1560. withdraw their hearts from the obedience due to their Sove- AN. REG. 2, reign, nor did he wish any such sentence to be pronounced against her, but when she should change her course, and submit herself to good counsel, there should be place left unto her of regress to the same honours, from which, for good causes, she ought to be deprived1." This Act is intimated to the Queen Regent, who now begins as seriously to provide for her own preservation, as she had done before in maintenance of the Queen's authority. Some forces had been sent from France, together with many arms and ammunition in proportion to them; but these not being great enough to suppress those insolencies, she is supplied at times with 3000 foot, beside Octavian's regiment sent over to make way for the rest. Some horse were also shipped from France, but so scattered and dispersed by tempest, that few of them came safely thither2. Yet by the terror of their coming, and the noise of more, she recovereth Edenburgh, compelleth the confederate Scots to go further north, fortifies Lieth, the port-town to Edenburgh and 126 the chief key of all that kingdom,―garrisoned forthwith by the 298 French, not only to make good their entrance, but second their exit3. On these discouragements, many of the Scots soldiers drop away, and the rest refuse to stand unto their arms without present pay. Had the French gone to work like soldiers, and poured such forces into that kingdom as the condition of affairs did require at their hands, they might easily have suppressed that scattered faction, before they were united under the protection of a foreign power; but this doing of their work by halves proved the undoing of the whole, and only served to give the Scots sufficient time to renew their forces, and call the English to their aid. They had all along maintained a correspondence with some in England, but more particularly with Crofts, Governor of the town of Barwick. To him they send for a supply in this great necessity; by whom their agents are dispatched with four thousand crowns; but the Queen Regent was so seasonably advertised of it, that she intercepted on the way both the men and the money. 10. In this extremity they take counsel of despair with Knox, by whom they are advised to cast themselves into the Queen Elizathe Scotch beth assists Reformers. 1560. AN. REG. 2, arms of the Queen of England, the only visible means then left to support the cause; to whom the neighbourhood of the French, upon just jealousies and reasons of State, was not very acceptable. No better counsel being offered (as indeed none could) Maitland and Melvin1 are dispatched to the Court of England; by whom the Queen is made acquainted with the state of that kingdom, the difficulty under which it struggled, the danger like to fall on her own dominions if the French should grow too strong in Scotland; and thereupon entreat her succours and assistance for the expulsion of that people, who otherwise might to both realms prove alike destructive. The business being taken into consideration, it was conceived by some of the Council, that the Queen ought not to give ear unto their desires; that it was a matter of dangerous consequence, and of ill example, to assist the subjects of that or any other kingdom against their own natural and lawful Princes; and that she did not know how soon it might be her own case, to have the like troubles and commotions raised against her by those who liked not her proceedings in the change of religion. By others it was thought a matter of no small impiety not to assist their brethren of the same profession, imploring their assistance in the present exigency; that it was a work of charity to defend their neighbours from the oppression of strangers; that the French were always enemies to the Crown of England, and therefore that it could not be consistent with the rules of prudence to suffer them to grow too strong upon their borders; that the French King had already assumed the title of England, and it concerned them to take care that they gave him not by their improvidence the possession also2. These reasons carried it for the Scots, and so they are dismissed with promise of such present aid, and on such conditions, as should be agreed on by Commissioners on both sides in the town of Barwick. 11. About the middle of February the Commissioners meet, the Duke of Norfolk for the Queen, the Lord James Stewart (one of the bastard brothers of the Queen of Scots), the Lord Ruthven, and some other principal men of the Con 'Maitland of Lethington, and "Robert Melvil, brother of the laird of Raith." Spottisw. 141. gregation in the the name of the rest: by whom it was concluded on the 27th of that month, that the Queen should send sufficient forces into Scotland, both by sea and land, furnished with money, arms, and ammunition; that she should not recall her forces till that kingdom was cleared of all the French; that provision of victuals for the army should be made by the Scots, and that the Scots should shew themselves enemies to all such as were enemies to the Crown of England, whether Scots or French; but by all means, that nothing should be done by virtue of this agreement, which might import the least withdrawing of the Scots from that loyalty, duty, and obedience which was due unto their natural Queen, or the King her husband1. By which agreement with the Scots, the Queen abundantly provided for her own security from all invasions on that side; and by affording them such succours as their wants 127 required, but chiefly by conferring some small annual pensions 299 on the chiefs among them, she made herself more absolute on that side of the Tweed than either the Queen of Scots her- 12. It was about the beginning of April that the English 1 Camden, 48-9. Spottisw. 142-3. 2 Edd. 3 reads "3000;" Camden says 1200. 3 Stow, 641. Spottisw. 144. Holinshed is very full on this expedition. iv. 190, seqq. • Heylyn has omitted to mention that the Queen Regent of Scotland died on the 10th of June. Spottisw. 146. [HEYLYN, II.] Y AN. REG. 2, 1560. 1560. AN.REG.2, there to confer with such of the same quality as should also come thither, authorised by the Queen of England: by whom it was in fine concluded, That all the French forces should forthwith depart out of Scotland, except sixty only to be left in Dunbar, and as many in the Fort of Inchkeith1; that they should be transported for their greater safety in English bottoms; that all matters of religion should be referred to the following Parliament; that an act of oblivion should be passed for the indemnity of all who had borne arms on either side; that a general bond of love and amity should be made betwixt the Lords and their adherents of both religions; and finally, amongst many other particulars, that neither the Queen of Scots nor the French King should from thenceforth assume the titles and arms of England. Which articles being signed and confirmed for both kingdoms, the French about the middle of July take their leave of Scotland, and the English army at the same time set forward for Barwick, being there disbanded and dismissed to their several dwellings. Followed not long after by the Earls of Morton and Glencarn, in the name of the rest of the Congregation, sent purposely to render to the Queen their most humble thanks for her speedy and prosperous assistance, and to desire the continuance of her Majesty's favours, if the French should any more attempt to invade their country. Assured whereof, and being liberally rewarded with gifts and presents, they returned with joy and glad tidings to the Congregation; whom as the Queen had put upon a present confidence of going vigorously on in their Reformation, so it concerned them to proceed so carefully in pursuance of it, as might comply with the dependence which they had upon her3. 13. First therefore, that she might more cordially espouse their quarrel, they bound themselves by their subscription to embrace the Liturgy, with all the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England4, which for a time remained the only form Edd. "Nachkeeth." 2 Stow, 640. Spottisw. 147-9. 3 Spottisw. 152. 4.66 Scoti, ante aliquot annos, Anglorum auxiliis e servitute Gallica liberati, religionis cultui et ritibus cum Anglis communibus subscripserunt." Buchanan, Hist. Rerum Scoticarum, 1. xix. (p. 380, ed. Ruddiman, Edinb. 1715.) That this is the authority on which Heylyn relied, is ascertained by the Preface to his Ecclesia Vindicata (Hist. Tracts, folio). Perhaps, however, he has gone too far in inferring from it that 1560. of worship for the Kirk of Scotland; when, and by whose AN.REG. 2, means they receded from it, may be shewn hereafter1. In the next place they cause a Parliament to be called in the month of August, according to the Articles of the Pacification, from which no person was excluded, who either had the right of suffrage in his own capacity, or in relation to their Churches, or as returned from their Shrevalties or particular Boroughs: of which last, there appeared the accustomed number; but of the Lords Spiritual, no more than six Bishops of thirteen, with thirteen Abbots and Priors, or thereabouts; and of the temporal Lords, to the number of ten Earls and as many Barons. By whose authority and consent they passed three acts, conducing wholly to the advantage of the Reformation: the first whereof was for abolishing the Pope's jurisdiction and authority within the realm; the second, for annulling all statutes made in former times for maintenance of idolatry and superstition; and the third, for the punishment of the sayers and hearers of the mass2. To this Parliament also some of the 128 Ministers presented "A Confession of the Faith and Doctrine 300 to be believed and professed by the Protestants of the Kirk of Scotland;" modelled in many places by the principles of the reforming party in Scotland bound themselves to the English Prayer- 1 Aĕr. Rediv. p. 139, ed. 1672. 2 Spottisw. 149-150. On the invalidity of this Parliament, see Bp. Russell's ed. of Spottiswoode, i. 378. |