Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

and great wisdom, and hale of life, having the King of France and the greatest nobles of that realm and others about her, tender kinsmen and friends, who will be the more ready to support this realm in defence of the same, if her grace be well favoured and honoured by the nobles thereof, and holden in honour and dignity; and also because the whole nobles have their special confidence in her grace, and do think them sure to convent in any place where her grace is present." 1

It was not admitted that this was passed at a full meeting of the Estates; and, like the affair of the English treaty, it is not among the parliamentary records. Ever since the date of the meeting, however, the queen-dowager had the virtual chief influence in the country.

She made a visit to the Court of France, passing through England with letters of safe-conduct, and landing at Dieppe in September 1550. Deputations attended her through Rouen and other towns; and there was a brilliant bustle attending on her reception as that of a great royalty, much to the disturbance of the equanimity of Sir John Masone, the English ambassador, who strove without entire success to account for the importance attached to her advent by the French Court. To account for her visit there was a simple motive at hand-she went to see her daughter. The ambassador could have little doubt, however, that she improved the occasion in family consultations about the best means of obtaining the regency of Scotland, and other matters connected with the new relations of the two countries, and the momentous interests depending on them. Leslie, Bishop of Ross, was Scots ambassador in Paris, and therefore knew more of what she was about than any other historian of the period. He tells how she got the King of France to suggest to himself, and to two other Scotsmen then at the French Court on business, that Arran should be induced quietly to give his assent and aid to the transference of the regency. With confiding liberality the King of France gave him the reward of the concession before it was even promised; and he was

1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. 392.

invested with the duchy of Chatelherault, with "the town. and palace thereof."1

It is easy to see how the presence in France of the mother of the young Queen Mary and the sister of the great Guises should be a matter of political importance. It is not so easy to account for the fact that, as she returned through England, the Court of the young King Edward went out of the usual course to do her honour, so that she was passed through to Scotland in solemn procession by the local magnates.2

Explanations as to the object of this hospitality have a transparent simplicity that makes it difficult to believe them. The Bishop of Ross tells how "King Edward came to the Whitehall for entertainment of the queendowager, where great banqueting and honourable pastime was made; and all the antiquities, monuments, and principal jewels of the realm were shown to her; and then was proponed to her, in most effectuous manner, by King Edward, to persuade the King of France to leave the marriage of the Queen of Scotland, and to agree that he might marry her according to the first appointment made by the Governor and Estates of Scotland to that effect, whilk he affirmed was most meet for the government of both the realms, stanching of blood, and for perpetual quietness in times coming." 3

The transference of the regency still required very delicate handling. That the affair had been adjusted in France would have been a fatal obstacle to its adoption by the Estates, and it would be dangerous to let it be seen that the duchy of Chatelherault was the price or retainer given for the transference. So far as personal claims went, little was to be feared from the facile Arran himself—the great difficulty was his ambitious strong-headed brother the archbishop. He had been very ill-at death's door-and this brought hope to the schemers; but he recovered, and

1 Leslie, 238.

2 See, in the Preface to Turnbull's Calendar of Foreign State Papers, reference to the documents describing her sojourn both in France and England.

3 Leslie, 240.

became as troublesome as ever. It would appear that in the end his pertinacity served his opponents, and that his facile brother was glad to be free of his tormentors on either side. The Acts of the Estates, or other political documents in which the revolution was set forth, have not been preserved. It is in acts of indemnity in Arran's favour, exempting him and his house from all responsibility for things done during his regency, that we find the transfer completed, and Mary of Guise established as regent in 1554.1

1 Act. Parl., ii. 601. See in Leslie, 249, an account of the meeting of the Estates on 12th April 1554.

285

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE REFORMATION.

--

GOVERNMENT OF MARY OF LORRAINE HER INABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THE CONSTITUTION OF SCOTLAND FRENCH PRACTICESFRENCHMEN PROMOTED TO HIGH OFFICES-ATTEMPT TO PUT THE FORTRESSES IN THEIR HANDS - PROPOSAL OF A STANDING ARMY, AND ITS RECEPTION-QUEEN MARY'S MARRIAGE TO THE DAUPHIN— HIS ACCESSION TO THE CROWN OF FRANCE-THE COUNTRY ALARMED BY PROJECTS OF ANNEXATION TO THE CROWN OF FRANCE-RISE OF SUSPICION AND DISLIKE OF FRANCE AND THE FRENCH ALLIANCETHE ALIEN CHARACTER OF THE CHURCH IN SCOTLAND-HOW FAR THE DOCTRINES OF THE REFORMERS WERE SPREADING MORE BURNINGS THE SECRECY OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PROCEDURE AGAINST HERETICS-THE REASONS FOR THE SECRECY SECULAR CAUSES OF ENMITY TO THE CHURCH-WEALTH AND LUXURIOUSNESS OF THE CHURCHMEN-THEIR MORAL CONDITION-THEIR TEMPORAL POWER AS ADMINISTRATORS OF THE LAW-DEMORALISING INFLUENCE OF THEIR AUTHORITY IN MARRIAGE AND SUCCESSION-THE POWER OF EXCOMMUNICATION OR CURSING-ITS USE FOR LEVYING DEBTS AND FOR ACTS OF PERSONAL OPPRESSION-SPECIMEN OF A CURSING THE CHURCH CONSCIOUS OF ITS OWN DEFECTS-INTERNAL EFFORTS AT REFORMATION-REFORMING COUNCILS-LITERATURE OF THE CHURCH-MIRACLES-NEW LITERATURE-ARCHBISHOP HAMILTON'S CATECHISM-THE TWOPENNY FAITH.

MARY of Lorraine, the queen-mother, when in 1554 she entered on her acknowledged power as regent, had been sixteen years in Scotland. In these years, however, she had not sufficiently read the character of the people as to be able to avoid cause of mortal offence. She might have seen how the interference of England was detested, and thus have judged that, if France interfered in Scotland, the old ally would get no better toleration than the old enemy. It was to be in the destiny of events that France was to

interfere, and in a vital and unpardonable shape. But even before such projects were ripened, the queen-regent, as if she had intended to awaken all suspicions, tampered where she might easily have let alone. The Scots could never be brought to tolerate foreigners, English or Continental, in political offices of trust or power. We have seen how poor De la Bastie's elevation ended. There was the unpopular history of the other French friends of Albany, and their holding of Dumbarton Castle—national offences to the country, only mitigated by the preponderance of the offences committed by England. There never appears a foreigner on the lists of the holders of high political office in Scotland down to this time; and that there were few foreigners promoted in the Church, we may gather from the notoriety surrounding one instance in which a foreigner got promotion. His name was Damien. He was made Abbot of Tongueland; and because he, a Frenchman, obtained this Scots benefice, he was the object of the satirical lash of the poet Dunbar.

The office of chancellor was held by the Earl of Huntly, perhaps the greatest territorial lord of the day. A deputy or vice-chancellor was appointed, who did the work of the office and held the power, and the person so appointed was a Frenchman named De Roubay. For some cause not fully cleared up, and only known to be connected with his intervention in Highland quarrels, Huntly came under the letter of the treason law, and had to compound with the crown by a money payment. His humiliation was doubly coupled with favour to Frenchmen. He held a lucrative office, connected apparently with the collection of the revenue in Orkney, whence he is called Governor of Orkney. This office, whatever may have been its exact name, was given to a Frenchman, M. Boutot. On the list of comptrollers of the exchequer, too, there appears the name of the famous De Roubay, and, as his successor, Bartholomew Villemore. Another Frenchman, D'Oysel, though not endowed with office, was supposed to have such influence in the counsels of the regent as none but a native Scot ought to exercise.

The regent remembered how convenient it was to France

« AnteriorContinuar »