and religion was made use of by each party, to light the flames of civil war'. A new source of discord also arose between France and England. The princes of Lorrain, the ambitious family of Guise, whose credit had long been great at the French court, and who had negociated the marriage between the dauphin, now Francis II. and their niece the queen of Scots, extended still farther their ambitious views. No less able than aspiring, they had governed both the king and kingdom, since the accession of the young and feeble Francis. But they had many enemies. Catherine of Medicis, the queen-mother, a woman who scrupled at no violence or perfidy to accomplish her ends; the two princes of the blood, Anthony de Bourbon, king of Navarre, and his brother Lewis prince of Conde, besides the constable Montmorency and his powerful family, were alike desirous of the administration, and envious of the power of the Guises2. In order to acquire this power, the duke of Guise and his five brothers, the cardinal of Lorrain, the duke of Aumale, the cardinal of Guise, the marquis of Elbeuf, and the Grand Prior, men no less ambitious than himself, had not only employed the greatest military and political talents, but to all the arts of insinuation and address had added those of intrigue and dissimulation. In negociating the marriage between their niece, Mary Stuart, and the dauphin, these artful princes, while they prevailed on the French court to grant the Scottish nation every security for the independency of that crown, engaged the young queen of Scots to subscribe privately three deeds, by which, failing the heirs of her own body, she conferred the kingdom of Scotland, with whatever inheritance or succession might accrue to it, in free gift upon the crown of France; declaring any deed which her subjects had, or might extort from her to the contrary, to be void, and of no obligation3. 1. Thuanus. Cabrera. Davila. 2. Davila, lib. i. Mezeray, tom. v. Robertson, Hist. Scot. book ii. By By the succession mentioned in these deeds, the crown of England seems to have been meant; for no sooner were the Guises informed of the death of queen Mary, and the accession of her sister Elizabeth (whose birth, in the opinion of every good Catholic, excluded her from any legal right to the throne) than they formed a project worthy of their ambition. In order to exalt still higher their credit, and secure their power, they attempted to acquire also for France the southern British kingdom. For this purpose they solicited at Rome, and obtained a bull, declaring Elizabeth's birth illegitimate; and as the queen of Scots, then married to the dauphin, was the next heir by blood, they persuaded Henry II. to permit his son and daughter-in-law to assume the title and arms of England4. Elizabeth complained of this insult, by her ambassador at the court of France, but could obtain only an evasive an. swer. No obvious measure however was taken, during the reign of Henry II. in support of the claim of the queen of Scots; but no sooner were the princes of Lorrain in fuli pos. session of the administration under his successor, Francis II. than more vigorous and less guarded counsels were adopted. Sensible that Scotland was the quarter whence they could attack England to most advantage, they gave, as a preparatory step, orders to their sister, the queen-regent, and encouraged her by promises of men and money, to take effectual measures for humbling the Scottish malecontents, and suppressing the Protestant opinions in that kingdom; hoping that the English Catholics, formidable at that time by their zeal and numbers, and exasperated against Elizabeth, on account of the change which she had made in the national religion, would rise in support of the succession of the queen of Scots, when animated by the prospect of protection, and throw themselves into the arms of France, as the only power that could secure to them their ancient worship, and the privileges of the Romish church5. 4. Robertson, ubi sup. Anderson, Diplom. Scot. No. 68, and 164. 5. Forbes, vol. i. Thuan. lib. xxiv. No No stranger to these violent counsels, Elizabeth saw her danger, and determined to provide against it. Meanwhile the situation of affairs in Scotland, afforded her a favourable opportunity, both of revenging the insult offered to her crown, and of defeating the ambitious views of France. The reformation was fast advancing in Scotland. All the low country was deeply tinctured with the Protestant opinions; and as the converts to the new religion had been guilty of no violation of public peace since the murder of cardinal Beaton, whose death was partly occasioned by private revenge, the queen-regent, willing to secure their favour, in order to enable her to maintain that authority which she had found so much difficulty to acquire, connived at the progress of doctrines, which she wanted power utterly to suppress. Too cautious, however, to trust to this precarious indulgence, for the safety of their religious principles, the heads of the Protestant party in Scotland, entered privately into a bond of association for their mutual protection and the propagation of their tenets, styling themselves the Congregation of the Lord, in contradistinction to the established church, which they denominated the Congregation of Satan". Such associations are generally the forerunners of rebellion; and it appears, that the heads of the Congregation in Scotland, carried their views farther than a mere toleration of the new doctrines. So far they were to blame, as enemies to civil authority, but the violent measures pursued against their sect, before this league was known or avowed, sufficiently justified the association itself,as the result of a prudent foresight, and a necessary step to secure the free exercise of their religion. Alarmed at the progress of the Reformation, the popish clergy had attempted to recover their sinking authority by enforcing the tyrannical laws against heresy; and Hamilton, the primate, formerly distinguished by his 6. Keith. Knox. moderation, moderation, had sentenced to the flames an aged priest, convicted of embracing the protestant opinions". This was the last barbarity of the kind that the Catholics had the power to exercise in Scotland. The severity of the archbishop rather roused than intimidated the Reformers. The Congregation now openly solicited subscriptions to their league; and not satisfied with new and more solemn promises of the regent's protection, they presented a petition to her, craving a reformation of the church, and of the wicked, scandalous, and detestable lives of the clergy. They also framed a petition, which they intended to present to parliament, soliciting some legal protection against the exorbitant and oppressive jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts. They even petitioned the convocation: and insisted that prayers should be said in the vulgar tongue, that bishops should be chosen by the gentry of the diocese, and priests with the consent of the parishioners. Instead of soothing the Protestants, by any prudent concessions, the convocation rejected their demands with disdain; and the queen-regent, who had hitherto wisely temporised between the parties, and whose humanity and sagacity taught her moderation, having received during the sitting of the assembly the violent commands of her brother, prepared to carry their despotic plan into execution, contrary to her own judgment and experience. She publicly expressed her approbation of the decrees, by which the principles of the reformers were condemned in the convocation, and cited the most eminent Protestant teachers to appear before the council at Sterling. The members of the congregation, alarmed but not overawed by this danger, assembled in great numbers, agreeable to the custom of Scotland at that time, in order to attend their 7. Ibid. 8. Melvin. Jebb. Castelneau. pastors pastors to the place of trial; to protect and to countenance them: and the queen-regent, dreading the approach of so formidable a body, empowered Erskine of Dun, a person of high authority with the reformers, to assure them that she would put a stop to the intended proceedings, provided they advanced no farther. They listened with pleasure, and perhaps with too much credulity, to so pacific a proposition; for men whose grievances obliged them to fly in the face of the civil power, under whatever plausible pretext their purpose may be concealed, should trust to nothing less than the solemnity of a contract. The regent broke her promise, conformable to her maxim, that "the promises of princes 66 ought not to be too carefully remembered, nor the per"formance of them exacted, unless it suits their own conve"niency." She proceeded to call to trial the persons for merly summoned, and on their not appearing, though purposely prevented, they were pronounced outlaws1o. By this ignoble artifice, the queen-regent forfeited the esteem and confidence of the whole nation. The Protestants boldly prepared for their own defence; and Erskine, enraged at being made the instrument of deceiving his party, instantly repaired to Perth, whither the leaders of the Congregation had retired, and inflamed the zeal of his associates, by his representations of the regent's inflexible resolution to suppress their religion. His ardour was powerfully seconded by the rhetoric of John Knox, a preacher, possessed of a bold and popular eloquence. Having been carried prisoner into France, together with other persons taken in the castle of St. Andrews, soon after the murder of cardinal Beaton, Knox made his escape out of that kingdom; and, after residing sometimes in England, sometimes in Scotland, had found it 9. In consequence of this custom, originally introduced by vassalage and clanship, and afterwards tolerated through the feebleness of government, any person of eminence accused of a crime, was accompanied to the place of trial by a body of his friends and adherents. Robertson, Hist. Scot. book ii. 10. Knox, p. 127. Robertson, book ii. necessary |