mand of Andelot and the Admiral Colligny, ob- | bound to take the oath of supremacy, as were liged Guise to move from the Seine and the neigh- also all who were advanced to any degree, either bourhood of Havre towards the Loire, where the in the universities or in the inns of court, all Huguenots were very powerful, possessing the schoolmasters, officers in court, and members of city of Orleans. After a remarkable campaign, parliament; and a second refusal of the oath was during which the Huguenots, under the admiral made treason. By a strange restriction, considand Condé, threatened the city of Paris, a fierce | ering that some of the noblest families were Cabattle was fought at Dreux, and the Protestants tholics, the statute did not extend to any man of were defeated. The affair, however, was not very the rank of a baron, it being assumed, as a condecisive; and, to support Colligny, Elizabeth sent venient fiction, that no doubt could be enter over some more money, and offered to give her tained as to the fidelity of persons of such rank. bond for a further sum if he could find mer- All Elizabeth's parliaments were zealously Prochants disposed to lend on such a security.' testant: in this the House of Commons were At this moment the queen's ex- sincere: but in the lords there must have been A.D. 1563. chequer was empty, and she was considerable dissimulation, as the known Caobliged to suminon a parliament—a body for the tholics seldom made any opposition. In the wisdom or authority of which she never testified present session, however, Lord Montacute showed much respect. Almost as soon as this parliament some spirit. He opposed the bill of assurance, met, the odious subject of the succession and ma- and contended, in favour of the English Cathotrimony was renewed. Elizabeth had just under- lics, that they were loyal and dutiful subjects, gone that dangerous disease the small-pox, and, neither disputing, nor preaching, nor causing as her life had been despaired of, people had been tumults among the people. But Elizabeth could made more than ever sensible of the perils likely never repose confidence in a sect which could not to arise from a disputed succession. The com- but believe in her illegitimacy; and the spirit mons, therefore, voted an address to her majesty, of disloyalty which no doubt existed in many in which, after mentioning the civil wars of for- breasts, notwithstanding the assertion of Montmer times, they entreated her to choose a hus- acute, was naturally increased and strengthened band by God's grace, engaging on their part to by these very penal acts directed against them. serve, honour, and obey the husband of her It is quite certain that Elizabeth never thought choice: or if, indeed, her high mind was for ever of trying the grand and humane experiment; but set against matrimony, they entreated that she it would indeed not "be safe to assert that a more would permit her lawful successor to be named conciliating policy would have altogether disand acknowledged by act of parliament. Being armed their hostility." An increase of violence thus placed between the sharp horns of a dilem- produced a seeming conformity; but the Catho ma, and being fully resolved on no account to lics had recourse to what has been justly called acknowledge the rights either of Mary Queen of the usual artifice of an oppressed people, and met Scots, or of the Lady Catherine Grey, the repre- force by fraud. This was the most dangerous of sentative of the Suffolk line, whose children she all states; and Elizabeth and Cecil fairly acknowhad just bastardized, she pretended that her reso- ledged that their system of coercion was a failure, lution of living and dying a virgin was shaken; when they complained that they could not take and, without making anything like a positive the Catholics for good Protestants and loyal subdeclaration, she gave them to understand that jects, though they constantly attended the Anshe might be induced, for the sake of her people, glican church, and prayed for the queen in the to think of marriage. Nearly at this moment words of the Liturgy. If no force had been another suitor appeared in the field. The Duke adopted-if the adherents to the old church had of Würtemberg, a German Protestant prince, been allowed the free exercise of their religion— offered his service to the queen "in case she the government at least might have known who were minded to marry." were Catholics and who were not; but now it was impossible to distinguish between the unwilling converts to force and the willing converts to persuasion, and use, and time. And, as men always hate intensely those who degrade them in their own eyes, or force them to commit acts of subservience and baseness, Elizabeth became more and more an object of detestation to this class. It was during this same session that the law against false prophets was passed, and it was accompanied by a statute against conjuration,

The parliament was obliged to be satisfied with the queen's evasive answer, and to proceed to other business. A most remarkable law they passed was the act of "assurance of the queen's royal power over all states and subjects within her dominions." This was, in effect, an extension of the former acts of supremacy. For asserting twice in writing, word, or deed, the authority of the pope, the offender was subjected to the penalties of treason: all persons in holy orders were

Holinshed; Burghley Papers.

Hallam, Const. Hist.

enchantments, and witchcraft. It should appear | had advanced should be repaid by the French as if the people of England had not yet advanced court, and that Calais, at the expiration of the to a condition in which they could do without a term before fixed, should be restored to her. In certain pabulum of credulity, and that it was this instance Elizabeth's anger got the better of necessary that the superstition which had lost her discretion: she sent Warwick orders to deits old food—such as saints and Madonnas and fend Havre to the last against the whole French miracles-should find some new nourishment. monarchy; for Protestants and Catholics were In the countries where the common people are now alike anxious to see the English out of fed with legends and miracles, there is little or France. In taking possession of this place the no belief in witches and ghosts; and, for a long English had expelled nearly all the French inhatime after the Reformation, the people in most bitants, so that they had little to fear in that countries seem to have believed in witches and direction. Warwick had about 5000 men with ghosts because they were no longer allowed to him, and during the siege Sir Hugh Paulet conbelieve in saints and miracles. The chronicles ducted to him a reinforcement of 800. The Conremark that the preceding year had been very stable Montmorency, so recently in alliance with awful on account of the great number of mon- the English, took the command of the besieging strous births, and probably this was believed to army, in which also served the Protestant Prince be the effect of witchcraft and conjuration. But of Condé, who, more than any one, had led Elizaall kinds of insane notions were very prevalent. beth into the late treaty with the Huguenots. The penal statutes now passed only increased | The brave Admiral Colligny, who still doubted the number of mad prophets, conjurors, and so- the good faith of the queen-regent, kept aloof. So called witches. Having voted the queen a supply important was the enterprise in the eyes of the of a subsidy, and two-fifteenths, the parliament government that Catherine de' Medici took her was prorogued. Still further to enable the queen son, the young king, with nearly the whole court, to prosecute her continental scheme, which was to the besieging camp, and called upon all loyal popular with Protestant churchmen, and with Frenchmen to repair to the siege. In the month the majority of the nation, as being in favour of of May, notwithstanding some gallant sorties men who were co-religionists, or nearly so, the made by the English, the French established convocation of the clergy voted her a subsidy of themselves in favourable positions round the six shillings in the pound, payable in three years. town, and began to batter in sundry places. Apparently some of this money was immediately During the whole of the month of June they sent to the Huguenots, and some to the Earl of tried in vain to force an entrance, and they were Warwick, who, however, received strict orders to several times beaten out of their trenches. On keep his troops within the walls of Havre, and the 14th of July the besiegers made an assault not to join the Admiral Colligny in the field, who, with 3000 men, and were repulsed with the loss without his assistance, had reduced most of the of four hundred. On the 27th of the same places in Normandy which held for the Guises. month the French desperately made fresh apThe admiral, however, complained to Elizabeth proaches, and "were made by the English gunof the strange neutrality of her little army, and ners to taste the bitter fruit that the cannon and his complaints became louder when he saw that culverins yielded." But the besieging force was the Duke of Guise was preparing to crush the so numerous, and the walls were so effectually Protestants on the Loire, and that he was laying breached, that on the following day, the 28th of siege to Orleans with every prospect of taking July, 1563, a capitulation was signed, the French that city. But soon after Guise was assassinated agreeing to permit the garrison to depart with by Poltrot, a young gentleman of the Huguenot their arms, baggage, and whatever goods beparty, and the death of this brave leader and longed to the Queen of England or to any of her accomplished soldier, which happened on the subjects, and to allow the English six whole days 24th of February, 1563, induced the French Ca- to embark themselves and their property. It was tholics to offer conditions of peace and recon- a sad embarkation, the sick and feeble having to ciliation. The admiral, who knew her well, carry those who were in a still worse state, and maintained that there was no trusting the Queen- the men in health being exposed to the closest regent Catherine de' Medici; but he was over- contact with the plague patients, for a pestilence ruled by his associates, and, in the end, another which had broken out among the garrison was hollow pacification was concluded between the none other than the deadly plague. And these French Protestants and the French Catholics. plague patients brought the frightful disorder In this hasty and unwise treaty the Huguenots with them into England, where it committed took little or no care of the interests of the Eng- great ravages, spreading into various parts of lish queen, merely stipulating that if she would the kingdom, and raging so fiercely in London give up Havre, her charges and the money she that, in the course of the year, it carried off VCL. II.

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the immediate and total suppression of Papistry; | plained, she assured them that the measure was but this they only considered as a temporary sacri- necessary for the preservation of her daughter's fice of principle to expediency-as a connivance throne, and that she could not, and would not, which was not to last; and headed by the Earls desist until the lords should dismiss their armed of Argyle, Morton, and Glencairn, the Lord Lorn, men. The Lords of the Congregation had of Erskine of Dun, and others, they formed a gene- course less intention than ever of laying down ral Protestant league, entered privately into the sword-their party was daily increasing, and agreements, and, styling themselves the Lords that of the queen-dowager was as rapidly declinof the Congregation, published a solemn protesting. At this crisis it seems to have fallen prinagainst the abominations and corruptions of Popery. Among those who went over to the Lords of the Congregation, was the Earl of Arran, formerly regent, who had now for some years rejoiced in his French title of Duke of Chatellerault, and whose religion was of a very elastic nature. But their principal leader-a man of extraordinary abilities, whatever we may think of his honour or virtue was James Stuart, prior, or commendator, of the monastery of St. Andrews, a natural son of the late king, the unfortunate James V., and half-brother of the beautiful Mary Stuart. This man professed a wonderful zeal for the new religion, whereby, not less than by his talents, he attached to himself what was now most decidedly the popular and the stronger party.

At this critical moment the absent Mary Stuart had become Queen of France, a transitory grandeur, which only lasted as it were for a moment, and which tended still further to increase the jealousies of the Scots and to embarrass her friends in her native country. Her father-inlaw, Henry II. of France, had not been very happy since the signing of the (to him) disadvantageous treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, but the immediate cause of his death was an accidental wound in the eye from a broken lance while tilting. He expired on the 10th of July, 1559, in the forty-first year of his age, and was succeeded by his eldest son, the husband of Mary, under the title of Francis II. In this manner the Scots became more and more confirmed in their idea that their country was to be held and treated as a French province or dependence; and hence every Frenchman, every ship, every bale of goods that arrived from France was looked upon with a jealous eye. Nor did Francis and Mary, on their accession to the French throne, neglect to take measures for the re-establishment of the royal power in the northern kingdom. In the end of July, 1000 French soldiers landed at Leith; and that the spiritual interests might not be neglected, Francis and Mary sent with these menat-arms a certain number of orthodox divines from the Sorbonne. With these reinforcements, and giving out that more were coming, the queenregent took possession of Leith and quartered the odious Papistical and foreign soldiers on the townspeople. When the citizens of Leith com

cipally to the preachers to expound the lawfulness of resistance to constituted authorities; and in so doing some of them occasionally broached doctrines, which, however sound in themselves, and adopted in later times, were exceedingly odious to all the royal ears of Europe, whether Catholic or Protestant. But the Scotch Protestants soon found that the Catholics were still powerful-that many, even of their own communion, disapproved of their extreme measures, and looked upon their conduct as rebellion—that the foreign troops were formidable from the excellent state of their discipline and appointments

that the chief fortresses of the kingdom were in their hands that money was pouring in from France, and that the Lords of the Congregation were, as usual, excessively needy. In this emergency, they resolved to apply for assistance to the Queen of England. Elizabeth was solemnly bound by the recent treaty of Cateau-Cambresis to do nothing in Scotland to the prejudice of Mary's rights and authority; but then Mary, since the signing of that treaty, had behaved disrespectfully to one of Elizabeth's servants; and it was known or shrewdly suspected that the Catholic fanatics, who mainly ruled the councils of the French court, were determined, on the first favourable opportunity, to assert the Scottish queen's rights and strike a blow in England for Mary, God, and church. We will not pretend to say that, if all these provocations had been wanting, Elizabeth would not have adopted precisely the same line of conduct, which was nothing but a drawing out of the old line of Henry VIII., which fell to her as a political heir-loom. When the matter was debated in the English council, there was, however, some difference of opinion, and a strong repugnance on the part of the queen, to what was deemed the anarchical polity of John Knox. The Scottish lords, or rather the great English statesmen who espoused their cause, putting aside the delicate question of rebellion and aiding of rebels, represented that the French were keeping and increasing an army in Scotland, and aiming at nothing less than the entire possession or mastery of the country; that Scotland would only prove a step to England; that when the Protestants there were overpowered. the French and Catholics would undoubtedly try to place Mary Stuart on the throne of England,

and renew the tyranny of Mary Tudor; that the | Scotland. Sir Ralph soon reported progress to safety of the queen, the state, the church, the liberty of England, depended essentially on the turn which affairs might take in Scotland.' The correctness of these views was undeniable, and it was therefore resolved to support the Protestant nobility in their struggle with the queenregent; but with such secrecy as neither to bring upon the Lords of the Congregation the odium of being the friends and pensioners of England, nor to engage Elizabeth in an open war with her sister and rival. Elizabeth had not far to look for an agent competent to manage this business: our old friend Sir Ralph Sadler, who knew Scotland better than any Englishman, who had been in old times the bosom friend of the Scottish lords in the pay of Henry VIII., many of whom figured in the new movements, had quitted his rural retirement at Hackney on the accession of her present majesty, who had forthwith appointed him to a seat in her privy council. He was full of energy, and he entered on his new duties with a happy anticipation of success. In the course of the month of August, Cecil issued a commis, sion to Sir Ralph to settle certain disputes concerning Border matters, and to superintend the repairs which it was proposed to make in the fortifications of Berwick and other English fortresses on or near to the Borders. Percy, Earl of Northumberland, and Sir James Croft, the governor of Berwick, were joined in the commission, but more for form than for anything else; for Northumberland, as a Papist himself, was sus pected-and the whole business was, in fact, intrusted to Sadler. The repairs which were actually begun on a large scale at Berwick seemed a very sufficient reason to account for Sadler's protracted stay; and Elizabeth had "thought necessary to provoke the queen-regent, her good sister, to appoint some of her ministers of like qualities to meet with the said earl (Northumberland) and the said Sir Ralph and Sir James." Sadler was thus brought into contact with Scottish commissioners, whom he was instructed to bribe. By his private powers and instructions, in Cecil's hand-writing, he was authorized to confer, treat, or practise with any manner of person of Scotland, either in Scotland or England, for his purposes and the furthering of the queen's service; to distribute money to the disaffected Scots, as he should think proper, to the amount of £3000, but he was always to proceed with such discretion and secrecy, that no part of his doings should awaken suspicion or impair the peace lately concluded between Elizabeth and

Memorial written by my lord-treasurer (Cecil) with his own band, 5th August, 1559; Sadler's State Papers; Raumer.

2 Walter Scott's Biographical Memoir of Sir Ralph Sadler, prered to the State Papers and Letters of Sir Ralph Sadler, Knight Bannerd, edited by Arthur Clifford.

the cool and circumspect Cecil, telling him that if the Lords of the Congregation were properly encouraged and comforted, there was no doubt as to the result. On his arrival at Berwick he had found in that town a secret messenger sent from Knox to Sir James Croft (who appear to have been old friends), and by means of this messenger they signified to Knox that they wished that Mr. Henry Balnaves, or some other discreet and trusty Scotsman, might repair “in secret manner" to such place as they had appointed, to the intent that they might confer touching affairs. Sir James Croft had understood from Knox that his party would require aid of the queen's majesty for the entertainment and wages of 1500 arquebusiers and 300 horsemen, which, if they might have, then France (as Knox said) should "soon understand their minds." To this demand for aid, Sadler had so answered as not to leave them without hope: but he is anxious "to understand the queen's majesty's pleasure in that part, wishing, if it may be looked for that any good effect shall follow, that her majesty should not, for the spending of a great deal more than the charge of their demand amounteth unto, pretermit such an opportunity." But it was money, ready money, that the Scottish Reformers needed. "And to say our poor minds unto you," continues Sir Ralph, "we see not but her highness must be at some charge with them; for of bare words only, though they may be comfortable, yet can they receive no comfort." This letter was written on the 20th of August (1559), immediately after Sadler's arrival at the scene of intrigue, and on the same day John Knox was requested to send his secret agent to Holy Isle. By a letter dated on the 24th of the same month, Elizabeth told Sadler that he should immediately deal out "in the secretest manner" the money committed to him at his departure from London, "to such persons and to such intents as might most effectually further and advance that service which had been specially recommended unto him." And on the same day Cecil addressed to Arran, or Chatellerault, a much more remarkable letter, which it should appear Sir Ralph was to forward to its destination. From some expressions used by Cecil, it should almost seem that Elizabeth entertained the notion of uniting the two kingdoms under her own dominion, without any reference to the rights of Mary; but the Scottish nation was certainly not prepared for any such measure, nor did the fastest pace of the Lords of the Congregation come up with it. On the 28th of August the Queen-regent of Scotland, in the name of Francis and Mary, King and Queen of the French and Scots, appointed Scottish commissioners to treat with Sadler and Northumberland for the