few troops at Leith, and more were expected. In this posture of affairs Sadler recommended the immediate spending of £4000 or £5000, which he thought might save the queen's highness a great deal another way. While they were getting ready this money in England the regent wrote to the duke, reproving him for joining with the Lords of the Congregation, and accusing him and the said lords of their practices with Queen Elizabeth. At the same time the regent spoke of a new agreement, offering to leave off fortifying Leith, to secure liberty for all men to use their conscience, and to send the French out of Scotland by a certain day; but the duke answered that he could do nothing without the Lords of the Congregation. The sum of £3000 in French coin was down at Berwick by the 10th of October; and from Berwick it soon found its way into the pockets of the Lords of the Congregation; but still those chiefs were slow in taking the field; and Sadler, through Thomas Randolph, alias Barnyby, told them that they ought to be more diligent in this great and weighty business. A few days afterwards Sir Ralph was still more pressing, telling the Lords of the Congregation that they ought "to take their time while they have it, and thereby prevent the malice of their enemies." Randolph, who was moving about with the Scottish lords, assured Sadler that something would be done presently, for the queenregent had set forth her proclamation, and the Lords of the Congregation had also set forth their proclamation "as vehement on the other side, with full determination to fall to no composition." By this time continual vexation and alarm had broken the health of Mary of Guise. "Some," writes Randolph, "think that the regent will depart secretly; some that she will to Inchkeith, for that three ships are a-preparing. Some say that she is very sick: some say the devil cannot kill her." In the same secret despatch, which, like most of the rest, was written in a cipher, Randolph says that the prior of St. Andrews has just sent to the Earl of Arran a powerful letter said to be received out of France, containing many news of the great preparations, 2 The queen-regent by this time had conveyed all her property out of Holyroodhouse and Edinburgh, into Leith. At last, the Lords of the Congregation, with the Duke of Chatellerault, and his son the Earl of Arran, at their head, marched upon the capital: the regent, with the French and the Scottish lords of the Catholic party who yet adhered to her, withdrew at their approach within the fortified lines of Leith, there to await aid from France. The lords called a parliament, and summoned to Edinburgh all the gentlemen living upon the Borders, upon pain of treason in case of non-attendance. On the 224 of October Balnaves reported that all hope of concord had that day been taken away, by reason that blood had been drawn largely on both sides.' At the same time he pressed for more money, and asked for some English gunpowder. Two days after, the Lords of the Congregation themselves addressed Sadler, telling him that they had deprived the queen-regent of her authority, by common consent of all the lords and barons present at Edinburgh-that they had openly proclaimed her deprivation, had inhibited her offi cers from executing anything in her name, and had further denounced "her French and assistants" as enemies to the commonwealth. Touching the lords' request for more money and for gunpowder, Sadler replied that he trusted they would consider secrecy above all things-that he did not see how he could send them powder without an open show and manifestation of Elizabeth as an enemy to the French, who were then in peace and amity with her: and yet he adds, if they can devise which way the same may be secretly conveyed unto them, in such sort as it could not be known to come from England, he could be well content that they had as much gunpowder as might be spared from Berwick conveniently. And likewise for money, he was in good hope of having some to send them soon, but he prayed that they would use such precautions and mysteries as the importance of the matter and the honour of Queen Elizabeth required, and be more close and secret in their doings and conferences. Knox, who could rea 1 This blood was drawn in skirmishes outside of the works of Leith. Knox, in his history, says that there was skirmishing, but without great slaughter. 2 In praising himself, Balnaves seems to cast a reflection on his colleagues. He tells Randolph to assure their honours, the English commissioners, in his name, that the little money he had brought with him had gone farther than £5000 would have gone intrusted to anybody else. son like a politician, had written to Croft or to Sadler, saying that the queen-regent "had plainly spoken that she knew the means how to frustrate the expectations of aid from England," by delivering up Calais to Queen Elizabeth; and he had evidently expressed himself as if he suspected that the English court was coquetting in that direction. Sir Ralph was very earnest in removing this doubt. He replied, almost eloquently. This letter was written on the 27th of October: on the last day of the same month Sir Ralph addressed Randolph, telling him that he expected every day some good answer from the court touching the money, and that, in the meantime, he forwarded by the Laird of Ormeston £1000 sterling in French crowns. As Ormeston was travelling from Berwick towards Edinburgh, he was set upon by Lord Bothwell, who took the money-bags from him and kept them, apparently for his own use. Ormeston reached the capital "sorely hurt ;" upon which the Earl of Arran and the prior of St. Andrews went with 200 horsemen, 100 footmen, and two pieces of artillery, to Lord Bothwell's house, "trusting to have found him; howbeit they came too late only by a quarter of an hour." They, however, took his house and threatened to burn it to the ground, and declared the earl a traitor, unless he returned the money. This loss was a most serious mishap; but though both Elizabeth and her chief adviser Cecil were grieved to the heart by it, they soon sent more money. At the same time Knox (whose Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women always grated harshly on the queen's ear) had excited apprehension, and jealousy, and disgust, at the English court by his advocacy of the Calvinistic discipline, and of political tenets that seemed both republican and democratic. "Of all others," writes Cecil to Sadler, "Knox's name is most odious here, and, therefore, I wish no mention of him hither." But Cecil was as deeply convinced as ever of the necessity of supporting the Protestant insurrection. "It is here seen," he says, "by such to whom it hath been secretly committed, that the end of this their matter is certainly the beginning of ours, be it weal or woe; and therefore, I see it will follow necessarily that we must have good regard that they quail not." In this letter, which is dated on the 3d of November, he goes much farther than he had hitherto gone, authorizing Sadler to tell the Scottish lords that, if they would forthwith raise a sufficient force, and venture on Two or three days later, in another letter to Sir Ralph, Cecil says, "Surely I like not Knox's audacity, which also was well tamed in your answer. His writings do no good here; and, therefore, I do rather suppress them, and yet I mean not but that ye should continue in sending of them." Balnaves also had incurred the suspicion and dislike of Sadler and Cecil, and for the same republican tenets. the siege of Leith, all the charges should be borne for them; and that if they took Leith, in case of the French making any array by sea to invade Scotland, they should be met and hindered if their power appeared greater than the Scottish Protestants could reasonably withstand. Sadler entered completely into these views, and was of opinion that now deception could no longer be practised, by reason of the mischief which had befallen Ormeston. Succour was therefore sent in more boldly to the Lords of the Congregation, who, at last, beleaguered Leith. But in so wretched a state of discipline was this Scottish army, that at every sortie the French took them by surprise, and gained an advantage over them. On the 6th of November the Presbyterians, commanded by the Earl of Arran and the prior of St. Andrews, were surrounded in the marshes of Restalrig, and defeated with some loss by a portion of the French garrison. Their retreat to Edinburgh was nearly cut off, and when they got there they fell to serious debating, the end of which was, that the Earl of Glencairn, with some other lords, resolved to leave the capital in order to collect more men But, finally, upon perceiving that the greatest part of their force, "which consisted of the commons that were not able to abide and serve any longer upon their own costs and charges," were all departing from them, the whole of the Congregation evacuated Edinburgh, and retreated to Stirling by night. At the latter place Knox finished a sermon which he had commenced at Edinburgh before the departure, and, according to his own account, "the lords were much erected" by it. He was, no doubt, the great animating principle in this remarkable contest: but, while he was preaching at Stirling, the queen-regent and the French re-entered the capital in great triumph. A.D. 1560. Notwithstanding the effective preaching of John Knox, and the reviving spirit of the Scottish Protestants, it soon became evident that something more must be done for them than the sending of money to the needy nobles; and when Elizabeth learned that the queen-regent was promised fresh supplies and troops from France, she resolved to make such preparations as should prevent the Scots from being crushed. Therefore, without altogether giving up her secret practices, or stopping her private subsidies, she began to prepare a fleet and an army. Her warlike preparations were soon rumoured abroad, and at this moment the French court really made her an offer of the immediate restitution of Calais, provided only she would not interfere in the affairs of Scotland. To this tempting offer Elizabeth replied, that she could never put a fishing-town in competition with the safety of her dominions; and she continued her preparations, and intimated to the Lords of the Congregation that she was now ready to enter upon a treaty with them. The Scottish lords chose for their negotiator the able William Maitland of Lethington, who had now deserted from his post of secretary to the regent, a step he had been contemplating for some time. If the English queen had any lingering doubts and misgivings as to braving a war, they were soon removed by this truly accomplished diplomatist. On the 27th of February she concluded, at Berwick, a treaty of mutual defence, which was to last during the marriage of the Queen of Scots with the French king, and for a year after; she solemnly promised never to lay down her arms till the French should be entirely driven out of Scotland; and she gave equally solemn assurances that she would not attack the liberties, laws, and usages of the Scots.' of the French now in Scotland did not exceed 3000 men. An English army, amounting to 6000 men, under the Lord Grey de Wilton, having marched by Berwick to Preston on the 6th of April, 1560, joined a considerable force brought thither by the Lords of the Congregation; and while the fleet blockaded the port of Leith, and prevented the arrival of any succour from France, the united armies of Scotland and England laid siege to the town on the land side. The Marquis d'Elbœuf had embarked for Scotland with a large force, but his transports were scattered by a storm, and either wrecked on the coast of Holland or driven back to France. In this way the English fleet had no opportunity of distinguishing itself in battle. The land troops soon gave glaring proofs that they had in a great degree lost the habit of discipline, and that they were unskilfully commanded. They opened their tren ches in ground utterly unfit for the purpose, and their guns were so badly pointed as to make little or no impression on the bastions which the French had thrown up, or on the walls of Leith. Their line of circumvallation was loose and ragged, and so little vigilance was used, that for some time the French broke through it with impunity. It soon appeared that Leith, "though not thought inexpugnable, would percase be found of such strength as would require time, and that the greatest want which the Scottish chieftains did fear was lack of money; for, otherwise, they were of good courage." This courage, however, had been damped by sundry suspicions and misgiv ings. At the very commencement of hostilities, even while the Scotch and English were en 192 In the month of March, notwithstanding the storms of winter, the English fleet, which consisted of thirteen large ships of war, besides transports, appeared in the Firth of Forth, and at a critical moment, for 4000 Frenchmen, horse and foot, had been detached from Edinburgh and Leith, and were then engaged in ravaging the fertile and Protestant county of Fife. D'Oisel, their general, who had not proceeded unmolested, and who was checked by the appearance on his left flank of numerous Scottish bodies under the prior of St. Andrews, Lord Ruthven, and Kirkaldy of Grange, was transported with joy at the sight of the gallant fleet, which he mistook for the long-promised ships of D'Elbœuf, and he wasted a great deal of valuable gunpowder in firing a salute. But, presently, Winter, the English ad-gaged with the French, Sir James Croft and miral, hoisted his flag, and at that unwelcome sight D'Oisel turned, and began a difficult and dangerous retreat. He, however, reached Edinburgh, where he found the queen-regent in an alarming state of health. Forseeing the dangers and hardships to which her sinking frame would be exposed in a besieged town, the broken-hearted and dying Mary of Guise implored the Lord Erskine to receive her into the castle of Edinburgh; and his lordship, who still maintained his curious neutrality and independence, granted her an asylum upon condition that she should take only a few attendants into the castle with her. Quitting his royal mistress, his steady and affectionate friend, for ever, D'Oisel threw himself into Leith. That place had been well fortified before, and now he employed a short time allowed him by the enemy in adding to its defences; and, notwithstanding the fact that the English attacked Leith rather like bull-dogs than soldiers, D'Oisel and the French engineers must have evinced very considerable skill. The whole force Rymer. Sir George Howard had an interview with the 2 Sadler to Cecil. reason 3 Burghley Papers. agree; the treaty in Edinburgh Castle was broken | present, they well knew that the conspirators off, and in a few days the English queen resolved would never be reconciled to them. At such a that the siege of Leith should be more earnestly moment they could not spare fresh troops for the prosecuted, and her forces both by sea and land very doubtful and expensive struggle in Scotland, augmented. At the same time the English com- and even the veteran force blocked up in Leith manders were instructed not "to contemn or was much missed and its return anxiously deneglect any reasonable offers of agreement" that sired. Elizabeth opened a ready ear to some might be made by the French. But these veterans overtures made by the house of Lorraine, and it for a long time had no inclination to make any was finally agreed that her commissioners should offers, and they continued to defend Leith with a have a meeting with certain French commisskill and bravery which gained for them high hon- sioners in the town of Berwick on the 14th of our among soldiers in every part of Europe. Ac- June. The able men appointed by Elizabeth cording to Brantome, a seal was put to a soldier's were Cecil and Dr. Wotton, dean of Canterbury; reputation if he could say that he had served in the French negotiators were Montluc, Bishop of this gallant defence of Leith.' On the side of Valence, and the Count de Randan, both men of the English and Scots the operations advanced consummate abilities. These diplomatists, who very slowly, and their labour was repeatedly ren- seem to have been very fairly matched, met, and dered of no avail by the ingenuity of the French proceeded on the 16th of June to Edinburgh. engineers. At last a bad breach was made, and Several days were consumed in settling conditowards this the English, who at least had lost tions; but on the 6th of July, about three o'clock none of their physical courage, rushed in blind in the afternoon, the Lord Grey de Wilton, Sir fury, heedless of the well-directed artillery of the William Cecil, and Sir Ralph Sadler, gave orders enemy: but when they came to use their scaling- in the besiegers' camp that there should no piece ladders they found them far too short for the pur- be shot nor show of hostility be made; and on pose, and after a dreadful struggle they were re- the following day Sir Francis Leake and Sir pulsed and obliged to flee to their intrenchments, Gervase Clifton, accompanied by two French leaving a ditch half filled with dead-the victims gentlemen, were sent into the town of Leith to of the ignorance or inconsiderateness of their signify unto M. d'Oisel, the Bishop of Amiens, officers. The English were so much dispirited La Brosse, Marigny, and other the French lords by their failure on this and other occasions, that and captains, that they were come thither by they talked of a retreat; but more money was command of the commissioners of France and sent down to their Scottish allies, and the Duke of England to cause the peace already concluded to Norfolk, in addition to several smaller bodies be proclaimed, which accordingly was done. Leith despatched already, forwarded a reinforcement was then surrendered, and the French governor of 2000 men. Thus the siege was carried on D'Oisel regaled the captains of the besiegers with more closely than ever, or, rather, it was con- a banquet of thirty or forty dishes, in which the verted into the closest of blockades. only flesh used was that of a salted horse-a circumstance which, as it has been observed, marks national manners and French skill, as well as the extremity to which the place had been reduced.2 Matters were in this state when, on the 10th of June, the queen-regent breathed her last in Edinburgh Castle. On her death-bed she sent for her daughter's half-brother, the prior of St. Andrews, and some others of the Lords of the Congregation, to whom she earnestly recommended her absent child their queen. The death of Mary of Guise hastened the conclusion of a peace, which, however, the French government was made to desire by other circumstances and alarming demonstrations, which, at the least, threatened France with a fierce civil war. The two brothers of the deceased Queen-regent of Scotland, the Cardinal of Lorraine and the Duke of Guise, who in fact governed the French kingdom in the name of Francis and Mary, had excited the deadly animosity of the French Protestants, and of other great and powerful factions: they had recently discovered an extensive conspiracy directed against the whole house of Lorraine, and 2 Walter Scott. Stow says, "Where was prepared for them a though they had prevented its outbreak for the banquet of thirty or forty dishes, and yet not one either of flesh The treaty, which was the joint production of Cecil and Sadler, was highly advantageous to Elizabeth. Besides Leith, Dunbar and Inchkeith were to be surrendered, and the fortifications destroyed; the administration of affairs in Scotland was to be vested in a council of twelve Scottish noblemen, of whom seven were to be named by the queen, and five by the parliament; no foreign forces were thenceforward to be introduced into Scotland without the full consent and will of the Scottish parliament; an indemnity was stipulated for all things passed in Scotland since March, 1558; and every man was to be restored to the office he held before these hostilities, while no French or fish, saving one of a powdered horse, as was avouched by one |