JOSEPH H9D0N0UGH 
 RARE BOOKS 
 
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CARDINAL BEATON 
 
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CAEDINAL BEATON 
 
 PEIEST AND POLITICIAN 
 
 WILLIAM BLACKWOOD Alv^D SO^^ON CQ 
 
 EDINBURGH AXD LONDON 
 MDCCCXCI 
 
 92 2^ 3 4 
 
 All PJrjhfs reserved 
 
BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY. 
 
 CHESTNUT Hill. MA 02167 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. THE DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN 
 
 SCOTLAND, ...... 1 
 
 n. THE OLD ALLIANCE AND THE OLD ENMITY, . 33 
 
 III. EARLY INFLUENCES ON BEATON 's CHARACTER, . 59 
 
 IV. BEATON AND PATRICK HAMILTON, ... 81 
 V. DIPLOMACY, 108 
 
 VI. THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY, . . .140 
 
 VII. REFORMATION FROM ENGLAND, . . . 161 
 
 VIII. SOLWAY MOSS AND ITS SEQUEL, . . .189 
 
 LX. FURTHER INTRIGUES, . . . . .212 
 
 X. KING AGAINST CARDINAL, .... 242 
 
 XI. PROTESTANTISM AND WISHART, . . . 273 
 
 XII. THE ASSASSINATION OF BEATON, . . . 302 
 
CAEDINAL BEATON. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IX SCOTLAND. 
 
 Three centuries and a half have passed since 
 the burning; of Georg;e "Wishart, the event which 
 has made the name of Cardinal Beaton the 
 name most execrated in the ecclesiastical history 
 of Scotland. In Knox's words, Beaton was 
 "that bloody wolf the Cardinal," "a vitious 
 priest and wicked monster which neither minded 
 God nor cared for man." As Knox has made 
 hatred of Popery one of the virtues of Scottish 
 Protestantism, this verdict on the character of 
 Wishart's destroyer is acceptable to those who 
 hold that the " blessed martyr of God " was a 
 saint without rejDroach. 
 
 A 
 
DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Beaton, moreover, having been the chief 
 enemy of the Scottish Eeformation, has been 
 awarded, in literature and tradition, an evil 
 reputation, great in proportion to the cause 
 which he opposed. Even were this reputa- 
 tion, however, wholly deserved, the man was 
 more than a destroyer of heretics, and more 
 than an enemy of the Lutheran faith. 
 
 Beaton was the representative and most not- 
 able man of Catholic Scotland of the sixteenth 
 century, and was by title, at the time of his 
 death. Lord Chancellor of the kingdom, Arch- 
 bishop of St Andrews, and Cardinal Legate in 
 Scotland. In the history of his country, what- 
 ever his personal character may have been, he 
 takes his place as the last great churchman 
 and statesman before the Eeformation, and 
 almost the last politician to keep Scotland 
 within the circle of European interests. 
 
 Modern research has often been able to dis- 
 credit the veracity of tradition. Cromwell, by 
 the genius of Carlyle, appears no longer before 
 the bar of history as the religious hypocrite 
 who murdered his king ; but since even Judge 
 Jeffreys has had his advocate, it may appear 
 as if later writers formed a Court of Appeal 
 to reverse all generally accepted judgments. 
 
TRADITION AND HISTORY. 
 
 3 
 
 History, however, is concerned with doing jus- 
 tice, and not with commuting truth into fiction. 
 Literature itself, like tradition, has not always 
 represented men and events as they appear in 
 the light of an inquest into facts ; but against 
 the best literature, historical criticism is power- 
 less. Shakspere s Macbeth and Eichard III. 
 have established themselves in most minds 
 secure against eviction by the Macbeth of the 
 Chronicles and the Eichard of the Histories. 
 When, moreover, written history and literature, 
 contemporary with their victim, are agreed in 
 a censure, such condemnation may seem be- 
 yond dispute. Thus Knox and Sir David 
 Lindsay, in their disparaging of Beaton, are 
 apt to be accounted witnesses whose testimony 
 is not to be traversed. These writers, however, 
 carried religious prejudice and personal hatred, 
 the one into history, and the other into litera- 
 ture ; and whatever be their position among 
 Scottish men of letters, they were singularly 
 unfitted for a calm and rational judgment on 
 the character of a religious opponent. Knox's 
 history, in so far as it is the work of the Ee- 
 former, was written by one who would not lie ; 
 but no narrative of events and controversies, 
 in which the narrator had a leader's share, is 
 
4 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 above tlie suspicion of party bias. On the 
 other hand, the assertions of Lindsay, in his 
 Tragedy of the Cardinal, are not, in fairness, 
 to be tested by the canons of literal accuracy. 
 These two writers are mainly responsible for 
 the popular opinion and traditions regarding 
 Beaton ; but the modern student who can rise 
 above sectarian feeling-, and at the same time 
 resist the fashion which aims at reversing 
 accepted judgments on men of the past, may, 
 without insult to the sincerity of Knox and 
 the good faith of Lindsay, come to doubt the 
 traditions concerning Beaton, and to see in 
 him one who, though a worldly ecclesiastic, 
 was the zealous guardian of his Church, and 
 the ablest Scottish statesman of his day. 
 
 Beaton, as a leader in Church and State, had 
 no easy task in the work of his twofold office. 
 The Catholic Church was suffering exposure 
 under the light of the Eenascence, and direct 
 attack from the forces of Protestantism. 
 
 Henry YIIL, moved by anger against Kome, 
 was seeking to spread in Scotland those reforms 
 which he found convenient for a king in Eng- 
 land. Moreover, Scotland was still an object, 
 as it had been in former times, of the cupidity 
 of the King of England, and its independence 
 
DATE OF THE SCOTTISH REFORMATION. 5 
 
 was again in danger. Nor was Scotland iso- 
 lated from European politics. The King of 
 France and the Emperor Charles, each of them 
 in his jealousy of Henry YIIL, sought her 
 alliance ; and to them in turn she looked for 
 aid against England. 
 
 The memorable events of the first half of 
 the sixteenth century were many, and Euro- 
 pean history seemed then to be in haste : but 
 these events can be fully understood only 
 through a knowledge of antecedent facts ; and 
 in the history of Scotland, Beaton and his 
 times can become an intelligible volume only 
 by reference to events and policies not con- 
 fined within the limits of the century. There 
 are three outstanding facts of this kind which 
 throw light on the history of the period that 
 marks the close of medieval Scotland, and on 
 the policies of the leader in Church and State 
 of that period. The decline of the Catholic 
 Church, the ancient Scoto-French alliance, and 
 the long-continued enmity between Scotland 
 and England, are the three important facts 
 which demand examination at the outset. 
 
 The date of the Scottish Eeformation is later 
 than that of Germany or England ; but this is 
 largely to be explained by the Scottish policy 
 
6 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 of Henry VIII.. and by the dominant influence 
 of Beaton, who ruled the councils of his nation. 
 In Germany the Eeformation was at first purely 
 religious ; afterwards it was political as well as 
 relio'ious, if the Peasants' War is to be accounted 
 Dart of the creneral Eeformation movement. 
 In Euoiand the first Eeformation dates from 
 Henry's search for a divorce court, since gos- 
 pel light first dawn'd from Bullen's eyes " ; 
 and among; the outward and ^^isible sio'ns of 
 a chano'e in the relioion of the land were the 
 erection of the scaflold, the kindlino* of the 
 fires for sacrifices, and the plimder of the 
 monasteries. In Scotland the spiritual revolu- 
 tion, after the murder of Beaton, was accom- 
 panied by violence to stone and lime. That 
 murder was not applauded by the people as 
 a whole ; and so short was the time between 
 it and the destruction of the ancient national 
 faith, that Beaton must be held to have been 
 the last support of the Catholic Chtirch. 
 
 Knox, like every leader of a revolution, did 
 his work with speed, because the forces of 
 destruction were ready to his hand. He was 
 strono", and the thorouo-hness of the Scottish 
 Eeformation was largely due to his strength ; 
 but the Church was doomed before his day, 
 
SPIRITUAL FREEDOM. 
 
 7 
 
 and waited but the coming of the destroyer. 
 Drastic lecrislation might have removed eccle- 
 siastical abuses, and without sudden revolu- 
 tion the paramount influence of the clergy 
 in the State might have ceased as laymen 
 gradually grew in capacity ; but an institu- 
 tion corrupt in practice and irritating because 
 of its privileges and monopolies, an institu- 
 tion which demanded and exercised absolute 
 authority over the individual conscience, w^as, 
 in spite of the divine origin claimed for it, 
 certain to he overthrown whenever spiritual 
 freedom came to be numbered among the 
 rights of the people. 
 
 To show under what variety of circumstance 
 a nation progresses tow^ards freedom is the 
 highest function of the historian. In a bar- 
 baric age political and spiritual liberty are 
 alike impossible to a people ; but progress is 
 made from barbarism as the manifold insti- 
 tutions of slavery are seen to be inadequate 
 to the needs and rights of human life. By 
 the natural law of progress the Catholic Church 
 in Scotland, the complex organ of Papal author- 
 ity, was doomed to destruction or death, since 
 the people, whose best and excellent traditions 
 were those of national independence, were, by 
 
8 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHUECH. 
 
 centuries of struggle for j^olitical liberty, pre- 
 paring themselves for freedom from the foreign 
 authority and the spiritual tyranny of the Pope. 
 
 The work of vandalism, however, so effec- 
 tively performed by Knox's zealots, was no 
 proof of a popular recognition of the right or 
 meaning of spiritual freedom. That recognition 
 is subject also to the law of progress, and 
 therefore the incidents of the Eeformation 
 must be traced to causes not wholly spiritual. 
 The incubus of the priesthood, and especially of 
 the monkish orders, was a burden so grievous 
 to the people that it was a delight to them to 
 throw it off when the invitation came from 
 Knox. Many, too, had grown weary of the 
 saints, and were ready to welcome the written 
 Gospel. Modern miracles, indulgences, and 
 legends of saints had ceased to satisfy any but 
 the most credulous ; and results show that the 
 Scots were fitted to receive spiritual teaching 
 which demanded not credulity but intelligence. 
 The Scottish Eeformation was an appeal to men 
 who had shown their worth in their battles for 
 liberty. This appeal was not made from per- 
 suasive lips till it came from Knox ; nor could 
 it have been made with hope of effect while 
 Henry VIIL, the patron of reformation, was 
 
DELAY OF THE CHUECH's DOOM. 9 
 
 menacing tlie independence of Scotland, and 
 Beaton was ruling Church and State. Though 
 Henry VIII. advised his nephew, the Scottish 
 king, to enrich himself by the demolition of 
 the monasteries, and afterwards gave the same 
 advice to the nobles and the prelates ; though 
 immorality among the clergy was exposed and 
 satirised by Dunbar, Lindsay, and Buchanan ; 
 though Patrick Hamilton and martyrs of less 
 renown had died, — Beaton delayed the Church's 
 doom till his own death had come. To the 
 Cardinal, however, the cause of the Church 
 never seemed the forlorn-hope of the Pope's 
 battle. Leaving France, where the authority 
 of Rome in things spiritual, if not in things 
 ecclesiastical, was supreme, he returned to Scot- 
 land, where the influence of the Church and 
 of churchmen was universal. Throughout his 
 career in Scotland that influence was assailed ; 
 but at no time in the course of his life w^ere 
 there signs of the sudden and crushing ruin 
 which at last overtook the Church. He 
 hoped that in Scotland, as well as in other 
 countries, the new faith would be stamped 
 out; and though he saw the spread of the 
 Lutheran doctrines, he did not cease to be- 
 lieve that the glory of the ancient Church 
 
10 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 would yet be restored. After his death, when 
 there was no one to check the lawless and 
 covetous nobles, the signs of the impending 
 downfall were manifest ; and though Beaton 
 could not foresee what was coming, and did not 
 despair for the ancient faith, the Eeformation 
 in Scotland was inevitable, and no man could 
 hinder its approach. For centuries the Church 
 was moving slowly towards the fall which 
 Beaton for a time impeded. 
 
 The reign of David I. marks the period of 
 greatest activity in the growth of the Catholic 
 Church in Scotland, and the paradox of evolu- 
 tion is shown in the fact that to that reign we 
 must look for the chief cause of the Church's 
 decline. In the ancient Scottish Church the 
 bishops were wandering a]DOstles. David, 
 though not the first to be a patron of Chris- 
 tianity, was the most liberal of monarchs 
 in founding bishoprics and endowing abbeys. 
 Kings, nobles, and saints followed him in 
 erecting religious houses, or in adding to 
 the endowment of existino; ones. Maonificent 
 cathedrals and splendid abbeys were built over 
 all the land, till no other country of Europe 
 was richer in those edifices. Donors, as if con- 
 tributing directly to the Lord, gave of their 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL REVENUES. 
 
 11 
 
 lands and wealth ; and the entrant about to 
 take the monastic vows was expected to lay 
 the price of his possessions at the feet of the 
 successors of the apostles. The doctrine of 
 purgatory was of inestimable financial value to 
 the Church, for no one could afford to die with- 
 out securing safety in the next world by the 
 sapng of masses in this ; and pious children, 
 remembering that their fathers had been sin- 
 ners, gave for masses for the dead the gold 
 which opened even the door of purgatory. 
 
 The saints to whom the various churches 
 were dedicated showed an avaricious fondness 
 for gifts before their intercession could be had 
 for the quick and the dead. Every saint had 
 his price. There was in Scotland no Louis 
 VII. with his matchless jewel for the shrine of 
 Becket ; but the popular saints brought wealth 
 to their altars, and thence to the treasuries of 
 their priests. 
 
 Friars wandered about sellino; indulg;ences, 
 charms, and holy relics, and one of these was 
 the poet Dunbar, who afterwards made merry 
 over the habits of his own order. Chaucer, 
 with his genial satire, described the pardoner 
 with his wallet full of pardons come from 
 Eome ; and Langiand, with more of scorn. 
 
12 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 pictured tlie pardoner cajoling tlie people to 
 buy liis wares. Everywhere in Europe, when 
 the zeal of the various monkish orders was 
 dead with their founders, the friars made them- 
 selves conspicuous by the violation of the vows 
 which they had taken. Dante sang the praise 
 of St Francis and his vow of poverty ; but 
 even Dante did not live too soon to bewail 
 and satirise the avarice and worldliness of the 
 followers of St Francis and St Dominic, and 
 even of the representatives of St Peter himself. 
 
 Through the Canon Law, which embraced all 
 things relating to " orphans, the wills of de- 
 functs, the matters of marriage and divorce," ^ 
 the wealth of the Church was increased. More- 
 over, as the priest was the notary of those 
 days, it is within the bounds of possibility 
 that unscrupulous means were sometimes used 
 through last wills and testaments to fill the 
 clerical treasury. 
 
 Neither the amount of the ecclesiastical 
 revenue nor the acreage of Church lands can 
 now be determined. The return to the Privy 
 Council immediately after the Eeformation was 
 not complete, and the value of what was paid 
 in kind cannot now be computed. In regard 
 
 ^ Stair's Institutes. 
 
BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF ENDOWMENTS. 13 
 
 to the land, however, it is not an extravagant 
 estimate that at least one-half of the whole area 
 of Scotland belonged to the Church. David 
 was a "sore saint" indeed for his successors; 
 and often donors to the Church laid up 
 treasures in heaven to the worldly loss of their 
 children, who had reason to grudge the ex- 
 cessive piety of their parents. 
 
 The aggrandisement of the Church was, 
 however, wholly beneficial in more than one 
 direction. 
 
 Keligion was widely distributed and secure- 
 ly established in the country ; and as the 
 clergy were also guardians of education, and 
 some of them engaged in the practice of law 
 and medicine, the endowment of the Church 
 was, for a time at least, an effective instrument 
 in religious and social progress. The clergy, 
 moreover, were the best agriculturists in the 
 land. 
 
 In a military nation, where, as in Scotland, 
 the spirit of nationality was roused only at the 
 threat of conquest by the foreigner, but where 
 clan was set against clan, it was fortunate for 
 the cause of civilisation that there was a land- 
 owning class, men of peace by profession, to in- 
 herit and cultivate the earth. In France, in 
 
14 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 the generation before the Revolution, the lands 
 of the religious houses were the best tilled in 
 the country ; even at so late a time, the clergy 
 of France thus preserved the ancient traditions 
 of their orders, and showed what the monks 
 had done for agriculture in the middle ages. 
 When, however, we assert that the wealth 
 of the Church drew the ablest men to her 
 offices, we conclude the number of the bene- 
 fits that flowed from the ecclesiastical endow- 
 ments. 
 
 David 1. and other patrons of piety, in gift- 
 ing great wealth to the Church, made that 
 wealth, in later days, the envied prey of greedy 
 nobles ; and as many of the benefices were of 
 high value, they became at all times objects 
 of ambition to many neither wise nor good. 
 While able men of lowly origin often attained 
 to high official position, and while from the 
 highest social ranks were drawn men like 
 Bishop Kennedy, who won golden opinions 
 for their splendid ability, the clerical offices 
 were but too frequently held by men more 
 fitted for Parliament or for the army than for 
 the priesthood. Buchanan, speaking of the 
 reign of James L, declares that the livings in 
 general either were bestowed upon the most 
 
ECCLESIASTICAL PATRONAGE. 15 
 
 worthless members of noble families who were 
 unfit for other employment, or were inter- 
 cepted by the fraud of the Eoman See ; while 
 Dunbar, in a poem to the king, complained — 
 
 " I knaw nocht how the Kirk is gydit, 
 Bot Benefices ar nocht leill devydit ; 
 Sum men hes sevin, and I nocht ane, 
 Qiihilk to considder is ane pane." 
 
 Sir David Lindsay, who hated the race of 
 clerics, found an occasion to satirise the 
 method of ecclesiastical patronage by asking 
 for himself the appointment of master -tailor 
 to the king. James was amazed at the re- 
 quest. Sir," said Lindsay, you have given 
 bishoprics and benefices to mony standing here 
 about you, and yet they can nouther teach nor 
 preach : and why may not I as weill be your 
 taylor, thocht I can nouther shape nor sew ? " ^ 
 
 The sovereigns held in their own hand the 
 nomination, under conditions, to vacant sees ; 
 the preferments were a splendid piece of pa- 
 tronage, and by Acts of Parliament in the days 
 of the Stuart kings, it was distinctly declared 
 that the nomination belonged to the king, and 
 "the provision of the same to the Pope." In 
 the see of St Andrews alone, from the year 1400 
 
 ^ living's Lives of the Scottish Poets. 
 
16 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 to the time of the Eeformation, there were at 
 least six bishops of royal pedigree ; Alexander 
 Stewart, upon whom Erasmus bestowed his 
 praise, the natural son of James IV., was Arch- 
 bishop of St Andrews when at the age of 
 twenty he fought and fell on the field of 
 Flodden. J ames V. in virtue of his prerogative 
 provided for his illegitimate sons, and for him- 
 self at the same time, by appointing them sev- 
 erally as abbots or priors of Holyrood, Kelso, 
 Melrose, Coldingham, and St Andrews.^ 
 
 There are several Acts of the Parliaments of 
 James III. and James IV. against trafficking 
 in Eome for Scottish benefices. Under one of 
 these Acts, Gavin Douglas was imprisoned by 
 his political enemies for a year, upon the charge 
 of having obtained a Bull from the Pope ap- 
 pointing him to the bishopric of Dunkeld. In 
 England under a similar statute of Richard II. 
 Cardinal "Wolsey was impeached. These Acts 
 are proof not of an attempted reform of pa- 
 tronage, but of the desire of the monarchs to 
 retain the patronage securely in their own 
 hands ; and they are proof also of the shame- 
 ful traffic in benefices which followed from the 
 opulence of the Scottish Church. 
 
 1 Balfour's Annals, 1537. Hamilton Papers, I. No. 272. 
 
TRAFFIC IX BENEFICES. 
 
 17 
 
 By an Act passed in the reign of James III., 
 to confirm one of the reign of Eobert the Bruce, 
 Englishmen were made ineligible for Scottish 
 benefices, though in earlier times no restriction 
 existed. English, Spanish, and Italian priests 
 had been appointed to high offices. But be- 
 fore the Bull which erected St Andrews into 
 a primate's see, the election of Englishmen — as 
 that of Eadmer, a monk of Canterbury — to the 
 bishopric of St Andrews, raised the question 
 of the ecclesiastical dependence of Scotland on 
 England. The Act which made an English- 
 man incapable of election, while it settled 
 this vexed question, increased the value of 
 the ecclesiastical monopoly, and made compe- 
 tition for the offices keener among the Scots. 
 The demand for appointments not only led to 
 the shameful traffic already noticed, but the 
 unsettled order of election produced riot and 
 anarchy, which debased the Church in the 
 estimation of a people who have always loved 
 at least the decencies of religion. After Flod- 
 den, when the see of St Andrews was vacant 
 by the death of the youthful archbishop, and 
 when the venerable Bishop Elphinstone, founder 
 of the University of Aberdeen, had refused the 
 nomination, a scene of lawless strife was enacted. 
 
 B 
 
18 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Andrew Forman, Bishop of Moray, was nom- 
 inated by the Pope ; John Hepburn, Prior of 
 St Andrews, by the Chapter ; and Gavin 
 Douglas, her husband's uncle, by the queen- 
 resfent. DouQ-las seized the castle, but was 
 ousted by the superior force of Hepburn. 
 Eventually Forman, through the help of his 
 purse, was installed, and Hepburn was bought 
 off. Douglas afterwards was not more fortu- 
 nate in obtaining a peaceable entrance into the 
 bishopric of Dunkeld. He was nominated by 
 the queen-regent ; but Andrew Stewart, brother 
 of the Earl of Athole, seized the castle, even 
 though the nomination by the regent had been 
 strengthened by a Bull from the Pope. AVhen 
 at last Douglas was consecrated, he could not 
 be enthroned; the cathedral and the palace 
 were both held in siege against the bishop's 
 supporters, and peace was eventually secured 
 only by purchasing Stewart's submission.^ 
 
 One other method of ecclesiastical traffic re- 
 corded by Buchanan may be cited in evidence 
 of the corruption of the Church. 
 
 Eobert Cairncross, an aspirant to a holy 
 office, in order to elude the law of Ambitus, 
 as Calderwood says, wagered a large sum of 
 
 ^ Maitland's History of Scotland, p. 762. 
 
TRAFFIC IN BENEFICES. 
 
 19 
 
 money, which he deposited in the king's hands, 
 that he, James V., would not present him with 
 the first vacant benefice. The king won the 
 wager by presenting him to the vacant abbey 
 of Holyrood.^ The story may wxll be believed, 
 since this method of purchasing a living was 
 not dead in the reign of George 11. , when a 
 bet to Lady Yarmouth of £5000 gained a 
 bishopric. Fisher, Bishop of Eochester, Henry's 
 martyr, is a notable exception among the traf- 
 fickers for livings who were native of every 
 country of Christendom. He was appointed 
 by Henry to the bishopric of Rochester, and 
 in it he continued till his death. He used to 
 say, so Burnet wrote, that his church was his 
 wife, and he would never part with her because 
 she was poor. 
 
 Major and Buchanan have each lamented 
 the w^ealth of the Church, though Spottiswood, 
 in a later time, has spoken a word in its favour. 
 Most of us, however, w^hile applauding the 
 spread and establishment of religion by the 
 bounty of pious donors, are likely to conclude 
 that it would have conduced to the peace of 
 the State, the purity of public patronage, the 
 welfare of true religion, and the stability of 
 
 ^ Bnclianairs History of Scotland, xiv. 35. 
 
20 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 the Church, if the apostolic succession had been 
 in the line of lowliness and poverty. 
 
 The wealth of the Church resulted not only 
 in the evils attendant upon the traffic in livings, 
 but also in the neglect of priestly work, and in 
 idleness and profligacy. In the Dance of the 
 Seven Deadly Sins" Profligacy, less politely 
 styled, is led in by Idleness. The pursuit of 
 learning and the practice of priestly duties 
 might have prevented these vices ; but learn- 
 ing and literature, till the century before the 
 Eeformation, were found only among the few. 
 From the twelfth century onwards certain 
 towns like Perth and Stirling possessed, apart 
 from the monastic seminaries, public schools 
 taught by the clergy. James L, with praise- 
 worthy zeal, tried to rouse the nation from its 
 ignorant slumbers, and founded schools, and 
 charged the clergy to see to their own educa- 
 tion. But till the foundation of the University 
 of St Andrews, scholars had to seek the higher 
 learning in other lands. Probably Balliol Col- 
 lege, Oxford, was intended for Scottish youths, 
 as was also the Scots College in Paris ; while 
 Cambrido'e and Boloo-na also drew students 
 
 o o 
 
 from Scotland. 
 
 Before the end of the fifteenth century, when 
 
IGXORAXCE OF THE PRIESTS. 
 
 21 
 
 the population could not liave numbered more 
 than a million, three universities existed in 
 Scotland ; and in a short time afterwards two 
 of them possessed incorporated colleges. These 
 universities and colleges were founded by the 
 clergy, against whom our modern historians so 
 often inveigh with unbridled licence. The uni- 
 versities flourished, especially the two northern 
 ones ; but it does not appear that the youths 
 intended for the priesthood were, as a rule, 
 encourao'ed to seek the universities, althouo^h 
 the classes \vere taught by clerics, and the uni- 
 versities w^ere superintended by high ecclesi- 
 astical dignitaries. The fact that the clerical 
 students, as a rule, did not proceed to the uni- 
 versities, may account for the ignorance charged 
 against the clergy of a country wdiere there was 
 no lack of universities. It will be found that 
 men, afterwards of eminence, like Dunbar, who 
 was a Franciscan, and David Beaton, w^ho rose 
 to the rank of cardinal, w^ere originally students 
 of one or other of the universities ; but the 
 ignorance of the Catholic clergy in the century 
 of the Eeformation cannot be explained if 
 university attendance were recjuired of clerical 
 students. 
 
 In a letter by Alexander Myln, Abbot of 
 
22 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Cambuskenneth, light is shed on this subject, 
 and yet the writer was not a favourer of the 
 Eeformed doctrines. The letter belongs to the 
 year 1522, and in it Myln says to the Abbot 
 of St Victor, near Paris, "We stand in need of 
 nothing so much as of an accession of learned 
 men. Although in former times men of learn- 
 ing abounded in our monastery, yet at present 
 they are almost extinct, nor will their place 
 be speedily supplied unless we send a certain 
 number of our most promising novices to the 
 universities, where there is a greater frequency 
 of literary exercises. But we do not hold it 
 expedient for them to engage in secular studies, 
 and we therefore solicit that they should be 
 educated in your college. . . ."^ This letter 
 helps to account for the ignorance of the 
 clergy, though no greater historical blunder 
 could be made than a sweeping charge of 
 ignorance against the Church which produced 
 chroniclers like Fordun, Bower, and Wyntoun ; 
 scholars like Boece and Lesley ; poets like 
 Barbour, Dunbar, and Douglas ; ecclesiastics 
 like Kennedy and Elphinstone. None the less, 
 the scholarship and excellence of some of the 
 higher clergy could not prevent the decline 
 
 1 Irving's Lives, Introduction. 
 
IGNORANCE OF THE PRIESTS. 
 
 23 
 
 and hinder the final ruin of a Church whose 
 priests were destitute as a class of higher learn- 
 ing, and had at best such scholarship as that 
 displayed in the monkish legends and tales. 
 The foundation of the universities was beyond 
 doubt one of the chief causes of the Reforma- 
 tion ; and yet these universities were founded 
 and patronised by dignitaries of an institution 
 which claimed spiritual authority over the indi- 
 vidual conscience. Beaton himself, while try- 
 ing to stem the rising tide of the Reformation, 
 was patron of learning at St Andrews.^ By 
 the irony of fate, lovers of learning became the 
 unconscious destroyers of an institution they 
 loved with a stronger passion. Yet in the 
 light spread from the universities there could 
 not stand clerics like the bishop who claimed 
 that he had " come on indifferently well " 
 though he knew " neither the Old or New 
 Testament." 
 
 In England in the fourteenth century Lang- 
 land had written his " Vision " ; and though 
 Scotland had no poet of that period to lament 
 the decay of religion, yet what Langland wrote 
 of England was equally true of Scotland. 
 
 1 The revenues of St Mary's College were augmented by him, 
 and he was Chancellor of the University. 
 
24 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 Wiclif perhaps was the original of Chaucer's 
 " pore persoun," but among the clergy of the 
 Pre-Reformation Church it is to be feared that 
 we must look in vain for the good priest. The 
 silence of Scottish history regarding such a 
 priest is not a proof that he never existed ; 
 but if we take the parson of Chaucer's art as 
 an ideal, we find none like him in recorded 
 history. Bishop Lesley, himself an able and 
 worthy prelate of the Eoman Church, admits 
 that no pains were taken to instruct the people 
 in religion. Strange to relate in the history 
 of a Church, in the indictment against Graham, 
 first Archbishop of St Andrews, one of the 
 charges was that he said three masses in the 
 day ; ^ and this triple sign of piety rose up in 
 judgment against him.^ 
 
 The secular or parochial priest seldom 
 preached save at holiday times. At Lent 
 especially, the preaching friars practised their 
 art to rouse the people to zeal for some one 
 or other of the distinctively Catholic virtues, 
 such as confession or fasting. The character 
 of dumb dogs, which Knox delights to ascribe 
 
 1 Spottiswood, p. 59. 
 
 2 Contrast Spottiswood's account of the indictment of Graham 
 with that given in Gordon's Monasticon. 
 
IDLENESS OF THE PRIESTS. 
 
 25 
 
 to the Catholic bishops, may well be ajDplied to 
 the whole clergy of Scotland before the Eefor- 
 mation. To ascribe this character to them 
 would not, however, be justifiable merely be- 
 cause the Keformers delivered sermons inordi- 
 nately long ; but is justifiable because in the 
 early Christian Church, and for many centuries 
 in its history, the custom was to deliver ser- 
 mons, and this custom was largely neglected 
 in Scotland. 
 
 The quality of the sermons actually preached 
 may be judged of in the light of Bonner's in- 
 struction to his clergy, "that there should be 
 no sermons preached that had been made 
 within these two hundred or three hundred 
 years'';^ and we have no reason to think that 
 the English priest was inferior to the Scottish. 
 Barlow, afterwards Bishop of St Asaph, wrote 
 to Cromwell in 1535 from Berwick, "For not- 
 withstanding her be plentie of prestes, sondry 
 sortes of religions, multytudes of monkes, flock- 
 ing companys of freers, yet among them all so 
 many, is ther not a fewe, noo not one, that 
 sincerly preachithe Christ." ^ 
 
 In 1543, Arran, the governor, described the 
 
 1 Burnet's Hist, of the Reformation, i. iii. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 19. 
 
26 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 clerofv as having " bene sa consuetit in tymis 
 bypast continuallye efter tliair awin lustis and 
 fleshly desyris that thai nevir exertit thaim to 
 knaw the Word of God." ^ Arran, therefore, in 
 order to instruct the people, and to make them 
 understand the abuses of the Church, caused 
 certain friars learned in the Scriptures to 
 preach. 
 
 Among the causes of the decline of the 
 Church, there is notably the immorality of 
 the clergy. No one with the respect due 
 to historic truth, or even to common -sense, 
 would accept as strict veracities either the 
 satires of poets anxious for artistic effect, or 
 the descriptions of men or institutions made 
 by their enemies. Wolsey's moral reputation 
 is not to be sullied only because Shakspere 
 makes the of Surrey merry over the 
 
 Cardinal and "the brown wench." Luther's 
 purity was assailed ; his enemies could not 
 afford to let him go free. Knox was, of 
 course, defamed : he was guilty, in the imagi- 
 nation of his enemies, not only of the love 
 which is illicit, but also of nightly communi- 
 cation with a visitor too black to be human. 
 Protestants, therefore, to whom the reputation 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 303. 
 
IMMORALITY OF THE PRIESTS. 
 
 27 
 
 of the Eeformers is clear, may perhaps, in 
 view of the slanders against their own heroes, 
 allow for a percentage, to be fixed by their 
 judgment and their charity, of exaggeration 
 in the accounts of the immorality of notable 
 Catholic prelates, and of the licentious habits 
 of the whole clergy before the Reformation. 
 Nevertheless, though charity thinketh no evil 
 unless under irresistible conviction, the vice 
 among the clergy of the Church before the 
 Reformation is too glaring to be overlooked ; 
 and is proved, though its extent is not deter- 
 mined, by such documents as Cardinal Mor- 
 ton's letter to the Abbot of St Albans.^ If 
 Chaucer and Dunbar, to take certain of our own 
 poets, could with impunity make clerics the 
 heroes of tales written for the entertainment 
 of the people, it may be taken as certain that 
 the people, who did not resent the character 
 given to the clergy of their Church, were 
 familiar with the facts w^oven into the poet's 
 art. 
 
 In England, Langiand, who prophesied that 
 a king would come to beat the clergy for 
 breaking of their rule, but who never, even 
 
 1 Vide Fronde's History, and also his Sliort Studies. Conf. 
 Registr. Episcop. Aberdon. (Maitland Club), Preface. 
 
28 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 in dream, constructed a Eeformed Church free 
 from the domination of Eome, jDictured the 
 religious debasement of his country, and attrib- 
 uted it to the negligence of a worldly and 
 licentious priesthood. Sir Thomas More, advo- 
 cate of tolerance in his ' Utopia,' persecutor of 
 the Protestants in London, opposed the with- 
 drawal of England from allegiance to the Pope, 
 but advocated the reform of the morals of the 
 clergy ; though in his reply to the once famous 
 ' Supplication of the Beggars,' he defended the 
 institution of the religious orders. 
 
 Erasmus, illustrious in his day in the whole 
 world of letters, poured contempt and scorn 
 on the race of monks, as he likened them 
 to beetles ; and even Eabelais, whose humour 
 was not that for a Keformer, ground the monk 
 through the mill of his satire. Probably the 
 levellers of the Scottish relig-ious houses did 
 not know even the names of Langiand, More, 
 or Erasmus ; but undoubtedly Patrick Hamil- 
 ton, Wishart, Knox, and the other spiritual 
 instruments of the Eeformation, were alive to 
 the influences which were moving in the world 
 of letters. 
 
 In Scotland itself, Dunbar, though not in- 
 spired by the zeal of a Eeformer, had prepared 
 
THE RENASCENCE AND THE REFOEMATION. 29 
 
 the way in literature for Buchanan and Sir 
 David Lindsay. Buchanan, ardent lover of 
 liberty, and therefore keen Eeformer and 
 staunch republican, made by his Latin poem 
 the name of Franciscan detestable, a name 
 once honoured in the Christian Church ; and 
 if that poem was unintelligible to the people, 
 its fame, and the flight of the poet consequent 
 on its being written, drew the eyes of the 
 people to the vices he had scourged. Lindsay, 
 a violent hater of the clergy, used his poetical 
 power to destroy their influence and lower still 
 further their reputation. 
 
 Thus in the age before the Eeformation the 
 forces of literature were arrayed against the 
 Church ; and those forces, though not directly 
 touching the people, moved men fitted by learn- 
 ing and spiritual power to be leaders. On the 
 side of the Church there was no man of letters 
 to be its advocate ; though in the fifteenth 
 century, Pecock, Bishop of Chichester, made 
 a futile attempt by his ' Eepressor ' to jus- 
 tify certain practices which the Lollards con- 
 demned.^ 
 
 In the enumeration of the causes of the de- 
 
 1 Quentin Kennedy and Xinian Winzet belonged to the age 
 of Knox. 
 
30 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 cline of the Church, mention is to be made of 
 the jealousy of the nobles against the prelates, 
 who were almost the only men with education 
 and learning adequate to the discharge of the 
 duties of the high offices of the State. The 
 prelates, consequently, who filled these offices, 
 were brought into a close connection with 
 the sovereigns ; and the nobles, especially in 
 the time of James V., ranged themselves as 
 enemies to the churchmen, who filled the 
 offices, guided the councils, enjoyed the wealth, 
 but did not perform the military service, of the 
 State. 
 
 To increase the jealousy of the nobles, 
 members of the clerical orders were exempt 
 from ordinary taxation, and were freed from 
 subjection to the secular law of the land. 
 First of the laws attributed by one of the Scot- 
 tish chroniclers to Macbeth, is that in favour 
 of the clergy : " He that is within orders of 
 the Church shall not be compelled to answere 
 before a temporall judge, but be remitted to 
 his ordinaire."^ 
 
 If to this jealousy be added a thieving rapa- 
 city, the force of English example, and the 
 temptation to plunder inspired by the English 
 
 1 Boece. 
 
THE NATIONAL PARTY AND THE CHURCH. 31 
 
 king, there will be found tlie motives which 
 prompted the Scottish nobles, for the most 
 part, to sanction the destruction of the reli- 
 gious houses, and to array themselves on the 
 side of a reformed religion. To one man 
 the ancient Scottish Church, an anachronism 
 and an anomaly in days after Luther had 
 sounded the note of religious revolution in 
 Europe, owed its preservation throughout the 
 period of Henry VIII.'s Scottish policy. 
 
 Beaton, who by his political genius towered 
 above all his contemporaries, kept back for a 
 generation the weak and corru23ted Church 
 from destruction ; but his success in main- 
 taining the Church was due neither to high 
 personal worth, nor to the effective policy of 
 persecution which he adopted, but to the 
 fact that he was head of the national party 
 which opposed Henry Yin. and his intrigues 
 against Scottish independence. As head of 
 the national party, he gathered around him 
 men zealous for the safety of the ancient 
 Church, and men alarmed for the welfare and 
 independence of the country, and with this 
 party he opposed with consummate skill and 
 success the intrigues and policies of the English 
 king. In saving the political liberties of his 
 
32 DECLINE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 
 
 country, Beaton saved for a time — although, as 
 it turned out, only for a short time — the ancient 
 Church, which was menaced by the man who, 
 while he posed as the patron of the reformation 
 of religion, was the arch-enemy of the freedom 
 and independence of Scotland. But for Henry 
 YIII. the Scottish Eeformation might have 
 been accomplished before the age of Knox, 
 even though Beaton with legatine powers was 
 reigning as head of the ancient Church. 
 
33 
 
 CHAPTEE 11. 
 
 THE OLD ALLIA^'CE AXD THE OLD EXMITY. 
 
 Throughout the period of Beaton's pre- 
 eminence in ecclesiastical and political affairs 
 which followed upon the death of James IV., 
 Scotland was divided into a French and an 
 English faction. France, with a view to her 
 own interests elsewhere, was concerned to save 
 Scotland from the English grasp, and had not 
 only traditions of an old alliance, but the 
 records of many treaties with Scotland, to go 
 upon as a ground of intervention and of 
 intrigue to this end. England's policy was 
 governed by the avowed desire of a friendly 
 union of the countries and by the actual lust 
 of supremacy. 
 
 The history of the alliance between Scotland 
 and France has won for M. Michel especially a 
 high reputation for industrious research among 
 
 c 
 
34 TBE OLD ALLIANCE AXD THE OLD ENMITY. 
 
 the " mouldy records " of treaties ; while the 
 history of the enmity between Scotland and 
 England has called into the field of controversy 
 a host of writers, energetic beyond doubt, but 
 weighted, on this side as on that, with the bur- 
 den of a national prejudice. Neither Scots- 
 man nor Enoiishman can eno^asre in this con- 
 troversy without a bias for his country ; but 
 the foreigner will probably, like Dante, censure 
 
 " The thirsting pride, that niaketh fool alike 
 The English and the Scot, impatient of their bound." 
 
 Where documents are few and judgment is 
 warped by patriotism, historic certainty is hard 
 to reach. Yet there are indisputable facts of 
 the Scottish alliance with France, and of the 
 enmity to England, which help to make in- 
 telligible Scotland's political history of the 
 sixteenth century, and particularly of that 
 period during which Beaton's influence was 
 paramount. 
 
 The old Scottish historians, from Fordun to 
 Buchanan, tell of a league negotiated in the 
 year 790 between Charlemagne and Achaius, 
 King of Scotland. We read that the league 
 was entered into for the purpose of helping 
 Charlemagne in his wars with the Saxons who 
 inhabited Germany, and with those who, settled 
 
CHARLEMAGXE AXD ACHAIUS. 
 
 35 
 
 in England, sailed thence as pirates to the 
 coasts of Gaul. Further, we gather that the 
 leao^ue was intended to secure for France a 
 supply of learned Scots to act as professors in 
 the College of Paris. Boece details the number 
 of fighting men supplied to the French king; 
 but Boece competes with Dempster for the 
 position among Scottish historians of the father 
 of lies. One writer has given the terms of the 
 alliance ; but he has invented them.^ As we 
 look at the figures of Charlemagne and Achaius 
 on the canvas of EurojDean history, we are not 
 inclined, without the strongest evidence, to 
 believe that the French kino^ had dealings with 
 the king of the Scots. Such evidence as we have 
 is derived from Eginhart,^ the biographer and 
 alleged son-in-law of Charlemagne, who afiirms 
 that the munificence of Charlemagne had the 
 effect of making the kings of the Scots declare 
 themselves the subjects and servants of France. 
 Eginhart may be supposed to be an authority 
 on this point ; and if we cast aside the suspicion 
 that his imagination chose Scotland as the 
 western limit of the area of Charlemagne's 
 treaties, which stretched eastward to the Persia 
 of Haroun al Kaschid, we may admit that in the 
 
 1 Vide Maitland, p. 291. 2 yita Car. Mag. 
 
36 THE OLD ALLIANCE AXD THE OLD EXMITY. 
 
 eighth century a connection of some now inde- 
 finable kind existed between Charlemagne and 
 Achaius. It is of little historic moment, how- 
 ever, whether there was such a connection or 
 not ; seeing that if a league once existed, it 
 did not endure as a political force affecting the 
 progress either of France or Scotland. That 
 which is of historic value is the fact that the 
 tradition or legend of that connection has sat- 
 isfied the pride of Scottish writers, who have 
 rejoiced to point to one of their kings as worthy 
 to enter into a treaty with Charlemagne, the 
 hero of history and romance.^ 
 
 In France, Mezeray has naturalised the story 
 as found in Boece ; and in many public docu- 
 ments of that country the old alliance is men- 
 tioned. In the contract of marriage between 
 Francis and Mary, it was expressly stated that 
 the friendship between the two kingdoms ex- 
 tended backward to the days of Charlemagne. ^ 
 Whatever may have been the origin of this 
 alliance, the friendship between the two coun- 
 tries was strengthened in later times by the 
 cherished sentiment that it was of long endur- 
 
 1 See the account of the alliance given in Hume's ' House of 
 Douglas/ p. 5. 
 
 2 Michel, Les Ecossais en France, ch. i. 
 
EARLY TREATIES. 
 
 37 
 
 ance ; and this sentiment, moreover, helped to 
 give stability to treaties which were matters of 
 authentic history. 
 
 M. Michel speaks of several treaties of the 
 twelfth and thirteenth centuries made between 
 the kings of the two countries. In 1303, in 
 a treaty between France and England, specific 
 reference is made to the Scots as allies of the 
 French ; and from among the traditions and 
 fictions which serve as the history of Wallace 
 this fact has been recovered, that the Scottish 
 hero had agents, and that he himself found 
 refuge and help at the Court of Philip.^ Eymer 
 has preserved a treaty of the year 1326, which 
 is valuable because it is the oldest on record of 
 those entered into between France and Scotland, 
 and also because it afi*ords evidence that the 
 two countries were then allied against England. 
 In none, however, of the battles fought between 
 Scotland and England, during the long feud 
 which followed Bannockburn, did France join 
 her arms to those of Scotland. But on her 
 part, Scotland satisfied her natural hatred by 
 making inroads on England's territory when 
 the English armies were in France, or found 
 
 1 Palgrave, Documents and Records illustrating the History 
 of Scotland. 
 
38 THE OLD ALLIANCE AND THE OLD ENMITY. 
 
 the delight of vengeance in sending soldiers to 
 join the enemies of England. Though they 
 suflfered disaster and rout at Flodden and 
 Solway, the Scots helped to drive the English 
 out of France. 
 
 Portia's keen wit in the ' Merchant of 
 Venice ' describes the Scottish lord ; and the 
 picture is true to the life : " He borrowed a 
 box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore 
 he would pay him when he was able." " I 
 think," says Portia, " the Frenchman became 
 his surety, and sealed imder for another." 
 There can be no doubt of the readiness of the 
 Scot to pay his debt when he was able. 
 
 In 1513, when Henry VIII. and Louis XXL 
 were menacing each other, Scotland tried for 
 her own sake, and for the sake of France, to 
 gain the victory which might have been won 
 at Flodden ; but though France alone reaped 
 the benefit from Flodden, through the weaken- 
 ing of Henry's forces, the friendship of the 
 ancient allies was not impaired. At the end 
 of the year 1524, when Beaton returned to his 
 own country after six years' residence at the 
 Court of Francis, Scotland was recovering from 
 the shock of the great national disaster. Mar- 
 garet Tudor had not been able, by persuasion 
 
Beaton's attachment to feance. 39 
 
 or kindly fraud, to prevent her husband from 
 declaring war on her brother ; ^ now, however, 
 it was possible that Henry and his nephew 
 James V., influenced by the feeling of kin- 
 ship, might cement a peace, and put an end 
 to the ancient alliance of Scotland and France. 
 Such a peace was probable ; but one cause 
 which frustrated its accomplishment is found 
 in the fact that the man who, during the 
 second quarter of the sixteenth century, guid- 
 ed the policies of Scotland, had been resident 
 in the French Court, where friendship for 
 Scotland was genuine if not disinterested, and 
 where enmity to England was unquestionably 
 sincere. 
 
 Beaton entered upon his political work at 
 home with sentiments of attachment to France, 
 which had been the place of his education and 
 the scene of his opening political career, and 
 with feelings, to be strengthened by the gift 
 of honours, in favour of the continuance of the 
 ancient league. The hatred of the Scots against 
 England was, according to Buchanan, fostered 
 by prelates and priests in receipt of gold from 
 France ; but the Scot needed no priest to 
 nourish his enmity against the Englishman. 
 
 1 Compare the scene in Scott's ' Marmion.' 
 
40 THE OLD ALLIANCE AXD THE OLD EXMITY. 
 
 On the other hand, English Treasury Accounts 
 show that the Scottish nobles who, in the time 
 of Henry YIIL, favoured an English alliance, 
 were pensioners of the English king. Friend- 
 ship with France and enmity to England were 
 feelings common to all patriotic Scotsmen for 
 generations before the Eeformation ; and those 
 who cherished these feeling's while working; for 
 their country's independence, are entitled to the 
 praise or blame which is due to Nationalists. 
 The memory of Beaton as a churchman has 
 been held in bitter detestation, but as a poli- 
 tician he saved his country from falling under 
 subjection to Henry ; and though Henry now 
 offered bribes, and now threatened his liberty 
 and even his life, Beaton kept loyal to the 
 national sentiment and true to the national 
 policy of Scotland. 
 
 Henry Vni. succeeded to the throne youug, 
 ambitious, and impressed with an idea of his 
 own g:enius. On the Continent there was still 
 an arena for English armies ; but for a final 
 conquest and annexation of Scotland, armies 
 were of no avail. Those armies might win 
 battles and devastate a country never opulent ; 
 but the country which could support its own 
 inhabitants would not even during one cam- 
 
SCOTTISH POLICY OF HEXRY VIII. 41 
 
 paign support the soldiers of England. More- 
 over, the Scots had excellent powers of self- 
 recovery after defeat, and were soon read}' 
 ao^ain to harass their Enoiish foes. Henrv 
 knew that he mio;ht agjain and aoain defeat 
 the Scots, but knew also that he could not 
 subdue for ever, even by a succession of vic- 
 tories, the stubborn country which had Ban- 
 nockburn for a heritao'e. His soldiers on more 
 than one memorable occasion did find their 
 way to Scotland ; but Henry was anxious to 
 establish England's overlordship by diplomacy 
 and intrigue, rather than by war. The settle- 
 ment of the Scottish question, which had been 
 the dream of former kings, would be a triumph 
 for his genius, and would free him from a dan- 
 gerous auxiliary of France. Later in his reign 
 this settlement became of pressing importance 
 to him when, having failed to gain the election 
 to the Empire, he turned his thoughts to the 
 throne of France, and coveted a possession 
 which the Enoiish kinQ;s had won and lost. 
 Scotland and Engrland were to be united in 
 some way which would mean supremacy to 
 England, and peace to her on her borders. 
 This was Henry's policy, but it was by no 
 means new. 
 
42 THE OLD ALLIANCE AXD THE OLD ENMITY. 
 
 Modern historians, who have an eye to Eng- 
 land's glory, endeavour to prove the ancient 
 submission to England of a Scotland which, 
 geographically, did not exist in the days when 
 certain kino-s are said to have given the tokens 
 of this submission. Could it be shown that, in 
 ages represented in legend and fiction and fact, 
 kings in Scotland occasionally did homage to 
 their more powerful English neighbours, there 
 would still be wanting proof that Scotland, 
 as now existino' ever rendered such homasfe. 
 From the time when Picts and Scots are said 
 to have been united, till the time of James 
 there is no sign to be found of a popular acqui- 
 escence in the English assertion of overlordship. 
 Such an acquiescence could neither be made 
 nor refused in the same fashion as it mig;ht be 
 made or refused in the days of elected Parlia- 
 ments ; but although individual kings sub- 
 mitted themselves to the mastery of English 
 sovereigns, the submission could not, and did 
 not, bind the people of a country broken up 
 into so many almost separate sections by clan- 
 ship and by feudal distinctions. Nevertheless, 
 to coerce Scotland into submission, to force it 
 to acknowledge the English supremacy, was 
 once the fondest hope of the kings of England ; 
 
WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 43 
 
 and when Henry VIII. inherited the throne, he 
 inherited this hope. 
 
 William the Lion, prisoner in the hands of 
 Henry 11. , by the treaty of Falaise bartered 
 his country's independence for his own liberty. 
 Eichard I. sold back to the Scots their inde- 
 pendence for the price of ten thousand merks ; 
 but he stipulated that the Scottish kings should 
 annually, if demanded, do homage in England 
 for the lands which, as nobles, they held in that 
 country. Edward I., by force and fraud, tak- 
 ing advantage of this arrangement as if it were 
 the sign of Scotland's dependence, made him- 
 self overlord in the dispute for the Scottish 
 crown, and gave that crown to one of the 
 claimants for a price which has made the name 
 of Baliol detested in Scotland. Wallace roused 
 the spirit of patriotism among his countrymen, 
 though there was no throne as a reward for his 
 heroism. Bruce completed the work which 
 Wallace had begun, and found for himself a 
 kingdom. Bannockburn at last settled the 
 question of Scottish freedom, even though 
 Bruce's own son and the younger Baliol traf- 
 ficked with the independence of a country 
 which, kings though they were, was not in 
 their keeping. 
 
44 THE OLD ALLIANCE AND THE OLD ENMITY. 
 
 The civil wars of England doubtless pre- 
 vented the strono'er nation from crushing; or 
 exterminating; the weaker, which would not 
 submit. Henry VII., after the wars which 
 carried him to the throne, found himself and 
 his people desirous of peace, and was glad to 
 enter into a treaty with James III. 
 
 By the marriage of James IV. to the daugh- 
 ter of Henry, the " Thrisil and the Eois" of 
 Dunbar, the two countries were ultimately 
 united ; but though a perpetual peace was 
 signed, the old hatred continued, and with 
 tragic consec|uences. Flodden, in spite of this 
 peace, was to be fought ; and the Scottish 
 people of to-day, proud of their history and 
 proud of their songs, are no less touched by 
 the pathos of the " Flowers of the Forest " than 
 stirred by the trumpet - blast of " Scots wha 
 hae." The pretext for James's declaration of 
 war was threefold : Henry VIIL's delay in giv- 
 ing up his sister's jewels, his negligence in 
 aveng;ino: the death of Sir Eobert Ker, and his 
 refusal to give satisfaction for the murder of 
 Andrew Barton. These were slight causes to 
 bring about a war between two nations, but 
 the temper of James was easily roused against 
 a people which it was his prerogative as a Scot- 
 
FLODDEN. 
 
 45 
 
 tisli sovereign to hate : nor was he unwilling to 
 respond to the demand of France, for the sake 
 of the old alliance, to make war on England ; 
 nor slow to listen to the chivalric call of the 
 French queen, who named him her own knight 
 in the quarrel.^ Flodden, which might have 
 been another Bannockburn, brought death to 
 James, who deserved defeat for first dallying 
 with " the evil woman " at Ford, and for there- 
 after taking to the field of battle the etiquette 
 of a tournament or a duel ; but it also brought 
 disaster on an army composed of the most illus- 
 trious of the land, too loyal to disobey their 
 king, and too brave to abandon him. 
 
 James in his will had nominated the queen 
 as regent in case of his death ; and though this 
 was the first occasion on which a woman had 
 been named to this ofiice, the disaster of 
 Flodden left few powerful or distinguished 
 enough to dispute her title. At the meeting 
 of Parliament in October of the year of Flodden 
 arrangements were made for the coronation of 
 the young king, and Margaret was recognised 
 as regent. In November a French knight. La 
 Bastie, among others, arrived with letters of 
 credence from Louis XIL, and from the Duke 
 
 1 Compare 'Marmion.' 
 
46 THE OLD ALLIANCE AND THE OLD ENMITY. 
 
 of Albany, who was now looked upon by many 
 of the Scots as the person to fill the regency. 
 Holinshed declares that a dispute took place 
 among the Scots over the question of the vacan- 
 cies caused by Flodden, and that some of the 
 discontented Scots wrote secretly to Albany, 
 asking him to take the government of their 
 country. In the spring of the following year 
 the queen bore a posthumous child, created by 
 Parliament Duke of Eoss. The Parliament 
 which met in July continued Margaret in the 
 regency; but nominated also, as a council to 
 assist her, Archbishop James Beaton and the 
 Lords Hantly, Angus, and Arran.^ Albany 
 doubtless agreed to this arrangement, as he 
 himself was not in a position to proceed to 
 Scotland on account of the French king's nego- 
 tiations with Henry. Louis was anxious for 
 peace with England, and Albany's regency, sup- 
 planting that of the king's sister, w^ould have 
 endangered the peace. 
 
 By the will of James, Margaret had been 
 named regent only for so long as she remained 
 a widow. She preferred a husband to the 
 regency ; and, while hardly recovered from her 
 sickness, married Archibald Douglas, Earl of 
 
 1 Letter of Margaret to Dacre, quoted by Pinkerton, ii. 120. 
 
REGENCY OF ALBANY. 
 
 47 
 
 Angus. Immediately the country was divided 
 into two parties, the one desirous of continuing 
 the queen as regent and of establishing friend- 
 ship with England, the other bent on main- 
 taining the independence of the country and 
 on inviting Albany from France. The anti- 
 English party was victorious in Parliament, 
 and the Duke of Albany, nephew of James 
 III., French in all but descent and name, was 
 brought from France and installed as regent, 
 May 1515. 
 
 Before Albany's arrival Henry had been busy 
 in Scottish affairs, endeavouring by allurements 
 and bribes to establish his own supremacy. 
 Margaret had been importuned to carry her 
 son to England, and had been tempted by 
 Henry's promise that he would declare his 
 nephew heir - apparent to the English throne. 
 Her husband's uncle, Gavin Douglas, had been 
 offered on behalf of England honour upon 
 honour, as the price of his aiding her flight. 
 But Douglas had seen the danger attending 
 Henry's proposals, and had refused to counte- 
 nance them. Mar2:aret could not flee to Eno^land 
 like a peasant with her children, and so their 
 scheme had failed.^ On the other hand, through 
 
 ^ Correspondence quoted by Pinkerton, ii. 129. 
 
48 THE OLD ALLIANCE AND THE OLD EXMITY. 
 
 Lord Dacre, warden of the English Borders, 
 Henry had attempted all that could be at- 
 tempted by bribery, and had been so success- 
 ful that Dacre had four hundred Scots in his 
 pay, ready to disturb the government about to 
 be set up.^ Thus Albany arrived to find a 
 divided nation, though the party opj^osed to 
 the English interest was the stronger of the 
 two. 
 
 Outwardly there were friendly relations be- 
 tween Scotland and Enoiand. Louis XIT. had 
 made peace with Henry VII L, and this peace 
 was confirmed by Francis 1. on his accession. 
 Scotland was specially named as a party in this 
 treaty, though not till shortly before Albany's 
 arrival was the assent of Scotland given. Al- 
 bany, however, without intending to do so, 
 played Henry's game when he mixed tyranny 
 and revenge with his government of the Scots. 
 Angus, Arran, Home, Lennox, Glencairn, were 
 driven to espouse the English cause, and Mar- 
 garet herself was fain to flee for protection to 
 her brother. Henry, anxious that his armies 
 might be free to carry out his Continental 
 policies, urged again and again that a direct 
 treaty of peace should be made between the 
 
 ^ Letter of Dacre to Wolsey ; vide Ellis's Letters, fii^st series. 
 
ALBANY AXD WOLSEY. 
 
 49 
 
 two countries. At last, in June 1516, a brief 
 peace was concluded ; and on the day on which 
 this truce was arranged, Henry sent to the 
 Scottish Estates a letter in which he demanded 
 the dismissal of the reg-ent.^ To this demand 
 the Estates would not yield ; but Albany, un- 
 certain of his position, entered into negotiations 
 with Wolsey, and promised to place the young 
 king under the protection of the three Estates, 
 to consent on his own behalf to a perpetual 
 peace, and, at some future time, to visit Eng- 
 land in order to confer with Henry. Secretly 
 he entered into these negotiations, but publicly 
 he sent to France to demand material help for 
 his government, or, failing this help, permission 
 to enable him to return to France. This help 
 was refused, as, indeed, France was in no posi- 
 tion to grant it. After various stratagems had 
 been resorted to, Margaret was invited back to 
 Scotland, that she might take charge of the 
 young king ; a council of regency was formed, 
 which consisted of Forman, Archbishop of St 
 Andrews, James Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow 
 and Chancellor of the kingdom, and the Earls 
 of Angus, Argyle, Arran, Huntly. The council 
 was divided between the French and English 
 
 ^ See the answer of the Scottish Parliament. Rymer, xiii. 
 D 
 
50 THE OLD ALLIANCE AND THE OLD ENMITY. 
 
 interests ; and leave of absence having been 
 granted to him, the regent set sail for France, 
 June 1517. These arrangements were, of 
 course, within the knowledge of Henry, and 
 it was further tacitly understood that dur- 
 ing the regent's absence neither France nor 
 England should directly interfere in Scottish 
 affairs. For this tacit understanding there 
 was some surety in the mixed character of 
 the council. 
 
 In those days the political combinations of 
 Europe were never constant. Henry having 
 failed to secure for himself the election to the 
 Imperial throne, turned again to the thought 
 of recovering his French inheritance. Yielding 
 to the persuasive words of his nephew Charles, 
 who had been elected emperor, Henry trans- 
 ferred to him his alliance, so that each, doubly 
 armed, might be able to fight his own battle. 
 Francis, with the help of Wolsey, sought in 
 vain to prevent this alliance; and though the 
 political masquerade of the Field of the Cloth 
 of Gold was acted, Francis was soon as anxious 
 to set Scotland against her ancient enemy as, 
 in the beginning of his reign, he had been at 
 pains to maintain peace between them. 
 
 Margaret, meanwhile, was chafing under the 
 
ALBANY AND MARGARET. 
 
 51 
 
 neglect of Henry and Wolsey. Henry had no 
 money to spend on his sister, and Wolsey was 
 husbanding his resources in order to pave a 
 golden way to the Popedom. But Margaret 
 wanted money more than the accomplishment 
 of her brother's political schemes, and therefore 
 she looked to France in her necessity. From 
 her husband Angus, the leader of the English 
 faction in Scottish affairs, she was now separ- 
 ated by the bitterest feelings of hatred ; and so, 
 angry with her brother, and hating her hus- 
 band, she proposed that Albany should return 
 to share with her the government of the coun- 
 try. Henry's alliance with the Emperor, and 
 their hostilities against France, made this pro- 
 posal acceptable to Francis ; and accordingly, 
 in November 1521, Albany landed in Scotland, 
 where the French influence was once more 
 dominant. 
 
 When this dual control, as the government 
 carried on by Albany and Margaret may be 
 called, was established, an attempt was made 
 to crush the power of the Douglases. Angus 
 was banished, and through the influence of 
 Albany, Gavin Douglas was called to Kome.^ 
 In the year following the return of Albany, 
 
 1 Buchanan, xiv, 13. 
 
52 THE OLD ALLIANCE AXD THE OLD EXMITY. 
 
 the Parliament decided to prepare for war with 
 Henry, who was far from ready to meet the 
 Scots. A magnificent army was collected ; and 
 though it is said to have numbered eighty 
 thousand men, the regent disbanded it before 
 an engagement took place. Historians have 
 disputed as to the cause of the regent's con- 
 duct ; but some reliance is to be placed on 
 Buchanan's statement that the chiefs of the 
 army, although willing to protect their own 
 borders, refused to march into England merely 
 to fight the battle of the French. Albany went 
 back to France to make his peace with the 
 king ; while Margaret, veering round once more 
 to the English interest, listened to her brother's 
 proposal to marry the young king of Scotland 
 to the Princess Mary of England. No efiect, 
 however, could be given to this proposal with- 
 out the consent of the Estates ; and of the 
 Estates, the majority of the members were still 
 favourable to the alliance with France. As if 
 to complicate the political plot, Albany once 
 more returned to Scotland, bringing with him a 
 considerable number of French soldiers. These 
 were to form part of a new army with which 
 to attack the English, who during the regent's 
 absence had been busy harassing the Scottish 
 
DEPARTURE OF ALBANY. 
 
 53 
 
 borders in order to convince the Scots of the 
 desirability of perpetual peace. An army was 
 prepared, which is remembered now for having 
 wasted its strength in the futile endeavour to 
 capture Wark Castle. This failure was followed 
 by months of inactivity ; but at last the army 
 was disbanded, whereupon Albany, plainly told 
 by the Lords in Council that if he went he 
 would not be allowed to return as regent, left for 
 France. Albany departed, unhonoured by the 
 country which he was incompetent to govern. 
 
 Henry was now free to compass his latest 
 scheme, the " erection " of the young king, 
 James Y. James was in his thirteenth year, 
 and was too young to govern, even though the 
 Estates should recognise his rule. Henry, how- 
 ever, conceived that the ^' erection " of the king 
 — the recognition of him by the Estates as their 
 sovereign — would be the most effective check on 
 the French influence, and the surest preventive 
 against Albany's return. In the correspond- 
 ence of the years 1523-24, the question of the 
 " erection " was often mooted ; and, as signal 
 proof of Henry's anxiety for the accomplish- 
 ment of his design, we have a letter from 
 Wolsey to Norfolk, in which the Cardinal, in 
 the king's name, offered " counsel, address. 
 
54 THE OLD ALLIANCE AND THE OLD ENMITY. 
 
 money, men," to any one who would assist in 
 carrying out the project.^ The English policy 
 was successful, and James was recognised as 
 king, in an assemblage held at Edinburgh in 
 August 1524. In November of this year, the 
 "erection" was ratified by an Act of Parlia- 
 ment, and the regency declared to be at an 
 end. James, a boy of twelve years of age, was 
 not fitted to govern men. Margaret was the 
 boy's nearest relative, and when beside him 
 exercised the most powerful influence over him. 
 She had been favourable to the " erection," and 
 was at this part of the year attached to the 
 English faction ; and consequently the boy- 
 king being but the reflex of the governor, 
 Henry seemed at last to be installed in the 
 management of Scottish afl'airs. Albany's in- 
 capacity was a blow to the influence of the 
 French party ; but its ablest man. Archbishop 
 James Beaton, the subject of Wolsey's vainly 
 directed flattery, and the dreaded obstacle in 
 the way of his schemes, did not leave Henry 
 to the peace and enjoyment of unopposed 
 authority. The Archbishop would not give his 
 consent to the ''erection" of the young king, 
 even though he himself, Primate of the Church 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 90. 
 
JAMES BEATON AND WOLSEY. 
 
 55 
 
 and Chancellor of the kingxlom, might have 
 hoped for a large share of actual power. Wol- 
 sey therefore directed his policy and cunning 
 against the Scottish Primate, and tried to in- 
 duce him to proceed to England to arrange a 
 settlement of Scottish affairs ; and it is evident 
 now from Wolsey's letters that he intended to 
 keep the Archbishop a prisoner, could he only 
 induce him to set foot in England. James 
 Beaton, however, met cunning with cunning, 
 and evidently suspected the purity of Wolsey's 
 proposals.^ To England he would not go ; and 
 seldom he left the security of his stronghold at 
 St Andrews. When he did leave his castle to 
 attend the meeting in Edinburgh in August 
 1524, he was seized and cast into prison 
 through the devices of Wolsey,^ because he had 
 advised that the " erection " of the king should 
 not take place till after September, the ter- 
 mination of Albany's leave of absence. His 
 imprisonment w^as of short duration. Wolsey 
 intrigued in order that Beaton might be sent 
 a prisoner to England; but with the majority 
 of the Scottish nobles, patriotism as yet was 
 
 1 Correspondence quoted by Pinkerton, ii. 241. 
 
 2 Buch., xiv. 24 ; Diurn. of Occur. ; State Papers (Henry 
 VIII., For. and Domestic), iii. ii. pp. 665, 766. 
 
56 THE OLD ALLIANCE AND THE OLD ENMITY. 
 
 stronger than devotion to any foreign cause ; 
 and those nobles, often divided amongst them- 
 selves by almost unintelligible jealousies, and 
 separated by envy from the opulent and for- 
 tunate churchmen, would not submit to the 
 indignity of sending a Scotsman to an English 
 prison.^ 
 
 Albany departed to France in May of the 
 year 1524; in August the "erection" of the 
 king was accomplished in the assemblage at 
 Edinburgh, and in November the "erection" 
 w^as ratified by Parliament. At Christmas two 
 galleys arrived at St Andrews from France, and 
 brought certain Frenchmen to the castle of the 
 Archbishop. The incident was full of suspicion 
 to Magnus, the English resident, lately accred- 
 ited to Scotland ; and therefore he wrote to 
 James Beaton seeking an explanation. Magnus 
 was either a novice in the art of diplomacy, or 
 knew nothing of the skilful politician to whom 
 he was waiting. The Archbishop assured him, 
 in return, that the Frenchmen were strangers 
 to him, and that he knew nothing of their 
 coming till they "knokit at ye Jet."^ It was 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIIL), iv. pp. 97, 121, 141, 146, 170, 
 209. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 282. 
 
ARRIVAL OF BEATOX FROM FRAXCE. 57 
 
 Christmas-time, and lie was bound to entertain 
 strangers. If Magnus was deceived by the 
 simple cunning of the Archbishop, no modern 
 reader of the English correspondence would be 
 as credulous as the English resident. Beaton 
 had opposed the " erection " of James ; he had 
 been the object of Henry's cajolements and 
 attacks ; he had even suffered imprisonment 
 at the hands of the English faction. Shortly 
 after his release from prison, a company 
 of Frenchmen arrived at the Castle of St 
 Andrews, and with them was the Archbishop's 
 nephew, David Beaton, come from his residency 
 in France ; or, as is conjectured by Pinkerton 
 and asserted by Froude, from a special mission 
 to Francis in name of the queen, or of Arran, 
 the chief noble among the Scottish adherents 
 of France. The sequence of these events is 
 written on an easily intelligible page of the 
 book of Scottish history. The arrival of the 
 French galleys is to be taken as the next 
 movement of the French policy, after the 
 success of Henry's scheme for the ''erection" 
 of James. 
 
 David Beaton's arrival on the scene of Scot- 
 tish politics bears the appearance of mystery 
 and intrigue which attaches to his subsequent 
 
58 THE OLD ALLIANCE AND THE OLD ENMITY. 
 
 actions ; but it is the event which gives cer- 
 tainty to the belief that his uncle, the Primate 
 and Chancellor, was the main support of the 
 French influence in Scotland. " The said Mr 
 Davy," wrote Magnus, " albeit he were ambas- 
 sador to the King of Scots in France, imme- 
 diately after his coming to Dunbar, without 
 either doing his duty to the king's grace here 
 or to the queen's grace, departed from thence, 
 and went straight to the Archbishop of St 
 Andrews." ^ 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 277. 
 
59 
 
 CHAPTER III. • . 
 
 EARLY INFLUENCES ON BEATON's CHARACTER. 
 
 David Beaton, the future Cardinal, belonged 
 to an ancient Scottish family, from which 
 various officers of the State had been drawn. 
 He was born in 1494, and was the seventh 
 son of John Beaton or Bethune of Balfour, 
 Fife, and of Isabel, daughter of David Mony- 
 penny of Pitmilly, of the same county.^ 
 Eobert de Bethune, in the reign of Robert 
 11. , married the heiress of John de Balfour, 
 by whom came the estate in Fife ; but the 
 name of Beaton has been rendered famous in 
 Scottish history by the members of the family 
 who were churchmen, and by the Mary Beaton 
 who was one of the queen's " four Maries." ^ 
 
 1 The spelling of the name is various — Betoune, Betone, Be- 
 thune, Beatton, Betun. 
 
 2 For genealogy see Wood's 'East Neuk of Fife,' and 
 Lodge's 'Portraits.' 
 
60 IXFLUEXCES ON BEATOX's CHARACTER. 
 
 By the marriage of the first Earl of Arran to 
 the daughter of Sir David Beaton of Creich, 
 the Cardinal was related to the Eegent Arran, 
 whose policies he at last so often skilfully 
 manipulated. 
 
 As a rule, the great political churchmen out- 
 side of Italy, of the Wolsey and Mazarin class, 
 have been men with whose pedigree history has 
 no concern ; and Beaton is no exception, save as 
 regards his uncle, the Archbishop and Primate. 
 
 It has already been mentioned that James 
 Beaton, then Archbishop of Glasgow, was one 
 of the council of regency formed before Albany's 
 first arrival in Scotland. In 1515 he was made 
 Chancellor, and again was appointed one of the 
 regents during Albany's absence.^ In 1520 
 occurred the incident known in Scottish afiairs 
 as Cleanse the Causeway," by which the Arch- 
 bishop, while he almost lost his life, gained the 
 addition to his name of " Clattering Conscience." 
 
 In 1522, James Beaton was translated from 
 Glasgow to St Andrews,^ in succession to For- 
 man, who by his political intrigues contrived 
 to gain rewards from the Pope and from the 
 Kins^s of France and Enoiand. 
 
 1 He was Chancellor in 1513, according to Brunton and Haig. 
 
 2 Spottiswood, p. 62. 
 
Beaton's childhood. 
 
 61 
 
 As Chancellor and Primate, James Beaton 
 was the supreme power in Scotland for the 
 short space of two months, immediately after 
 Albany's final departure to France ; but 
 Henry's intrigues deposed him from political 
 supremacy, and thus bound him more closely 
 to the interests of France. 
 
 In official position, public policy, and private 
 character, David Beaton was the direct suc- 
 cessor of his uncle ; but the men are distin- 
 guishable by the astuter and subtler genius 
 brought by the nephew to political and eccle- 
 siastical afiairs. 
 
 Nothing is known of the childhood of David 
 Beaton, or of his university career, save that he 
 matriculated at St Andrews and Glasgow,^ and 
 afterwards passed to Paris, then a noted school 
 of canon and civil law.^ "VVe have no stories of 
 his infant precocity ; and even his enemies have 
 circulated no tales of juvenile cruelty, in which 
 the boy is father to the man who burned her- 
 etics. If the malice of his opponents had in- 
 vented episodes of mischief, the volume of his 
 
 ^ In tlie Munim. Glasg. there is record of a David Baton 
 among the students of the year 1511. 
 
 2 An interesting account of the universities of St Andrews 
 and Paris during the first part of the sixteenth century is to be 
 found in Lorimer's ' Patrick Hamilton.' 
 
62 INFLUENCES ON BEATON's CHARACTER. 
 
 cliildliooci and youth would not have been 
 utterly blank. There is no evidence whether 
 he distinguished himself in the scholastic exer- 
 cises of the university, though Mackenzie de- 
 clares that he was " well seen in all the parts 
 of literature ; but Mackenzie romanced, and 
 could not distinguish fact from fiction, nor 
 truth from his own invention. 
 
 DemjDster, in proof of Beaton's genius, makes 
 him out to have been the author of three liter- 
 ary works : ' De legationibus suis,' ' De Prim- 
 atu Petri,' and ^ Epistolae ' ; but except the 
 letters, which were probably his ordinary cor- 
 respondence, none of these writings has ever 
 been discovered. One is safe to affirm that 
 a chancellor of a kingdom and a cardinal of 
 the Church wrote letters, though one may not 
 venture to say that these letters are literature. 
 Hay, the author of a panegyric on the Cardinal, 
 praises his learning ; but the author of a pane- 
 gyric writes for the purpose of praising, rather 
 than for the purpose of setting forth the truth. 
 
 On the whole, in spite of such expressions to 
 the contrary, it is probable that Beaton did not 
 carry the reputation of a scholar to the work of 
 Church and State ; though Jervise ^ asserts that 
 
 ^ Land of the Lindsays, 
 
Beaton's scholarship. 
 
 63 
 
 we owe to the Cardinal the preservation of some 
 of the most valuable remains of our monastic 
 literature, which he fortunately plucked from 
 the flames kindled by infuriated zealots. 
 
 The parallel between Beaton and Wolsey, 
 so often drawn by those who label Scottish 
 men and places with English names, does not 
 fail in respect of the literary and scholarly 
 standing of the two cardinals, which in neither 
 case was eminent, though each of them is num- 
 bered among the patrons of learning in the 
 history of the university. Sir David Lindsay, 
 in the Tragedy of the Cardinal, very plainly 
 satirises Beaton's ignorance : — 
 
 Howbeit I was legate and cardinal, 
 
 Little I knew therin what suld be done ; 
 
 I understood no science spiritual, 
 
 Xo more than did Blind Allan of the moon." 
 
 Lindsay, however, was a Protestant. 
 
 Learning, as we have seen, scarcely existed 
 in Scotland before the Reformation, though 
 universities and colleges had been founded. 
 There were not altos^ether wantinor distin- 
 guished scholars, but, like George Buchanan, 
 they were obliged to seek in other countries 
 helps to the study of letters and to the acquii^e- 
 ment of learning. Beaton, if not a master of 
 
64 IXFLUEXCES OX BEATOX's CHAEACTER. 
 
 classical learning and of the philosophy of the 
 scholastics, was at least not an exception to 
 the multitude of his countrymen in those days. 
 By the statute of James lY., of date 1496, 
 the sons of gentlemen were required to attend 
 school in order to learn Latin ; but this statute 
 indicated a liberal-minded king; rather than an 
 advanced scholarship in the schools. The trans- 
 lation of Virgil by Gavin Douglas belongs to 
 the period of Beaton's youth, but affords no 
 proof, excellent as the translation is, that the 
 study of the ancient classics was pursued with 
 scholarly accuracy and taste in Scotland before 
 the Eeformation. The scholastic philosophy 
 reigned triumphant in the universities of 
 Europe, and was the substitute for science and 
 metaphysics ; while theology, as distinguished 
 from the scholastic philosophy, meant for the 
 most part the writings and sapngs of the 
 Christian Fathers, and exercises thereon.^ A 
 knowledge of canon law was necessary to the 
 efficient discharge of the duties attaching to 
 the higher offices of the Church, and a know- 
 ledge of ciYii law was equally necessary for 
 
 1 Thomas Aquinas may be taken as a representative scholas- 
 tic and theologian of the middle ages, Aristotle in philosophy 
 and the Fathers in theology were his guides. He is justly 
 called the great Catholic doctor. 
 
THE CAXOX AND THE CIVIL LAW. 65 
 
 an officer of the State. The consistorial courts 
 were ecclesiastical courts presided over by 
 churchmen ; ^ and in the law courts of Edin- 
 burgh, established by James V., churchmen 
 were among the judges. Scotland, which thus 
 required acquaintance with both the canon and 
 the civil law on the part of those engaged in the 
 management of public affairs, never had, before 
 the Eeformation, any notable teacher of either 
 system, and hence students of law desirous of 
 an adequate training passed from Scotland to 
 Bologna or Paris. In the north of Italy, in 
 the eleventh century, the study of the ancient 
 Eoman law was revived, and Bologna became 
 the centre of this study. Subsequently Paris 
 attained celebrity as a school of canon law ; 
 and though civil law, from the thirteenth cen- 
 tury downwards, was prohibited by Papal decree 
 among the regular subjects taught in the Uni- 
 versity, the Parliament of Paris made arrange- 
 ments for lectures on this subject ; and as men 
 of note from other places were periodically ap- 
 pointed lecturers, the University gained high 
 distinction as a school of civil law.'- 
 
 The exact dates of Beaton's studentship at 
 
 1 Conf. Eraser's ' Husband and Wife,' Introduction. 
 
 2 See Tytler's Life of Sir Thomas Craig. 
 
 E 
 
66 INFLUENCES OX BEATOX'S CHARACTER. 
 
 Paris are unknown; but before 1519 he had 
 finished his studies in Paris and had returned 
 to Scotland, since in that year he was ap- 
 pointed to the office of Scottish resident at 
 the Court of France. "When David Beaton 
 returned from the University his uncle was 
 closely allied with Albany, and was therefore 
 in a position to advance the fortunes of his 
 nephew. Doubtless the young man's French 
 education, and signs of ability in political 
 work which he probably displayed, rendered 
 him gracious in Albany's eyes ; but his con- 
 nection with the Archbishop accounts most 
 plausibly for the ajDpointment of a man of 
 twenty-five years of age as resident at a Court 
 where the guardianship of Scottish interests 
 required political experience and ability. i 
 
 The years of Beaton's stay in France are the 
 years of his political apprenticeship, though he 
 may have displayed a master's power in his 
 work, which certainly demanded more than the 
 skill of a novice. Nothing, however, is known 
 regarding the incidents and details of his French 
 career,^ and we are left, therefore, to consider 
 
 1 According to Lodge, Beaton, while a student in Paris, was 
 sometimes employed in the diplomatic business of the Scottish 
 regent. 
 
 - There is evidence that in the years 1522-2.3-24 he passed 
 
FEANCIS I. 
 
 67 
 
 not the labours of this political apprentice, but 
 the scene of those labours. 
 
 Francis 1. was king. He was young, gay, 
 covetous of pleasures, fond of art, and ambi- 
 tious of the signs and shows, the trappings and 
 the suits, of kingly power. The dream of his 
 early manhood had been to be emperor, and thus 
 to be master of Christendom and the chosen 
 champion against the Turks ; and he willingly 
 offered fortunes in purchase of votes for his 
 election to the imperial throne, which, how- 
 ever, was won by Charles of Spain. After the 
 victory of Marignano, Francis sought knight- 
 hood, in medieval fashion, from the hands of 
 his bravest soldier. Bayard, around whose 
 memory cluster tales and traditions as of an 
 Arthurian legend. The victory of Marignano 
 was hailed by Francis and his followers as a 
 victory for chivalry, and till the defeat of 
 Pavia in 1525 that victory shed a glory over 
 the name of the king. The nobles of France 
 rejoiced in the military glitter of their king, 
 and in their eyes the early years of his reign 
 blazed as with the splendour of the Field of 
 the Cloth of Gold. 
 
 from Scotland to France on State business. State Papers 
 (Henry VIII., For. and Domest.), iii. 2, and iv. 1. 
 
68 INFLUENCES ON BEATON's CHARACTER. 
 
 But there is another aspect of those years of 
 Francis's reign. The Court life reflected the 
 gay, selfish, sensual character of the king. If 
 any, even, of the stories of Beaton's profligacy 
 throughout his career in Scotland are to be 
 believed, the French Court may be pointed to 
 as the nursery of his vices ; just as in another 
 generation the French Court received the cen- 
 sure of the moralists whom the reports as to 
 the conduct of Mary of Scotland scandalised. 
 In point of historical imjDortance the licentious- 
 ness of the king was of small account compared 
 with his policy in ecclesiastical afi'airs, which 
 aff'ected the liberties of France. Jubilant with 
 the victory of Marignano, Francis proceeded to 
 Bologna, and there in conference with the 
 Pope, Leo X., endeavoured to secure the 
 French interests in Italy. He had shown him- 
 self valiant in war, and felt therefore confident 
 of success in council. But the king was a toy 
 in the hands of the astute Pontiff*. Leo ag-reed 
 to the proposed terms of peace between France 
 and the Papal power ; yielded certain Papal 
 claims to Italian territory, which claims could 
 be set up again at any convenient season ; and 
 in return obtained from Francis an under- 
 taking to abolish the Pragmatic Sanction of 
 
THE PRAGMATIC SAXCTIOX. 
 
 69 
 
 Boiiro^es. The Prao-matic Sanction was the 
 charter of ecclesiastical autonomy in France, 
 and, since its promulgation in 1438, had been 
 the subject of strife between successive Popes 
 and the kings of France. By its statutes de- 
 cennial councils of the Church were ordained 
 to be held ; decrees of these councils were to 
 bear authority above that of the Pope ; annates 
 and other sources of Papal revenue were abol- 
 ished ; and, which was of special consequence 
 to France, the election to the high offices of 
 the Church was to be placed in the hands of 
 the Church. Francis and Leo agreed to a Con- 
 cordat, which made havoc of these enactments 
 of the Pragmatic Sanction. Leo secured for 
 himself the annates, and on behalf of the 
 Papal prerogative secured also the repeal of 
 that superior authority which had been given 
 to the decrees of the councils. Francis, on the 
 other hand, gained for himself the right of 
 Church patronage ; and thus by the will of 
 an autocrat the ecclesiastical liberty of France 
 was destroyed, and, of vast importance to the 
 king and his nobles, the power and indepen- 
 dence of the clerical aristocracy were ruined. 
 
 It may seem an innocent and simple policy, 
 this transference of patronage from the hands 
 
70 IXFLUEXCES OX BEATOx's CHARACTER. 
 
 of the Church to the hands of the king ; but 
 those were days when the patron reaped a 
 harvest of gold, and when simony deepened 
 the degradation of an institution abeady sunk 
 far below the level of moral respectability. 
 Francis found it no easy task to impose the 
 Concordat on the Church : the Parliament 
 would not at first publish it, nor would the 
 University. Tyrants and autocrats have a 
 barbarous but efiective method of force which 
 they seldom hesitate to employ in carrying out 
 their policies ; and Parliament and University 
 sufi'ered alike at the hands of the king, who 
 stripped the Parliament of its control of ecclesi- 
 astical afi'airs, and destroyed the efiiciency of 
 the University by persecuting its most noted 
 and courageous members.^ The Church itself 
 sufi"ered dishonour ; its offices were sold to the 
 highest bidders, or were bestowed on favourites 
 of the king. One consequence of the Concordat 
 is seen in the rise of those political churchmen, 
 of whom Kichelieu was the ablest and of whom 
 he is the type. 
 
 The struo'oie of the Concordat continued 
 throughout the years of Beaton's stay in 
 
 1 A full account of this affair is to be found in Burnet, ' Hist, 
 of Reform.,' Part III. 
 
THE CONCORDAT. 
 
 71 
 
 France, and was too momentous in its force 
 and results to leave no impress on liis char- 
 acter. Once more we are without recorded 
 syllable to tell us of the side on which Beaton's 
 sympathies were ranged. Were we to judge 
 by his own subsequent policies in Scottish 
 ecclesiastical affairs, when Henry tempted the 
 king of the Scots to lay his hand on the patri- 
 mony of the Church, we should suppose that 
 his sympathies lay with the French Church 
 when its liberties were infringed ; but, on the 
 other hand, were we to judge by his friendship 
 with Francis, who afterwards bestowed on him 
 a bishopric, and with Leo's successor, from 
 whom he received the cardinal's hat, we should 
 infer that his sympathies were with the king 
 and the Pope. 
 
 In his position as Scottish resident, Beaton 
 was not called upon to take a side in the dis- 
 pute ; and not being constrained to reveal his 
 leanings, he was too astute and too subtle a 
 diplomatist, as subsequent events in Scotland 
 showed, to declare himself a partisan. In poli- 
 tics he who hesitates is lost, and deserves his 
 fate ; but Beaton, we are safe to conclude, was 
 not hesitant, but only reticent from motives of 
 worldly wisdom. The question of the Concordat 
 
72 INFLUENCES ON BEATON's CHARACTER. 
 
 was one that primarily concerned the French 
 nation, and did not directly affect the interests 
 of Scotland. It produced in France a great 
 constitutional struo-oie, in which the Church's 
 prerogative was infringed and civil liberties 
 were curtailed ; and the French capital during 
 the years of the struggle was a school of poli- 
 tics for a man like Beaton, who, in after-years 
 and other places, was to be a leading actor in 
 the scenes of a political and ecclesiastical 
 drama. 
 
 It has been shown how, shortly after the 
 "erection" of James Y., Beaton returned from 
 France, and went with certain Frenchmen direct 
 to the Castle of St Andrews, without first pre- 
 senting himself at the Scottish Court. From 
 this circumstance we are entitled to argue that, 
 in the judgment of ArchbishojD James Beaton 
 and of Francis, David Beaton's presence in 
 Scotland was required in the councils of those 
 who opposed themselves to the intrigues of 
 Henry in Scotland. 
 
 Beaton's first preferments were to the Eec- 
 tories of Campsie and Cambuslang, and to the 
 Chancellorship of Glasgow Cathedral. In the 
 year 1523 his uncle resigned to him the Abbey 
 of Arbroath, though retaining for his own use 
 
Beaton's first peefeemexts. 73 
 
 a laro'e share of tlie emoluments. The To'pe 
 was petitioned to grant a dispensation for two 
 years to the new abbot not to wear the monachal 
 habit. According; to the customs of the Church 
 at that period, an official, as high even as the 
 abbot of one of the wealthiest abbeys, did not 
 need to be in full orders when he enjoyed the 
 dignity and the wealth of a clerical benefice. 
 The Pope was able, as autocrat of the Church, 
 to overrule the common ecclesiastical law ; and 
 no Pope was likely to interfere with a family 
 arrangement of so faithful a son of the Church 
 as the Primate of Scotland.-^ 
 
 In the official communication with reg;ard to 
 the nomination to Arbroath, Beaton is styled 
 " Clericus Sancti Andrese Diocesis," Protonotary 
 of St Andrews, and Chancellor of the Church of 
 Glasgow ; and is also spoken of as the coun- 
 sellor and friend of the king. In a letter to 
 the Cardinal Sancti Eusebii, the Archbishop, 
 after reference to the affair of the abbey, speaks 
 of certain negotiations for the establishment of 
 the primacy of the see of St Andrews over that 
 of Glasgow, and announces the appointment of 
 his nephew as ambassador to the Fo-pe and the 
 College of Cardinals. In a letter to the same 
 
 1 Epp. Eeg. Scot., i. jDp. 339-341. 
 
74 INFLUENCES ON BEATON's CHARACTER. 
 
 cardinal, sent in the name of James Y., Beaton 
 is appointed ambassador to the Pope and 
 cardinals ; and the king requests that Beaton 
 alone should be heard as ambassador in re- 
 gard to Scottish affairs. Nothing is known of 
 the details of this mission to Eome, but we 
 learn from a subsequent correspondence between 
 Magnus and Wolsey that the question of the 
 primacy was not settled in this year ; ^ and 
 Beaton himself, in later times, was a party, 
 according to Knox, in a strife for precedence 
 in the cathedral of Glasgow. That cathedral, 
 by a Bull of Pope Alexander III., was freed 
 from dependence on any bishop save its own 
 and the Pope. When the see of Glasgow was 
 made archiepiscopal in 1494,^ the question of 
 the supremacy of St Andrews arose ; and if 
 Knox's story be true, the question of supremacy 
 remained unsettled when Beaton as cardinal 
 visited the cathedral of Glassfow. The Cardinal 
 and the Archbishop could not agree as to pre- 
 cedence. Beaton as cardinal, legate, and pri- 
 mate, maintained that his cross should be 
 carried in front of the procession through the 
 cathedral ; the Archbishop, holding himself 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 429. 
 
 2 Maitland, p. 246. 
 
THE ABBET OF AEBROATH. 
 
 75 
 
 master in his own diocese and cathedral church, 
 would yield to no one. A riot ensued, which 
 Knox describes as a merry game, in which 
 " Eockets were rent. Tippets were torD, and 
 Crowns were knapped."^ 
 
 The Abbey of Arbroath, or Aberbrothock, in 
 Angus, was founded by William the Lion, and 
 was dedicated to the memory of Thomas Becket. 
 Pope Benedict granted to a certain abbot and 
 his successors the right to wear the mitre, 
 rings, robes, and other pontifical ornaments ; 
 and hence the social and ecclesiastical position 
 of the abbot of Arbroath w^as one of the most 
 dignified in the land. 
 
 In the year 1561 the revenues of the abbey, 
 as entered in the "Book of Assumption of 
 Thirds," amounted to £2873, 14s. Scots money, 
 to which were added wheat, meal, and other 
 things paid in kind.^ These revenues meant 
 very considerable wealth, calculated at £10,000 
 of our money, and were ample, after meeting the 
 charges for the monks, to maintain the dignity 
 of the abbot. 
 
 In the Eegister of the abbey Beaton's name 
 first appears in January 18, 1524, as confirm- 
 ing Eobert Scott's endowment of the altar of 
 
 1 Knox, Bk. i. Hay's History of Arbroath. 
 
76 INFLUENCES ON BEATON's CHAEACTER. 
 
 St Dupthacus ; and in 1525 Beaton took his 
 seat in the Scottish Parliament as abbot of 
 Arbroath. It is evident, from the chartulary,^ 
 that the abbot attended to the business in- 
 trusted to him, since, on one occasion, he re- 
 buked the officers for lettins; the convent want 
 provisions — " Sen God, of His grace, has given 
 the place largely to live upon." 
 
 This Kegister^ records a name which one 
 does not in these days associate with a house 
 of God. On the 22d of May 1528, the abbot, 
 for certain sums of money, ''and other causes," 
 granted to Mariote Ogylwy the liferent of the 
 lease of the lands of Burnton of Ethie, and 
 other lands near that place.^ There are also 
 notices of other lands havino; been g-ranted 
 on similar terms to this " Maistres Marion 
 Ogilbye," as she is sometimes styled. This 
 Mistress Marion, supposed to have been the 
 daughter of Sir James Ogilvy, afterwards Lord 
 Ogilvy of Airlie,* is characteristically described 
 by one writer as Beaton's " chief lewd." In the 
 later years of the Cardinal's life she resided at 
 Melgund Castle, Forfarshire, which was built 
 
 1 Registr. Nigr. de Aberbroth., p. 264. 
 
 2 P. 482. 3 Ibid., pp. 500, 519, 521. 
 * Douglas's Peerage, Account of the Lords Airlie. 
 
MAKION OGILVY. 
 
 77 
 
 by Beaton, who acquired the estate in 1542. 
 The initials of Beaton and of the lady are still 
 to be seen on parts of the ruins of the castle. 
 
 Marion Ogilvy's claim to the distinction of 
 "chief lewd" may have been well founded; 
 though Protestant zeal has given to the Car- 
 dinal a reputation for immorality, evil beyond 
 that of his fellow-dignitaries. Chambers, in a 
 ' Picture of Scotland,' asserts that Beaton had 
 six illegitimate daughters, besides sons, and 
 that these children were almost all born of 
 different mothers. This assertion is made 
 without further proof than that furnished by 
 tradition. It is beyond doubt, how^ever, that 
 Marion Ogilvy bore Beaton several children. 
 It has been alleged by apologists for the Car- 
 dinal that he was married in some sort of 
 morganatic union to Marion Ogilvy before he 
 took priest's orders,^ and that, when he became 
 a priest, he lowered her status from that of a 
 wife to that of a mistress. Cranmer was mar- 
 ried before he was appointed to the arch- 
 bishopric of Canterbury ; and kept his wife, 
 though he was a priest and an archbishop. 
 Cardinal Mazarin^ is said, with some author- 
 
 1 Comp. Arcliaeologia, xxxiv. p. 35. 
 
 2 See Kitcliin's Hist, of France, iii. p. 89. 
 
78 INFLUENCES OX BEATOX's CHAEACTER. 
 
 ity, to liave married Ann of Austria, the widow 
 of Louis XIII. ; but Mazarin, though a car- 
 dinal, was only in deacon's orders. Beaton, 
 while in deacon's orders, may have married 
 Marion Ogilvy ; but it is highly improbable, 
 since he was destined to the profession of 
 the Church, and his marriag;e mig;ht have 
 proved fatal to his entrance to the priesthood, 
 even with the ready help of the Bishop of 
 Eome. There is absolutely no proof of the 
 alleo'ed marriao'e, and in all the leo-al docu- 
 ments his children are said to be natural or 
 illegitimate. During Beaton's lifetime three 
 of his sons were legitimated by special Act 
 of Parliament ; and in the Act they are 
 called his natural sons.-^ One of these sons, 
 Alexander, entered the Church, was made Offi- 
 cial of Lothian, and afterwards became a Pro- 
 testant. The fact that the children were re- 
 jDuted illegitimate is no proof, however, that 
 their father was not married : had he been 
 married before he took full orders, and had he 
 continued in wedlock after he became a priest, 
 his children could not have been acknowledged 
 leoritimate. 
 
 Beaton was by no means singular as a priest 
 
 1 Keith's Bishops. 
 
MARION OGILVY. 
 
 79 
 
 in vowing celibacy, and in afterwards entering 
 into or continuing nnliallowed domestic ties ; 
 and the moralist finds ample material in the 
 records of that time for grieving over vows of 
 purity and celibacy made by men on the thresh- 
 old of a priestly life, afterwards profaned by 
 profligacy and lust. Be the stories of Beaton's 
 indiscriminate immoralities true or not, he 
 seems to have been attached to Marion Ogilvy 
 as if she had been his wife ; and, according to 
 Knox, was in her company on the night pre- 
 ceding the day of his death. 
 
 David, eighth Earl of Crawford, was married 
 in 1546 to Beaton's daughter. In the contract 
 of marriage the Cardinal called the bride his 
 daughter, and gave her 4000 merks as a dowry, 
 at that date the largest ever given in Scotland 
 to a bride. In the contract of marriage there 
 is no mention of the mother's name, but 
 Buchanan calls the bride the eldest daughter 
 of the Cardinal, and there is every reason to 
 believe that her mother was Marion Ogilvy.^ 
 Knox maintains that the marriage was cele- 
 brated at the expense of the Cardinal, as if 
 the bride had been the daughter of a prince ; 
 
 1 Compare Douglas's Peerage, and J er vise's Land of the 
 Lindsays. 
 
80 IXFLUEXCES ON BEATON's CHARACTER. 
 
 but whether this was so or not, a marriao^e of 
 the kind was not viewed with the favour which 
 the moral ideas of those days might have 
 sanctioned. Commissary Maule relates that 
 Thomas Maule, younger of Panmure, an at- 
 tendant on the Cardinal, was contracted in 
 marriage to Beaton's daughter; but that James 
 V. bade him "marry never ane priestes gett, 
 . . . whereupon that marriage did cease." ^ 
 The Cardinal resented the slis^ht, and Maule 
 was forced to pay 3000 merks. Beaton's 
 private life undoubtedly was stained with the 
 vice which so often rendered illustrious church- 
 men notorious examples of broken vows of 
 chastity. Among the minor causes of the Ee- 
 formation, next to the cupidity of the church- 
 men, must be reckoned the profligacy of the 
 clergy pledged to celibacy ; and without ques- 
 tion a typical churchman of the pre-Eeforma- 
 tion days is seen in the man who gained the 
 highest honours and offices of the Church in 
 Scotland, and who granted a liferent of abbey 
 lands to the woman who was the mother of his 
 illegitimate children. 
 
 1 MS. Account of Panmnre family, quoted in Gordon's 
 ' Monasticon.' 
 
81 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BEATOX AXD PATRICK HAMILTOX. 
 
 The years which followed Albany's regency saw 
 the ascendency of Angus in Scottish affairs. 
 The whole period of that ascendency was filled 
 with political intrigues ; the changes of parties 
 and factions were like the changes of the 
 kaleidoscope. AVhat part David Beaton took 
 in the political scenes is not recorded ; but it 
 may be accepted as certain that he followed, 
 or perhaps dictated, the policies of his uncle. 
 It is true that " ordinary history is like the face 
 of a clock ; we see the hands that move and 
 that mark the time, but not the wheels and 
 secret springs whereby it goes." The Archbishop 
 of St Andrews was the wealthiest man in the 
 country, the ablest diplomatist, the man of 
 largest political experience ; and his actions 
 and policies do not require the explanation that 
 
 F 
 
82 
 
 BEATON AND PATRICK HAMILTON. 
 
 David Beaton inspired and directed them. Yet 
 the Archbishop was growing old, and his nephew 
 was young ; and, closely associated as they were, 
 it was not possible for the younger and abler 
 man to be a mere spectator of events. 
 
 The ambassadors who arrived from France 
 in 1524 informed the Archbishop that their king 
 could not assist the Scots, and that Albany 
 could not return to the regency.^ 
 
 In the following year, 1525, the defeat of 
 Pavia made the French king a prisoner, and 
 proved his inferiority to the Emperor. The 
 queen-regent of France and her councillors did 
 not, however, leave Henry undisturbed in his 
 Scottish policy. They sent an ambassador to 
 Scotland to urge the continuance of the treaty 
 of Rouen ; and instructed him to assure the 
 Archbishop of the queen's help in gaining the 
 cardinal's hat for him, and to promise a bishopric 
 or an abbacy in France for his nephew."^ Before 
 the battle of Pavia, Henry was still eager to out- 
 wit the French in Scotland ; yet though he had 
 spent money in subsidising Margaret, Arran, 
 and Lennox, he had good reason to doubt the 
 
 1 Letter of Francis. Conf. Pinkerton, ii. 244. 
 
 2 Teulet, Kelations Politiques de la France avec TEcosse, 
 i. p. 57. 
 
MARGARET AND ARRAX. 
 
 83 
 
 constancy of Margaret and Arran. The return 
 of Angus had long been threatened as a check 
 on the queen, who hated her husband with the 
 hatred of a slighted woman. She remonstrated 
 aojainst the return of her husband, and in this 
 was joined by Arran, who being, after Albany, 
 the next heir to the crown, wished to be first 
 in the councils of his country. The nobles, 
 however, who were in Henry's pay, and who 
 enjoyed no offices under the boy-king, looked 
 to the return of Angus as a possible means of 
 aggrandisement for themselves, and, at any 
 rate, as a political change which might be of 
 advantage to them. Margaret's remonstrances 
 were in vain, as she did not support them with 
 the signs of unquestionable fidelity to Henry s 
 cause. Wolsey, accordingly, when he learned 
 that Margaret and Arran were not prepared to 
 be the passive instruments of his Scottish policy, 
 withdrew the prohibition which barred the re- 
 turn of Angus. The release of the Archbishop 
 of St Andrews in the autumn of 1524, after a 
 short imprisonment, showed Wolsey that the 
 queen and Arran would not accept their orders 
 from his hands, and showed him also that the 
 leaders of the French faction, despairing of 
 Albany's return, might coalesce with the friends 
 
84 BEATOX AXD PATEICK HAMILTOX. 
 
 of the queen and form a party opposed to the 
 English interest. Angus might be relied upon 
 as a tool for Henry, as long as the hatred of 
 the queen against her husband continued ; and 
 that hatred was not likely to cease, since Mar- 
 garet was solicitous of a divorce. Angus, in 
 pursuance of the English policy, was permitted 
 to return to Scotland in November 1524, after 
 many promises to his master, the English king ; 
 but for a time his presence produced no effect 
 on the political movements of the country. 
 Wolsey had feared a coalition between the 
 Archbishop and the party of the queen. The 
 Archbishop, however, was deeply incensed over 
 his imprisonment ; and, whatever the queen and 
 Arran may have expected, acted not out of 
 gratitude for his release, but out of anger on 
 account of his imprisonment. Unexpectedly 
 he joined himself to Angus, and was thus the 
 means of forming a national party to support 
 neither England nor France, but to oppose 
 Maro'aret and Arran. Buchanan declares that 
 Angus, Lennox, and Argyle crossed the Forth 
 and constrained Beaton to join them, and that 
 he durst not refuse.^ These nobles were about 
 to attack the castle of Edinburgh, where Mar- 
 
 1 Hist, xiv. 25. 
 
JAMES BEATON AND ANGUS. 85 
 
 garet held the king ; and as the Archbishop was 
 also Chancellor of the kingdom, his presence 
 with them would be of the greatest signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 Buchanan evidently was unable to explain 
 the apparently sudden change of policy on the 
 Chancellor's part on any other supposition than 
 that of constraint and force ; but Magnus, the 
 English ambassador, described, on the other 
 hand, the Chancellor as given " at all times above 
 all other to the pleasure of the king's highness 
 and his grace." ^ 
 
 By the coalition, the Archbishop was enabled 
 to put himself in direct opposition to Margaret 
 and Arran ; while Angus was enabled to 
 strengthen himself against the party of his 
 wife, and also against the dictations of Wolsey. 
 
 Elated by this coalition, before he perceived 
 the measure of independence which it secured 
 to Angus, Wolsey promised that the Chancellor 
 would be appointed the Pope's legate in Scot- 
 land, and would have a control over the abbacies 
 in Scotland, such as Wolsey himself had in 
 England ; but although Beaton desired to meet 
 the English ambassador at Dunfermline, and 
 showed other signs of friendliness, the church- 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 443. 
 
86 BEATON AXD PATRICK HAMILTON. 
 
 man who had previously refused the bribe of a 
 cardinal's hat on the promise of Wolsey, and 
 the politician whom Wolsey tried to entrap in 
 .England, was little likely to be thus easily 
 brous^ht over to the Enoiish interest. 
 
 At this period a friendly correspondence of 
 considerable amount was carried on between 
 the two prelates ; but Beaton was a master of 
 intrigue, and was astute enough to match 
 Wolsey in diplomacy. The Archbishop's policy 
 was not to further the cause of Henry, but to 
 govern Scotland ; and accordingly he joined 
 himself to Angus, who speedily showed what 
 military force could do to advance the fortunes 
 of him who had it at command. 
 
 In February 1525, a Parliament was held in 
 Edinburgh. In the procession Angus bore the 
 crown, and Arran the sceptre. A council was 
 chosen to govern the king and the realm, and 
 among the members of that council were Beaton, 
 Angus, and Arran. ^ Later in the same year, 
 dissensions broke out in the council. The 
 Archbishop had procured letters from the king- 
 to the Pope recommending his promotion to the 
 rank of cardinal,^ and Angus and Arran, for the 
 
 1 Crawford's Ofl&cers of State ; Leslie. 
 
 2 Comp. State Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 443. 
 
ANGUS AND ARRAN. 
 
 87 
 
 present united in policy, showed their resent- 
 ment at the aspirations of the Archbishop. It 
 is plain that what these nobles really feared was 
 the ascendency of the churchman in political 
 matters, as the dignity of cardinal conferred on 
 a pure churchman could not have affected them. 
 
 In the month of October, ambassadors went 
 to England to arrange a truce for two years 
 with Henry, who had joined in a treaty with 
 Francis, after Pavia had established the ascen- 
 dency of Charles V. This truce with England 
 sent Arran back to Margaret; and he and 
 Margaret were determined to prevent its rati- 
 fication.^ The queen had now broken off alto- 
 gether from her brother; and Arran, though 
 he had received his share of English gold, had 
 never been on friendly terms with Henry, and 
 had never been trusted by him. To prevent 
 the ratification of the truce, Margaret and Ar- 
 ran got together an army ; but the army quickly 
 scattered when the young king with Angus, 
 Argyle, and Lennox appeared against it. 
 
 Angus in the meantime acted as warden of the 
 Scottish marches, while the Archbishop directed 
 the business of the council of State. Whatever 
 may have been his secret motive, the Archbishop 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 430. 
 
88 
 
 BEATON AND PATEICK HAMILTON. 
 
 publicly showed friendliness to England. In 
 March of 1526, Magnus wrote to Wolsey that 
 Beaton was the most powerful man in Scotland, 
 and was now the chief friend of England, and 
 advised that Wolsey should endeavour to obtain 
 for the Scottish prelate the cardinal's hat and 
 the legateship.^ This Wolsey would not do, or 
 did not do, as he knew not how to reward, but 
 only how to use promises as bribes. In Beaton's 
 desire for these priestly honours, we probably 
 see the origin of his avowed friendship for Eng- 
 land. Without Wolsey's help or the aid of 
 France, the primate of Scotland could not hope 
 for the red hat. France had failed the Arch- 
 bishop, but England might serve instead. The 
 English cardinal, however, while he might try 
 to bribe the Scottish chancellor with the promise 
 of the Pope's reward, was no doubt clear-sighted 
 enough to see that if Beaton, already the most 
 powerful man in Scotland, added to his honours 
 the dignity of cardinal and Papal legate, he 
 would govern Scotland at his pleasure, with un- 
 fortunate effect as ag;ainst Enoiand. The Arch- 
 bishop never received the red hat, nor did he 
 ever attain to the dignity and authority of a 
 legate of the Pope. 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 444. 
 
Margaret's divorce. 
 
 89 
 
 In March of 1526 Margaret procured a 
 divorce from her husband, and immediately 
 afterwards married her lover, Henry Stewart. 
 Once more Arran forsook the cause of the 
 c[ueen.^ Ashamed of her indecent conduct, he 
 attached himself to Angus and the Chancellor. 
 Angus gladly welcomed him, since a union of 
 the two most powerful nobles of the land would 
 weaken the authority of the Chancellor, and 
 since Arran, moreover, was a much less dan- 
 gerous rival than Beaton. By this time, such 
 was the military power of Angus, the young 
 king was practically held |)i'isoner by him ; 
 and to have possession of the king was to have 
 the symbols and also the reality of power. On 
 the 13th of June 1526, it was declared that the 
 king was no longer a minor, and that henceforth 
 the royal prerogative was to be in his own 
 hancls.^ The statute which ordained the secret 
 council, of which the Archbishop was the head, 
 was annulled. These changes were made by 
 Parliament, but when the kino^ was declared to 
 be no longer a minor he was in the custody of 
 Angus ; and now Angus was strengthened by 
 the adhesion of Arran. 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIIL), iv. pp. 385, 490. 
 
 2 Acts of the Parliament of Scotland. 
 
90 BEATOX AXD PATRICK HAMILTON. 
 
 In July of 1526 an attempt was made by Scott 
 of Buccleucli to rescue the king from the hands 
 of his powerful servant. Angus, however, easily 
 scattered the forces brouo-ht ag;ainst him : and 
 as Scott was a follower of Lennox, suspicion 
 quickly fell upon Lennox, who was forced to 
 retire from the Court. ^ 
 
 Margaret, the Chancellor, and Lennox were 
 now united against Angus, and, \^'ith a view to 
 deliver the king, they prepared an army. Ac- 
 cording to Lindsay of Pitscottie, the king, on 
 Beaton's advice, made direct request to Lennox 
 to rescue him ; w^hile Buchanan asserts that 
 Lennox held a meeting at Stirling, where he 
 made known his war policy, and that Beaton 
 was among those who attended. Thus a stand 
 was openly made against Angus; but Angus 
 was too powerful to be overthrown by such 
 enemies. In the fray Lennox himself was 
 killed ; and the pathetic picture of Arran 
 spreading his scarlet cloak over the dead 
 body of Lennox, is made all the more pathetic 
 by Arran's words as quoted by Lindsay : " The 
 wisest, the stoutest man, the hardiest man 
 that ever was born in Scotland, has fallen 
 this day." 
 
 1 Buchanan, xiv. 27. 
 
GOVERNMENT OF ANGUS. 
 
 91 
 
 Angus was now master of Scotland, and was 
 bent on seizing the queen and the Chancellor. i 
 He laid waste the castle of St Andrews, but 
 did not find him whom he sought. The story 
 is that Beaton, to escape capture, lurked about 
 the mountains in the clothes of a shepherd.^ 
 
 Lennox was dead ; Arran, old and worn by 
 the death of Lennox, wdio was his nephew, left 
 the Court. Before he left, Beaton made his 
 peace with him by giving him the revenues of 
 the abbey of Kilwinning. Beaton also made 
 his peace with Angus, by presenting him with 
 two thousand merks, but did not by this means 
 induce Angus to admit him to a share in the 
 Government.^ In the Parliament of May 1527, 
 Angus himself held the seals of the Chancellor.^ 
 At the end, however, of this year, which had 
 seen so many political changes, Angus and 
 Beaton were once more reconciled ; and at 
 Christmas-time the royal table at St Andrews 
 found places for Margaret, Beaton, and Angus.* 
 
 In the spring of the following year the dull 
 routine of ecclesiastical afiairs was broken by 
 the martyrdom of Patrick Hamilton. Arch- 
 
 1 Lindsay of Pitscottie ; Buchanan. 
 
 2 Lindsay. ^ Crawford's Officers of State. 
 
 * Letter of Magnus to Wolsey, quoted by Pinkerton, ii. 288. 
 
92 BEATOX AXD PATRICK HAMILTON. 
 
 bishop James Beaton was a politician rather 
 than a churchman, a worldling rather than a 
 religious zealot, and hence the Avonder often 
 expressed that in his name Patrick Hamilton 
 should have been summoned to St Andrews. 
 Buchanan represents the Archbishop as, at a 
 later time, brought to Court an infirm old 
 man to weep over the ancient religion. Knox 
 declares that the Archbishop was more careful 
 of the world than he was to preach Christ, or 
 yet to advance an}^ religion ; but further char- 
 acterises him as one that " bare impatiently 
 that any trouble should be made to the king- 
 dom of darkness, whereof within this realm he 
 was the head." Spottiswood, however, places 
 the Archbishoj^ in a different light, and asserts 
 " that he himself was neither violently set, nor 
 much solicitous (as it was thought) how matters 
 went in the Church." 
 
 Though Patrick Hamilton was the " proto- 
 martyr of Scotland," he was not the initiator of 
 the Scottish Eeformation ; he was simply one 
 of the many Scottish disciples of the German 
 Eeformer. In a Parliament of 1525 it was 
 enacted that the books of Luther should not 
 be brought into Scotland by merchants or for- 
 
THE LUTHERAN DOCTRINES. 
 
 93 
 
 eigners in their ships ; punishment was threat- 
 ened against such as conveyed those books 
 from Germany, and against such as professed 
 the doctrine of the iDooks.^ It is evident from 
 this Act that the works of Luther were known 
 in Scotland, and that the principles of the 
 Eeformation had made progress in the country. 
 The clergy, no doubt, were the framers of the 
 Act; but during James Beaton's administra- 
 tion there was no martyr till Patrick Hamilton, 
 though the Reformation in Germany was now 
 an accomj)lished fact. It is easy to understand 
 that in the troubled times of the Archbishop's 
 greatest authority in the State, while he 
 attended to practical politics, he had few 
 opportunities of shedding the blood of the 
 martyrs, even had he been so disposed. Yet 
 in view of the fact that while he was head 
 of the council of the king, and Lutheran prin- 
 ciples were establishing themselves in Scot- 
 land, he did nothing to arrest the spread of 
 those principles, it is reasonable to conclude 
 that the Archbishop, in inaugurating an aggres- 
 sive policy against heresy, adopted the coun- 
 sels of the younger man, who was soon to 
 
 1 Robertson's Records of Scotland. 
 
94 BEATON AND PATRICK HAMILTON. 
 
 show himself a subtler statesman, a greater 
 ecclesiastic, and a fiercer "persecutor of the 
 saints." ^ 
 
 A few months before the martyrdom of Pat- 
 rick Hamilton, the Archbishop himself was 
 wandering about as if he were an escaped 
 convict or a hunted martyr, and after his 
 wandering had been glad to make his peace 
 on money terms with Arran, the chief of the 
 Hamiltons. It is not likely, therefore, that 
 for the sake of the relio^ion of which he was 
 no ardent professor, or for the sake of the 
 Church of which he had not proved himself 
 a zealous partisan, except in the matter of the 
 primacy of St Andrews over Glasgow, he would 
 have risked personal discomfort and probably 
 direct attack from the hands of Arran. Neither 
 for religion nor for the Church would the Arch- 
 bishop have endangered his personal comfort ; 
 and his new heroic policy against heresy is 
 intelligible only on the theory that David 
 Beaton was the instigator and the Archbishop 
 the nominal agent of this policy. No prelate, 
 however, armed only with the authority of the 
 
 1 Alesius declares that the Archbishop desired Hamilton, 
 before the trial, to flee from St Andrews. — Vide Lorimer's 
 ' Patrick Hamilton,' ch. viii. 
 
ANGUS AXD THE HAMILTONS. 
 
 95 
 
 Church, could have attacked a member of a 
 house so powerful as that of the Hamiltons. 
 Not even David Beaton in the height of his 
 power would have ventured alone to provoke 
 the certain enmity and revenge of one of the 
 greatest of the Scottish nobles. Undoubtedly 
 Patrick Hamilton in his day was the most 
 noted and most zealous of the Scottish disciples 
 of Luther ; and the surface explanation of his 
 martyrdom is that he, being the most promi- 
 nent heretic, was the victim readiest to the 
 hand of the priest. 
 
 This explanation, however, does not suffice, 
 since we find that in a later day the clergy 
 were impotent to silence men like Sir David 
 Lindsay, who were protected by the friendship 
 of the king. Without the strongest political 
 support, a support stronger than that of Arran, 
 the Archbishop or his nephew could not have 
 seized and condemned one of even the least of 
 the Hamiltons. At this time the king was 
 absent on a pilgrimage to a northern shrine, 
 — a journey evidently arranged or sanctioned 
 by Angus, lest solicitation might be made to 
 James to save Hamilton, who was his own 
 relative. Angus and Arran, moreover, though 
 sometimes associated through the vicissitudes of 
 
96 BEATOX AND PATRICK HAMILTON. 
 
 political intrigue, were never personal friends ; ^ 
 Arran, too, had incurred the wrath of Angus 
 by opposing his return to Scotland, and now 
 on the death of Lennox he had left the 
 Court. There is reason, therefore, to believe 
 that Angus, now chief in the State, and 
 anxious to establish his authority, was willing 
 to let it be seen that his most dangerous rival 
 was not powerful enough to protect that rival's 
 own kinsman. But for Angus, the Hamiltons 
 could not have been injured as they were 
 through the striking down of one of their 
 blood and name ; but it suited Angus to in- 
 flict the blow. Hence the death of the " proto- 
 martyr of Scotland " is to be traced to political 
 convenience as well as to priestly zeal — to the 
 ambition of Angus as well as to the intolerance 
 of one or other of the Beatons.^ 
 
 The charge made against Hamilton was, of 
 course, one simply of heresy, and as such it is 
 to be examined. Patrick Hamilton, though 
 popularly called the proto-martyr of Scotland, 
 
 1 Wolsey, ill a letter to Norfolk, 1524, wrote, " It shalbe 
 founde a thing right difficile to make a good coiicorde bitwene 
 thErles of Arayn and Angwishe, considering that thErle of 
 Angwishe slewe Sir Patrike Hamelton," &c. — State Papers 
 (Henry VIIL), iv. p. 106. 
 
 2 Conf. Drummond's Hist, of James V. 
 
JOHN RESBY. 
 
 97 
 
 was not the first in tlie country to suffer death 
 for religion's sake. In the days of James I., 
 John Kesby, an English priest, and probably a 
 follower of Wiclif, was burned at Perth, after 
 having been convicted on no fewer than forty 
 heretical charges. What those various heresies 
 were. Bower, from whom the story is taken, 
 does not say ; ^ but at any rate, Eesby declared 
 that the Pope was not the Vicar of Christ, and 
 that a man of wicked life was not to be acknow- 
 ledged as Pope. The famous schism in the 
 popedom had taken place ; and the sight of rival 
 Vicars of Christ fighting for the keys of St Peter 
 made intelligent men ask themselves — Could 
 even the best of Popes be the Vicar of Christ ? 
 
 Every revolution which is a step of progress 
 naturally begins with inquiry into the reason 
 of existing authority ; and when the repre- 
 sentatives of any authority counted sacred, 
 kings or governors or priests, are flagrantly 
 wicked or pitifully weak and imbecile, the in- 
 quiry is apt to be summary. Resby, like many 
 other reformers before the Reformation, exam- 
 ined and attacked the high claim of the Bishop 
 of Rome, denied his authority, and was burned 
 for such presumption. Scotland, in comparison 
 
 1 Scotichr., xv. 20. 
 G 
 
98 BEATON AND PATEICK HAMILTON. 
 
 with other countries, was fortunately not gener- 
 ous in its gift of the martyr's crown, and Eesby 
 was the first to win the distinction. 
 
 The second name on the Scottish death-roll 
 of religion is that of Paul Craw, a Bohemian, 
 who was burned at St Andrews in 1433. He 
 was reported to be a missionary of the opinions 
 of Huss and J erome of Prague ; but the special 
 charge made against him was that he denied 
 the doctrines of transubstantiation, confession, 
 and prayer to the saints.^ 
 
 Towards the end of the fifteenth century, 
 Blackadder, Archbishop of Glasgow, summoned 
 thirty persons to answer to charges of heresy. 
 Knox calls them the Lollards of Kyle, and 
 mentions thirty charges of heresy preferred 
 against them. These Lollards maintained that 
 there should not be image or relic worship, 
 that prayers should not be made to the Virgin, 
 that the Pope had not authority to forgive 
 sins, that the mass could not profit the souls 
 of those said to be in purgatory. They held 
 also that priests could lawfully marry, and 
 they were charged with spreading the amusing 
 doctrine that "we are not bound to believe 
 all that doctors of the Kirk have written." 
 
 1 Scotichr., xvi. 20. 
 
THE LOLLARDS OF KYLE. 
 
 99 
 
 Happily for the accused, the wit of one of 
 them was so potent that the greatest part 
 of accusation was turned to laughter/' and the 
 proceedings terminated without the kindling 
 of the fires. 
 
 These various heretics spent themselves in a 
 vain endeavour to change the generally re- 
 ceived doctrines of religion, and died without 
 shaking the stability of the Church. The 
 disaster of Flodden, and the civil troubles of 
 the regency, did not afford the quiet needful 
 to religious speculation ; and not till the im- 
 portation of the books of Martin Luther, and 
 the receipt of information regarding the great 
 events in Germany, was Scotland again roused 
 from her dogmatic slumbers. In 1520 the 
 Pope published his Bull of condemnation 
 against Luther ; and thus before Scotland had 
 sacrificed a single martyr for the new opinions, 
 the Keformation in Germany was an accom- 
 plished fact. 
 
 Patrick Hamilton was an avowed follower 
 and preacher of the doctrines of the man whom 
 the Eoman Church had condemned ; and 
 though his family connections, in days of other 
 political coalitions, might have saved him from 
 the extreme penalty of the ecclesiastical and civil 
 
100 BEATOX AXD PATRICK HAMILTON. 
 
 law, it is difficult to see how otherwise he could 
 have avoided the censure and escaped the 
 punishment of a heretic and a law-breaker, 
 unless, indeed, the chief dignitaries of the 
 Scottish Church had themselves been in 
 sympathy with the German Eeformer. 
 
 Patrick Hamilton was the younger son of 
 Sir Patrick Hamilton of Kincavil, in Linlith- 
 gow, and of Catherine Stewart, the illegitimate 
 daughter of Albany, brother of James HL^ 
 The future martyr was thus allied to the king, 
 to Albany, and to AiTan ; and his death by 
 fire could not have been effected had not 
 Angus consented to it. Hamilton, under the 
 law which allowed those to draw the stipend 
 who were unfit to perform the duties of a 
 clerical office, was appointed when a boy 
 Abbot of Feme, in Eoss. He was a student 
 of the University of Paris, where in 1520 he 
 took the deg-ree of Master of Arts : and conse- 
 C[uently must, for a short time at least, have 
 been a fellow- student with David Beaton. In 
 1523 he entered the University of St Andrews, 
 in order to carry on his studies under Major, 
 the teacher of Buchanan and Knox, who con- 
 trived to sit undisturbed in his professional 
 
 1 Douglas's Peerage. 
 
THE TRIAL OF HAMILTON. 
 
 101 
 
 chair, from which he prepared his students for 
 their future heresies. In St Andrews, Hamilton 
 speedily gained the reputation of heresy, but 
 being threatened with prosecution he depart- 
 ed to Germany, attracted thither by the fame 
 of Luther. If he went to Wittenberg, as has 
 been asserted, he did not long remain there, 
 but passed on to Marburg, where he enjoyed the 
 teaching and the friendshijD of Francis Lambert. 
 
 Undismayed by the recollection of his 
 threatened prosecution, and in spite of the 
 warnings of his new friends, he returned to 
 Scotland in 1527 to preach the Gospel as he 
 now knew it, and to testify that he was a 
 braver man now than when he fled from St 
 Andrews. In all the accounts of him there is 
 nothing to show that he reckoned for his safety 
 on the inactivity and sloth of the Scottish 
 prelates, or that he found himself the un- 
 expected victim of his own rashness. 
 
 Hamilton was not a long time in Scotland 
 before he was summoned to St Andrews, or 
 rather invited, as if to a friendly conference 
 vdth the Archbishop. His accusation and pun- 
 ishment speedily followed; and Knox declares 
 that, though matters of greater importance had 
 been in question, the articles for which he 
 
102 BEATOX AND PATRICK HAMILTON. 
 
 suffered were pilgrimage, purgatory, prayer to 
 saints and for tlie dead, and such trifles." 
 Lindsay of Pitscottie gives a graphic descrip- 
 tion of Hamilton's accusation, and of the man- 
 ner of his death ; and he and others narrate 
 the vain attempts made to induce Hamilton to 
 recant. The fire was kindled at St Andrews, 
 and in the midst of it the martyr cried with a 
 loud voice, " Lord Jesus, receive my spirit : how 
 long shall darkness overwhelm this realm ? and 
 how long wilt Thou sufi"er this tyranny of man?" 
 
 At the trial were present the two arch- 
 bishops, with the bishops of Dunkeld, Brechin, 
 and Dunblane ; certain abbots, among whom 
 was David, abbot of Aberbrothock ; also cer- 
 tain other minor ecclesiastics. These all signed 
 the sentence passed upon Hamilton ; and in 
 order to give that sentence greater authority, 
 and probably to lessen the risk of the judges 
 by increasing their number, the names of those 
 of any reputation or rank in the University 
 were added. Even the Earl of Cassilis, a boy 
 of thirteen years of age, was made to sign the 
 sentence. The prelates were astute ; and this 
 indiscriminate sioiiino; of the warrant of Hamil- 
 ton's death points to the conclusion that the 
 martyrdom was not a purely ecclesiastical affair, 
 
Hamilton's treatise. 
 
 103 
 
 and that the clergy were not willing to incur 
 undivided responsibility for the act.^ 
 
 The sentence is to be found in the appendix 
 to Keith's ' Bishops ' ; but there is another 
 document of more importance, the ' Treatise/ 
 setting forth the youthful theologian's opinions 
 on the law and faith. We are told in a later 
 edition of Knox that " this servant of God, Mr 
 Patrick Hamilton, was (besides his godly know- 
 ledge) well learned in philosophy : he abhorred 
 sophistry." The pre-Reformation literature of 
 Scotland is singularly free from theological dis- 
 cussion, and a special interest therefore attaches 
 to this ' Treatise ' on account of its author, and 
 on account also of its isolated position in litera- 
 ture. The ' Treatise ' was originally written in 
 Latin, but a translation of it has been incor- 
 porated into Foxe's ' Martyrs ' and Knox's ' His- 
 tory.' As is well known, the learned of those 
 days WTote for the most part in Latin, and ap- 
 pealed but to a limited class of readers. From 
 Hamilton's ' Treatise,' however, we learn what 
 must have been the burden of his preaching — 
 viz., the Pauline doctrine of justification by 
 faith, which Luther had almost made his own. 
 The ' Treatise ' shows many signs of the logic 
 
 1 Knox, Foxe, Spottiswood. 
 
104 
 
 BEATON AND PATRICK HAMILTON. 
 
 of the schools. Premises are laid down, and 
 conclusions, of course, are drawn ; and these 
 form the basis of a new conclusion. This form 
 of argumentation the looicians term a sorites ; 
 and nature or some benign power seems to have 
 contrived it for behoof of dogmatic theologians. 
 A sorites knows no limits of length, and abun- 
 dant assertions are required to form the prem- 
 ises. For the most part, however, Hamilton's 
 assertions are taken from the Scriptures ; and 
 indirectly the ' Treatise ' is an emphasis of the 
 Protestant doctrine of the absolute authority of 
 the Bible. Sometimes the author is simply 
 assertive, as where, after the fashion of the 
 argumentations regarding the Trinity and the 
 procession of the Holy Spirit, he speaks of the 
 trinity of virtues, faith, hope, and charity, and 
 declares that charity springs from faith and 
 hope. That which is of interest in the ' Treat- 
 ise' is the statement of the doctrine of justi- 
 fication by faith and the inefiiciency of good 
 works. 
 
 Scotland had not in these early years the 
 faculty of ingenuity ; there were Keformers in 
 the fifteenth century, but they were followers of 
 AYiclif or Huss. Now in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury one of her sons produces a treatise on cer- 
 
Hamilton's treatise. 
 
 105 
 
 tain of the reformed doctrines, but he is a dis- 
 ciple of Martin Luther. Yet Patrick Hamilton 
 shows a distinct advance in the progress of 
 Scottish theological thought, just as, of course, 
 Luther shows an advance on the teaching of the 
 brave men who died before his day. 
 
 It is no longer isolated doctrines and practices 
 of the Roman Church which are attacked; no 
 longer simply the evil deeds of friars and the 
 unlawful vagaries of prelates which are exposed. 
 An appeal is made from the authority of the 
 Roman Church to the authority of Scripture. 
 The new learning is a return to the old, and so 
 also is the new religion : instead of the doc- 
 trines formulated and the practices inculcated 
 by Popes and councils, the Reformers take the 
 doctrine of justification by faith and the prac- 
 tices laid down in the precepts of the New 
 Testament. 
 
 The martyrdom of Hamilton was the best 
 possible means of drawing attention to the 
 doctrines for w^hich he sufi'ered. Hitherto the 
 new religion had been, as it were, the produce 
 of a foreign country; now the new faith was 
 a native growth of Scotland. Criticism and 
 scepticism began their work ; and, as Knox 
 quaintly puts it, the University of St Andrews 
 
106 BEATON AND PATRICK HAMILTON. 
 
 " began to smell somewhat of the Verity." Not 
 only among the members of the University, 
 but even among the Black Friars and the Grey 
 Friars, the new faith advanced, so that there 
 was further talk of martyrdom as a check on 
 the advance of heresy. We owe to Knox the 
 story of the wise " familiar " of Archbishop 
 Beaton, who said to his master, "My lord, if 
 ye burn any more, except ye follow my counsel, 
 ye will utterly destroy yourselves : if ye will 
 burn them, let them be burnt in hollow cellars ; 
 for the smoke of ]\Ir Patrick Hamilton hath 
 infected as many as it blew upon." 
 
 Apart from reformation, a policy of inactivity 
 would best have served the Church party, as 
 long as the martyrdom of Hamilton was fresh 
 in the public memory ; yet this policy, if com- 
 pletely carried out, would have brought about 
 the ruin of the Church long before the actual 
 occurrence of that event. Reformation was a 
 course open to the Church, but this course was 
 not pursued ; on the contrary, David Beaton 
 sternly opposed the Reformers, and thereby 
 earned a lasting reputation as a cruel and 
 bloodthirsty tyrant. Yet such was the success 
 of his policy of persecution, that not till years 
 
Beaton's policy of persecutiox. 107 
 
 after the Keformation was an accomplislied fact 
 in Germany, and not till England had seen the 
 Keformation under Henry and Edward checked 
 under Mary and advanced again under Eliza- 
 beth, did Scotland verify the Eeformation by 
 permitting the first General Assembly of the 
 Church. 
 
108 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 At Easter of 1528, the year of Patrick Hamil- 
 ton's death, the Archbishop entertained the 
 young king and the Douglases at St Andrews, 
 giving them presents of gold and silver, and 
 other gifts of ''tacks and steadings."^ Thus 
 did he pacify the Douglases and secure their 
 favour ; and they, recently victorious over 
 Margaret and her husband, and now deceived 
 by the conduct of the Archbishop, began to re- 
 lax their vigilant watch over the king. James, 
 however, was resolved to free himself from the 
 power of Angus, and was intriguing for this 
 end with Beaton. He had secured the castle 
 of Stirling from his mother, and had given her 
 in exchange the lands of Methven, and the 
 
 1 Lindsay of Pitscottie. 
 
JAMES V. AXD ANGUS. 
 
 109 
 
 promise of a peerage for lier liusbancl. More- 
 over, he had persuaded Angus to allow him to 
 pass from St Andrews to Falkland, then in the 
 keeping of Beaton of Creich. Angus himself, 
 weary of Fife, now went to Lothian, leaving to 
 his uncle Archibald, to his brother George, and 
 to James Douglas of Parkhead, the charge and 
 custody of the king. Archibald, in the absence 
 of Angus, took the opportunity of journeying 
 to Dundee, possibly enticed by the charms of 
 some mistress ; while Sir George w^as induced 
 to proceed to St Andrews, ostensibly to con- 
 duct business with Beaton, unwittingly to 
 carry out the secret intrigue of that prelate. 
 Douglas of Parkhead was left in sole charge at 
 Falkland, and James, in pursuance of the plan 
 of escape, intimated a great hunt to be held 
 at Falkland, to which the surrounding tenants 
 were invited. During the night preceding the 
 proposed hunt, the king, dressed as a yeoman 
 of the stable," stole out of the castle, and taking 
 with him two young grooms, rode to Stirling, 
 and thus escaped from a guardianship which 
 was a slavery. The escape of James, thus to 
 appearance simply effected, but successful only 
 through the help of the Archbishop, was to 
 all intents a revolution in the country. The 
 
110 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 supremacy of Angus was at an end, and there- 
 after the feeling: of James toward the Douoiases 
 was one of intense hatred. 
 
 Young though he was, the king took the 
 government of the country into his own hands. 
 By judgment of the Parliament, the Douglases 
 were declared guilty of treason. Angus was 
 sentenced to death, and his estates were con- 
 fiscated by law ; but though he fled to England, 
 the actual confiscation was not in those days a 
 simple arrangement. He had held the office of 
 chancellor, and was now, of course, deprived of 
 the great seal. To this office James appointed 
 his preceptor, Dunbar, Archbishop of Glasgow, 
 a man highly praised even by the enemies of 
 his Church, and described by Buchanan as 
 " upright and learned, but rather deficient in 
 political knowledge." James Beaton was cer- 
 tainly not deficient in political knowledge, and 
 had been chancellor till Angus seized the office : 
 his share in the plan of the king's escape might 
 have entitled him to be restored to his former 
 honours ; but he was now an old man, and un- 
 fitted for the toils of the hio;h office of chan- 
 cellor. That he was not deposed, through any 
 sinister feelins; of the king; towards him, is 
 plain from the prominent position he took in 
 
JAMES AND THE CLERGY. 
 
 Ill 
 
 the council.^ The claims of David Beaton, 
 however, were not neglected ; and although no 
 office was found for him immediately on the 
 fall of Angus, yet soon after that event he was 
 appointed Lord Privy Seal, in succession to 
 Crichton, Bishop of Dunkeld, and a little later 
 received the further honour carried by the office 
 of Protonotary Apostolic. 
 
 Thus early in his actual reign James came 
 under the influence of the clergy — an influence 
 which in a few years was to be supreme, and 
 was to be detrimental to the power of the 
 nobles. Of the clergy, David Beaton, who had 
 been appointed among others to superintend 
 the education of James,^ was the one who w^as 
 to secure and preserve the chief authority in 
 the councils of the king. Whatever may be 
 said about priestly politicians as a class, and 
 about the impress they have left on the events 
 of European history, it is to be remembered 
 that before the Reformation prelates and priests 
 were almost the only men fit for the offices of 
 State which were not military. Protestant zeal 
 is liable to condemn utterly the Roman priest 
 for his creed, as the layman proud not to be 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIIL), iv. p. 545. 
 - Lodge's Portraits — Beaton. 
 
112 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 priest-ridden is apt to resent, irrespectively of 
 time or place, all clerical interference in civil 
 affairs ; but Protestant zeal and the pride of the 
 layman notwithstanding, the Scottish clergy of 
 the Eoman Church were as a class beyond com- 
 parison superior in intelligence and ability to 
 the nobles, the only men likely to contend 
 with, them in the work of government. The 
 very fact of the stippression of the Jesuits 
 by Papal atithority, shows that the prejudice 
 against clerical interference in politics is not 
 irrational : but AVolsey in England, and Eich- 
 elieu and Mazarin in France, and even David 
 Beaton in Scotland, are illustrious examples 
 of European statesmen, not less illustrious 
 because they were cardinals of the Eoman 
 Church. 
 
 TThen James chose his cotmcillors from amono; 
 the clergy, there was no one in Scotland equal 
 in political experience to the Archbishop of St 
 Andrews, no one superior in integrity and 
 learning to the Archbishop of Glasgow, and no 
 one comparable with David Beaton in political 
 actiteness and in knowledo-e of the secrets and 
 intrigues and policies of his contemporary states- 
 men in Europe. Angus was outlawed, Lennox 
 was dead, Arran was weary of State concerns ; 
 
JAMES AND HENRY VIII. 
 
 113 
 
 and although on various grounds some may 
 lament the clerical influence which kept James 
 away from Protestantism, it was well for him 
 and for the independence of his country that 
 he was free from the Douglases, and that he 
 did not fall into the hands of another Angus, 
 false to the best interests and the ancient tra- 
 ditions of the nation. 
 
 Throughout the years of his rule, Angus, 
 though working also for his own ends, had 
 been the tool of Henry in shaping the Scottish 
 policy ; and James was well aware that it was 
 by his uncle's will and contrivance he was in 
 subjection to Angus. James was not therefore 
 ardent in his love towards his uncle, nor in- 
 clined to pursue Henry's political schemes. 
 The young King of Scotland, brave, impetuous, 
 self-willed, remembered that Flodden was still 
 to be avenged, and that what to England was 
 a glory was to Scotland a disaster ; but James 
 was compelled to use his patience and to wait. 
 The turmoils of the regency and of the Douglas 
 supremacy had left nothing in the royal treas- 
 ury, and had divided the political and military 
 interests ; and James therefore was forced for 
 the time to profess friendship towards England, 
 which he did, in the first instance, by writing 
 
 H 
 
114 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 to his uncle a dutiful letter of tlianks for the 
 benefits conferred on him during his minority.^ 
 Henry, moreover, had also to dissemble : the 
 cause of Ang;us should have been his own, and 
 now that Ang-us had fled to him he mio;ht have 
 been expected to make good the losses of his 
 faithful servant by demanding the restoration 
 of the forfeited lands of the Douglases. But 
 Henry solicited what he should have demanded, 
 and by his solicitation gained nothing but a re- 
 mission of the death sentence which had been 
 passed on Angus. ^ Peace with Scotland was, 
 however, the first consideration of the English 
 kins^, w^ho at this time was in leas^ue with 
 Francis against the Emperor ; and so a treaty 
 of peace for five years, made for convenience' 
 sake, was ratified 14th December 1528.^ 
 
 James now^ turned his attention to home 
 afiairs, and set himself to humble the pride of 
 his nobles, who had grown into petty kings 
 during the lawdess times of his minority. The 
 pursuit of this policy gained for him the name 
 of " King of the Commons " ; but it also alien- 
 ated even the outward loyalty and allegiance 
 of many of the nobles, and cleared the way for 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 504. - Ibid., p. 547. 
 3 Rymer, Fcedera, xiv. 286. 
 
JAMES AND THE NOBLES. 
 
 115 
 
 the dominance of the clergy in the government 
 of the country. The Borders, Orkney, and the 
 Isles were each the scene of disloyalty or re- 
 volt ; but in each of those places the king 
 established his authority. Argyle was deprived 
 of his command, and Crawford of his land in 
 the Isles ; Bothw^ell, Murray, Maxwell, and 
 Sir James Hamilton vfere variously punished. 
 What offences they had committed cannot now 
 be ascertained ; but probably they incurred the 
 royal condemnation by disobedience to the 
 Acts of Parliament by which James intended 
 to curtail their power. Those lawless nobles 
 were not slow to transfer their allegiance to 
 Henry, who was ever willing to purchase it.^ 
 In a letter written by Northumberland, of date 
 27th December 1531, wx catch a glimpse of a 
 very different English king from that one who 
 professed affection for his nephew, and friend- 
 ship for his nephew's country. Northumber- 
 land wrote that BothwxU, in conference wdth 
 him, had expressed the hope that, with the 
 favour of iVngus and the help of the nobles 
 estranged from James, he would be able to 
 crown Henry in the town of Edinburgh. - 
 Henry may have allowed himself to be 
 
 1 Conf. Tytler, ii. 9. 2 state Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 598. 
 
116 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 flattered with a vision of the realisation of this 
 hope, and he had Angus at hand to tempt him 
 into active hostility with Scotland. His Con- 
 tinental policy required peace with Scotland; 
 but he did not favour the idea of James be- 
 coming a powerful and popular king. The 
 subjugation of Scotland would satisfy his am- 
 bition ; its dependence on England would suit 
 his Continental policy ; a settled peace between 
 the two countries would be fatal to these plans 
 of subjugation and dependence. Yet Henry 
 was cautious not to declare war. He con- 
 tented himself by sending Northumberland, in 
 the winter of 1532, to make a raid on Scot- 
 land, such as might have delighted a Highland 
 
 Northumberland's expedition, whatever its 
 ulterior purpose may have been, ended in a 
 raid, since no rising of the Scots in favour of 
 the English took place such as Henry possibly 
 expected from the accounts of the disloyal 
 nobles, and from the fact that Angus, vdth. his 
 uncle and brother, was in the company of 
 Northumberland.- The Scots retaliated, and a 
 Border warfare continued for more than a year. 
 To complicate the relations of the two countries, 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry YIII.), iv. p. 627. 2 jbia., p. 629. 
 
MEDIATIONS FOR PEACE. 
 
 117 
 
 a force of four thousand Highlanders crossed to 
 Ireland to help Henry's enemies there, but 
 whether or not with the cognisance of James 
 cannot be determined.^ Henry at last grew 
 tired of the Border warfare, and either inti- 
 mated to Francis his intention of chastising the 
 Scots in the hope that Francis would mediate 
 for peace, or directly asked Francis as his ally 
 to influence the Scots towards peace. ^ The 
 French king accordingly sent an ambassador to 
 Scotland ; but J ames was angry at the neglect 
 shown by Francis, and charged him with a 
 willingness to sacrifice Scotland to England. 
 James dismissed the French ambassador with 
 letters to his king, which demanded a renewal 
 of the ancient league that had been ratified 
 anew in 1517; and in the same year, 1533, sent 
 David Beaton and Sir Thomas Erskine to 
 France to arrange this alliance, and to answer 
 the charges made by Henry in regard to the 
 Border warfare.^ 
 
 Buchanan declares that Beaton took with 
 him letters to the Parliament of Paris in 
 reference to the renewal of the treaty of 1517, 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 612. 
 
 2 Buchanan, xiv. 45. 
 
 ^ Ibid. State Papers (Henry VIII., Foreign and Domest.), 
 vi. 190. 
 
« 
 
 118 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 and in complaint of the neglect of Francis to 
 adhere to the terms of that treaty. Buchanan 
 further asserts that Beaton had instructions 
 to proceed to Flanders to negotiate with the 
 Emperor Charles, faihng a satisfactory arrange- 
 ment with Francis. Whatever Beaton's in- 
 structions may have been, as to demanding 
 satisfaction for Francis's neglect of Scotland, 
 it is highly probable that James did think to 
 join himself to the Emperor, who had sought 
 in certain marriage proposals to draw him 
 away from any alliance with Henry and 
 Francis.^ Beaton, however, was commissioned 
 with power to arrange a French marriage for 
 James, in terms of the treaty of 1517 ; and 
 Francis, therefore, was likely to agree to any 
 reasonable proposals which would prevent 
 Beaton s journey to the Emperor.^ What 
 specific arrangements Beaton made with the 
 French king are not known ; but that he 
 brought matters to a peaceful conclusion is 
 witnessed by the fact that a second ambassa- 
 dor proceeded to Scotland to propose a truce 
 with England, and that James listened to the 
 proposal. Monsieur de Bevois, the French 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 533. 
 - Buchanan, xiv. 45. 
 
THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE. 119 
 
 ambassador, accompanied the Scottish repre- 
 sentatives to a conference with certain English 
 representatives ; and after many meetings, 
 and the discussion of what were trifles to 
 two nations, a truce was finally signed in 
 1534.1 
 
 In 1532, James, by Act of Parliament, estab- 
 lished the College of Justice on the model of 
 the Parliament of Paris, and was advised in 
 the transaction of this business by the Arch- 
 bishop of Glasgow, and most probably by 
 David Beaton, who was familiar with the 
 institutions of the French State. ^ James I. 
 had created a Court of Session, which consisted 
 of the chancellor and certain representatives of 
 the three Estates of Parliament, and had ap- 
 pointed it to sit three times a-year, at places 
 determined by the king ; ^ but if Dunbar's 
 satire on the transaction of legal affairs at 
 Edinburgh be not a romance, there was 
 justification for the reform carried through by 
 James Y. when he instituted the College of 
 Justice. The new court was to hold its sittings 
 in Edinburgh, and the judges were to be styled 
 Senators of the College of Justice. As the 
 
 1 Conf. Hamilton Papers, i. 10, 11. 
 
 2 Drummond's Hist. — .James Y. ^ Erskine's Institute?. 
 
120 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 scheme was subsequently ratified by Act of 
 Parliament, the Senators were to be fifteen in 
 number, — seven laymen and seven churchmen, 
 with a president, who was always to be a 
 churchman. 
 
 James doubtless intended this Court to be 
 a check on the lawless nobles in their tyranny 
 over the commons ; but in the j^i'ocess of 
 establishing it, he came into conflict with the 
 clergy. The religious houses were enormously 
 wealthy, and a tax on them was the easiest 
 means of raising money for State purposes. 
 The nobles could resist a tax by force of arms, 
 but the clergy had only spiritual weapons at 
 their command, and sometimes these spiritual 
 weapons were dangerous to those who used 
 them. James had wisely resolved that the 
 new Court should mean justice to the poor, 
 and that justice should not be scanty on 
 account of its price. He determined, therefore, 
 to levy a tax from the clergy ; but the Bishop 
 of Aberdeen, in name of the clergy, protested 
 to the Pope against this exaction, and Arch- 
 bishop Beaton finally secured a Papal Bull, 
 restricting the amount of the tax.^ The Arch- 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), iv. p. 617. Conf. Mackay's 
 Practice of the Court of Session, Introduction. This author 
 
THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE. 
 
 121 
 
 bishop, however, had to suffer for the use of 
 this spiritual weapon, as in 1533 he was a 
 prisoner in the castle of Edinburgh, on ac- 
 count of thwarting the purposes of the king."^ 
 Whatever may have been the intentions of 
 James in founding the College of Justice, or of 
 Beaton in advising him, the reconstituted Court 
 was afterwards a powerful agent in the cause 
 of the Church, when, as the " Secular Arm," 
 it punished the breakers of the laws directed 
 against heresy. Doubtless the aid which the 
 Court gave to the Catholic Church, in the 
 years preceding the Keformation, inspired the 
 feeling with which Buchanan in his History 
 attacked the first Senators of the College of 
 Justice. Shortly after the new modelling of the 
 Court of Session two changes were introduced, 
 which seem to have been suggested by the 
 usage of the tribunals of Rome, with which 
 Beaton was familiar. Titles were assumed by 
 the judges, and the Court was divided into an 
 Outer and Inner House.^ 
 
 James, in sending Beaton to France in 1533 
 
 notes the fact that in April 1541 a writ was issued to enforce 
 payment from Cardinal Beaton of his share of the expense of 
 the Court of Session. 
 
 1 Conf. Hamilton Papers, i. 8. 
 
 2 Brunton and Haig. 
 
122 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 regarding the peace with England, gave his 
 ambassador power to negotiate for him a matri- 
 monial alliance with the daughter of Francis.^ 
 Much depended on the king's marriage. The 
 Hamiltons, according to Buchanan, were anxious 
 to prevent a marriage, so that their succession to 
 the crown might be secure ; and, as this writer 
 does not hesitate to say, they even attempted 
 the king's life. From the time of James's 
 escape from Angus the marriage had been a 
 subject of especial interest. Would the young 
 king ally himself to England by taking the 
 Princess Mary as his wife, and thus, per- 
 haps, bind the two countries in a lasting- 
 peace ? Henry again and again, in the course 
 of his sinister dealings with Scotland, had pro- 
 posed that James should be ajQianced to his 
 daughter ; but the affiance was never the chief 
 end of his proposals, and did not take place. 
 
 When James assumed the actual government 
 of his country, and entered into a correspon- 
 dence with his uncle, the marriage with Mary 
 was once more mooted ; but the negotia- 
 tions came to nothing, although the King of 
 France, who was then in league with Henry, 
 was favourable to the English match. By the 
 
 1 Kegist. Magn. Sigil. Reg. Scot., No. 1351. 
 
MARRIAGE PROJECTS. 
 
 123 
 
 treaty of Eouen of 1517/ tlie eldest daugliter 
 of Francis had been promised in marriage to 
 James ; but sbe had died, and his daughter 
 Magdalen was thought too delicate in health 
 ever to marry.- 
 
 The Emperor Charles, before Henry s divorce, 
 strongly opposed this English match, as he 
 feared a lasting peace between Scotland and 
 Enoiand. He therefore sent his messeno^er to 
 Scotland to offer his widowed sister, the Queen 
 of Hungary, to James ; ^ but this offer roused 
 the opposition of Henry and Francis. Albany 
 now sug-D-ested the Duchess of Urbino, widow of 
 Lorenzo of Medici, and, though Henry would 
 have agreed, James declined. Charles, at 
 enmity with the Kings of France and England, 
 and threatened by the Smalcalclic League, once 
 more showed zeal in the question of the 
 Scottish marriage. He promised Norway, a 
 country not yet conquered by him, as a dower 
 to any bride whom James might choose from 
 among the friends of the Emperor. Buchanan 
 relates how Charles sent his ambassador secretly 
 
 1 A copy of this treaty is given in Teulet, i. pp. 4-8. 
 
 - Francis, in 1533, gave a consent to the marriage of James 
 and Magdalen, subject to the improvement of Magdalen's health. 
 —Teulet, i. 77. 
 
 3 Diiirn. of Occur., 1529. 
 
124 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 to Scotland, in the year 1534, to excite James 
 against Henry, and to urge upon the young 
 king that the marriage with Ann Boleyn would 
 probably remove him from the succession to the 
 English crown. The ambassador, in his master's 
 name, offered James the choice of a wife from 
 among three Maries — Mary of Hungary, Mary of 
 Portugal, and Mary of England, now that the 
 mother of the last-named princess had been 
 divorced from Henry. Still another lady was 
 mentioned, the Emperor's niece, the daughter of 
 the deposed King of Denmark ; but she was 
 already affianced to another, and James was on 
 friendly terms with the reigning sovereign of 
 Denmark. None of the proposed marriages 
 took place. In the Supplement to Dempster 
 it is suggested that Beaton showed James that 
 the Emperor and the Pope were trying to make 
 a tool of him by these marriage projects. James 
 hardly required Beaton as his adviser in a case 
 so obvious ; nor is Beaton richer in his reputa- 
 tion for political sagacity by having ascribed 
 to him an understanding of the self-evident 
 policy of the Emperor. There is no doubt, 
 however, that Beaton with his French sympa- 
 thies preferred an alliance with France, and it 
 may safely be concluded that wdth his control 
 
MARRIAGE PROJECTS. 
 
 125 
 
 over the King of Scotland he endeavoured to 
 prevent not only the alliance mth England, on 
 account of his suspicions of Henry, but also the 
 alliance with Charles, who was beyond his 
 political influence. 
 
 When Francis acted as negotiator in 1534 
 between Scotland and England, James was 
 induced by him to ask for the hand of the 
 Princess Mary ; ^ but the divorce of Catherine 
 was but a recent event, and Henry refused to 
 permit the marriage lest Mary, as the daughter 
 of his lawful wife, and J ames should be counted 
 the heirs to the English throne, to the prejudice 
 of any children he might have by Ann Boleyn. 
 In 1535, however, Henry, anxious that his 
 nephew should repudiate the Papal authority, 
 proposed a meeting with him ; ^ but this pro- 
 posal was viewed with disfavour by the Hamil- 
 tons, who feared that a marriage would be fatal 
 to their hopes, and by the clergy, who were 
 deeply concerned not to let James fall into the 
 hands of so determined an enemy of Eome as 
 the King of England. The meeting did not 
 take place ; and Henry, ever ready of resource, 
 gave instructions to his ambassadors in Scot- 
 
 1 Conf. Lingard, vi. v. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIIL), v. p. 1 et seq. 
 
126 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 land to oppose a marriage then projected be- 
 tween James and Mary of Bourbon, daughter 
 of the Duke of Yendome.^ Henry saw in this 
 marriage the alliance of the Scottish kino- with 
 the Catholic party, and resolved in every way 
 to prevent it. But Henry's objections were 
 not likely to be of weight with the council of 
 James, which was dominated by the clergy, 
 seeing that Henry had already suggested the 
 demolition of the Scottish religious houses.^ 
 Moreover, James by this time had sent David 
 Beaton and certain Scottish nobles to France 
 to make the final settlement for the Yendome 
 marriage.^ Francis, though he had refused his 
 daughter Magdalen in marriage to the Scottish 
 king, was willing to give any one of the prin- 
 cesses of the blood : accordingly, a marriage 
 with Mary of Yendome was agreed to by 
 treaty, March 6, 1536.* In the autumn of 
 1536 James, weary, it is said, of the obstacles 
 placed in his way by Henry and the Hamiltons, 
 resolved to proceed to France to see the lady 
 chosen for him by his ambassadors. ^ He landed 
 in France with a train of nobles, among whom 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 26. 2 n^i^i,^ i £2. 
 
 3 Ibid., 18, 20, 21. 
 
 ^ State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 41. ^ Ibid., p. 59. 
 
JAMES AND MAGDALEN. 
 
 127 
 
 was Beaton ; but went alone in disguise to 
 Yendome to see his intended bride. Lindsay 
 of Pitscottie gives a graphic description of the 
 scene at Yendome, and the rejoicings there for 
 eight days, after the lady had recognised her 
 disguised lover. The scene and the rejoicings 
 were probably what in Lindsay's imagination 
 ought to have been ; but for some reason or 
 other James was disappointed with the bride. 
 Like a heartbroken swain of ballad romance, 
 he left for the wars ; but meeting the King of 
 France, he journeyed with him to Paris, and 
 there fell violently in love with Magdalen, 
 whose jDassion in return was equally strong. 
 Eobertson, the historian of Charles Y.,i declares, 
 on the other hand, that James went on a mili- 
 tary expedition to help the King of France in 
 his war with the Emperor. There is another 
 story to the effect that, against the wish of his 
 nobles, James proposed to marry the divorced 
 daughter of Lord Erskine, the lady who was 
 mother to his son, James Stewart, afterwards 
 Earl of Murray. 2 Whatever may have been 
 the exact purpose of James's voyage to France, 
 there is no doubt that his passion for Magdalen 
 
 1 History of Charles V. , Book vi. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. pp. 41, 46. 
 
128 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 was sincere. Young, but sicklied o'er with the 
 hectic cast of consumptive beauty, Magxlalen 
 was no wife for James to take from France to 
 Scotland. Yet, in sjDite of prudence, the mar- 
 riage was solemnised in Paris with great pomp 
 on the 1st January 1537,^ in presence of princes 
 and of prelates, among whom Beaton is men- 
 tioned ; and after a few months James and his 
 young wife departed for Scotland, where they 
 landed in the month of May. There is nothing 
 more pathetic in Scottish history than the story 
 of the marriage of James and Magdalen. She 
 arrived in Scotland in May ; but her new coun- 
 try was not a sunny France, and in July she 
 was dead. There is a touchino- o-race in Lind- 
 say's description of her landing : And when 
 the queen came in Scottish ground she bowed 
 and inclined herself to the earth, and took the 
 muilds thereof and kissed ; syne thanked God 
 that he had brought her safely through the sea 
 with her husband to their own country." - Five 
 years after her death, when her husband died 
 also, he was buried beside her in the Abbey of 
 Hol}T.'ood. 
 
 1 Diurn. of Occur. Teiilet, i. 106. 
 
 2 Lindsay of Pitscottie's History. Conf. Sir D. Lindsay's " The 
 Deploration of the Death of Qiiene Magdalen." 
 
MARY OF GUISE. 
 
 129 
 
 One custom new to Scotland sprang from 
 the sadness of her fate. Out of respect for her 
 memory the people then for the first time wore 
 mourning clothes.^ Mary of Bourbon, Lindsay 
 relates, " within short while took sickness and 
 died " ; though Bishop Lesley, a better author- 
 ity, says she spent the rest of her life in a 
 convent. There is still a third authority as 
 to what came of her. Penman, writing from 
 Paris to Sir George Douglas in October 1536, 
 intimates that on the same day as James and 
 Magdalen were to be married, " shal be maryed 
 the Duke of Wandome doughter, the which the 
 kyng shuld have had, to the Counte of Auvars." ^ 
 
 James, though he sincerely mourned the 
 death of Magdalen, quickly set about arrang- 
 ing another marriage. His clerical advisers pro- 
 bably feared that the question of the English 
 match would be reopened ; and James himself, 
 menaced by the Hamiltons and the Douglases, 
 was anxious to preserve the succession to the 
 crown in his own line. Shortly after the death 
 of Magdalen, Beaton and the Earl of Murray 
 were sent as ambassadors to France, with in- 
 structions to ask in marriage, in the king's 
 name, Mary, daughter of the Duke of Guise, 
 
 1 Buchanan. 2 Pinkerton, vol. ii., ApjDendix. 
 
 I 
 
130 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 and widow of the Duke de Longueville.^ 
 Buchanan asserts that James, while in France 
 and fearing the early death of Magdalen, had 
 fixed his thoughts on Mary of Guise ; but 
 though this assertion is hardly credible, James 
 at all events must have seen the lady whom 
 his ambassadors were now to seek in marriage 
 for him. 
 
 Henry VIII. having lost his wife, Jane Sey- 
 mour, was also suitor for the hand of Mary of 
 Guise ; but whether the lady preferred the 
 younger king, or whether the arrangements 
 were altogether matters of political diplomacy, 
 James and she were at last married by proxy 
 in France in January 1538.^ In June of the 
 same year she landed in Scotland and pro- 
 ceeded to St Andrews, where, amidst pomps 
 and pageantries, and also allegorical cere- 
 monies, of which Sir David Lindsay was the 
 author, she was married to the king. Beaton, 
 now Coadjutor- Archbishop of St Andrews, offi- 
 ciated.^ In the following year, when a son 
 was born to the king and queen, Beaton and 
 the Archbishop of Glasgow were godfathers to 
 the child ; and later in the same year, when 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 112. 
 
 2 Lesley, p. 155 ; Teulet, i. 115. ^ Diurn. of Occur., 1539. 
 
BEATON IN ENGLAND. 
 
 131 
 
 Mary was publicly 'crowned in Holyrood as 
 Queen of Scotland, the crown was placed upon 
 her head by Beaton.^ Lindsay of Pitscottie 
 declares that Beaton was angry, especially 
 with the Lord Maxwell, to whom the charge 
 of the queen was intrusted, because he was not 
 allowed even to journey in the same vessel 
 with Mary as she crossed from France. Be 
 this as it may, Mary and Beaton were destined 
 to be henceforth joined together as the strong 
 supporters of the Catholic Church. Magdalen 
 de Valois had been trained by her aunt, the 
 Queen of Navarre, who favoured the Huguenot 
 party in France ; but Mary was of the inner 
 circle of those who championed the Catholic 
 cause in Europe, and if Beaton did not sug- 
 gest the marriage of James with Mary, he had 
 reason to be glad that the king's choice had 
 fallen upon her. Till the day of Beatons 
 death, Mary of Gruise and he were the two 
 dominating powers in the government of Scot- 
 land, and were zealous alike in their opposition 
 to England, their favour of France, and their 
 support of the Catholic Church. 
 
 In the interval between the French marri- 
 ages, Beaton was sent as ambassador to Eng- 
 
 1 Diurn. of Occur., 1539. 
 
132 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 land, t Duelling certain dlffieulties whieh had 
 arisen concerning the Borders, and regarding 
 a complaint that fugitives and rebels from 
 England were harboured and aided in Scot- 
 land.^ Margaret had written to Henry an- 
 nouncing Beaton's embassy, and praying him 
 to take kindly with the Abbot of Arbroath, as 
 he was " gret vyth the kyng." " 
 
 There is no record of the details of any meet- 
 ing between Henry and Beaton, though doubt- 
 less they met in council and also privately, as 
 Beaton wrote to Cromwell requesting a meeting 
 with Henry. ^ If Beaton's request was granted, 
 the meeting was the first and only one between 
 those two men, who were afterwards to be bitter 
 enemies, and to hate each other with a hatred 
 strangely at variance with the teaching either 
 of the old or new faith. 
 
 Little is known of the object of this mission 
 to England, and less is known of what was 
 arranged. It is plain, however, that Beaton 
 was not unskilful in the ambassador's art of 
 making fair promises, since Norfolk wrote to 
 Cromwell, "I do something doubte that the 
 imbassatour of Scotland hath not so frankely 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII), v. p. 106. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 90. 3 ibid^^ 
 
THE BISHOPRIC OF MIREPOIX. 133 
 
 wryten to his Maister as he sayde at Grafton 
 he wold do."i 
 
 The services rendered by Beaton to France 
 were not unrewarded. Francis, throughout the 
 diplomatic business of the alliance and the mar- 
 riages, had learned the value of Beaton's sym- 
 pathies with France and antipathies towards 
 England, and had resolved to foster these feel- 
 ings by material aids. Churchmen, in those 
 days of their political power, counted on re- 
 wards more tangible than the prizes in a 
 spiritual kingdom. Forman, the predecessor 
 of James Beaton in St Andrews, contrived to 
 gain substantial favours from the Pope and 
 from the Kings of France, England, and Scot- 
 land ; Wolsey was enriched by the Emperor 
 and by the Kings of France and England, and 
 was rewarded by the Pope. According to 
 fashion, therefore, and to expectations common 
 to men of his order, Beaton received recogni- 
 tion from Francis. On 5th December 1537 he 
 was consecrated to the bishopric of Mirepoix in 
 Languedoc. This gift, by virtue of the Con- 
 cordat which superseded the Pragmatic Sanc- 
 tion, was in the hands of the king to bestow ; 
 and being of the annual value of 10,000 livres, 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 101. 
 
134 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 « 
 
 ^Yas no mean addition to the income of the 
 Scottish prelate.^ In 1539 considerable pro- 
 perty in French land was bestowed uj)on him, 
 and thous^h he had been nationalised as a 
 French subject previous to his consecration 
 to the bishopric of Mirepoix, it was specially 
 written down in the Act conferring the pro- 
 perty upon him that his heirs, though born out 
 of France, should be legal inheritors of the pro- 
 perty.'^ Francis, alive to the importance of Scot- 
 land's union with France in European contests, 
 exerted his influence with the Pope, as James 
 had already done, to gain for Beaton the car- 
 dinal's hat. Paul III., not slow to see that Scot- 
 land was of value to Eome, readily agreed to the 
 request of Francis ; and Beaton was accordingly 
 created cardinal of St Stephen in Monte Coelio, 
 in December 1538. This title was not unknown 
 in the history of the Scottish Church : it was 
 that borne by John de Salerno, who j)i'esided 
 at a meeting of the clergy at Perth, in the 
 reign of William the Lion. Among Scottish - 
 born ecclesiastics before Beaton, there had been 
 but one cardinal, Walter Wardlaw, Bishop of 
 
 1 Lawson's Catholic Church in Scotland, p. 81. 
 
 2 See notice of the collection of his rents. — Hamilton Papers 
 i. p. Ixxi. 
 
BEATON AS CAEDIXAL. 
 
 135 
 
 Glasgow, who flourished towards the end of the 
 fourteenth century.^ Thus Beaton might have 
 rejoiced to possess the red hat, if for no other 
 reason than the rarity of the honour. A car- 
 dinal was in power and dignity a prince of the 
 Catholic Church, and one of the most intricate 
 threads of ecclesiastical and civil history is that 
 on which are strung the schemes, intrigues, 
 strifes of the candidates for the coveted rank. 
 Dubois, Archbishop of Cambrai, during the 
 period of the regency in France, in the early 
 part of the eighteenth century, solicited this 
 dignity ; and it has been said that all Europe 
 was enlisted for this red hat. Eight million 
 livres were spent in the quest of it ; and one 
 Pope died rather than give the hat to Dubois, 
 while the next Pope died through shame of 
 having given it. 
 
 There seems, however, to have been no diffi- 
 culty in obtaining for Beaton the title of car- 
 dinal, young though he was, and native of a 
 land from which the princes of the Church had 
 not been chosen. The reason for this honour to 
 a Scottish prelate is not hard to find. The Pope 
 was thus able not only to please the Kings of 
 
 ^ He was made a cardinal by Urban VI., and therefore his 
 title has been disputed. 
 
136 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 France and Scotland, but to further in Scot- 
 land the interests of Kome. Fisher, Bishop of 
 Eochester, had been marked by the Pope for 
 promotion to the rank of cardinal, that he might 
 the more zealously and powerfully guard the for- 
 tunes of the Eoman Church against the attacks 
 of the Keformers ; but Henry sent Fisher to the 
 stake before the hat arrived, and so thoroughly 
 severed himself from the authority of Kome 
 that, while he lived, the Papal authority was 
 a lost cause in England. Scotland, however, 
 might still be saved to the Pope. To this 
 end a cap and sword were consecrated for James 
 by his Holiness himself ; the title of Defender 
 of the Faith, forfeited by Henry, was j)romised 
 to the Scottish king ; and upon Beaton, the 
 ablest man of his country, the rank of cardinal 
 was conferred, in the hope that the honour 
 w^ould be an incentive to him to guard the 
 Church. 
 
 In 1539 Beaton, already coadjutor, succeeded 
 his uncle as Archbishop of St Andrews. Owing 
 to the weakness of age, James Beaton before 
 his death had left the duties of his various 
 offices in Church and State to his nephew. 
 He had been made Provost of the Church of 
 Bothwell in 1503 ; had afterwards been ap- 
 
CHARACTER OF JAMES BEATON. 
 
 137 
 
 pointed Prior of Whitehern and Abbot of 
 Dunfermline; later, Abbot of Arbroath and 
 Kilwinning; from the bishopric of Galloway 
 had passed to the archbishopric of Glasgow ; 
 and finally, in 1522, had been installed in 
 the Primate's see of St Andrews. On the 
 other hand, he had been Treasurer of the 
 kingdom in 1505, and in 1515 had become 
 Chancellor. Able as a prelate and politician 
 for untroubled times, worthy to be head of 
 a Church which did not make personal piety 
 its first demand, he was too old and too weak 
 of body to guard the fortunes of the ancient 
 Scottish Church, in the days of fierce attack 
 against it ; nor did his political experience, 
 resource, and cunning amount to the genius 
 needed for a leader in times of revolution. 
 He was neither a great man nor in any special 
 sense a good man though his ability was far 
 removed from the dull monotony of mediocrity, 
 and his morality was far above the reputation 
 of the monk of romantic verse. ^ In Glasgow 
 
 1 In 1535 James sent to Pope Paul III. a remarkable docu- 
 ment in which, he charged the Archbishop with being the cause 
 of all the troubles in the State. The king alleged that the 
 Archbishop had declared that he would not willingly die till he 
 had seen the Scottish crown on the head of Arran, his niece's 
 son. No mention of such a plot is made by the contemporary 
 Scottish historians. — Teulet, i. p. 81. 
 
138 
 
 DIPLOMACY. 
 
 lie was known as a benefactor. A wall round 
 the castle, a new altar in the choir of the 
 cathedral, bridges over the Clyde, were erected 
 at his expense ; while in St Andrews he con- 
 stituted himself a patron of learning, by found- 
 ing the College of St Mary's. "When he died 
 in 1539, there stood ready as his successor a 
 man more fitted than he to be the head of 
 Church and State ; and tradition has ascribed 
 to that successor a character of greater in- 
 tellectual genius, but of less moral respecta- 
 bility. 
 
 In 1539, then, David Beaton was archbishop 
 and cardinal. He might hope to be chancellor ; 
 but his ambition was set upon his being legate 
 a latere, the vicegerent of the Pope in Scotland, 
 in order that he might not only possess the 
 highest ecclesiastical dignity next to that of 
 the Pope, but that he might also have the 
 power and the authority to carry out a 
 thorough coercive policy against the enemies 
 of the ancient faith.^ A legate a latere was 
 armed, in countries where allegiance to Rome 
 was still professed, with an authority that could 
 dispense with the aid of secular judges; and 
 
 1 James in December 1538 wrote to the Pope, requesting the 
 legateship for Beaton. 
 
BEATON AS LEGATE. 
 
 139 
 
 this authority gave its possessor a power dan- 
 gerous alike to his personal enemies and to the 
 enemies of his Church. A legate a latere 
 enjoyed the prerogative expressed in the say- 
 ing of Gregory VIL, "Nostra vice quae corri- 
 genda sunt corrigat, quae statuenda con- 
 stituat." But so far - reaching was this pre- 
 rogative that Beaton was strenuously opposed 
 in his demand for it. From Beaton's letters 
 to his agent, Andrew Oliphant,^ it is plain 
 that his enemies ojDposed at Rome his get- 
 ting legatine power, but that he pressed his 
 claims on the ground of the need of such 
 powers to stamp out the new and growing 
 heresy. Beaton alone of living men, if man 
 were able, could save the ancient faith in 
 Scotland ; and the Pope therefore was will- 
 ing enough for his own cause to grant Beaton 
 the legatine power which he solicited, and at 
 last in 1544 obtained." 
 
 1 See Sadler's Papers, vol. i. p. 13 et seq. 
 Preface to Liber Arbrotli. 
 
140 
 
 CHAPTER YL 
 
 THE EXTIRPATIOX OF HERESY. 
 
 The accession of Beaton to the primacy of the 
 Scottish Church was followed by a policy of the 
 type which, in the language of later times, is 
 named thorough or coercive. Coercionists and 
 anti-coercionists are separated on the question 
 whether man is for the law or the law is for 
 man ; and while the former lay emphasis upon 
 law as the safeguard against anarchy, the latter 
 see in its vigorous enforcement a possible source 
 of tyranny. Progress is achieved through the 
 repeal of effete laws and the enactment of new 
 ones ; but progress owes its chief stimulus to 
 the revolutionist and the law-breaker.; and to 
 stand for the supremacy of the law is by no 
 means always the same as to stand for the 
 supremacy of right. 
 
 Beaton had definite Acts of Parliament against 
 
STATE ETHICS AND HERESY. 
 
 141 
 
 heresy to justify the poHcy which he adopted. 
 As primate of the Church it came within his pro- 
 vince to make sure that those statutes were main- 
 tained and honoured. Yet no lover of liberty 
 would attempt to justify Beaton's procedure 
 against the Lutheran heretics, though the policy 
 he pursued was based upon specific Acts of 
 Parliament and fortified by the conclusions 
 deduced from an abstract system of State 
 ethics. 
 
 Officers of any institution are the appointed 
 guardians of its laws, and into this guardian- 
 ship private feeling must not enter. The 
 officers must administer justice according to 
 the statutes, not distribute mercy or favour 
 according to the dictates of their own hearts. 
 Better the suffering of individuals, better the 
 charge of State tyranny, than the infringement 
 of the impartiality, the slur on the majesty and 
 supremacy of the law, by the discretion or in- 
 discretion of officers. This ethic is sound 
 enough when the sanctity of duty, the ex- 
 cellence of justice, the grace of impartiality 
 can be emphasised without reference to un- 
 just laws, and to that administration of laws 
 which some call tyranny and others per- 
 secution. 
 
142 THE EXTIRPATIOX OF HERESY. 
 
 Beaton, as head of the Church, was guardian 
 of the laws which aimed at securing its unity 
 and the purity of its doctrine : on him there- 
 fore was laid the duty of enforcing those laws, 
 though individuals should have to suffer in con- 
 sequence. Yet in fulfilling this duty he brought 
 to lio'ht the harshness of the laws concernino; 
 heresy, and incurred an odium that has lasted 
 for centuries. 
 
 The idea of toleration has now largely taken 
 the place of the idea that the Church must 
 be kept pure by the extirpation of heretics. 
 Church History, while it is a Book of ^Martyrs 
 for lovers of religious progress, is also a Book of 
 Heroes for the zealots who cling to the theory 
 of extirpation and reverence the memory of the 
 extirpators ; but those zealots have become few, 
 and toleration has begotten in most men indis- 
 criminate admiration of all martyrs and abhor- 
 rence of all heresy-hunters. Yet when the plea 
 is urged that the extirpator of heresy acts as for 
 the cause of the Head of the Church, and when 
 history shows certain tender-hearted inquisitors 
 in Spain as eager for the glory of Christ as 
 were some of the stern-hearted Covenanters of 
 Scotland, does not charity demand that this 
 abhorrence be not unqualified ? Nothing is more 
 
THE EQUITY OF HISTORY. 
 
 143 
 
 a subject for wonder than the diverse roads 
 which men tread for the sake of Christ ; and 
 though we do not ask for mercy to the memory 
 of Beaton as an extirpator of heretics, charity 
 demands that we should see if religious zeal in- 
 spired his coercive policy ; justice requires us 
 to remember that toleration was unknown in 
 his age ; while the "equity of history" bids us 
 measure him by the standard of the men of his 
 own times. 
 
 In the sixteenth century toleration was 
 found in More's Utopia but not in Christen- 
 dom. An apologist might therefore urge that, 
 though tradition condemns Beaton for tyranny, 
 the blame ought to fall on the time rather than 
 on the man ; and, further, might plausibly con- 
 tend that, as religious persecution in Scotland 
 was insignificant in quantity compared with the 
 persecutions in England, France, Spain, Hol- 
 land, the chief extirpator of the Lutheran here- 
 tics in Scotland has gained a notoriety exces- 
 sive because of the rarity of persecution in the 
 hands of others. The " equity of history " 
 itself, however, furnishes an answer to the apo- 
 logist. Since religious persecution was on the 
 whole, before and after, insignificant in Scot- 
 land, the director of the actual persecution is 
 
144 THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY. 
 
 justly singled out for censure ; and since the 
 Archbishop of Glasgow,^ the prelate next in dig- 
 nity to the primate, counselled a milder policy 
 than the Cardinals — not perhaps for toleration's 
 sake, but for the sake of the prosperity of the 
 Church — Beaton's reputation must take the 
 consequences of his employment of the methods 
 of coercion. 
 
 " The smoke of Mr Patrick Hamilton in- 
 fected " St Andrews, so that the place which 
 once was the capital of Catholicism became the 
 centre of the new heresy. The students of the 
 university, the novices of the abbey, " began to 
 smell somewhat of the verity," and even Black 
 and Grey friars were to be found preaching 
 asfainst the abuses of the Church. One William 
 Arithe, who was not then or afterwards a 
 Lutheran, so ridiculed in his sermons the spe- 
 cial abuses of " cursing " and of j)retended 
 miracles, giving at the same time illustrative 
 specimens of " cursing " by friars, that he ex- 
 cited the wrath of the Bishop of Brechin, and 
 raised the question whether or not such ridicule 
 was heresy. The friar postponed the settlement 
 of this nice question by fleeing to England, 
 where, for defending the supremacy of the 
 
 1 Knox's History, Bk. i. 
 
FURROUR AND SETON. 
 
 145 
 
 Pope, lie was dragged to one of Henry's 
 prisons. 
 
 Knox chronicles the preaching of this friar as 
 that of a Balaam's ass whose mouth God had 
 opened to condemn the vices of the clergy.^ 
 About the same time a certain man named 
 Alexander Furrour, having returned from Eng- 
 land after a seven years' imprisonment in the 
 Tower of London, was charged with the crime 
 of speaking openly in complaint of a church- 
 man who had entertained his wife during his 
 absence. There was no question to settle in 
 this case : Furrour was a heretic for bearino- 
 testimony against a churchman ; but he pleaded 
 guilty and so was set free, to the relief of the 
 clerical judges.^ 
 
 Alexander Seton, confessor of the king, de- 
 clared not only against the scandals of the 
 Church, but in favour of certain of the new 
 doctrines. During a season of Lent he openly 
 pleaded for the idea of justification by faith, 
 and found occasion to say that, according to 
 St Paul, there were no true bishops in Scot- 
 land. It was reported to the Archbishop of St 
 
 1 Knox's History, Bk. i. 
 
 2 Ibid. The curious will find, from the ' Registrum Visita- 
 tionum' of the Archbishop of Rouen (1248-1269), that Furrour's 
 was no uncommon case. 
 
 K 
 
146 THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY. 
 
 Andrews that Seton had asserted that "it be- 
 hoved a bishop to be a preacher, or else he were 
 but a dumb dog, and fed not the flock, but fed 
 his own belly." Seton, in presence of the Arch- 
 bishop and to his delight, maintained that they 
 who alleg-ed such things were liars. This de- 
 light was changed, however, when the Arch- 
 bishop heard the words of the accused. " Con- 
 sider what ears these asses have, who cannot 
 discern betwixt Paul, Isaiah, and Zechariah and 
 Malachai, and friar Alexander Seton. In very 
 deed, my lord, I said that Paul saith, ' It be- 
 hoveth a bishop to be a teacher ' ; Isaiah said, 
 ' That they that feed not the flocks are dumb 
 dogs ' ; and Zechariah saith, ' They are idle pas- 
 tors.'" The Pope himself could not have ven- 
 tured to condemn Seton for preaching the words 
 of the Bible ; but this friar, being the confessor 
 of the king, could not, without danger to the 
 interests of the Church, be left near the royal 
 presence. A charge of heresy was therefore 
 preferred against him, and James, suff'ering from 
 the stern precepts of this confessor, was glad to 
 escape to a more lenient director of his con- 
 science. Seton, accordingly, had to seek the 
 road to England.^ 
 
 1 Knox's History, Bk. i. ; Spottis\rood, pp. 64, 65. 
 
A COUET OF HERESY. 
 
 147 
 
 Such persecutions as these were not of suffi- 
 cient seriousness to establish a grave charge 
 of tyranny against the Church, nor to damage 
 the reputation of David Beaton, or whoever 
 counselled the persecutions. In 1533, however, 
 another was added at St Andrews to the roll of 
 martyrs. Henry Forrest, a young Benedictine, 
 was burned for the sin of possessing an Eng- 
 lish Bible, and of being an admirer of Patrick 
 Hamilton. In 1534 a court of heresy was held 
 in Edinburgh, then included in the diocese of 
 St Andrews. During the sitting of the court, 
 David Beaton was in France, and the Bishop 
 of Eoss therefore presided as commissioner for 
 the Archbishop. If the martyrdom of Patrick 
 Hamilton was, in part, the result of David 
 Beaton's counsels, then one may judge that this 
 court was held, not to satisfy the zeal of the 
 Archbishop, but that of his more energetic 
 nephew. Among those summoned to answer 
 the charge of heresy there were, besides three 
 citizens of Leith, an advocate named Johnston, 
 Henderson, the master of the Grammar School 
 of Edinburgh, and the brother and sister of Pat- 
 rick Hamilton. James Hamilton, the brother, 
 who was sheriff of Linlithgow, by advice of the 
 king did not appear ; while the sister, in order 
 
148 THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY. 
 
 to please James, made a show of recanta- 
 tion, whicli saved the scandal of the martyr- 
 dom of another of the Hamiltons. Of the 
 accused, however, two were condemned and 
 executed.^ 
 
 David Straiton incurred the wrath of the 
 Bishop of Moray over a question of tithes. 
 He bade his servants throw back every tenth 
 salmon or trout into the sea, and told the 
 bishop s officers to seek for the tithe where the 
 servants got the stock. He was threatened 
 with prosecution for contempt of the bishop's 
 orders, but increased the contempt by paying- 
 no heed to the threat. As Straiton, however, 
 was known to be a friend and convert of Erskine 
 of Dun, afterwards famous in the Reformed 
 Church, a charge of heresy was brought against 
 him, and on this charge he was condemned to 
 be burned. Along with Straiton was burned 
 Norman Gourlay, a priest, w^ho had declared 
 against purgatory, had affirmed that the Pope 
 was antichrist, and had married in defiance of 
 the canon law.^ As if to witness to this reign 
 of terror, certain scholars, whom their country 
 could ill spare, fled from Scotland. Among 
 these were Alesius, who became professor of 
 
 1 Knox, Calderv\'ood, Spottiswood. 2 
 
THE ROLL OF MARTYRS. 
 
 149 
 
 divinity at Leipsic, and the learned Machabseus, 
 known as one of the translators of the Danish 
 Bible. 1 
 
 In 1539 the policy of persecution was carried 
 out with increasing zeal. In February of that 
 year the Cardinal and, as Knox terms him, " the 
 incestuous Bishop of Dunblane," proceeded to 
 Edinburgh to try certain heretics. During 
 several years no one had been burned at the 
 stake, but these were the years when Beaton 
 was engaged with diplomatic affairs in France. 
 This fact bears out the probability that Beaton 
 was the author of the coercive policy which, 
 beginning with the martyrdom of Patrick 
 Hamilton, fell into disuse when Beaton was 
 absent from Scotland, and sprang into full 
 vigour again when he returned with Mary of 
 Guise. Of those condemned before the inquisi- 
 tions at Edinburgh, four were ecclesiastics and 
 one was a layman. Still from the ranks of 
 churchmen the martyrs' roll was made up ; and 
 the very class of men who in the ancient Church 
 soiled the uses of religion, gave to the new faith 
 almost all the witnesses who died for it. The 
 four ecclesiastics proceeded against were John 
 Keillor and John Beveridge, of the order of 
 
 1 Burnet's History of the Reformation, iii. i. 
 
150 THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY. 
 
 the Black Friars, Duncan Simpson, a priest of 
 Stirling, and Thomas Forret, the vicar of Dollar. 
 Along with them was condemned Eobert For- 
 rester, a notary at Stirling. 
 
 Keillor had written a " miracle " play which 
 was acted before the kins^ at Stirlino;. The 
 subject of the play was the passion of Christ, 
 and the allusions to the priests and the Phari- 
 sees who persuaded Pilate to condemn Christ, 
 suggested to the people the priests who induced 
 James to persecute the men of the new religion. 
 Unfortunately for the students of literature and 
 of Church history, the play has not been pre- 
 served ; but the memory of it is established 
 through the martyrdom of its author. Forret, 
 the vicar of Dollar, had been in the habit of 
 preaching every Sunday, though preaching was 
 deemed a privilege of the friars : moreover, he 
 had taught the people to say the Creed, the 
 Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments ; 
 and had given offence because he had not taken 
 ''the cow and the uppermost" perquisites to 
 the vicar, for saying prayers for the dead per- 
 son's escape from purgatory. For these sins, 
 some time before this trial, he had been brought 
 before the Bishop of Dunkeld, who made reply 
 to the accused : " I thank God I never knew 
 
THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 151 
 
 either the Old or New Testament " — words 
 which caused the name of the bishop to pass 
 into a proverb.^ 
 
 The five men were burned on the Castle 
 Hill of Edinburgh; and, as if to give dignity 
 to the scene, King James was present as a 
 spectator.^ Calderwood asserts that Forret 
 had been " diverse times " summoned before 
 the Bishops of St Andrews and Dunkeld, but 
 had escaped punishment till he fell under the 
 stronger power of David Beaton. If this state- 
 ment is true, it affords further evidence that 
 the aged Archbishop of St Andrews was not 
 the author of the coercive policy which was 
 carried out under his name and authority. 
 
 The spread of the new faith was not confined 
 to the east of Scotland. In the west also there 
 were heretics, but the Archbishop of Glasgow 
 was not zealous for the coming of the kingdom 
 of God by coercion and persecution. David 
 Beaton, as cardinal and as coadjutor with the 
 primate of the Church, was not willing, how- 
 ever, to leave the west of Scotland free for the 
 growth of heresy. Shortly after the sitting of 
 the clerical court in Edinburgh, he sent emis- 
 
 1 Knox, Spottiswood. 
 
 2 Household Book of James — March 1, 1539, 
 
152 THE EXTIEPATION OF HERESY. 
 
 saries to Glasgow, to act with the Archbishop 
 in holding an assize of inquisition. Jeremy 
 Eussel, a young man of the Grey Friars, and 
 Alexander Kennedy, a lad not eighteen years 
 of age, were summoned to appear before these 
 judges. Kennedy is described by Knox as 
 being " one of excellent wit in vulgar poetry," 
 but we are left to wonder if, like Keillor or 
 like the greater Buchanan, he had held up 
 the clergy to the scorn of the people. Kennedy, 
 at the opening of the trial, showed signs of a 
 failing faith ; but the exhortations of Eussel 
 strengthened him, and these two, after making 
 a good confession, were burned on a spot near 
 the Archbishop's castle in Glasgow. The Arch- 
 bishop, to his praise, did not willingly let them 
 suffer. " I think it better to spare these men 
 than to put them to death," he said to the 
 commissioners of the Cardinal. The commis- 
 sioners in anger answered him: ''What will 
 ye do, my lord? Will ye condemn all that 
 my lord Cardinal, and the other bishops, and 
 we have done ? If so ye do, ye show yourself 
 enemy to the Church and us, and so we will 
 repute you, be ye assured." ^ 
 
 Possibly this prelate, jealous for the pre- 
 
 ^ Knox's History, Bk. i. 
 
THE ARCHBISHOP OF GLASGOW. 
 
 153 
 
 rogative of the see of Glasgow, as against the 
 primacy of St Andrews, opposed a policy which 
 originated at St Andrews because it originated 
 there. His life, however, was that of a man 
 of peace, and we may therefore believe that 
 he honestly set himself against persecution. 
 It would be unwarrantable to ascribe to the 
 Archbishop the spirit of toleration which a 
 century later began to descend upon the 
 Christian Church ; but even an archbishop 
 may be credited with having felt pity for 
 prisoners as young as Kennedy and Eussel, 
 and his judgment probably suggested to him 
 that the safety of the Church was to be secured 
 by gentler measures than the doing to death 
 of those who pressed for this or that reform.^ 
 
 At the court held in Edinburgh, besides 
 those sentenced to the stake and nine who 
 recanted, there were, according to Buchanan, 
 many who were banished. Buchanan himself 
 was sentenced to imprisonment, and but for the 
 king would probably have added one to the 
 number of the martyrs on the Castle Hill of 
 Edinburgh.^ In 1537 he wrote a satire, ' Som- 
 
 1 See the character given to him in Buchanan's ' Coena Gavini 
 Archiepiscopi Glasciiensis.' 
 
 2 History, xiv. 55. 
 
154 
 
 THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY. 
 
 nium,' whicli gave offence to the Franciscans ; 
 and subsequently produced that more bitter 
 satire ' Franciscanus/ written at the request or 
 order of James — then offended with the Fran- 
 ciscans — in which the ignorance and sensuality 
 of the friars were ruthlessly exposed. Buchanan 
 was imprisoned in the castle of St Andrews, 
 from which escape would have been impossible 
 had not succour come to him. But he escaped 
 to France, probably with the knowledge of the 
 king, who, according to Buchanan himself,^ had 
 taken a bribe from Beaton for his imprisonment, 
 and by the help of James Beaton the future 
 bishop. We are not here concerned with 
 Buchanan s career, save with a single incident 
 of it. On one occasion he came face to face 
 with the Cardinal on the streets of Paris, and 
 the sio'ht of Buchanan stirred again the wrath 
 of Beaton. Beaton's vindictive cruelty is shown 
 by the fact that he sought, by letter to the 
 bishop of the diocese wherein Buchanan resided, 
 to have Buchanan sent to Scotland. Fortun- 
 ately for Buchanan and for scholarship, the 
 letter was intercepted and did not reach the 
 bishop ; but we see in Beaton's conduct cruelty 
 and persecuting tyranny, inexcusable even on 
 
 1 Vita. 
 
SIR JOHN BORTHWICK. 
 
 155 
 
 the ground, which might in other cases afford 
 pretext if not excuse, that the safety of the 
 Scottish Church required the extirpation of 
 those whose presence was a source of danger.^ 
 One of the first public acts of the Cardinal, 
 when he had reached the full dignity of pri- 
 mate of Scotland, was the holding of a council 
 at St Andrews for the purpose of considering 
 the position of ecclesiastical affairs. Beaton 
 was now not only cardinal, but archbishop and 
 legatus natus, and the ceremonial of the council 
 must be fitting his dignity. Earls and barons, 
 bishops and abbots, with crowds of men of 
 lesser name, marched in procession to the 
 cathedral, where, on a dais raised above the 
 rest, sat the Cardinal — higher in rank than the 
 other titled lay and priestly defenders of the 
 national religion. The Cardinal addressed the 
 assembly, and spoke of the spread of heresy 
 and the dangers which threatened the Church. 
 The chief man among the heretics. Sir John 
 Borthwick, had been summoned to appear be- 
 fore the council; but, too wary to trust the 
 mercy of the priests, had fled to Henry. 
 Borthwick was captain of the king's French 
 Guards, and had been guilty, according to the 
 
 1 living's Life of Buchanan. 
 
156 
 
 THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY. 
 
 indictmeut; of dispersing heretical books and of 
 maintaining; doctrines contrarv to the faith of 
 the Church. As he himself was not within 
 reach, he was sentenced on the 28th May 15-40 
 to be burned in effigy ; and it remains a ques- 
 tion whether or not this burning by effigy 
 entitles Bortliwick to a place on the honourable 
 roll of Scottish martyrs.^ 
 
 Shortly after the council held at St Ancbews 
 had risen a court of inc[uisition was established, 
 with Sir James Hamilton, natural brother of 
 the Earl of Ai-ran, as its head. This man was 
 above suspicion in his attachment to the Chmx-h, 
 and was likely to prove a valued instrument of 
 persecution ; but he had mixed himself up with 
 the political intrigues of the Douglases, and it 
 required skill on the part of the clergy to in- 
 duce James to favour his appointment. James, 
 however, was always poor and needy, and the 
 confiscated property of the heretics was gi^ateful 
 to him if thek' punishment was not. 
 
 Hamilton did not live to gain a reputation 
 as a judge of an inquisitorial court. Accord- 
 ing to Drummond, he resolved to make an 
 example of his cousin, the brother of Patrick 
 Hamilton, who had by the kings peimission 
 
 ^ Keith's History. 
 
SIR JAMES HAMILTON. 
 
 157 
 
 returned to Scotland. This Hamilton, ex- 
 sheriff of Linlithgow, incensed by the threats 
 of the new inquisition, exposed an old plot 
 for the murder of the king, in which Sir James 
 Hamilton had a principal share. The judge's 
 doom was sealed ; the clergy could not save 
 him ; the extirpation of heretics must find an- 
 other instrument ; and so this court of inqui- 
 sition collapsed by the execution of its judge 
 in August 16, 1540.^ 
 
 The Cardinal seems to have been for a time 
 out of favour with James after Hamilton's 
 execution. The king was morbid over plots 
 against his life and safety, and cruel to those 
 who planned them. Probably, therefore, his 
 anorer against the Cardinal was due to the fact 
 that Beaton had recommended the appoint- 
 ment of Hamilton as a judge. ^ 
 
 Sometime between this date and that of the 
 battle of Solway, there was in existence a list 
 of the names of certain persons suspected of 
 heresy, whose property might be useful to fill 
 the king's coffers. Tradition has used this list 
 in evidence against the character of Beaton. 
 
 1 Drummond, History of James V.; Lindsay of Pitscottie ; 
 Keith. 
 
 2 The Hamilton Papers, i. 57. 
 
158 THE EXTIRPATION OF HERESY. 
 
 According to the story, tlie Cardinal, after the 
 death of Sir James Hamilton, prepared a list 
 of three hundred and sixty persons, noblemen 
 and gentlemen, suspected of heresy, and pre- 
 sented it to the king. The property of those 
 heretics would have enabled the king to meet 
 the hostile approaches of Henry ; but James, 
 on the advice of his Treasurer, Kirkaldy of 
 Grange, not only refused to make war on the 
 suspected heretics, but turned in anger against 
 the prelates, and lectured them on their dis- 
 orderly lives. James, however, was not likely 
 to risk the anger of the prelates at a time 
 when, threatened by his uncle, he needed their 
 advice and their financial help.^ 
 
 Tradition is still more specific in its treat- 
 ment of this list of heretics. We are told that 
 once more the list was jDresented to the king, 
 when he was on the road to the south, before 
 the battle of Solway, and that it was found in 
 the pocket of his mantle after his death. It 
 is highly improbable, however, that Beaton 
 furnished such a list at a time when it was 
 useless to the king ; yet even if he had given 
 it, it is still more improbable that he left it 
 about the person of the king, when, by his 
 
 1 Knox, Keith. 
 
ACTS AGAINST HERESY. 
 
 159 
 
 attendance on James's deathbed, he had the 
 opportunity of recovering the scroll. There is 
 no authentic information to show that such a 
 list was found on the person of the king at 
 his death ; but there is the direct assertion of 
 the governor Arran that such a list existed, 
 and that his own name appeared first upon it.^ 
 
 The policy of coercion which we have traced 
 was not carried out without the sanction of the 
 law. In 1525 an Act of Parliament was passed 
 against those who held the doctrines of Luther ; 
 and in 1535 this Act was ratified in Parlia- 
 ment, and a statute decreed against those who 
 brought to Scotland or used any of the 
 Lutheran books. ^ In Pitcairn's ' Criminal 
 Trials,' under date January 10 and February 
 28, 1538-39, there are notices of individuals 
 finding surety against their using books sus- 
 pected to be heretical.^ 
 
 On the 14th of March 1541 the king was 
 present at a Parliament held at Edinburgh, in 
 which severe measures were taken against the 
 new faith. It was enacted that, under pain of 
 death, no one should question the authority of 
 the Pope ; that no private conventions should 
 be held for disputation on the Scriptures ; that 
 
 1 Sadler, i. p. 94. 2 Keith, i. p. 27. ^ Pitcairn, i. 216. 
 
160 
 
 THE EXTIRPATIOX OF HERESY. 
 
 abjurers of heresy should not be admitted to 
 any spiritual or temporal office ; that those who 
 refused to answer a summons for heresy should 
 be accounted heretics ; that informers on here- 
 tics should receive certain rewards.-^ 
 
 By these Acts the prelates hoped, but hoped 
 in vain, to stay the progress of the new faith. 
 In Scotland, as in other countries in early 
 Christian times, persecution served not to ex- 
 tirpate but to multiply the faithful. During 
 the sitting of the Parliament of March 1541 a 
 Eeform Act was passed with the aim of purify- 
 ing the manners of the Church.^ The king was 
 no doubt sincere in his reforming policy, since 
 he was alive to the neglect of worship, and to 
 the ignorance and vices of the clergy, for which 
 
 the Kirk and kirkmen were slighted and con- 
 temned." He assured the ambassador of the 
 English king that he would see to the reform 
 of the ecclesiastical vices ; but his power as a 
 reformer was of the smallest, separate as he was 
 from his nobles, and under the influence of the 
 clergy who were to be reformed. We find pro- 
 secutions under the Act directed against heresy, 
 but none under the Act directed against the 
 ignorance and vices of the clergy. 
 
 1 Keith, i. pp. 29-31. 2 i^id., i. p. 29. 
 
161 
 
 CHAPTEE YII. 
 
 REFORMATION FROM ENGLAXD. 
 
 Beatox's policy of persecution was in part a 
 consequence of Henry YIII.'s plan of intrigue 
 in Scottish affairs. Henry sought through the 
 Scottish king to convert Scotland, not to Pro- 
 testantism as known in Germany, but to the 
 political religion which consisted of a denial of 
 the Papal authority in the ecclesiastical affairs 
 of Christendom, and of an assertion of the head- 
 ship of kings over the spiritual affairs of their 
 own kingdoms. Scotland, through her mari- 
 time business, was in touch with Germany 
 and Denmark, and her traders, as carriers of 
 Lutheran literature, were among the first mis- 
 sionaries of Protestantism. No doubt the 
 heresy propagated through this channel was 
 as dangerous to the interests of the ancient 
 Church as the heresy which spread from Eng- 
 
 L 
 
162 REFORMATION FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 land ; but the new faith imported from Ger- 
 many had not behind it a force of arms, and 
 did not therefore require a stern persecution 
 to crush it. Henry, with his genius for in- 
 trigue, and his fanatical zeal for the faith 
 which he himself had inaugurated, was an 
 enemy whom the Church had reason to fear. 
 His connection with James, his army of spies 
 and diplomatists scattered over Scotland, his 
 military power, all threatened continual danger 
 to the liberty and religion of Scotland ; and if 
 his plan of conversion failed, it was because of 
 Beaton's persecution and astute diplomacy, and 
 because the author of the plan was the King 
 of England, the hereditary enemy of Scotland. 
 Henry's policy in Scotland was twofold — to 
 establish the English overlordship, and to join 
 Scotland with England in the denial of the 
 Papal supremacy, and in the opposition to a 
 o:reat Catholic Leaofue then in course of forma- 
 tion. On Beaton depended the success or the 
 failure of Henry's policy. James's marriage, 
 it has already been seen, was of special interest 
 to the Pope, the Emperor, and the Kings of 
 France and England, inasmuch as the marri- 
 age was likely to influence or determine his 
 answer to the great religious question of the 
 
EMBASSIES TO JAMES V. 
 
 163 
 
 time. The Emperor sent him the order of the 
 Golden Fleece, and sought his alliance in secur- 
 ing a Catholic council. Francis sent him the 
 order of St Michael ; while the Pope sent him 
 a consecrated cap and sword, that the sword 
 might breed a terror in the heart of a neio;h- 
 bouring prince," and besought him to defend 
 the Catholic faith. ^ Thus was Scotland brought 
 into the arena of European politics because of 
 her proximity to England. 
 
 Shortly after the peace of 1534, Henry sent 
 Lord William Howard to Scotland with instruc- 
 tions to make offer of the Garter to the king, to 
 propose a meeting of the two sovereigns with 
 Francis, and to promise on Henry's part the 
 payment of all expenses incurred by James at 
 the meeting. The Scottish king accepted the 
 Garter, as well as the invitation to the meeting 
 of the sovereigns ; but this meeting did not 
 take place.^ In October 1535, Barlow and 
 Holcrofte were sent from England with direc- 
 tions to persuade the King of Scotland of the 
 excellence of his uncle's new creed. According 
 to their instructions, these ambassadors were to 
 
 ^ Buchanan, Calderwood, Drummond. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 1 ; Hamilton Papers, i. 
 14, 15. 
 
164 
 
 PvEFORMATIOX FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 endeavour to rouse James to anger against the 
 authority of the Pope, and against the wealth 
 and the power of the clergy. Moreover, the 
 meetino' of the two king's was ao'ain to be 
 urged. ^ The reply of James was brief. He 
 would keep his " obediens till Haly Kyrk," but 
 he was willing to meet his uncle, and to leave 
 to him the necessary arrangements.- In this 
 same year, as has been shown, James despatched 
 commissioners to arrange a marriage with Mary 
 of Yendome, while Henry endeavoured to pre- 
 vent the marriao'e and to draw James to his 
 side in the great religious strife. Once more 
 ambassadors were sent to Scotland ; ^ and their 
 instructions reveal Henry's character and his 
 purposes towards Scotland. The ambassadors, 
 Lord Howard and Barlow, bishop-elect of St 
 Asaph, were to set before James the blessings 
 of relioion as then known in Enoiand, to sus;- 
 ofest the demolition of the Scottish relioious 
 
 o o 
 
 houses, but to make the suggestion in such a 
 way as not to drive James for advice to his 
 clerical council. Further, they were to obtain 
 the opinions of the Scottish nobles regarding 
 the ecclesiastical chano-es in Enoiand, and were 
 to hint at the possible advantage to be gained 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 22, 23, 26. - Ibid. 3 n^ia. 
 
THE MEETING OF HENRY AND JAMES. 165 
 
 for them by the destruction of the monasteries. 
 Margaret was to be persuaded that the meeting 
 of the kings would further her private interests, 
 and that Henry devised the meeting for no 
 other purpose than to see " her and his dearest 
 nephew." This meeting was to be arranged at a 
 place " as fer within Engiande as they canne ; " 
 and the Yendome marriage was to be delayed, if 
 possible, on the plea that Henry would arrange 
 for security for payment of the bride's dower. 
 
 Buchanan, in his account of this embassy, 
 says that Barlow^ brought with him certain 
 controversial books touching the Eeformation, 
 which James handed to his clerical advisers. 
 These advisers pronounced the books heretical, 
 and Barlow's missionary zeal was expended in 
 vain, seeing that he had to deal not with James, 
 but with men whom he styled the Pope's pes- 
 tylent creatures, very lymmes of the Devyll." ^ 
 In spite of the opposition of the prelates and of 
 some of the leading nobles, James favoured, or 
 pretended to favour, the proposed meeting, and 
 named Newcastle as the place and Michaelmas 
 as the date.^ Drummond asserts that Lord 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 37. 
 
 2 Hamilton Papers, i. 28-31 ; State Papers (Henry VIII.), 
 V. pp. 40-45. 
 
166 REFORMATION FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 Howard would not agree to Newcastle, and 
 that with threats he soug-ht to induce the 
 Scottish council to decide on York. With 
 strange perverseness, however, the ambassa- 
 dor showed himself on friendly terms with 
 Sir Georo-e Douo^las, and thus alienated the 
 favour of James from Henry's proposals. The 
 meeting did not take place, either at York or 
 Newcastle, and for a time Henry's intrigues 
 in this direction were bafEed. A show of suc- 
 cess, however, attended his efforts at reforma- 
 tion in Scotland. James wrote to him in May 
 1536, that he had sent to Eome for special 
 powers to reform abuses in the realm, especi- 
 ally in reference to the temporal possessions 
 of the Church.^ James may have sought such 
 powers, but it is certain that he did nothing 
 to reform the abuses. 
 
 The clergy were the chief opponents of 
 Henry's plans, and so strong was their oppo- 
 sition that at last they persuaded James to 
 solicit from Eome a brief prohibiting the meet- 
 ing. They urged that no trust was to be 
 placed in Henry's promises, and pointed to 
 his anxiety for the meeting to be held at 
 York, or some spot "fer within Englande." 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 33. 
 
THE SCOTTISH CLEKGY AND HENRY. 167 
 
 Moreover, these guardians of the national re- 
 ligion were not willing that their king should 
 confer with the arch-heretic of England; and 
 Buchanan relates how they brought to court 
 the Archbishop of St Andrews and the Bishop 
 of Dunkeld, infirm old men, to weep over the 
 religion which Henry was seeking to destroy ; 
 and how they bribed the courtiers to warn 
 James against his uncle's intrigues. For the 
 failure of the Yendome marriage Henry was 
 not responsible. On the contrary, the mar- 
 riage with Magdalen was even less to his 
 liking; and he declared to his sister that he 
 knew nothing of his nephew's doings in France 
 till he received the announcement of James's 
 union with the daughter of Francis.^ Henry, 
 moreover, estranged still further his nephew's 
 affections by not granting the request that he 
 and his bride should be allowed to pass through 
 England, on their journey from France to Scot- 
 land.^ 
 
 The clergy had rescued James from Henry's 
 influence ; and now the union with France, so 
 effectively promoted by Beaton, cemented once 
 more the ancient Scoto - French alliance, and 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 35. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIIL), v. p. 69. 
 
168 
 
 REFORMATIOX FROM EXGLA^D. 
 
 was likely to make Scotland an active agent in 
 the advancement of the great Catholic cause. 
 
 Durino' the absence of the Scottish kino;, on 
 the occasion of his marriage, the government 
 was carried on by a council of regency, of 
 which the aged Archbishop of St Andrews was 
 a member. Henry, though he had failed to 
 procure the meeting at York and to prevent the 
 French marriage, did not, even in the absence 
 of his nephew, abate his zeal in pursuit of the 
 Scottish policy. 
 
 Early in the year 1537, Sadler was sent to 
 Scotland, nominally on a mission of inquiry 
 regarding Margaret's domestic concerns, in 
 reality on a mission of intrigue. He was in- 
 structed to ingratiate himself with the nobility, 
 to gain Margaret as an agent of England, and 
 to ascertain the feelings of the people in regard 
 to the reliofious chansres in Endand. Sadler 
 had to report, however, that he found the 
 council of regency in favour of the ancient 
 religion, and inclined to war in its support.^ 
 Ray, who followed Sadler as Henry's spy, wrote 
 on April 14, 1537, that it was universally re- 
 ported in Scotland that the English had sent 
 out ships to capture James on his homeward 
 
 ^ Sadler's letter, quoted in Pinkerton, ii. 343. 
 
RUMOURS OF WAR. 
 
 169 
 
 journey ; ^ that it was believed that Henry 
 and the Emperor were joined together against 
 France, and that in consequence of this belief 
 the Scots were ready to support France. Eay 
 gave as his own opinion, that the Scots were 
 more inclined to war than to peace with Eng- 
 land, and he told how the Scots called the 
 English heretics, " and other diverse sclawn- 
 derouse wordes." At a later date it was further 
 reported that an order for armour to the people 
 had been made by the council.^ The rumours 
 of war were increased on James's return to 
 Scotland, and many signs indicated that he was 
 preparing to attack Henry in case of a rup- 
 ture between France and England.^ During 
 his journey he was even heard to say that " yf 
 he lyved on yere he should hymself breake a 
 spear on one Inglishman's breaste." * Thus was 
 James joined in sympathy with France, and his 
 country was with him ; everywhere Henry's 
 Scottish policy was marked with failure. 
 
 The marriage of James, after the death of 
 Magdalen, with Mary of Guise, bound him still 
 more closely than even his marriage with the 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 41 ; State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. 
 p. 78. 
 
 2 Conf. Pinkerton, ii. 344. 
 
 3 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 94. ^ i^id.^ p. 80. 
 
170 
 
 REFORMATIOX FEOM P:XGLAXD. 
 
 daughter of the King of France had done to 
 the interests of the Catholic cause, and served 
 to make wider the breach between the kings of 
 Scotland and England. 
 
 Mary of Guise, and with her the Cardinal, 
 arrived in Scotland in June 1538 ; but Beaton 
 appears to have gone back shortly afterwards 
 to France. The precise object of the visit to 
 France is unknown, but in the interval im- 
 portant changes took place in the progress of 
 the Pope's scheme of a Catholic league against 
 England. Pope Paul acted as mediator be- 
 tween Charles and Francis, both exhausted 
 with their campaigns ; and as a result of the 
 mediation the truce of Nice was signed on J une 
 18, 1538.^ After the signing of the truce, Paul 
 published the Bull of excommunication against 
 Henry, in the hope that the Emperor and the 
 King of France would be moved to arms against 
 the heretic. 
 
 Cardinal Pole, Englishman though he was, 
 acted as the chief agent of the Pope in trying 
 to form the league, and in the course of the 
 negotiations proceeded to Spain to persuade 
 Charles that, as a faithful son of the Church, he 
 must leave for the time the punishment of the 
 
 1 Robertson's Hist, of Charles V., Bk. vi. 
 
THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE. 
 
 171 
 
 Turk, and turn to the chastisement of Henry, 
 now the most dangerous enemy to the Catholic 
 Church. In the dispatch borne by Cardinal 
 Pole, the Pope assured Charles that in an 
 attack on England he would have the assistance 
 of James of Scotland, and his excellent Cardinal, 
 David Beaton.^ The assurance given by the 
 Pope, and Beaton's absence from Scotland in 
 the autumn of 1538, show that the Cardinal 
 was one of the chief promoters of the scheme of 
 a Catholic alliance, by which he hoped to de- 
 stroy Henry, the foe of the Papal authority, the 
 disturber of the established religion, and the 
 hereditary and energetic enemy of the liberties 
 of Scotland. Hopeful of the success of the 
 league, Beaton returned to Scotland to wage 
 war on the heretics; and in the spring of 1539 
 the persecutions in Edinburgh and Glasgow 
 took place. 
 
 Pole was so far successful in his mission to 
 Charles. Early in the year 1539, English ships 
 were arrested in Flanders ; the Spanish ambas- 
 sador was recalled from Eno;land, and a fleet 
 began to collect at Antwerp and other ports.^ 
 The destination of the fleet was never known, 
 but rumour had it that an attack on England 
 
 1 Conf. Fronde's History, ch. xv. - Ibid. 
 
172 REFORMATION FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 was intended. Among the communications to 
 Henry from his agents was one to the effect 
 that, on January 22, an ambassador of France 
 had arrived in Scotland and passed to the king; 
 another, that Francis had desired James to have 
 an army ready on the 15th of May ; and still 
 another, that Beaton had gone to Paris to learn 
 what the King of France and the Pope would 
 do to help Scotland, and, if war were made on 
 England, what was to be done for Scotland 
 should the expedition fail.^ In April, Eay, 
 Henry's spy, reported that in Scotland there 
 were evident preparations for war, and that 
 Margaret had told him of the arrival from 
 France of a large quantity of silver which was 
 coined into money. ^ Evidently, however, the 
 plan of campaign could not be determined, or 
 there was reason for belief that any attack on 
 England would prove a failure. In March, the 
 wharves of Antwerp were covered with mili- 
 tary stores for the expedition ; on the 7th of 
 April, news reached England that the fleet 
 was broken up.^ 
 
 Sometime during the spring of this year, 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIIL), v. pp. 147, 154, 156. 
 
 2 Hamilton Papers, i. 52. 
 
 ' Conf. Froude's History, ch. xv. 
 
THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE. 
 
 173 
 
 while the attack on England was still threat- 
 ened, Henry sent Sadler to persuade James 
 against the league, to warn him against the 
 schemes of the Pope, and to suggest a meeting 
 of the uncle and the nephew, if James's clergy 
 would permit the meeting.^ Nothing is known 
 of the details of Sadler's mission, as there is no 
 document bearing on the subject, save the let- 
 ter of instructions. Henry also sent Norfolk 
 from York to Berwick, and thus convinced 
 James and his associates that, if Scotland was 
 to be the point of attack on England by the 
 Catholic allies, Henry would not be unprepared 
 for it. Wharton wrote to Norfolk that the 
 whole realm of Scotland was in a marvellous 
 fear lest he should make a hasty invasion of 
 Scotland.^ The breaking up of the Flanders 
 fleet was, however, a satisfactory answer to 
 Henry's messages and hints to the King of 
 Scotland. 
 
 If Henry had now successfully opposed his 
 Catholic foes in their plan of attack on Eng- 
 land, he was still no further advanced in the 
 accomplishment of his designs on Scotland. 
 
 1 Conf. Fronde's Historv, chapter xviii., regarding the date 
 of this mission of Sadler, 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. pp. 157, 160. 
 
174 
 
 REFORM ATIOX FROM P:XGLAXD. 
 
 In the autumn of this year, 1539, Archbishop 
 James Beaton died, and the Cardinal was left 
 in sole possession of the see of St Andrews. 
 Shortly after his elevation to the primacy, 
 Beaton applied to the Pope to make Gibson, 
 Dean of Eestakig, a bishop, in order that he 
 might act as his suffragan/ Thus the Primate 
 secured leisure for the political work which 
 did not lie amono- the duties of his clerical 
 office. 
 
 Beaton for some unknown reason continued 
 for a time in France after this failure of the 
 Catholic leag-ue : and after his return his move- 
 ments were closelv watched bv the Eno;lish 
 spies, as if they expected some further develop- 
 ment of the Catholic policy. From a dispatch 
 of the council of the Xorth to Cromwell,- it 
 appears that certain Scottish letters, which by 
 the foundering of a ship had come into the 
 hands of the council, made known that the 
 Cardinal proposed to journey to Eome in the 
 Lent time of the following year, and that the 
 Scots '"'intended some mystery" with some of 
 their allies. What the object of this intended 
 visit to Rome was cannot now be made out, 
 
 1 Epp. Reg. Scot., iL 64. 
 
 - State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 168, and note. 
 
THE CHARACTER OF JAMES. 
 
 175 
 
 but certain letters of James to the Po^De and 
 to the Cardinal Ghuicci show that the Pope 
 sought to delay Beaton's journey, and that 
 James urged the Pope to reconsider the matter.^ 
 The only private business which was likely to 
 take Beaton to Eome was his wish to obtain 
 legatine powers in Scotland ; ^ but probably 
 his chief purpose in seeking the presence of 
 the Pope was to instigate anew the attempt 
 to establish the Catholic league. 
 
 The King of Scotland, ever after his return 
 from France, was closely watched by Henry's 
 spies, and was frequently the recipient of 
 advice from an uncle skilled in kingcraft. 
 
 The character of James shows vacillations 
 which explain not only the praise bestowed on 
 him by Catholic writers, but also the fond 
 regrets of Protestant historians over one who 
 was almost persuaded to be a Eeformer. James 
 saved the brother and sister of Patrick Hamil- 
 ton from martyrdom, but consented to the 
 death of Straiton and Gourlay ; he witnessed 
 the burning of the men on the Castle Hill of 
 Edinburgh, but was privy to the escape of 
 George Buchanan from the castle of St Andrews. 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 168, note. 
 
 2 Sadler, i. pp. 13-17. 
 
176 REFORMATION FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 Later in the year in which he witnessed the 
 burning in Edinburgh, he and his queen w^ere 
 spectators at Linlithgow^ of an interlude, pro- 
 bably Lindsay's " Satire of the Three Estates," 
 in w^hich the vices of the clergy and the pre- 
 sumption of the prelates were satirised. On 
 the occasion of the interlude the king is said 
 to have called on the Archbishop of Glasgow 
 and the bishops present to reform their lives, 
 or he w^ould send six of the proudest of them 
 to his uncle of England. At the same time it 
 was reported that James intended to expel all 
 the clergy from the offices of his household 
 and of the State.^ If James ever had such 
 an intention, it w^as the intention of a man 
 wdth the wish but without the power to act, — 
 with the desire to exercise an authority which 
 instead was exercised over him. 
 
 Acting on this or on similar information, 
 Henry sent Sadler on another of his embassies 
 to Scotland.^ The commission to Sadler is the 
 first proof of Henry's determination to remove 
 Beaton from the councils of the King of Scot- 
 land, — a determination steadily maintained till 
 Henry brought about the murder of his enemy. 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 170. 
 
 2 Sadler, i. p. 3. 
 
Sadler's mission. 
 
 177 
 
 Sadler was directed to make known secretly to 
 James that certain private letters of the Car- 
 dinal had come into Henry's jDossession, and 
 that God had sent them into his hands. He 
 was not instructed, however, to say that the 
 letters had been stolen from the Cardinal's 
 messenger. It was further to be stated that 
 the Cardinal, under pretence of serving the 
 kino^, was labourino; to brino; into his own hand 
 not only the spiritual but the temporal juris- 
 diction of the realm, and was devising how to 
 get possession of the king's traitors, that as 
 their judge he might deliver them. James was 
 also to be addressed concerning his unkingly 
 habit of meddling with sheep " as a means 
 of revenue, and was to be instructed in the 
 more royal and dignified method of increasing 
 wealth by seizing some of the houses and 
 possessions of the monks, as his uncle in Eng- 
 land had done. Further, James was to be 
 shown the advantages of an alliance with Henry 
 rather than with Francis and Charles ; and 
 lastly, Sadler was to demand the deliver- 
 ance of one Dr Hilliard, who had fled from 
 England, and had taken refuge with the 
 Cardinal. 
 
 In due time, Sadler wrote a report of his 
 
 M 
 
178 EEFORMATION FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 mission.^ The Cardinal's letter, which had been 
 seen by James and despatched with his consent, 
 referred to Beaton's request to be appointed 
 leo^ate a latere, a matter about w^hich James 
 himself had written to the Pope. Beaton's 
 supposed dealings with traitors w^ere also easily 
 explained. They were simple men, James told 
 Sadler, and he himself made the Cardinal the 
 minister both to commit and to deliver them. 
 Thus Henry utterly failed to incriminate 
 Beaton and to discredit him with James ; and 
 Sadler had to write that James excused the 
 Cardinal in everything, and seemed loath to 
 hear anything in his dispraise. Henry w^as not 
 more successful regarding the demolition of the 
 religious houses. James thanked him for the 
 advice, but declared that it seemed to him 
 against reason and God's law to put down 
 abbeys and religious houses which had stood 
 many years and had maintained God's service. 
 And what need had he to take them, he said, 
 when he could have anything he asked of them ? 
 "I am sure," he declared, "there is' not an 
 abbey in Scotland at this hour, but if we mister 
 anything, we may have of them whatever we 
 will desire." When Sadler urged the profligacy 
 
 1 Sadler, i. p. 17. 
 
Sadler's mission. 
 
 179 
 
 of the monks as a reason for the destruction of 
 the religious houses, James answered, " God 
 forbid that if a few be not good, for them all 
 the rest should be destroyed." 
 
 The contrast is marked between the two 
 kings in their conduct in regard to the religious 
 houses ; and though the breaking up of the 
 monasteries may now be applauded on moral 
 and economic grounds, praise may none the less 
 be given to the Scottish king, who withstood 
 the temptation of enriching himself after the 
 fashion of the King of England. James, no 
 doubt under the influence of the clergy, refused 
 to lay a sacrilegious hand on the monasteries, 
 though the destruction of them would have 
 brought him wealth. Henry, on the other 
 hand, with his assertion of superiority over the 
 clergy, levelled the English religious houses to 
 the ground ; and thereafter advised his nephew 
 to do likewise in Scotland, that he might 
 establish his revenue thereby in such sort as 
 to be able to live like a king and yet not 
 meddle with sheep." 
 
 In the Sadler papers there is no further 
 mention of Hilliard. Hilliard, however, was 
 being entertained at St Andrews by the " Griete 
 Cardinall," who evidently dictated James's 
 
180 REFORMATION FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 reply to the demand that Hilliard, a religious 
 refugee, should be exchanged for one Rutherford, 
 a thief and manslayer. James refused the ex- 
 change, on the ground that he "leaves kirk- 
 men to be dealt with by their ordinaries by the 
 law of Haly Kirk." ^ 
 
 Everywhere Beaton triumphed in his answer 
 to Sadler's insinuations and demands, and once 
 more Henry was thwarted. Sadler himself 
 confessed that, as the noblemen were young, 
 and wanting in agility of wit, gravity, learning, 
 and experience, the king was forced to use the 
 bishops and the clergy as his only ministers 
 for the direction of things.^ Sadler, at the 
 same time, gave a strange instance of the 
 power and tyranny of the clergy. A report 
 was spread that he and his folks ate flesh, as 
 heretics and Jews, at Lent, and therefore the 
 Cardinal caused proclamation to be made, " that 
 whose ver should buy an egg or eat an egg 
 within those' dioceses, should forfeit no less 
 than his body to the fire to be burned as a 
 heretick, and all his goods confiscate to the 
 king." Sadler, however, must have invented 
 or coloured the story, since the Scottish histo- 
 rians are silent on this matter, even those who 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 54. ^ Sadler, i. p. 47. 
 
JAMES AND THE NORTHERN ISLES. 181 
 
 would gladly have chronicled such an instance 
 of tyranny. 
 
 In the summer of 1540, James prepared 
 a fleet, the most finely equipped of any yet 
 seen in Scotland, to proceed against the tur- 
 bulent chiefs in the Northern Isles. Huntly, 
 Arran, and other nobles, with the Cardinal, ac- 
 companied the king ; and such was Beaton's 
 wealth that he furnished, at his own cost, five 
 hundred men for the expedition.^ Maxwell, 
 the admiral, was not appointed commander of 
 this expedition ; ^ and Beaton thus had his re- 
 venge for the offence which Maxwell committed 
 against him in conducting Mary of Guise to 
 Scotland. James had hardly returned from 
 this voyage when the trouble with Sir James 
 Hamilton took place, — a trouble which, for a 
 time, estranged the Cardinal from the king. 
 The estrangement, however, was only tem- 
 porary, and soon Beaton regained his para- 
 mount influence in the State ; and Scotland 
 once more presented the spectacle of a priest- 
 ruled realm. 
 
 In the Parliament of 1541, this rule was 
 shown in the Acts passed in favour of the 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 180. 
 
 2 Letter quoted by Pinkerton, ii. p. 362. 
 
182 REFORMATION FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 ancient faith, and of the supremacy of the 
 Pope ; while the Act passed for the reform of 
 the clergy was one to which they were not 
 likely to object, since they themselves were to 
 be the administrators of the Act. 
 
 The State correspondence of this year shows 
 that Henry zealously demanded that the re- 
 ligious refugees to Scotland should be con- 
 sidered as criminals, and under the articles of 
 existing treaties should be given up as such 
 to him.^ The Scottish Government would not, 
 however, yield, and in no instance was a re- 
 ligious refugee sent back. Henry's anger had 
 also been roused by the fact that James was 
 now being styled Defender of the Faith. The 
 Pope had offered to confer the title on James, 
 and thus to deprive Henry of it ; but no Bull 
 was issued, such as appeared when Henry re- 
 ceived the title for opposing Luther. 
 
 After Sadler's arrival in Edinburgh in 1540, 
 on a mission of which little is known, he had 
 sent to England certain books published in 
 Scotland. On the title-page of one of these, 
 ' The Trumpet of Honour,' the King of Scot- 
 land was called Defender of the Christian Faith, 
 as if to show that his faith was not that of 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 191. 
 
DEFENDER OF THE FAITH. 
 
 183 
 
 Henry. ^ Henry's wrath was thus swollen from 
 many sources, but he resolved to make one 
 more effort to see his nephew, and save him 
 and his country from Kome. Beaton's absence 
 from Scotland seemed to favour the prospect 
 of a meeting. Henry set out on the 1st of 
 July to visit the northern part of his kingdom, 
 and arrived at Pomfret at the end of August. 
 Here a messenger from the King of Scotland 
 came to arrano^e a meeting; between the two 
 kings, before Henry's return to London. ^ 
 James had commissioned Bellenden to visit 
 Henry in reference to peace between the two 
 countries,^ and probably this was the messenger 
 who at Pomfret proposed the meeting. Did 
 the proposal originate with James ? Kirkaldy 
 of Grange, one of the Scottish-English faction, 
 on advices from England had proposed to James 
 to have this meeting, and had done so secretly, 
 in order that Beaton's friends might hear noth- 
 ing of it.^ Apparently, then, the proposal origi- 
 nated with J ames ; and though Henry suggested 
 London, Windsor, or Hampton Court, as he 
 could not go to York "without hurt of his 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 191. 
 
 2 State Papers, i. 680. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 190. 
 * Conf. Fronde's History, ch. xix. 
 
184 REFORMATION FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 person," ^ lie finally did go to York in the 
 middle of September, expecting there to meet 
 James, who however did not appear. Im- 
 mediately before the secret negotiations, Beaton, 
 with David Panton, the secretary, had left 
 Scotland for France and Eome, probably on 
 the mission which had been postponed by the 
 Pope.2 
 
 In June of this year, Eay, the spy of Henry, 
 reported that every man in Scotland, according 
 to his degree, was ordered to be ready with 
 his equipments for war, and that in the castle 
 of Edinburgh workmen were busy making guns 
 and ammunition. On July 12, Sir William 
 Eure reported that a ship with guns and 
 pikes and other weapons had arrived from 
 France.^ 
 
 Probably there was some connection between 
 the Cardinal's journey to France and those 
 warlike preparations ; and Henry, evidently 
 suspecting that the Cardinal was planning 
 a war on England, was anxious to meet James 
 at York in September. In September it was 
 reported that James, who was making no pre- 
 
 1 Conf. Stevenson's Mary Stuart, p. 20. 
 
 2 Hamilton Papers, i. 73 ; Epp. Reg. Scot., 121, 122, 136. 
 2 Hamilton Papers, i. 70, 73. 
 
THE MEETING AT YORK. 
 
 185 
 
 paration to meet his uncle, had promised, 
 before the Cardinal left for France, that he 
 would not go to England without further word 
 from him, and that on this date no further 
 word had come from France ; and further, it 
 was reported that the council were opposed 
 to the meeting. Though he knew these 
 things, Henry proceeded to York on the 20th 
 September, but, as already said, only to find 
 that James did not appear.^ 
 
 The failure of James to attend this meeting; 
 is usually alleged as the cause of the anger of 
 the English king which preceded the rout of 
 Solway ; yet Henry, writing to James on the 
 26th of September, did not mention the meet- 
 ing, nor blame James for not proceeding to 
 York. On the other hand, there is evidence 
 from a letter, of date 21st September, that 
 James had appointed commissioners to meet 
 Henry concerning the Border disputes ; and 
 the supreme political authority of Beaton is 
 indicated by the fact that the commissioners 
 delayed their departure to England till they 
 had heard from Beaton, who was in France.^ 
 
 On December 3, Wharton wrote that the 
 commissioners were to leave Edinburgh on 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 85, 90, 106. 2 ji^i^^ gg, 90. 
 
186 
 
 REFORMATION FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 December 1, and that the blame of James's 
 non-appearance at York would be laid on the 
 clergy, who feared an invasion from Henry 
 when he was in the north, and who had been 
 instructed by the Cardinal that the King of 
 France did not favour a meeting between 
 Henry and James. ^ 
 
 The commissioners eventually proposed a 
 meeting at York on January 15, 1542, and 
 promised that they would remain as hostages 
 for the appearance of James. From Henry's 
 reply to the proposal it is plain that some 
 stipulation had been made by James that the 
 consent of the King of France should first be 
 obtained, and that, failing this consent, James 
 would then endeavour to arrano-e a meeting: of 
 the three kings. Nothing came of the proposal 
 for the meeting on January 15th ; and thus 
 Beaton finally triumphed in his endeavour to 
 prevent the coming together of James and the 
 man whom the Scottish clergy dreaded and 
 hated. ^ The Scottish clergy had indeed reason 
 to fear that Henry might persuade James to 
 follow his example in throwing off the Papal 
 authority, and in destroying the religious houses ; 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 106. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. pp. 198-200. 
 
PLOT AGAINST JAMES. 
 
 187 
 
 and moreover, they mistrusted the honesty of 
 Henry's proposals as to a safe - conduct for 
 James, who, they believed, would be detained 
 a prisoner in England if he did not agree to 
 Henry's terms. 
 
 Possibly the Scottish council did not know, 
 but only suspected, Henry's sinister purposes. 
 That the purposes were sinister, in spite of the 
 professions of friendship and love from an uncle 
 to a nephew, is seen from the plot for kid- 
 napping James, to which Henry gave heed. 
 Wharton seems to have proposed to Henry a 
 scheme for capturing James, which Henry sub- 
 mitted to his council, who very explicitly con- 
 demned it.^ 
 
 Henry's policy in Scotland failed, though he 
 had the strength of English arms and the power 
 of English gold to help him. He was matched 
 by a man as able as himself, who in opposition 
 to powerful influences had saved for a time the 
 ancient Church and the ancient liberties of Scot- 
 land. The Cardinal and the Earls of Murray 
 and Argyle were named as the chief of those 
 who prevented the Scottish king's journey to 
 York,^ though Beaton afterwards argued to 
 Sadler that, seeing he was in France at the date 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 204. 2 ibid., p. 214. 
 
188 REFORMATION FROM ENGLAND. 
 
 of the proposed meeting, he ^vas not respon- 
 sible for James's failure to attend. It has been 
 shown, however, that James would not go to 
 England without the Cardinal's consent, and that 
 consent was not obtained. In the interests of 
 the Church and of the State, Beaton surely acted 
 wisely when he refused his consent to the meet- 
 ing at York. According to Knox, the prelates 
 and churchmen promised to James mountains 
 of gold (as Satan their father did to Christ 
 Jesus if He would worship him) ; for rather 
 would they have gone to heU than he should 
 have met King Henry ; for then, thought they, 
 farewell our kingdom of abbots, monks, &c. 
 And farewell, thought the Cardinal, his credit 
 and glory in France." We may praise or 
 blame the motives of Beaton and the prelates, 
 but they successfully frustrated the policy of 
 England. 
 
189 
 
 CHAPTER YIIL 
 
 SOLWAY MOSS AND ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 Ox the 14th of August 1542, it was reported to 
 the Privy Council of England that the Cardinal, 
 though English ships had been watching for 
 him in the Channel, had returned from France, 
 and had been well received by James.^ Beaton 
 failed in his mission to France and Rome, if the 
 mission had for its object the arrangement of a 
 war against England, such as that projected in 
 the year 1539. By the peace of Nice, Francis 
 and Charles had been joined in friendly alliance, 
 the French king having received from the Pope 
 some kind of promise of the coveted Duchy of 
 Milan. The promise, however, was not fulfilled, 
 and once more, in the shifting scenery of Euro- 
 pean politics, Francis and Charles were at 
 enmity. In the year 1541, the Turk defeated 
 
 ^ Hamilton Papers, i. 119. 
 
190 SOL WAY MOSS AXD ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 the army which the Emperor had sent under 
 his brother Ferdinand to save Hungary. In 
 October of the same year Charles sailed to 
 Algiers, the headquarters of the Sultan's fleet, 
 with twenty thousand infantry and two thou- 
 sand horse ; but he was vanquished, and by 
 December was back again in Spain. 
 
 Charles now thought of a league with Henry, 
 although the heretical King of England was no 
 meet ally for his Catholic majesty. Yet Francis 
 feared this alliance ; and, determining therefore 
 to set Scotland against England, he opposed, 
 after the Spanish loss of Hungary, and again 
 after the defeat at Algiers, the meetino; of 
 Henry and James at York. Francis also at- 
 tempted another stroke of policy. To induce 
 Henry to join him in war against Charles, he 
 proposed a marriage between the Duke of 
 Orleans and the Princess Mary, and made 
 offer to Henry of certain towns round Calais.^ 
 In the summer of 1542, however, this alliance 
 was no longer mooted ; but, on the contrary, it 
 was rumoured that Charles had married the 
 Princess Mary, and had entered into league 
 with Henry. Now the talk in France was of 
 war against Charles and Henry ; and the Arch- 
 
 1 Conf. Froude's History, ch. xix. 
 
CHARLES AND FEANCIS. 
 
 191 
 
 bishop of Paris hinted, in Beaton's presence, to 
 Paget, the English ambassador, that the French 
 would send the Scots, the Danes, and the Swedes 
 to eat up all the Englishmen in four days. 
 " Englishmen be not easy morsels to swallow," 
 replied Paget/ In a later despatch the ambas- 
 sador wrote that the French counted that if 
 " Henry made any business with France, the 
 Scottish king would straight molest him." ^ 
 
 In July hostilities between Francis and 
 Charles broke out, and Charles once more, 
 especially as the Pope favoured his rival, 
 opened negotiations with Henry. In Sep- 
 tember Francis raised the siege of Perpignan, 
 and left Alva victor ; but his hopes were re- 
 vived when, in October, the Turk was success- 
 ful in Hungary over the army of Ferdinand, 
 which included a party of English soldiers. A 
 league between Henr}^ and Charles would be 
 fatal to Francis, and Scotland, he determined, 
 should be used to occupy Henry's attentions. 
 Beaton, accordingly, returned to Scotland, prob- 
 ably in July of this year, 1542; and, though 
 disappointed in the scheme of the Catholic 
 league, resolved to strike a blow which might 
 save the religion of Scotland, help France 
 
 1 State Papers, ix. p. 75. 2 ibid., p. 106. 
 
192 SOLWAY MOSS AND ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 in lier quarrel with Sj^ain, and perhaps, if a 
 rising of the Catholics in the north and other 
 parts of England took place, deliver England 
 from the rule of the heretic. 
 
 Affairs in Enoiand and Scotland were also 
 ripening for war. James was angry because 
 Henry, by adopting the title of King of Ire- 
 land, instead of the former designation of Lord 
 of the Country, had swept aside the claim of 
 interest which the Scottish king had had in Ire- 
 land from the time of Edward Bruce. Henry, 
 on the other hand, was jealous of James because 
 of the latter s adoption of the title of Defender 
 of the Christian Faith, though this jealousy was 
 not specifically mentioned by Henry among the 
 causes of the declaration of war. In August 
 1542, the disturbances on the Borders gave oc- 
 casion to Sir Eobert Bowes to cross into Scot- 
 land in order to punish some of the troublesome 
 Borderers. Bowes, though he had three thou- 
 sand men, fell into the hands of a body of Scots 
 headed by Huntly ; and at Haddonrig he and 
 six hundred of his following were taken prison- 
 ers.i James immediately sent word of this 
 engagement to France, where it was exagger- 
 ated into a great victory, and at the same time 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 127, 128, 146. 
 
HADDONRIG. 
 
 193 
 
 wrote to Henry regarding negotiations for peace. 
 Henry in return sent a safe-conduct for J ames s 
 ambassadors, and wrote expressing willingness 
 to conclude a peace. James answered, and tlie 
 answer indicated a wavering policy, that he 
 had just learnt that Henry blamed Huntly for 
 the fray at Haddonrig, and that now he sent 
 evidence to prove that the fray was due to 
 Bowes.^ James desired war, but feared the re- 
 sult on account of the disloyalty of his nobles ; 
 and therefore for a time the peace negotiations 
 were continued. In September, commissioners 
 representing the two countries met at York ; 
 but while the usual proposal for a meeting of 
 the sovereigns was made, nothing was done to 
 prevent the outbreak of war.^ Norfolk accord- 
 ingly with the English army advanced into 
 Scotland ; and Henry published his manifesto 
 declaring the causes of the war, and setting 
 forth his claims to the overlordship of Scot- 
 land. This manifesto, prepared by the Arch- 
 bishop of York, travels back into the kingdom 
 of fable. Brutus had three sons ; one ruled in 
 Scotland, and one in Wales, and these acknow- 
 ledged the superiority of Locrine, who ruled 
 in England. Instances are gathered from fic- 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 131, 141, 142. 2 i^id., 167, 175, 181. 
 
 N 
 
194 SOLWAY MOSS AND ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 tion and history of kings of Scotland paying 
 homage to England. The last instance speci- 
 fied is that of James I., who at Windsor ad- 
 mitted the authority of Henry VL^ The 
 reasons for the war w^ere declared to be the 
 harbouring of English criminals by the Scots, 
 the invasion of English territory by certain 
 Scots during negotiations for peace between 
 the two kings, the refusal to yield to Henry 
 lands to which he had proved his title, and, 
 lastly, the failure of James to keep the ap- 
 pointment at York. 
 
 Norfolk crossed the Tweed and destroyed 
 Kelso, while another of the English command- 
 ers devastated the surrounding country. It 
 was now winter, and as stores were scanty, Nor- 
 folk, after reaching Howtle, returned to England 
 with a multitude of his soldiers. He wrote that 
 James would gladly have had peace, but was 
 prevented from suing for it by his council. 
 Some confirmation is given to Norfolk's asser- 
 tion by Bishop Lesley, who expressly declares 
 that James sent ambassadors to arrange a peace 
 with the English commander. - 
 
 1 Holinshed and Hall. 
 
 2 State Papers (Heiiry VIIL), v. p. 221 ; Hamilton Papers, i. 
 p. Ixxiii. 
 
FALA MOOE. 
 
 195 
 
 James, especially by favour shown to the 
 clergy, had alienated the loyalty of many of 
 his nobles, and had driven them to Henry's 
 side in the religious struggle. The most ardent 
 Scottish patriot could not eulogise those nobles. 
 Yet this quarrel with England, it must be ad- 
 mitted, was not their concern, and did not 
 touch their interests ; it w^as the quarrel of 
 Beaton and the churchmen with Henry, and 
 therefore the Scottish nobles rebelled against 
 their king. When Norfolk returned to Eng- 
 land, there was an opportunity for the Scots 
 to invade England, and James therefore mus- 
 tered the Scottish forces on Fala Moor,^ but 
 the nobles refused to join in the war. They 
 declared their feudal allegiance compelled them 
 to defend their country, not to march out of 
 it against an enemy. To England they would 
 not go ; and James, after soundly rating them 
 for disloyalty, returned to Edinburgh. AYe are 
 indebted to Knox for an account of what there- 
 after happened. The Cardinal urged James to 
 pursue the campaign, and drawing up a list of 
 heretics, presented it to him. James, on a 
 former occasion, had refused such a list, but 
 now he was willing to accept it, if the clergy 
 
 1 Buchanan and Lesley. 
 
196 SOLWAY MOSS AND ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 would supply him with the means for making 
 war. A meeting was accordingly ordered to be 
 held at Lochmaben on the 24th November, and 
 ten thousand men gathered in reply to the 
 order. The English were at Berwick, and the 
 plan was that the Scots should march into 
 Cumberland and, if possible, take Carlisle. 
 Beaton and the Earl of Arran, in order to 
 draw off attention from the main body of the 
 Scots, were to proceed to Haddington, and to 
 make a show of attack on the east border. 
 The Scots accordingly crossed into Cumber- 
 land, where, as the king did not accompany 
 them, Oliver Sinclair, a minion of the king, 
 and a tool of the Cardinal, was proclaimed 
 leader. The Scots were not the men, how- 
 ever, to submit to this indignity, and Oliver 
 Sinclair, they determined, should not lead 
 them. Amidst their confusion they were at- 
 tacked by the Cumberland farmers, and a cry 
 was raised that Norfolk was advancing. Soon 
 the army was disordered and fled, though no 
 Norfolk was upon them. The main portion 
 reached the Solway Moss, and fell into the 
 hands of Wharton ; and one important result 
 of the battle was the capture of some of the 
 Scottish nobles who had obeyed their king's 
 
THE LIST OF HERETICS. 
 
 197 
 
 call to arms, and who were now sent prisoners 
 to Henry. In the dispatches to Henry the 
 number of the Scots wm variously estimated 
 at fourteen, seventeen, and eighteen thousand ; 
 and the number of Eng;lish at two and three 
 thousand. Whatever the exact numbers may 
 have been, Sol way was a rout.^ 
 
 Knox's story of the list of heretics, as has 
 been previously shown, is of doubtful accuracy. 
 It is not probable that such a list would be 
 prepared at the time stated, seeing that it could 
 in no way affect the result of the battle. No 
 doubt Beaton favoured the spoiling of the here- 
 tics ; and had the Scots been victorious in the 
 w^ar, this persecution would probably have been 
 carried out. Drummond asserts that the nobles 
 intended a reformatiou of the court, for the 
 purpose of evicting those who were styled 
 *'the pensioners of the clergy"; and on the 
 supposition that this assertion is true, it is evi- 
 dent that the Cardinal, if he actually prepared 
 the list, determined to destroy those reformers 
 of the court. At the same time, Knox's main 
 contention, that the Cardinal was the adviser of 
 the war, is borne out by the evidence of Hert- 
 ford that the king was advised to the war by 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i, 240-247, p. Ixxiii. 
 
198 SOLWAY MOSS AND ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 the Cardinal, Maxwell, Oliver Sinclair, and 
 Mark Carre. His account, too, of Beaton's 
 share in the battle, has been authenticated. 
 Hertford's reports show that the Cardinal had 
 been at Peebles and then at Haddington wdth 
 the Earl of Murray, immediately before the 
 day of the Solway rout ; while Angus informed 
 Hertford that, had the Scots been victorious in 
 the w^ar, it was the intention of Beaton and 
 Murray to proceed from Haddington to Eng- 
 land, and there in one of the churches to pro- 
 claim, in name of the Bishop of Eome, sentence 
 of interdict upon the realm. ^ 
 
 After the battle James hurried to an inter- 
 view with the Cardinal at Edinburgh, and it 
 may well be believed that that interview was 
 unpleasant. There w^as further news, too, to 
 disturb the king. Henry had sent Somerset 
 herald on a mission to him, and the night on 
 which the Scots set out for the south the 
 herald was dismissed. James now learned that 
 he had been murdered on the road to Dunbar 
 by two English refugees, one of whom was 
 known to be on friendly terms with Beaton. 
 The herald had been detained lest he should 
 report the doings of the Scots ; and the English 
 suspected that the murder was arranged, and 
 
 * Hamilton Papers, i. 245, pp. Ixxxii, Ixxxiii, xc, xci. 
 
DEATH OF JAMES V. 
 
 199 
 
 that Beaton was privy to it. The suspicion 
 seems, however, to have been groundless ; and 
 James endeavoured to heal the wounded honour 
 of the English king by imprisoning the mur- 
 derers, who were afterwards sent to England.^ 
 James left Edinburgh and reached Falkland, 
 after visiting the house of the Laird of Grange. 
 At Falkland, where he was prostrated with a 
 sudden and, as it proved, a fatal sickness, 
 word was brought to him that the queen 
 had borne a daughter, and he replied in the 
 now well-known words, " It came with a lass, 
 and it will pass with a lass." " And so he re- 
 commended himself," says Lindsay, "to the 
 mercy of Almighty God, and spake little from 
 that time forth, but turned his back unto his 
 lords, and his face unto the wall." The Car- 
 dinals friends, it was reported, left the body of 
 the king unburied, in the hope that Francis, 
 ignorant of the death, might send money as to 
 the king. The rumour was unfounded, and the 
 remains of the king were carried with funeral 
 pomp to Holyrood, and placed beside those of 
 the queen Magdalen. Among those in attend- 
 ance were the Cardinal, with the Earls of Arran 
 and Argyle, and other nobles.^ 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 242, 257, 264-267, p. Ixxvi. 
 
 2 Ibid., i. 273 ; Lesley, Drummond, 
 
200 
 
 SOLWAY MOSS AND ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 "When James lay dying there were around 
 him the Cardinal, the Earls of Argyle and 
 Eothes, the Lords Erskine and Lindsay, Sir 
 David Lindsay, the Laird of Grange, Andrew 
 Wood, and Norman Leslie.^ Some of these 
 men were bitterly opposed to Beaton, and yet, 
 according to certain of the early historians, he 
 caused James to sign a will appointing him 
 chief of a council of regency. Knox declares 
 that Beaton hired a priest named Balfour to 
 forge a will, which the king signed ; and he 
 mentions another report, that the dead hand 
 of the king was made to sign a blank paper, 
 on which Balfour afterwards wrote the will. 
 Buchanan asserts that the Cardinal, with the 
 help of Balfour, simply forged the will. No 
 charge of forgery was ever preferred against 
 Beaton, though Arran on one occasion in- 
 formed Sadler that there was a crime for 
 which he might prosecute the Cardinal. Arran, 
 however, was the man whom Beaton sought to 
 displace in the regency.- 
 
 Among the scandalous rumours of the time 
 was one to the effect that James had died of 
 
 1 Lindsay of Pitscottie. 
 
 2 A document has recently been discovered among the Ham- 
 ilton Papers which the editor of the Report on Hist. MSS. con- 
 siders to be the original will. 
 
A COUNCIL OF REGENCY. 
 
 201 
 
 poison at the hands of Beaton ; but the story 
 is manifestly untrue, as the king's death was 
 a calamity to the schemes of the Cardinal/ 
 
 Knox relates that, James being dead, the 
 Cardinal hastened to consult the Queen Dow- 
 ager as to the government of the nation, and 
 does not hesitate to suggest a scandalous rela- 
 tionship between them. Knox probably be- 
 lieved the scandal, but by the irony of fate 
 others believed stories as groundless regarding 
 himself. 
 
 On the 18th of December, Henry was in- 
 formed that Arran and certain nobles were to 
 be joined with Beaton as a council of regency, 
 and that Beaton was to act as governor of the 
 young queen and as chief of the council ; and, 
 a few days later, Henry learned that proclama- 
 tion to this effect had been made in presence 
 of the Cardinal. The nobles who were opposed 
 to the clergy did not, however, quietly acquiesce 
 in an arrangement which placed Beaton at the 
 head of affairs. Arran, heir to the crown after 
 the young queen, was by birth the person en- 
 titled to the honour of being governor, though 
 Buchanan describes him " as generally believed 
 to be but poorly qualified by the humbler 
 
 1 Melville, Drummond ; Hamilton Papers, i. 261-267. 
 
202 SOLWAY MOSS AND ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 virtues for conducting himself in private life, 
 and as little fitted by courage or capacity for 
 directing tlie government of a kingdom." A 
 meeting of the nobles was accordingly called, 
 at which Beaton objected to the government of 
 one man, and especially of one man of the name 
 of Hamilton. Arran, urging his just title, 
 claimed that opposition should not be made to 
 him till his rule had been tried. The courtesy 
 of the times is evident from Arran s speech. 
 He called the Cardinal " False Churle," and de- 
 clared that what the Cardinal had reported in 
 James s name was "all lyes."^ Arran, as the 
 result of the meeting, was proclaimed governor ; 
 and three days afterwards free pardons were 
 granted to Beaton and the other lords eno'aaed 
 in the afiair.- A free pardon to Beaton may 
 seem to indicate a crime, but his opposition 
 to the appointment of Arran suffices to account 
 for the pardon. 
 
 Arran s name was on the list of proscribed 
 persons said to be given to James, and there- 
 fore it may be supposed that he was friendly 
 to the cause of the Keformation, and that his 
 election to the governorship was favoured by 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 261-267, 271-273. 
 
 2 Keith's Hist., i. p. 64 note. 
 
THE DOUGLASES. 
 
 203 
 
 Henry. Arran, however, was weak of purpose 
 and vacillating in policy ; and though he re- 
 presented a section of the nobles and of the 
 people, he was opposed by Beaton and his 
 party, which included the clergy, some of the 
 leading nobles, and the majority of the people, 
 who, if they did not favour the ancient Church 
 with its doctrines and practices, were decided 
 in their opposition to England. 
 
 The Douglases were still in England, as 
 James had maintained his hatred of them till 
 the day of his death. Now they might return 
 at any time, and their presence in Scotland 
 could not be without effect on the progress 
 of events. Beaton, wishing to stand wdthin 
 their favour, and deeming it safer for the 
 success of his policy that they should be in 
 Scotland, spread the rumour that James on 
 his deathbed commanded the Earl and his 
 brother to be recalled, and to be restored to 
 their lands, if they would do their duty to 
 their country.^ 
 
 Henry, however, had other purposes than 
 merely to restore the Douglases to their 
 country and their possessions. The prisoners 
 taken at Solway had been conveyed to Lon- 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 263-265. 
 
204 SOLWAY MOSS AND ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 don ; but when Henry heard of James's death, 
 a marked change was made in their treatment, 
 and it was soon e\ddent that he meant to use 
 them for his own schemes in Scotland, and by 
 favours to bind them to his interests. The 
 publication of the Hamilton State Papers has 
 now made clear the full extent of Henry's in- 
 trigues and purposes. On the 29th of Decem- 
 ber 1542 it was intimated to the council of 
 Scotland that at the suit of the Earls of Cas- 
 silis and Glencairn, and others of the prisoners, 
 Henry had consented, subject to certain pledges 
 and hostages, to their return to Scotland.^ 
 These pledges were not stated, but we are not 
 ignorant of their nature. The chief prisoners, 
 among whom, besides the Earls of Cassilis and 
 Glencairn, were the Lords Maxwell, Fleming, 
 Somerville, Gray, and Oliver Sinclair, pledged 
 themselves to secure that the young queen 
 should be sent to England, on the pretext 
 that she was to be affianced to Henry's son 
 Edward ; that certain castles and fortresses 
 should be given to Hemy, and the country 
 governed in his name ; that the Cardinal should 
 be made prisoner and sent to England; and 
 that the Protector, if he would not join them, 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 266, 276. 
 
THE ENGLISH PKISONERS. 
 
 205 
 
 should be similarly treated. They were also 
 to see that persons bound to Henry's interest 
 should at once be placed around the infant 
 queen, and were to prevent any one from " any 
 strange part " from coming to the government 
 of the country, and were to warn Arran that 
 the Cardinal would certainly plot with France. 
 The Earls of Bothwell and Angus also agreed 
 to these terms, and Henry explicitly instructed 
 the prisoners to declare openly as their policy 
 the deliverance of the young queen to England. 
 The prisoners, moreover, were secretly required 
 to sign a bond, as also was Angus, to the effect 
 that in the event of the death of the young 
 queen, who had been reported to Henry as 
 being a sickly child, they would help Henry 
 to take the crown and government of Scot- 
 land.^ Never before had Henry so distinctly 
 expressed his intentions ; but now, in spite of 
 former protestations of friendliness towards 
 Scotland, and of his desire for peace, he com- 
 mitted to Angus and the English prisoners, 
 as they were called, the design of seizing the 
 crown of Scotland at the death of the infant 
 queen. To such base uses had these Scottish 
 nobles descended, that they agreed to betray 
 
 ^ Hamilton Papers, i. 275-277. 
 
206 SOLWAY MOSS AXD ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 their country, even by aiding Henry's soldiers 
 who might be sent to accomplish their master's 
 plan. Sir George Douglas, the brother of 
 Angus, did not hesitate in writing to call 
 Henry his " Sovereign Lord," nor is there 
 wanting the plainest proof that these English 
 prisoners accepted Henry's gold as the price 
 of their perfidy. In history there are few 
 transactions more shameless than this ; and yet 
 those men, Henry and his minions of Scotland, 
 were to be known as the champions of the re- 
 formed religion, and through corruption and 
 betrayal the Eeformation in Scotland was to 
 be accomplished. Tradition is unjust. Men 
 who were willing to sell their country's inde- 
 pendence for gold have been awarded the 
 praise given to religious reformers, and it is 
 forgotten that Beaton, who has been justly 
 condemned for opposing the reform of the 
 Church, was the man who saved the liberties 
 of his country. 
 
 Henry's plans for sending back the English 
 prisoners were quickly matured. It was re- 
 ported to him that the Cardinal had declared 
 that Arran's son should wed the young queen ; 
 and again there was talk that she might be 
 given to the second son of the King of France, 
 
SCOTTISH FACTIONS. 
 
 207 
 
 or of the King of Denmark, or of the King of 
 England, if Henry had a second son.^ Of more 
 importance in Henry's eyes was the rumour 
 that in Scotland men spoke of Arran as the 
 future king, should Mary die.^ With the 
 infant Mary in his hands, and the Cardinal 
 removed, Henry might see Scotland in subjec- 
 tion to England : the child dead, and Beaton and 
 Arran disposed of, he might see himself king 
 of Scotland as well as of England and Ireland. 
 
 In Scotland Beaton, aided by Mary of Guise, 
 was at the head of those who opposed Henry's 
 scheme of reformation and his policy of an- 
 nexation ; Arran, supported by a considerable 
 body of the people, was friendly to the cause of 
 the Keformation, and wrote to Henry of his in- 
 tentions regarding the Church ; but in view of 
 his connection with the infant queen, and of 
 his heirship to the crown, it is highly improb- 
 able that he ever countenanced the submission 
 of his country. Now the state of parties in 
 Scotland was to be complicated by the arrival 
 of the English prisoners with Bothwell and the 
 Douglases. 
 
 Arran, moreover, had not strength and cour- 
 age and decision to guide the councils and 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 268, 272, 275. 2 xbid. 
 
208 SOLWAY MOSS AND ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 policies of his country ; and for the next years, 
 till Beaton's death, Scottish history is mainly 
 the record of the opposing policies of Henry 
 and Beaton. 
 
 The English prisoners arrived in Scotland on 
 the 20th of January, and on the 26th Beaton 
 was a prisoner in Dalkeith. Beaton had been in 
 correspondence with the French, to whom he 
 looked for help, and it was said that after Sol- 
 way, and before the kings death, he was 
 making ready to proceed to France, to solicit 
 assistance against England. The rumour of 
 this correspondence was made the foundation 
 of a charge that he had in^dted the Duke of 
 Guise to take the government of Scotland. On 
 this charge Beaton was imprisoned, and though 
 Arran afterwards professed not to believe the 
 charge, the English acted as if it were true, and 
 guarded the Channel against the coming of 
 Guise.^ 
 
 Before the arrival of Angus and his friends 
 Beaton was supreme over Arran, as is witnessed 
 by the fact that he induced the Earl to take 
 the Chancellor's seal from the Archbishop of 
 Glasgow, and to bestow it on him.^ This 
 
 1 Sadler, i. 138 ; Hamilton Papers, i. 283, 292, 295, 300, 304. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 250. 
 
RETURN OF THE DOUGLASES. 209 
 
 supremacy made Beaton adverse to the restora- 
 tion of Angus, though he had but a short time 
 previously advocated it. By an intentional or 
 unintentional act of Arran, who handed the 
 wrong letter to him, Beaton first became aware 
 that Henry had sinister designs against him in 
 which Angus was involved.^ The day following 
 the incident of the letter, the Cardinal in 
 council opposed the return of the Douglases, 
 unless under guarantee of good faith. This 
 opposition was supported by Argyle, Murray, 
 Huntly, and others ; but Arran overruled the 
 proposal to require a guarantee, and pledged 
 himself for the patriotism of the Earl. The 
 same day, Beaton sought Sir George Douglas, 
 and asked him his opinion of the state of 
 religion. Douglas answered that he favoured 
 a reformation such as that of England, whereat 
 the Cardinal sighed, though he assured him 
 that there would be no enmity between them, 
 and that he had twenty thousand crowns which 
 would be at his command. Beaton left him, 
 and proceeded to the governor to warn him 
 against the Douglases, while the governor in 
 turn reported the matter to Sir G. Douglas, 
 adding that the Cardinal was the " falsest karle 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 285. 
 0 
 
210 SOLWAY MOSS AND ITS SEQUEL. 
 
 in the world," and, as instance, showed that the 
 Cardinal had advised him to seek for a divorce 
 that he might marry the queen-dowager. Sir 
 George and the governor then agreed to seize 
 the Cardinal on the arrival of Angus and send 
 him to Henry; and Arran promised that he 
 would reform the Scottish after the manner 
 of the English Church. Lord Lisle, who had 
 wi'itten to Arran concerning Guise, was able to 
 report on the 21st of January that Beaton was 
 a prisoner, and that the news regarding Guise 
 had hastened Arran in this matter. 
 
 The seizure of the Cardinal caused a commo- 
 tion in the palace of Edinburgh, where the 
 queen - dowager lay. Mary was alarmed, but 
 was pacified by the assurance that it was only 
 the taking of a " false trumping karle." When 
 Beaton was removed, his priest w^as seen to 
 hurry after him with the Cardinal's cross, 
 w^hereat Angus declared he shall paye better 
 than his cross err he have done." The Cardinal 
 was taken to Dalkeith, then to Seton, after- 
 wards to Blackness under the guard of Lord 
 Seton, who, though a relative of the governor, 
 was a supporter of the Cardinal. Thus for a 
 time Beaton was deposed from his power over 
 
imprisonment: of beaton. 
 
 211 
 
 the governor ; and Angus and his brother 
 ruling in the Cardinal's place, Henry's plans 
 seemed to prosper. " Angus and his brother," 
 wrote Lisle, " ruleth the rost about the gov- 
 ernor." ^ 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 285-289. 
 
21^ 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 FUKTHER INTEIGUES. 
 
 The imprisonment of Beaton did not advance 
 the cause either of Arran or of the Douglases. 
 It was sacrilege in the eyes of the clergy, who 
 in anger closed the churches of the diocese of 
 St Andrews, and refused to dispense the sac- 
 raments. The Earls of Argyle, Murray, and 
 Huntly, friends of the Cardinal, demanded his 
 release, and threatened force to obtain it ; while 
 Bothwell, though he did not join the party of 
 those nobles, withdrew from iVngus and went 
 so far as to visit Beaton.^ 
 
 Meanwhile, Henry urged that the prisoner 
 should be sent to England ; but Douglas replied 
 that this was for the present impossible. Nor, 
 it was declared, could the Scottish fortresses as 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry YIII.), v. pp. 249-252 ; Lesley, p. 171. 
 
THE PARLIAMENT OF 1543. 
 
 213 
 
 yet be given into Henry's keeping.^ Henry 
 was baffled : he could not get Beaton into 
 England, and, in regard to the fortresses, he 
 had to rest satisfied with the assurance that 
 the " English lords " hoped soon to place Edin- 
 burgh and Dunbar, as already Tantallon was, 
 under the charge of men of their own party.^ 
 Beaton's friends, finding their remonstrances 
 of no avail, separated until the meeting of 
 Parliament. Attempts were made by Arran 
 and Angus, but without success, to pacify the 
 clergy ; and a proposal was even made that 
 some one should be temporarily appointed to 
 the see of St Andrews, in order that the 
 ecclesiastical work of the diocese might be 
 resumed.^ 
 
 Parliament was summoned to meet on the 
 12th of March 1543; but, before that day, the 
 lords favourable to Beaton assembled at Perth 
 and appointed commissioners to approach the 
 governor and the Council, and to demand from 
 them the release of the Cardinal, and the with- 
 drawal of the order which made the use of the 
 English Bible permissive. This demand was 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 292-298, 301-303. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIIL), v. p. 250. 
 
 3 Hamilton Papers, i. 299. 
 
214 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 made and refused; but the Catholic lords, 
 notwithstanding, promised allegiance to Arran, 
 lest they should be hindered from attending 
 the meeting of Parliament.^ 
 
 Henry, too, was busy before this meeting took 
 place, as he hoped to prevent the ratification 
 by Parliament of the appointment of Arran as 
 governor. A rumour reached him that Arran 
 was a prisoner in the hands of Beaton's friends, 
 and he suspected, or pretended to suspect, that 
 Arran was a party to his own imprisonment. 
 The rumour was without foundation ; yet, as 
 it would have suited Henry's purposes to prove 
 an intrigue between the governor and the Car- 
 dinal, he endeavoured to discover such an in- 
 trigue. One of Lord Lisle's household servants 
 was employed as a spy on Arran's movements ; 
 but that spy discovered nothing which Henry 
 could possibly use as a pretext for opposing the 
 ratification of Arran's appointment.'^ 
 
 When Parliament met, Arran was formally 
 recognised as governor of the realm ; and as 
 none of the "English lords" was bold enough 
 to name Henry for the governorship, he was 
 not long of finding an opportunity to upbraid 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 263 ; Sadler, i. pp. 67, 68. 
 
 2 Hamilton Papers, i. 299, 336. 
 
THE " ENGLISH LORDS." 
 
 215 
 
 his pensioners for silently agreeing to the 
 a]3pointment of Arran.^ 
 
 The " English lords " were not, however, 
 false to their pledges, seeing that they laid 
 before Parliament their master's proposals 
 regarding the marriage of the infant queen. 
 Parliament appointed commissioners to meet 
 with Henry, and instructed them to agree 
 to the marriage of Mary with his son, but to 
 refuse consent to her removal from Scotland 
 till she was of a marriageable age. They weie 
 further instructed to see that the independence 
 of Scotland should suffer no detriment by the 
 marriage, and that native rulers should always 
 succeed to the crown. One concession was to 
 be made to Henry. He was to be permitted to 
 send an English gentleman and English ladies 
 to attend on Mary, so long as she resided in her 
 native land.^ 
 
 Angus urged for better terms for his master, 
 and is said to have pulled off his cap when he 
 said "the kinges majestic my master, God save 
 his grace " ; but Angus only succeeded in se- 
 curing a reversal of his own attainder. 
 
 The King of England, as if he were a Scot, 
 did not know when he was beaten ; and defeat 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 299, 336. 2 Sadler, i. p. 59 et seq. 
 
216 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 served only to show the fertility of his re- 
 sources. He had published his claims to the 
 overlordship of Scotland, and at Solway had 
 emphasised them. The Scottish Parliament, 
 however, would have none of him, and the 
 manifesto was but an exercise in historical 
 study. Arran was now governor, and Henry, 
 while describing him as " occupying the place 
 of governor," resolved with the aid of Sadler to 
 instruct him in the arts of government. Sadler 
 reported in his first letter, on information re- 
 ceived from Sir George Douglas, that at some 
 future time the governor and the nobles would 
 be brought to love the king, and to yield to 
 him the whole direction and obedience of the 
 realm. This fancy was intended to prepare the 
 way for the assurance, that were an attempt 
 made to depose Arran, there would be riot in 
 the land, the Cardinal would be liberated, and 
 a French army imported. " There is not," 
 wrote Sadler, "so little a boy but he will hurl 
 stones against it, and the wives will handle 
 their distafis, and the commons universally wdll 
 rather die in it." ^ 
 
 The people were certainly roused to anger, 
 and Beaton's imprisonment they correctly as- 
 
 1 Sadler, i. p. 70. 
 
POPULAR CLAMOUR FOR BEATON's RELEASE. 217 
 
 cribed to Arran acting under the influence of 
 Angus, whom, in spite of his illustrious name, 
 they detested for his disloyalty to his country. 
 The people would yield nothing to England ; 
 the Cardinal must be liberated, the Church up- 
 held, and the young queen be placed under the 
 guardianship of Scottish nobles. Once more 
 the cause of the new faith suff'ered by reason of 
 Henry's lust of power. Beaton's imprisonment 
 was undoubtedly due to the Douglases, and but 
 for them the governor, moved by the popular 
 clamour, would have liberated him. Yet they 
 determined that Beaton should not be set at 
 liberty, and that Arran's jealousy should be 
 roused. Sadler therefore insinuated that the 
 Cardinal, if free, would usurp the chief power, 
 and would not only seek Arran's destruction, 
 but would make the realm subservient to 
 France. It was an easy task to rouse the 
 jealousy of Arran, who swore "he shall never 
 come out of prison whilst I may have mine own 
 wm."i 
 
 Sadler, after his success with the governor, 
 passed to Mary of Guise ; but, experienced as 
 he was, he had not yet met a woman so skilled 
 in the lying arts of diplomacy. Mary professed 
 
 1 Sadler, i. p. 77. 
 
218 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 to feel honoured by Henry's jDroposals, to be 
 ao;reeable to the Enoiish marriao-e, and to the 
 immediate delivery of the child into England. 
 With feminine love of romance, and of a secret 
 and its disclosure, she confidentially informed 
 Sadler that the Governor intended to agree to 
 the English marriage, but to retain the child in 
 Scotland till she was of a marriao-eable ao-e, in 
 the hope that Henry would then be dead, and 
 the treaty be rendered of no eff'ect. His real 
 motive, she declared, was ultimately to marry 
 the queen to his own son ; and she warned 
 Sadler that nothing would ever come of the 
 English marriage, unless Henry insisted on 
 immediately obtaining custody of the child. 
 As one guileless of the arts of diplomacy, she 
 suggested "the Cardinal, if he was at liberty, 
 might do much good in the same." Sadler 
 thought that Beaton would not do much good 
 in the same, but Mary protested that " the Car- 
 dinal was a wise man, and could better consider 
 the benefit of the realm than all the rest." 
 
 She warned Sadler, moreover, that she would 
 in future seem to oppose the marriage, in order 
 that the governor might further reveal to her 
 his purposes.-^ 
 
 1 Sadler, i. p. 85 et seg. 
 
RELEASE OF BEATON. 
 
 219 
 
 Arran s purposes were not those ascribed to 
 him by the queen-dowager. In his jealousy of 
 Beaton he was willing to reform the Church, to 
 permit the reading of the Bible, to throw off 
 allegiance to the Pope, and to agree to the Eng- 
 lish marriage. That marriage would be fatal to 
 his hopes for his son ; but such was his jealousy 
 of the Cardinal, that he gave his consent to 
 certain schemes, simply because they were 
 opposed by Beaton. 
 
 Bothwell and Buccleuch, at this time, each 
 offered to deliver the child to Henry ; but seeing 
 they were of Beaton's party, it is evident that 
 the offer was made at the Cardinal's suggestion, 
 who was desirous of learning Henry's intentions.^ 
 
 Sadler would not yield consent to the release 
 of the Cardinal, yet the release was at hand. 
 For some unknown reason the governor and 
 the Douglases resolved to remove Beaton from 
 Blackness, which was a strong fortress, to the 
 castle of St Andrews, which belonged to their 
 prisoner. Arran pretended that this arrange- 
 ment would give him possession of a desirable 
 castle, and would cause the clergy to believe 
 that the Cardinal was at liberty, and, in con- 
 sequence, to perform mass at Easter ; w^hile Sir 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 305, 318. 
 
220 
 
 FURTHER IXTRIGUES. 
 
 George Douglas declared that after the castle of 
 St Andrews had been gained, Beaton would be 
 removed to Tantallon or Dunbar. Douglas 
 further asserted that he had spoken to the 
 Cardinal regarding his removal to St Andrews, 
 and that he was " a wily carle, and would not 
 consent to the matter." In spite of a protest 
 from Sadler, made to the Douglases in Henry's 
 name, Beaton, under the charge of Lord Seton, 
 with some twelve or sixteen servants, passed to 
 St Andrews, which was garrisoned by 300 of 
 his own retainers. Beaton, while nominally a 
 prisoner, was in reality free, and yet Arran had 
 sworn not to liberate him. Arran afterwards 
 sought to blame Lord Seton for this strange 
 affair ; but obviously the blame, were there 
 any, was entirely his own. The threats of the 
 Catholic lords may have influenced him ; per- 
 haps his brother Hamilton, the Abbot of Paisley, 
 who had just come from France, may have 
 persuaded him ; possibly the rumoured arrival 
 of Lennox in Scotland may have suggested the 
 desirability of a friendly alliance with the 
 Cardinal. Amidst these conjectures may be 
 found Arran's motive for consenting to the 
 release of Beaton.^ 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 340 ; Sadler, i. pp. 89, 103, 117, 136 et seq. 
 
ARRIVAL OF LENNOX. 
 
 221 
 
 Undoubtedly the rumour that Lennox was 
 on his way to Scotland inspired the governor 
 with alarm. Arran's father had divorced his 
 wife, and during her lifetime had married 
 again. Of this second marriage Arran, the 
 future governor, was born, and his legitimacy 
 therefore depended on the validity of the di- 
 vorce. Were the Pope s authority questioned, 
 Arrans legitimacy would also be questioned, 
 and his claim to the Scottish throne endan- 
 gered. After Arran, Lennox was heir to the 
 crown, and there was no dispute as to his direct 
 descent from King James IL 
 
 Lennox, it was rumoured, was on his way to 
 Scotland in order to marry the queen-dowager, 
 and this rumour was used to induce Arran to 
 attach himself to the English party. Lennox 
 arrived in Scotland in April, but before that 
 date the Cardinal was removed to St Andrews. 
 In consideration of the fact that Lennox left 
 France wdth the consent of the king of that 
 country, it may be accepted that he came to 
 Scotland after invitation from Beaton and the 
 queen - dowager, and that by using him they 
 succeeded where Henry failed in gaining the 
 governor.^ 
 
 ^ Hamilton Papers, i. 295, 336, 350. 
 
222 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 Beaton was now free, but Arran protested 
 that lie was in close and safe confinement ; 
 and when Sadler thereupon demanded that 
 the prisoner should be sent to England, the 
 governor laughingly refused, lest it should be 
 thought, he said, that they in Scotland were 
 not able to punish faults. The Cardinal, he 
 added, " had lever go into hell " than go to 
 England. The Cardinal's feelings, however, were 
 consulted, and he was not sent to England ; but 
 it would be strange indeed had any one been 
 deceived by Arran's conduct.^ 
 
 A policy of deception was systematically 
 followed in regard to Henry. It was pretended 
 that Beaton was a prisoner in St Andrews, and 
 Beaton invited Sadler to that place, that 
 through him he might offer his lawful service 
 to the king's majesty. Mary of Guise also 
 pursued the same policy, and maintained that 
 had the Cardinal been free, he would not only 
 have furthered the English marriage, but would 
 himself have gone to England to offer his ser- 
 vices to Henry. Beaton even declared that 
 though he had interests in France, he now 
 saw the good of a union between Scotland 
 and England, and saving always the freedom 
 
 1 Sadler, i. p. 104 et seq. 
 
henry's bribes. 
 
 223 
 
 of Scotland, would work to accomplish this 
 union.^ 
 
 Henry was not likely to be deceived by these 
 protestations, but he resolved, if possible, to 
 profit by them. Sadler was accordingly in- 
 structed to meet the Cardinal, and, by way of 
 showing the advantages of a Scoto - English 
 alliance, was to offer him, if he would renounce 
 the interests of France, a bishopric in England 
 richer than that of Mirepoix.^ 
 
 The most honest man of the time, in spite 
 of his incapacity to govern, was Arran ; and 
 yet he was guilty of deception in the release of 
 Beaton. A bribe was offered to him in the 
 form of a marriage between his son and the 
 English princess Elizabeth,^ but he would not 
 submit to the rule of Henry, nor while agree- 
 ing to the English marriage would he permit 
 the removal of the queen to England during 
 her childhood. His own interests made him 
 favourable to the independence of his country ; 
 but, whatever his motives, his patriotism was 
 sincere. 
 
 In the second week of April the Scottish 
 
 1 Sadler, i. pp. 104, 115, 131. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIIL), v. p. 284. 
 ^ Hamilton Papers, i. 348. 
 
224 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 ambassadors appointed to treat with England 
 regarding the marriage and regarding a peace, 
 had audience of Henry and the Council. They 
 stated their instructions, that the queen should 
 not proceed to England till she was of mar- 
 riageable age ; that Arran should be governor 
 during her minority, and that afterwards the 
 Scots should elect a native governor; that 
 Scotland should for ever have her own laws 
 and customs ; and that the chief strongholds of 
 Scotland should not be delivered into the 
 keeping of England till the queen had children. 
 Amidst the negotiations for peace, they were 
 asked if they would " become frende to frende 
 and ennemye to ennemye," but they refused to 
 disturb the existing treaties with France. 
 
 Henry's schemes were very different from 
 those of the Scots. His son was a prince, he 
 said, to be desired for the daughter of any 
 kino' in Christendom : and as it was not meet 
 that a prince of England should marry any one 
 ignorant of the nurture and fashion of his 
 country, Hemy insisted that Mary should be 
 sent to England within two years. The King 
 of England professed to be willing that Arran 
 should govern during Mary's minority ; and 
 that afterwards, if he " use himself as apper- 
 
henry's terms of peace. 
 
 225 
 
 tainetli," he should govern under the authority 
 of Henry and his son, but the election of the 
 governor and council of Scotland was at all 
 times to lie with the Kino^ of Enoiand. The 
 laws and customs of Scotland were to continue 
 unaltered, but the fortresses were to be held 
 by Scotsmen of Henry's selection. Lastly, 
 Henry insisted that, if Mary died, he should 
 be recognised as heir to the Scottish crown.^ 
 When the English terms were made known, 
 indignation was supreme among the Scottish 
 people. Arran declared for war rather than 
 for acceptance of such terms ; and, after 
 dismissing the Protestant preachers from his 
 household, summoned the Cardinal and the 
 Catholic lords in their strength to the meeting 
 of the Estates at which Henry's proposals were 
 to be discussed.^ This change in the governor's 
 policy, doubtless due to the influence of the 
 Abbot of Paisley, was followed by another 
 change under the inspiration of Angus. Arran 
 refused to allow the Catholic lords to proceed 
 to Edinburgh, accompanied by large forces ; 
 and Beaton consequently did not attend the 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. pp. 275 et seq. ; Sadler, i. pp. 
 152 et seq. 
 
 2 Sadler, i. pp. 147-158. 
 
 P 
 
226 
 
 FUHTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 meeting of the Estates, fearing, in spite of 
 the safe-conduct offered to him, to be taken 
 prisoner. Angus had evidently roused Arran's 
 jealousy, but he had not won him to the side 
 of England. The governor " swore a great 
 oath," and protested that Henry's proposals 
 were most unreasonable, and that there was 
 neither man, woman, nor child who would not 
 rather die than agree to them.^ At the meeting 
 of the Estates, Lennox appeared as ambassador 
 from France to urge a renewal of the ancient 
 league and the inclusion of France in any treaty 
 between England and Scotland, and to offer 
 men, money, and ammunition, and even the 
 aid of Denmark, if war were declared. At the 
 same time, the English lords informed Sadler 
 that with difficulty they had kept the governor 
 from joining the Cardinal, and that the whole 
 realm murmured that they had rather die than 
 break the ancient league with France.'^ 
 
 Henry demanded too much, and the Cardinal, 
 both on account of his imprisonment and his 
 leadership of the anti-English party, was the 
 most popular man in Scotland ; and the Church 
 of which he was primate was again freed from 
 the danger of destruction by the people. Once 
 
 1 Sadler, i. pp. 160 et seq. ^ Ibid. ; Hamilton Papers, i. 357. 
 
ARRAN AXD LENXOX. 
 
 227 
 
 more, the cause of the Scottish Keformation 
 suffered at the hands of the man who posed as 
 patron of the reformation of the Catholic Church 
 of Christendom. 
 
 The arrival of Lennox in Scotland was not 
 long of producing an effect such as that hoped 
 for by Beaton. Lennox, easily tem|)ted to ally 
 himself with the Cardinal by promises of the 
 governorship and of the hand of the queen- 
 dowager, refused to sign the Act appointing 
 Arran governor and second person of the realm. 
 Arran, incensed at the conduct of his rival to 
 the crown, not only recj^uested from him the 
 signs of allegiance, but also demanded from 
 him the castle of Dumbarton ; and, when the 
 request and the demand were alike refused, 
 resolved to declare him a traitor or to drive 
 him out of the land. Forces were prepared for 
 an attack on Dumbarton ; but secretly Angus 
 persuaded Lennox to yield. The castle would 
 soon have been in the governor's hands, and 
 probably through Angus in Henry's, had not 
 a letter from Beaton changed the purpose of 
 Lennox, who, leaving the castle secure against 
 attack, fled to the Highlands.^ 
 
 Beaton, amidst intrigues and policies, did 
 
 1 Sadler, i. pp. 197-203. 
 
228 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 not mistake liis own popularity for a sign that 
 the Church was permanently freed from danger. 
 Henry was unequalled in his perseverance, and 
 was skilled in the uses of gold. Any day, 
 Arran might pass from his isolated position of 
 neutrality to the side of the "English lords," 
 and they together might work Henry's will in 
 reforming the Church. Beaton's aim was, 
 therefore, to draw the governor to his own 
 side ; but he did not neglect other precautions 
 for the safety of the ancient religion. 
 
 "With Arran's consent the Cardinal, in May 
 of this year, 1543, called a meeting of the 
 clergy, in reality for the purpose of determining 
 what sums of money should be offered towards 
 the preparations for war. Some of the leading 
 clergy were unable to attend the convention, 
 which was formally adjourned to meet again in 
 June ; but those present offered to give of their 
 own money and plate, and of the plate of the 
 churches, and further, offered on their own 
 parts to fight if need might be.^ 
 
 Thus was Beaton supplied with the means of 
 strengthening his party from the ranks of the 
 nobles and the gentry. Nor did Beaton neglect 
 the aid proffered by France. Arrangements 
 
 1 Sadler, i. pp. 189-204. 
 
AID FROM FRANCE. 
 
 229 
 
 were made that under Montgomerie, Sieur de 
 Lorges, a French force should be sent to 
 Scotland, and thereafter the dowager and the 
 young queen should be removed to France.^ 
 Moreover, Beaton urged that the Pope's 
 legate should hasten from France to join 
 with him in trying the power of excommuni- 
 cation as a remedy against the enemies of 
 the Church.2 
 
 Beaton's influence in the realm w^as great, 
 but he and the governor were still at variance ; 
 and Arran declared that were peace concluded 
 he would set upon the Cardinal in St Andrews, 
 who was '*the man he did only hate in all the 
 world." ^ Beaton, however, knew the man 
 with whom he had to deal, and knew how 
 to deceive him. He therefore intimated that 
 if he were any hindrance to the peace — a peace 
 which he himself secretly dreaded — he would, 
 with the consent of the governor, retire to 
 France ; but Sadler, a wiser man than the 
 governor, urged the refusal of his consent, as 
 he judged that Beaton was more likely to 
 inaugurate some new policy than to seek 
 retirement.'* Henry at this time sent word to 
 
 1 Sadler, i. p. 191. 2 state Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 286. 
 3 Sadler, i. pp. 200, 206 et seq. Ibid. 
 
230 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 Sadler that the arrival of the Papal legate 
 threatened danger to English interests, and 
 that in case the legate escaped capture in the 
 Channel it would be well for Arran to seize 
 Beaton and Lennox ; but Henry ignored im- 
 possibilities. ]\Ieanwhile negotiations were pro- 
 ceedino; between the two countries. The Earl 
 of Glencairn and Sir George Douglas, who had 
 narrowdy escaped captivity at the hands of 
 Beaton for his valiant championship of the 
 English cause at the meeting of the Estates, 
 were despatched with answers to Henry's de- 
 mands.^ Henry was forced to moderate his 
 ambition ; and among his terms, publicly 
 announced, there was no longer mention of 
 the overlordship of the realm or of the occu- 
 pation of the fortresses. He was willing to 
 settle a treaty of peace, but one which ex- 
 cluded France, and to postpone the delivery 
 of the young queen into England till she had 
 reached her tenth or twelfth year.^ These were 
 his public terms, but privately he prepared a 
 secrete devise," which Angus and Maxwell 
 at least of the Scottish nobles are known to 
 
 1 Sadler, i. 176 ; Haiiiilton Papers, i. 369. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry YIII.), v. pp. 302 et seq. 
 
THE " SECRETE DEVISE." 
 
 231 
 
 have subscribed. The "Enoiish lords" were 
 to secure the delivery of the child at the time 
 stipulated in the treaty, or "as soon as may 
 be"; to guard the safety of the C[ueen, and, in 
 case of her death or of her removal (presum- 
 ably to France), to acknowledge Henry as 
 lord of the realm ; to support Arran if he 
 kept to the treaty, but to support no other 
 as governor ; to side with Henry if war broke 
 out, and to help him to secure all the terri- 
 tory south of the Forth. ^ 
 
 The governor and his friends accepted the 
 terms delivered to them at the hands of the 
 ambassadors, with the exception of the exclu- 
 sion of France from the treaty of peace. The 
 Scots would not disown the ancient alliance ; 
 but ultimately at Greenwich commissioners 
 from the two countries arranged the terms of 
 the treaties.^ 
 
 In spite of treaties, the Cardinal and his 
 party were busy preparing for war, which 
 was to be declared when help came from 
 France. Lennox returned from the Highlands 
 and collected his men ; in the north, Argyle, 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 319 ; Sadler, i. p. 237. 
 
 2 Rymer, Fcedera, vol. xiv. 
 
232 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 Huntly, Murray, and in the soutli, Bothwell 
 and Hume, joined the Cardinal and made 
 ready their forces.^ 
 
 Henry deemed it dangerous to his cause that 
 Beaton should be free, and, as has been shown, 
 advised Arran to seize him and Lennox ; but 
 Arran, as if he had been an "English lord," 
 excused himself on the ground of sickness for 
 not obeying this advice. Arran, however, laid 
 himself open to the charge of insincerity, ac- 
 cording to Sadler, because he did not seize 
 Beaton, who made a journey from St Andrews 
 to Arbroath. Arran, on the other hand, de- 
 clared that any fray at that time would have 
 endangered the settlement of the treaties, and, 
 important surely, that he did not possess the 
 strength to overcome the Cardinal. - 
 
 Henry was aware that Beaton and his friends 
 looked for aid from France, since by themselves 
 they were unable to carry on a war. It w^as 
 not unexpected new^s, therefore, when he heard, 
 on the 30th of June, that a French fleet 
 of sixteen sail, carrying 2000 men, besides 
 money, artillery, and arms, and also letters for 
 the dowager and Beaton and Lennox, had 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIIL), v. 321 ; Sadler, i. 214. 
 
 2 Hamilton Papers, i. 38.9 ; Sadler, i. 220. 
 
THE FRENCH FLEET. 
 
 233 
 
 arrived at Aberdeen. From Aberdeen the fleet 
 passed to Arbroath, where Beaton was ; and it 
 was then conjectured by Henry's party that the 
 fleet had arrived, not for purposes of war, but 
 for carrying off* to France the queen-dowager, 
 the young queen, and the CardinaL^ Beaton 
 was now closely watched. He supplied, at his 
 own expense, victuals to two of the ships ; 
 afterwards he gave money to build Hume 
 Castle, and such was his state, that the Earls 
 of Lennox, Argyle, Huntly, Bothwell, Montrose, 
 and other temporal and spiritual lords, not 
 only joined his party, but gave their sons or 
 their kinsmen into his household.^ 
 
 Beaton lived with the splendour of a great 
 retinue, and gave banquets to his friends in a 
 style never before seen in Scotland. In this 
 splendour and munificence may be found causes 
 of that jealousy which made so many of the 
 Scottish nobles his enemies. They could not 
 vie with him ; and the man who excelled them 
 in splendour was a priest. Some of the nobles, 
 however, were true to him, and the common 
 people in every part of the country adhered 
 to him. 
 
 1 Sadler, i. p. 228 ; Hamilton Papers, i. 394. 
 
 2 Hamilton Papers, i. 397. 
 
234 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 Eumours of the Cardinal's popularity reached 
 England, and it was told to Henry that the 
 governor, believing that Lennox was about to 
 marry the queen-dowager, had determined to 
 ally himself with Beaton and his friends.^ 
 Beaton, who knew how to use the name of 
 Lennox and to traffic with his claims to the 
 crown, was probably the author of the story 
 regarding the marriage of Lennox, and by in- 
 venting it he doubtless hoped to secure the 
 governor. 
 
 He did not yet, however, gain Arran ; but 
 his strength was so great that Sadler reported 
 that, in the event of a war, the governor could 
 not withstand him. Sadler had further to re- 
 port that he himself intended to seek refuge in 
 Tantallon, so intense was the popular feeling 
 against England.^ Henry was furious, and 
 absurd in his fury. Among the many stories 
 from Scotland which reached his ear was one 
 to the effect that the Cardinal had chal- 
 lenged Sir Ealph Eure to combat. Henry 
 heard this story, and believed it ; and so 
 anxious was he to be rid of his hated foe that 
 he commanded Eure to fight Beaton at Edin- 
 burgh, forgetful that his knight would spurn 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 400. ^ Sadler, i. pp. 236, 237. 
 
ARE AX AND BEATOX. 
 
 235 
 
 the challenge of the priest, had it been given, 
 and ignorant of the real character of that priest. 
 Suffolk suggested, and he was probably correct, 
 that the story had risen out of the mischief- 
 making of some Border thief. ^ 
 
 In England the reports of the war prepara- 
 tions in Scotland produced consternation. Could 
 England interfere when the treaties were not 
 yet signed ? Beaton, it was said, had 30,000 
 men, and the governor but 10,000. Affairs 
 appeared to be still worse for England when it 
 was learned that Beaton, with 7000 men, had 
 gone to Linlithgow, where the young queen 
 resided. 
 
 At last Henry resolved to act. He s6nt 
 £1000 to Arran, and with the money the 
 advice to proclaim Beaton and his friends 
 traitors to the realm ; and offered to chastise 
 the Borderers, and to send a fleet to capture 
 the French ships. ^ Henry's enemies did not, 
 however, wait in quietness to be proclaimed 
 traitors. At Linlithgow, on the 24th of July, 
 Beaton and many of the spiritual and tem- 
 poral lords, among whom were Lennox, Argyle, 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 414 ; State Papers (Henry VIII.}, v. 
 pp. 320-323. 
 
 2 Hamilton Papers, i. 418, 419 ; Sadler, i. p. 238 et seq. 
 
236 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 Huntly, and Bothwell, pledged themselves by 
 a secret bond to stand by one another in de- 
 fence of the realm and of the young queen's 
 liberty.^ After executing this bond they opened 
 up communications with the governor, and de- 
 manded as the price of peace that the queen 
 should be placed in the keeping of certain lords 
 appointed by Parliament, that the governor 
 should rule with the aid of a council similarly 
 appointed, and that, pending the present ar- 
 rangements, the Douglases should be required 
 to C[uit the Court. ^ In the first instance nothing 
 was agreed upon by the opposing parties, save 
 that the queen was to be placed under the care 
 of four Scottish nobles, two to be nominated by 
 the governor and two by the Cardinal. 
 
 In spite of the demand that the Douglases 
 should leave the Court, the Cardinal and Angus 
 soon afterwards met on cordial terms, and the 
 two opposing parties agreed to hold a conven- 
 tion for the signing of the treaties between the 
 two countries. Beats^n, moreover, intimated to 
 Glencairn that he was desirous of securing the 
 favour of Henry ; but former experience made 
 the " English lords " doubtful of his sincerity, 
 and now they suspected an intrigue when he 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 446. - Ibid., 424. 
 
BEATON AND GLENCAIRN. 
 
 237 
 
 uro'ecl that the meetino- for the sio-nino- of the 
 treaties should be held at Stirling, and when 
 they learned that a shij) with money had 
 arrived from France.^ Henry, however, gave 
 permission to Sadler to see the Cardinal regard- 
 ing the communication made to Glencairn, but 
 advised that Beaton should be excluded from the 
 proposed council, unless he renounced the red 
 hat and consented to the reform of the Church.^ 
 The Cardinal's presence was deemed necessary 
 at the signing of the treaties. The governor 
 therefore, while refusino- to hold the meetino" 
 at Stirling, offered his own son and the sons of 
 other nobles as pledges for the Cardinal's safety 
 in Edinburgh — and these pledges Beaton ac- 
 cepted ; but his enemies placed no trust in his 
 promise to be present at the meeting. It was 
 thought that he was plotting, and that one of 
 his designs was to secure the person of Mary, 
 as he had shown anxiety to gain an entrance 
 into Stirling, where she now lived. ^ Moreover, 
 he had shown the greatest anxiety for an inter- 
 view with the governor, to which the governor 
 at length consented. Whatever passed between 
 those two men, rumour had it that a promise 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 426-433. Ibid., 435. 
 
 3 Sadler, i. pp. 242 et seq. 
 
238 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 was made to Arraii that if lie joined the Cardi- 
 nal his son should ultimately marry the queen.^ 
 Henry, on the other hand, was not deficient 
 in similar promises. He urged that Beaton 
 should be made prisoner, or driven north of the 
 Forth to a safe distance from the presence of 
 the queen. He offered a force of 5000 men 
 to the governor, and, as the price of this army, 
 demanded all the fortresses of the south. If 
 Arran consented to these terms, his son should 
 marry the Princess Elizabeth of England, 
 and he himself should be proclaimed king of 
 that part of Scotland which lies north of the 
 Forth.^ 
 
 Henry s schemes were as empty as his pro- 
 mises ; but possibly if his promises had been 
 sincere, his schemes might have been accom- 
 plished. He erred in demanding too much for 
 himself, even from men who were not dead to 
 honour and patriotism ; and from those whose 
 honour was lost and who would have sold their 
 country, he demanded that which they had not 
 the power to give, and promised that which he 
 had not the mind to fulfil. 
 
 The governor had not the forces necessary to 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 437. 
 J Ibid., 439 ; Sadler, i. p. 246 et seq. 
 
henry's offers to BEATON. 
 
 239 
 
 drive the Cardinal into the north, and he was 
 equally impotent to convert him into a re- 
 former of the Church, as Henry had formerly 
 suggested he should do. There was no chance, 
 he knew well, of the Cardinal renouncing the 
 red hat, since, by doing so, he would forfeit 
 his chance of the Papal crown. Beaton, how- 
 ever, still continued his policy of deception. 
 He agreed to the treaties being signed ; he 
 would not give up his allegiance to France ; 
 but, wearied of his extravagant style of living, 
 he was willing to depart to France, if only the 
 governor would meet him at St Andrews and 
 yield consent to his departure. To Edinburgh, 
 however, he would not go, as he now feared for 
 his own safety.^ Once more Henry resolved to 
 try what fair promises on the one side, and re- 
 monstrances on the other, could do to force the 
 signing of the treaties. He advised the gover- 
 nor to proclaim Beaton and his friends traitors 
 if they would not agree to the treaties ; while 
 he gave instructions that Beaton should be 
 offered the English archbishopric and primacy, 
 if, even without giving up the cardinal's hat, he 
 would join himself to Henry. ^ At the same 
 time, an order was issued from the Privy Council 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 452. 2 n^i^j^ 457^ 
 
240 
 
 FURTHER INTRIGUES. 
 
 to certain English commanders to harass the 
 Borderers who were friendly to the Cardinal, 
 and to prepare to receive the Scottish fortresses 
 south of the Forth, which the governor had 
 promised to yield, whenever the treaties were 
 signed.^ 
 
 Henry let it be known to his Scottish friends 
 that he was anxious that the treaties should be 
 signed before the Papal legate arrived in Scot- 
 land, and, lest their validity should afterwards 
 be questioned, that Beaton should be present 
 when they were signed.^ At last, on the 25th 
 of August 1543, Sadler reported that the treaties 
 were signed, though the Cardinal and his friends 
 had not attended the meeting. Arran, however, 
 resolved to make one more effort for peace 
 -^dth Beaton ; but though he visited him at St 
 Andrews, and remained with him several days, 
 he returned to proclaim him guilty of treason.^ 
 
 Whatever effect the treaties might have had 
 on the progress of events, they were rendered 
 useless by a rash and foolish act of Henry. 
 Hardly had they been signed, when, in viola- 
 tion of the peace, he seized certain Scottish 
 ships which had taken refuge in an English 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers, i. 458. 
 3 Sadler, i. pp. 270-277. 
 
 Ibid., 461. 
 
ARRAX AND THE CATHOLIC FAITH. 241 
 
 port. News of this outrage reached Scotland, 
 and the excitement was intense. Sadler's house 
 in Edinburgh was surrounded by an angry 
 crowd, and his life threatened. The governor, 
 too, became an object of the popular hatred, 
 since he had shown marked favour to the Eng- 
 lish cause. Under the influence of the Abbot 
 of Paisley, xlrran, however, resolved on a sudden 
 change of policy. He sought the Cardinal at 
 Callander House, and there effected a recon- 
 ciliation. The two rode amicably to Stirling, 
 where, after g-ivino- his son to the Cardinal as 
 a pledge of his sincerity, Arran renounced the 
 Protestant faith, and was received back into 
 the Catholic Church. 
 
 On the 9th of September the queen was 
 crowned at Stirling — " with such solemnity," 
 wrote Sadler, " as they do use in the country, 
 which is not very costly."^ Henry's schemes, 
 intrigues, and promises of the year came to 
 nought by his one act of rashness in seizing 
 the Scottish ships. Arran was lost to him, the 
 queen was crowned, the country was roused 
 against him, and his enemy, the Cardinal, was 
 the most popular man in Scotland. 
 
 1 Sadler, i. pp. 282-289, 300 ; State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. 
 p. 334. 
 
 Q 
 
242 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 KIXG AGAIXST CARDINAL. 
 
 Beatox, liavino' o-ained the owernor, souo:ht 
 to complete liis triumph by inviting Angus to 
 join with him in crowning the queen. Angus 
 and the " English lords would not, however, 
 take part in the ceremonial, nor would they 
 yield in their allegiance to Henry. On the 
 contrary, they subscribed a bond to be true to 
 one another in their English policy, and thereby 
 enrao'ed the Cardinal, who swore that thoug-h it 
 cost him his life he would drive the Douglases 
 from the country. 
 
 In accordance with their agreement with 
 Arran, Beaton and the queen - dowager suc- 
 ceeded in establishing a council, of which they 
 themselves became members, to aid the gover- 
 nor in the conduct of public business ; and 
 they further exerted their authority in causing 
 
BEATOX AND SADLER. 
 
 243 
 
 a meeting to be held at Edinburgli towards the 
 end of September for the purpose of deliberating 
 on Henry's recent actions. In the discussions 
 at this meeting, the Cardinal proved himself a 
 skilful debater, as he showed how the treaties, 
 having been broken by Henry, w^ere no longer 
 binding on the Scots. In reply to Sadler's plea 
 that the ships seized by Henry were bound for 
 France, Beaton demanded whether the English 
 king, if he received the hostages named in the 
 treaties, would restore the ships to Scotland ; 
 and whether also he would make amends for 
 the warfare waged on the Borders. The am- 
 bassador was brought to bay. Yes or no he 
 must reply to this skilful advocate of Scottish 
 rights, and knowing the temper of his master 
 he durst not answer that Henry would make 
 reparation of the damage he had wrought ; and 
 so the meeting came to an end without any- 
 thing being done to ratify the treaties. Pri- 
 vately Beaton assured Sadler of his desire to 
 see the treaties carried out, and of his anxiety 
 to gain Henry's favour.^ On Beaton's efforts 
 to appear friendly to England some light is 
 thrown by a letter to Henry from his ambas- 
 sador Wotton, who wrote : " Granvelle told me 
 
 1 Sadler, i. pp. 284-288, 290, 297, 300-307, 333. 
 
244 
 
 KING AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 that the French king with his council have 
 concluded that the Scots shall make a fair face 
 to your Majesty, and promise that they will 
 deliver the queen-dowager and her daughter 
 into your hands ; howbeit when it shall come 
 to the point they shall do clear contrary."^ 
 Beaton, however, was no clumsy diplomatist, 
 and his professions of friendship, as they were 
 renewed again and again, were not rejected by 
 those they were meant to deceive. 
 
 In spite of Beaton's overtures to Henry, ru- 
 mours of war were heard in Scotland. Henry, 
 when he learned how Sadler had been treated 
 by the infuriated people of Edinburgh, threat- 
 ened dire vengeance on that city ; and bidding 
 Sadler move to Tantallon, gave orders for the 
 preparation of an army to punish the Scots for 
 not carrying out the treaties, which he himself 
 had been the first to violate. A last chance 
 was given to the Scots to send the hostages 
 named in the treaties ; but the Scots made 
 no response, although Beaton had represented 
 himself as favourable to the ratification of the 
 treaties.^ Henry therefore concluded for war, 
 and showed his ignorance of Scotland and his 
 
 1 state Papers, ix. p. 603. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. pp. 334, 336, 346, 350. 
 
APOSTASY OF LEXXOX. 
 
 245 
 
 impatient ambition, by commanding the " Eng- 
 lish lords "to deliver to him the Cardinal and 
 the governor, to change the guard of the queen 
 and appoint in their stead nobles favourable to 
 the English cause, and, lastly, to form the coun- 
 cil of government from men entirely devoted to 
 him.^ 
 
 Henry, although he had gained nothing but 
 unfulfilled promises from the " English lords," 
 continued, like a child playing at a game of 
 politics, to make demands which sober judg- 
 ment would have pronounced impossible of 
 fulfilment. 
 
 France was still the hope of Scotland, and 
 France did not fail to render what help she 
 could afi'ord. Money and military stores were 
 consigned to the Earl of Lennox, who, before 
 they arrived, had transferred his allegiance to 
 Henry. The early Scottish historians attribute 
 the cause of this change to Beaton, who, having 
 gained the governor, neglected Lennox. Beaton, 
 however, was not one to make political blunders, 
 and the apostasy of Lennox is to be traced to 
 a romance of love. On the 11th of July, two 
 months before the union of Beaton and Arran, 
 Sadler wrote to England that Lennox would 
 
 1 Sadler, i. p. 312. 
 
246 
 
 KING AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 gladly join with Angus, if lie might wed the 
 Lady Margaret Douglas. When it became 
 known that Lennox sought this alliance, en- 
 deavours were made by Beaton's party to retain 
 him ; but the attractions of the lady proved 
 stronger than patriotism.^ 
 
 The ships which brought the French supplies 
 to Lennox brought also the Papal legate, the Car- 
 dinal Grimani, who, while he remained in Scot- 
 land, helped to stay the progress of the Eeformed 
 religion, and to convince the nobles by his gold, 
 and the j^eople by his words, that the English 
 marriage would yet prove dangerous to the in- 
 dependence of the country. Everywhere the 
 people were hostile to Henry and favourable 
 to Beaton, as the " English lords " discovered 
 when they plotted to seize Stirling and St An- 
 drews, in order that the queen and the Cardinal 
 might be made captive. 
 
 War was inevitable, and the Cardinal was 
 not against it ; he had not received the supplies 
 sent from France, but he still placed his hope 
 in that country. Eumour spread the story 
 that with 6000 soldiers of Denmark and 
 10,000 Scots, all paid by France, he intended 
 to carry the war into England. Neither the 
 
 1 Sarller, i. pp. 323, 326, 327. 
 
SOMERVILLE AND MAXWELL. 
 
 247 
 
 English nor the Scots, however, were yet pre- 
 pared for war. In the end of October 1543, 
 before he left Edinburgh, Sadler proposed to the 
 merchants the restitution of their ships and 
 property, if they would join the English cause ; 
 but the merchants with indignation replied that 
 they would rather lose property and life than 
 betray their country. Sadler, as un]3opular as 
 ambassador could be, then proceeded to Tan- 
 tallon ; and the fact that he sought refuge with 
 Angus caused the Douglases to share in his un- 
 popularity.-^ About this same time their treach- 
 ery to their country was further brought to light. 
 At a meeting held immediately after the union 
 of the Cardinal and the governor, the Douglases 
 and their friends pledged themselves to remain 
 true to England, and they despatched messen- 
 gers to assure Henry of their willingness to ful- 
 fil his demands. Somerville and Maxwell, the 
 messengers to Henry, were made prisoners on 
 the road to England, and their despatches taken 
 from them. When the contents of the de- 
 spatches were now at this time made public, 
 the indignation among the Scots was great. ^ 
 Arran wrote to Angus to dismiss Sadler, as no 
 
 1 Sadler, i. pp. 324, 338, 341. 
 
 2 Letter of Arran, quoted in Tytler, iii. 1. 
 
248 
 
 KING AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 longer an accepted ambassador in Scotland.^ 
 In December a meeting of the Estates was held, 
 and the treaties were declared to be at an end, 
 the old alliance with France was formally re- 
 newed, and the conduct of Angus was censured 
 as treason.^ At this meeting the Cardinal's 
 appointment to the chancellorship was ratified, 
 and there is this entry in the records of Parlia- 
 ment, " That my Lord Cardinal has accepted 
 the office of Chancellor in and upon him at the 
 desire of my Lord Governor and Lords of Ar- 
 ticles." At the same time, the office of Lord 
 Privy Seal was bestowed upon Hamilton, Abbot 
 of Paisley.^ 
 
 Angus and the " English lords," in order to 
 escape the penalties of treason and the risks 
 of unpopularity, engaged to Arran that they 
 would be loyal to the c[ueen, would oppose 
 England, and would maintain the ancient re- 
 ligion. At the very time when they made this 
 engagement, they sent to England to beg that 
 an army be sent to Scotland to help them 
 against the governor and the Cardinal.^ The 
 moralist who dwells on the vice of the clergy, 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 348. 
 
 2 Acts of Pari. ii. 3 Crawford's Officers of State. 
 4 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. pp. 355, 362. 
 
CONTEST AT PERTH. 
 
 249 
 
 which was a cause of the downfall of the 
 Catholic Church, will do well to look at the 
 perfidy of the men who were ranged on the 
 side of the reformed religion. 
 
 Angus, had he possessed any of his former 
 strength, would not have heeded the threat- 
 ened penalties of treason ; but the Lords Gray, 
 Eothes, Ogilvy, and Glammis had separated 
 themselves from his party. The Cardinal and 
 the governor had visited them in their houses, 
 and with persuasions and gold had secured them. 
 Thus the " English lords " were reduced in num- 
 ber to the Douglases and the Sol way prisoners. 
 
 It was probably during this visit to the 
 country of those nobles that Beaton tried to 
 depose Lord Euthven, who was suspected of 
 heresy, from the provostship of Perth. He 
 directed the citizens to elect Charteris of Kin- 
 fauns, who was supported by the Lords Gray 
 and Glammis, and the Master of Eothes. A 
 contest took place, and Euthven, with the aid 
 of the townsmen of Perth, killed sixty of his 
 opponents, and the scheme of the Cardinal 
 came to nought.^ 
 
 1 Buchanan, Knox, Spottiswood. Charteris was engaged in 
 one of the plots to assassinate Beaton ; but it is not likely that 
 the Cardinal was aware of this fact. 
 
250 
 
 KIXG AGAIXST CARDINAL. 
 
 AVar, long threatened by Henry, was at last 
 declared by his herald in Edinburgh in the 
 month of January 1544. No aid, however, had 
 come to the Scots from France ; and the Car- 
 dinal, instead of being ready to carry the war 
 into England, was totally unprepared to meet 
 Henry s forces. It was best, it seemed to him, 
 to make no prej^arations for defence ; and in 
 March it was rumoured that he and the queen- 
 dowager were seeking to escape to France.^ 
 Beaton, however, had no intention of going to 
 France ; and from the feet that he did nothing 
 for the defence of the realm, it is evident that 
 he trusted that Henry, as he w^as engaged in 
 his French wars, would not be able to do more 
 than devastate a tract of the Scottish territory. 
 
 In reality Henry was not able to overwhelm 
 Scotland, and intimation was made to Hertford 
 that " the grand attempt on Scotland " was de- 
 layed for a season, but that meanwhile the work 
 of devastation was to proceed. Hertford was 
 ordered to advance into the country, and as he 
 marched he was to put all to fire and sword. 
 He was specially instructed to sack and burn 
 Edinburgh, with Holyrood, and the surrounding- 
 towns and villages ; to sack Leith, and burn and 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIIL), v. p. 360. 
 
hepvTFOed's expedition. 
 
 251 
 
 subvert it, putting, when resistance was offered, 
 man, woman, and child to fire and sword with- 
 out exception. Thereafter Hertford was to pro- 
 ceed to Fife to devastate in like manner, and 
 he was to be careful to spoil and turn upside 
 down the Cardinal's tower of St Andrews, " as 
 the upper stone may be the nether, and not one 
 stick stand by another, sparing no creature alive 
 within the same, especially such as, either in 
 friendship or blood, be allied to the Cardinal." ^ 
 He was further commanded to proclaim Henry 
 protector of the realm and guardian of the 
 queen, and to nail a placard on every church 
 door intimating that the Scots had the Cardinal 
 to thank for their sufferings. These were Henry's 
 intentions, and they show not the anger of a 
 powerful sovereign, but the pitiless personal 
 spite of a savage.^ 
 
 On the 1st of May 1544 the English fleet 
 appeared in the Forth, and Hertford made pro- 
 clamation that he had come to convey the queen 
 to England to be married to the prince, and 
 if the queen were not delivered to him that he 
 would burn Edinburgh and Leith. No reply 
 was made to this proclamation, save a feeble 
 
 1 Hamilton Papers (Club publication), 93, 94. 
 - Haines' State Papers, i. 12. 
 
252 
 
 KING AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 attempt on the part of the governor and the 
 Cardinal to jDrevent Hertford's march from 
 Granton to Leith. Leith was sacked and Edin- 
 burgh was destroyed by a fire which raged for 
 three days ; and the surrounding country was 
 laid waste. About the middle of May the 
 fleet returned to England, but Hertford was 
 left with an army to devastate the country as 
 he marched homewards.^ 
 
 Knox's account of this expedition is original 
 and graphic. When the fleet arrived in the 
 Forth no one knew who the men were. When 
 word of the fleet was taken to Edinburgh " the 
 Cardinal skipped and said, ' It is the Island- 
 flote, — they are come to make a show, and to 
 put us in fear. I shall lodge all the men of 
 war in mine eye that shall land in Scotland.' 
 Still sitteth the Cardinal at his dinner eating, 
 as though there had been no danger appear- 
 ing." When, however, the Cardinal and the 
 governor understood that the fleet was Henry's, 
 they " fled as fast as horse could carry them, 
 so that after they approached not within twenty 
 miles of danger." 
 
 Henry by his forces had wrought devastation 
 throughout a whole tract of Scotland, but he 
 
 1 Lesley, p. 180 et seq. 
 
LEXNOX AND GLENCAIRN. 
 
 253 
 
 liacl not secured the jDerson of the queen, and 
 had not established himself as protector of the 
 realm. Once more he had recourse to intrigue. 
 On the 17th of May he entered into a bond 
 with Lennox and Glencairn, in which he agreed 
 to settle a pension on Glencairn and his son, 
 and to bestow the hand of the Lady Margaret 
 Douglas, and ultimately the governorship, on 
 Lennox, if they would carry out his pur- 
 poses in Scotland. These noblemen, accord- 
 ingly, prepared their forces ; and, attacking the 
 governor at Glasgow, were defeated. Glen- 
 cairn fled to Dumbarton, and Lennox to Eng- 
 land, where he was married to the Lady 
 Margaret.^ 
 
 On the 3d of June a meeting of the Scottish 
 nobles, including the Douglases, was held at 
 Stirling. The nobles present declared them- 
 selves united in their opposition to England ; 
 but many of them resenting the weakness of 
 Arran's government, proposed that the queen- 
 dowager should be appointed regent, and 
 Angus be made lieutenant-general of the king- 
 dom. The Cardinal continued his support of 
 the governor ; but disunion had now^ arisen 
 
 1 Rymer, Fcedera, xv. pp. 19-30 ; Calendar of State Papers, 
 Scotland, i. p. 46. 
 
254 
 
 KI^'G AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 among the nobles, evidently by the plotting of 
 the Douglases.^ 
 
 In the month of August, Henry renewed his 
 attacks through Lennox, who sailed with a fleet 
 to the Clyde, in the hope of taking the castle 
 of Dumbarton. The castle was his own, but 
 the governor of the castle, who had been ap- 
 pointed to hold it against the " English lords," 
 would not yield it to him, now that lie had for- 
 saken the Scottish cause. For a time a petty 
 warfare was waged in Cantire and Kyle, but 
 the main object of the expedition had not been 
 gained when Lennox returned to England.-^ 
 
 The disunion of the Scottish nobles now 
 showed its results. On the 6th of November 
 a Parliament was held in Edinburgh, in which 
 the governor declared the Douglases traitors ; 
 while a few days previously the queen-dowager, 
 acting in the capacity of regent, had issued a 
 summons for a Parliament to be held on the 
 12th of November at Stirling, and had sus- 
 pended the governor from his oflice. At the 
 meeting in Edinburgh, at which Beaton was 
 present, the Parliament proposed to be held at 
 
 1 Calendar of State Papers, Scotland, i. -p. 47 ; Diiirn. of 
 Occur. 
 
 - Diurn. of Occur. ; Lesley, Bnclianan. 
 
ATTACK OX COLDIXGHAM. 
 
 255 
 
 Stirling was declared illegal, and ambassadors 
 were sent to the queen-dowager to inform her 
 that Parliament, as represented by the mem- 
 bers in Edinburgh, would remain loyal to 
 Arran. The dowager was forced to yield, and 
 undoubtedly this intrigue, to which through 
 personal ambition she had been a party, was 
 an attempt of the Douglases to gain supreme 
 authority in the government. ^ 
 
 At the meeting of Parliament preparations 
 were made for defending the Borders against 
 the English attacks. Thereafter an attempt 
 was made to take Coldingham, and in the 
 strife 2000 Englishmen scattered a Scot- 
 tish force numbering 7000. This disaster 
 to the Scots was publicly ascribed to the hesi- 
 tancy of the Douglases, who, however, man- 
 aged to delude the governor into believing that 
 they had fought for their country. Arran 
 accordingly agreed to the charge of treason 
 against the Douglases being withdrawn by the 
 Parliament which met in December 1544.- 
 
 The Douglases, however, were soon to be 
 placed in actual opposition to England. Two 
 English commanders, Sir Kalph Eure and Sir 
 Brian Layton, had arranged an expedition into 
 
 1 Acts of Parliament, ii. - Diurn. of Occur. 
 
256 
 
 KIXG AGAINST CARDIXAL. 
 
 Scotland in order that they might devastate 
 and conquer. In this expedition viglence was 
 wrought on Melrose and its abbey, and indig- 
 nities were wantonly heaped upon the tombs of 
 the ancestors of Angus. The Douglases were 
 roused as if with the spirit which had animated 
 their dead and had made their name illustrious. 
 If they would not fight for the independence of 
 their country, they would fight for the ofi'ended 
 honour of their house. Eeinforced by the 
 Master of Eothes and the Laird of Buccleuch 
 with their followers, they attacked the English- 
 men and routed them in the battle of Ancrum, 
 February 27, 1545 ; and the deaths of the two 
 English commanders wiped out the dishonour 
 done to the dead Douglases.^ 
 
 The failure of the expedition led by Lennox 
 was a source of vexation to Henry ; but now 
 when he heard of his losses at Ancrum his 
 wrath rose to a fury. His interests in France, 
 however, demanded his closest attention, and 
 for a time he was forced to content himself 
 with that which policy could do for him in 
 Scotland. He accordingly instructed Cassilis 
 to command the " English lords " to see to the 
 ratification of the treaties ; and though his 
 
 1 Lesley, p. 187. 
 
CONVENTION OF THE SCOTTISH NOBLES. 257 
 
 resources were being drained by his French 
 wars, he gave orders for the preparation of an 
 army to proceed to Scotland, should the treaties 
 not be ratified. Cassilis found the English 
 lords " ready to obey ; nor were the Douglases 
 hostile to Henry, now that their honour had 
 been satisfied. Through the negotiations of 
 those men a convention of the Scottish nobles 
 was held on the 17th of April 1545, to con- 
 sider Henry's demands ; and Cassilis was em- 
 powered to state that the English king would 
 overlook the injuries he had received, if the 
 treaties were instantly ratified. Beaton, how- 
 ever, was determined that Henry's demands 
 should be refused, seeing that now he had 
 strong hope of aid against England from the 
 Kings of France and Denmark, from the Pope, 
 and also from the Emperor, who, according to 
 rumour, was desirous of a marriage between the 
 young queen and his second son. Of these, 
 Francis was the most likely to render assistance 
 to Scotland, as it was to his own interest to 
 distract Henry from the war in France.^ 
 
 Beaton, in the exuberance of this hope, pre- 
 vailed on the convention to declare the treaties 
 at an end, and to solicit aid from France. 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. 431-437, 444-447. 
 K 
 
258 
 
 KINO AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 As the result of this solicitation, Francis, 
 in the month of May, sent 3000 infantry, 
 500 horse, and a considerable sum of money ; 
 and soon active preparations for the war began. ^ 
 A general summons was made to all lieges be- 
 tween the ages of sixteen and sixty to pro- 
 ceed to Eoslin Muir on the 28th of July ; and 
 on the 9th of August, the Scots, with their 
 French allies, were ready for action.^ Angus 
 was appointed leader of the van, and the army 
 marched into England, and after two days of 
 skirmishing was disbanded. The Douglases 
 were false to their country ; and the expedi- 
 tion, on which Beaton's hopes were centred, 
 ended in an ignominious failure, " through the 
 deceit of George Douglas and the vanguard." ^ 
 Knox describes the expedition as if it were 
 memorable only through the wounded pride of 
 the Cardinal : " Monsieur de Lorge, with bands 
 of men of war, came from France for a destruc- 
 tion to Scotland ; for, upon their brag was an 
 army raised, forwards they go towards Wark, 
 even in the midst of harvest. The Cardinals 
 banner was that day displayed, but ... it ' 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIIL), v. p. 459. 
 
 2 Acts of Parliament, ii. 
 
 3 Diurn. of Occur. ; State Papers (Henry VIIL), v. p. 498. 
 
Hertford's second expedition. 259 
 
 was left so bare that with shame it was shut 
 up into the pock again, and they, after a show, 
 returned with more shame to the realm than 
 hurt to their enemies." 
 
 Scottish history was repeating itself within 
 a generation ; and, as in the days of Albany 
 and of James V., the army intended to de- 
 vastate Eno;land exhausted its streng-th in its 
 march across the Borders. Some of the nobles 
 were false to their country, and it is no justi- 
 fication of their conduct that this expedition 
 was planned by a churchman. Undoubtedly 
 the army was j^i'^pared to work destruction 
 on the enemy of the Catholic faith ; but that 
 enemy was also the foe of Scottish independ- 
 ence, whom every Scot, for love of country, 
 should have hated and resisted. But patriotism 
 was all but dead among the nobles of Scotland, 
 and was to be found chiefly among the church- 
 men ; and the man who was the most zealous 
 upholder of the ancient faith was also the most 
 ardent champion of his country's independence. 
 Henry was not long of following up the Car- 
 dinal's futile attack on England by an attack 
 on Scotland. In the autumn of this year, 1545, 
 Hertford, with a great army, entered Scotland ; 
 but no resistance was offered to the progress 
 
260 
 
 KING AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 of his march. Without Angus, resistance was 
 impossible ; but Beaton knew that Angus was 
 not to be trusted, although Henry had still 
 to avenge the disaster of Ancrum. Hertford 
 advanced into Scotland along a road of ruin 
 and waste, and the Douglases w^ere among the 
 greatest sufferers. Such a scene as this had 
 not been witnessed in Scotland for a hundred 
 years. The list of destructions is appalling : 
 " Monasteries and friars' houses, seven ; castles, 
 towers, and piles, sixteen ; market towns, five ; 
 villages, two hundred and forty-three ; mills, 
 thirteen ; spitals and hospitals, three." ^ Kelso, 
 Melrose, Dryburgh were in the catalogue of 
 ruins. How far this work of devastation might 
 have proceeded it is impossible to say, since 
 Henry's anger and vengeance knew no bounds ; 
 but the devastation ended only because the 
 country could supply no food to its destroyers. 
 
 The result of Hertford's expedition, manifest 
 in the ruins he left behind him, was not seen 
 in any determination of the Scots to sue for 
 mercy or to ratify the treaties. On the con- 
 trary, a policy of defence was at once inaug- 
 urated. A Border army, it was determined, 
 
 ^ Haines' State Papers, i. 54 ; State Papers (Henry VIIL), 
 V. p. 523. 
 
LENNOX AND THE LORD OF THE ISLES. 261 
 
 should be raised ; and to meet the expense, a 
 tax of £16,000 was to be levied from the three 
 Estates.^ Beaton, it was also resolved, should 
 proceed to France to endeavour to raise a large 
 army for the destruction of England ; and in 
 his absence the queen with her mother were to 
 reside in the castle of St Andrews — an arrange- 
 ment to which Arran agreed on the understand- 
 ing that his son should marry the queen. - 
 This was the projected policy, but it did not 
 reach fulfilment. 
 
 Henry, on the other hand, was not satisfied 
 with the devastation of a tract of Scotland, as 
 he aimed at the subjugation of the country. 
 His next plan, therefore, was an invasion of 
 the west of Scotland, under Lennox, who for 
 some time had been negotiating for help with 
 the Lord of the Isles. ^ As centres for the 
 action of his forces he was desirous of obtaining 
 certain Border castles, held by Lord Maxwell ; 
 but while Maxwell hesitated between patriotism 
 and self-interest, the governor and the Cardinal 
 attacked Caerlaverock, Lochmaben, and Threave, 
 and gained an entrance into them. The castles 
 
 1 Acts of Parliament, ii. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 549. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 477, 482-485, 501-508. 
 
262 
 
 KING AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 were lost to Henry, but the invasion of Lennox, 
 lie trusted, would avenge him of his adver- 
 saries.^ On the 17th of November 1545, Lennox 
 set sail for Dublin, which had been agreed upon 
 as the starting - point for an expedition to 
 Dumbarton ; but before Lennox could have 
 reached the Clyde, the Cardinal and Huntly 
 had persuaded the governor of Dumbarton to 
 yield the castle.^ Lennox, not having obtained 
 from the Lord of the Isles the expected help, 
 did not venture to Scotland ; and Beaton there- 
 fore was left to triumph over the impotency 
 of Henry's schemes for the subjugation of 
 the country. Beaton's triumphs over Henry's 
 plots were not allowed, however, to remain 
 unavenged. 
 
 The King of England in the earlier days of 
 his Scottish intrigues plotted against the liberty 
 of the Cardinal, as he had done in the case of 
 the Archbishop James Beaton. His desire was 
 to have those prelates, each in his own genera- 
 tion, prisoners in England ; and had he obtained 
 his desire, it goes without saying that the 
 current of Scottish history would have been 
 changed. Doubtless, in the first instance, the 
 King of England aimed only at the imprisonment 
 
 1 Dmrn. of Occur. ^ Lesley, p. 190. 
 
PLOTS OF ASSASSINATION. 
 
 263 
 
 of the Cardinal ; but one is almost safe to assert 
 that had Beaton been removed to England, 
 after one of his triumphs over Henry's schemes, 
 he would have died as a traitor to the self- 
 appointed protector and overlord of Scotland. 
 The failure to make Beaton a prisoner led to 
 darker councils. 
 
 Henry VHL, Defender of the Faith, then 
 titular head of the Church of England, is ex- 
 hibited in the State papers of his reign as the 
 aider and abettor of assassins ; and the com- 
 bination of defender of a religious faith and 
 employer of assassins is suggestive of Machia- 
 vellian rather than of Christian ethics. An 
 apologist for Henry may point to examples of 
 Papal benediction pronounced on assassination ; 
 to instances of other kings, like Macbeth of 
 the tragedy, paying for the dagger of the 
 murderer ; even to pious men, like certain of 
 the Covenanters, lying in wait to kill. The 
 apologist may also point to the current ethical 
 ideas of Henry's time, such as that which justi- 
 fied the murder of individuals as a preventive 
 of greater evils ; ^ but the Bible which Henry 
 gave into the hands of the people as a guide 
 to right conduct, and the Church of which he 
 
 1 More's Utopia. 
 
264 
 
 KING AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 claimed to be the head, offered no excuse for 
 the assassin's act. 
 
 Beaton has suffered the penalty that attaches 
 to the name of religious persecutor ; but to his 
 great enemy belongs the guilt that comes from 
 the meaner crime of the assassin. 
 
 Crichton, Laird of Brunston, was the first 
 to calculate, and then to act, on Henry's will- 
 ingness to remove Beaton from out his path. 
 As he first appears on the page of history, 
 Crichton was an agent of the Cardinal. From 
 Beaton's he passed to Arran's service, and at 
 last became a spy in the pay of the English 
 ambassador. On the 17th of April 1544, 
 Hertford wrote to Henry that one Wishart 
 had arrived, bringing letters from Brunston, 
 and desired to communicate information which 
 consisted of two parts : one part was that the 
 Laird of Grange, the Master of Kothes, and 
 John Charteris would attempt to take or slay 
 the Cardinal as he passed through Fife, and if 
 they apprehended him would deliver him to 
 Henry; but they desired to know his majesty's 
 pleasure therein, and what support and main- 
 tenance he would give them, if after the deed 
 they were attacked by their enemies. The 
 second part of the information related to pro- 
 
THE BRUNSTON LETTER. 
 
 265 
 
 posals for the destruction of the Scottish 
 religious houses, and especially of the Abbey 
 of Arbroath as belonging to the Cardinal.^ 
 
 From a communication from the Privy 
 Council of England, of date 26th April,^ it 
 appears that Wisliart, after an interview with 
 Henry, was in a position to assure the con- 
 spirators that Henry approved of the scheme, 
 and promised that if they slew the Cardinal 
 they would find refuge and protection in Eng- 
 land. Nothing more, however, is known of 
 this plot ; and we are ignorant whether the 
 conspirators were dissatisfied with Henry's 
 answer, or whether Beaton, discovering the 
 plot, took means to frustrate it. 
 
 In the following year a similar plot was 
 devised, and though Brunston's name appears 
 in the documents which witness to it, he was 
 associated with men of higher social rank and 
 of greater political importance. 
 
 In a letter, of date 30th May 1545,^ from 
 the English Privy Council, Hertford was in- 
 formed that Henry had seen certain letters 
 from Cassilis to Sadler, and that one of them 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 377. 
 
 2 Haines' State Papers, p. 32. 
 
 3 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 449. 
 
266 
 
 KING AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 contained an offer for the killing of the Car- 
 dinal, " if his majesty would have it done, and 
 would promise, when it were done, a reward." 
 By the letter Hertford was to know, in refer- 
 ence to the proposed assassination, that "his 
 Highness, reporting the fact not meet to be 
 set forward expressly by his majesty, will not 
 seem to have to do in it ; and yet not mis- 
 liking the offer, thinketh good that Mr Sadler, 
 to whom that letter was addressed, should 
 write to the Earl of the receipt of his letter 
 containing such an offer, which he thinketh 
 not convenient to be communicated to the 
 kings majesty; marry, to write to him what 
 he thinketh of the matter (he shall say), that 
 if he were in the Earl of Cassilis' place, and 
 were as able to do his majesty good service 
 there, as he knoweth him to be, and thinketh 
 a right good will in him to do it, he would 
 surely do what he could for the execution of 
 it, believing verily to do thereby not only 
 acceptable service to the king's majesty, but 
 also a special benefit to the realm of Scotland, 
 and would trust verily the king's majesty 
 would consider his service in the same." 
 
 In a plot of assassination a lie may possibly 
 be a factor worthy of no consideration ; but 
 
PLOT OF CASSILIS. 
 
 267 
 
 as a matter of simple truth, Henry saw the 
 letter referred to in this communication. 
 
 Sadler, then at Newcastle, acknowledged the 
 command to write to Cassilis, and at the same 
 time wrote that he expected to learn more 
 regarding Henry's wishes from Forster, who was 
 about to be sent as Henry's messenger to the 
 Douglases, Glencairn, and Cassilis. In Sadler's 
 dispatch was included a cipher letter from the 
 Laird of Brunston.^ 
 
 Sadler, in accordance with Henry's in- 
 structions, wrote to Cassilis, but received no 
 answer.2 Apparently Cassilis was dissatisfied 
 with Henry's reply, and was not willing to 
 slay the Cardinal, and thereafter to throw him- 
 self on Henry's charity for a reward. Sir 
 George Douglas, however, pressed for a definite 
 reward ; and Forster, the English spy,^ brought 
 word from him to Sadler "that if the king 
 would have the Cardinal dead, if his Grace 
 would promise a good reward for the doing 
 thereof, so that the reward were known what 
 it should be, the country being lawless, he 
 thinketh that that adventure would be proved ; 
 for the common saying is that the Cardinal is 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 453. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 471. 3 Ibid., p. 467. 
 
268 
 
 KING AGAIXST CARDINAL. 
 
 the only occasion of the war, and is smally 
 beloved in Scotland." Douglas further desired 
 to know, if the Cardinal were slain, in what 
 manner the reward would be jDaid. Assassins 
 were evidently able to make terms with kings 
 when murder was their business, without feign- 
 ing awe in presence of the kingly majesty. 
 
 Henry, who liked the idea of the murder, 
 but not the idea of the reward, was relieved 
 from cominor to definite terms with Douo'las 
 by an offer from Brunston to kill the Cardinal 
 for a small sum of money. ^ This offer precisely 
 suited Henry's character. He would have the 
 murder done, and done on the cheapest terms. 
 Sadler, to whom Brunston's letters to Henry 
 had been sent for transmission, wrote to Brun- 
 ston that he noted the offer "to take him out 
 of the way that hath been the whole worker 
 of all your mischief" - Sadler agreed that it 
 would be an acceptable service to God to take 
 the Cardinal out of the way, and wrote that 
 though Henry would not for sundry reasons 
 directly meddle with the matter, yet the assas- 
 sination would be a good service both to God 
 and to his majesty. Sadler gave assurance that 
 Henry would so reward them that did him ser- 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 470. ^ ibid. 
 
brunston's offer. 
 
 269 
 
 vice that they would have good cause to be con- 
 tent ; but Sadler desired to know the precise 
 amount demanded by Brunston's friends, and 
 added that if the sum were not unreasonable, 
 then for the Christian zeal he bore to Scot- 
 land, he would undertake that the amount at 
 once be paid, though he himself had to pay it. 
 The writer asked that the letter be shown to 
 Sir George Douglas and the Earl of Cassilis. 
 
 Brunston and his friends were evidently un- 
 willing to trust to Henry's generosity, and were 
 anxious to gain a promise of reward, so that the 
 king might be implicated in the affair. They 
 desired money, and desired protection if the 
 need should arise for them to flee to England. 
 Henry, while he wished the deed done, and 
 done cheaply, wished also to be relieved of all 
 responsibility in the matter. Nothing more, 
 however, is heard of this plot, though the orig- 
 inal off'er was to kill the Cardinal for a small 
 sum of money. 
 
 Henry was none the less just as anxious as 
 formerly for the death of Beaton, and an oppor- 
 tunity of reaching his desire seemed to present 
 itself, when there was need to test the sincerity 
 of a number of Frenchmen who had deserted to 
 England. Let any others. Henry suggested. 
 
270 
 
 KING AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 do some notable damage or displeasure to his 
 enemies before they desert, such as "trapping 
 or killing the Cardinal, Lorges, the governor, 
 or some other man of estimation." ^ None of 
 the Frenchmen, however, gained Henry's favour 
 by either trapping or killing the Cardinal. 
 
 On the 6th of October 1545, Brunston wrote 
 to Henry from Ormiston, where George Wishart 
 was afterwards captured, that the Cardinal in- 
 tended to pass to France, but the writer hoped 
 " to God his journey shall be shortit to his dis- 
 pleasure."^ This may have been a pious hope, 
 but it may also have been a hope implying un- 
 godly interference with the Cardinal's purposes. 
 
 On the 20th of October,^ Brunston wrote to 
 Hertford that his friends were ready to serve 
 Henry, "but his majesty must be plain with 
 them, both what his majesty would have them 
 to do, and in like manner what they shall lippen 
 to of his majesty." Brunston also wrote con- 
 cerning his willingness to see Sadler, but in- 
 timated that the meeting must be secret, as 
 otherwise it would mean to him, the writer, the 
 losing of life and heritage. 
 
 There is nothing; to show what was the nature 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIIL), v. p. 512. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 549. 3 Ibid., pp. 550, 551. 
 
LOSS OF STATE PAPERS. 
 
 271 
 
 of the service which Brunston's friends were 
 willing to render to Henry, or what was the 
 business on which Brunston was to visit Sad- 
 ler; but it may be conjectured that the letter 
 referred to Beaton's assassination, and to the 
 terms demanded by the conspirators. Of the 
 period from the last day of October 1545, to 
 the 27th of May 1546, the day on which Bea- 
 ton was murdered, none of the Scottish corre- 
 spondence is now to be found. It may there- 
 fore be supposed that the correspondence was 
 destroyed because the letters referred to the 
 demand for, and the granting of, Henry's bond 
 of payment to the assassins. It is evident 
 from the previous correspondence that without 
 Henry's concurrence in the deed, and his written 
 promise of a definite reward, Brunston and his 
 friends would not proceed with the assassin- 
 ation. Brunston, according to his letter of the 
 20th of October, was soon to meet Sadler upon 
 some secret business ; and seeing that the cor- 
 respondence of the subsequent period has been 
 destroyed, it may reasonably be supposed that 
 Brunston's business referred to Henry's bond 
 of payment, and that the letters were fitted to 
 compromise the King of England in the murder 
 of Beaton. 
 
272 
 
 KING AGAINST CARDINAL. 
 
 There is no direct evidence in proof of Henry's 
 implication in Beaton's murder ; but the destruc- 
 tion of the State correspondence arouses sus- 
 picion, and it is a suggestive fact that among 
 the murderers of the Cardinal were Kirkaldy 
 of Grange and the Master of Eothes — men who, 
 according to Brunston's letter of April 1544, 
 offered their services to Henry for the killing of 
 Beaton as he journeyed through Fife. 
 
273 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 PROTESTANTISM ANT) WISHART. 
 
 The chief events of the years between the 
 deaths of James V. and Beaton belong to poli- 
 tical history ; but during those years the new 
 faith was largely affected by the political 
 changes, and advanced in spite of opposition. 
 The Earl of Arran, before his return to the 
 Catholic Church, was a zealous supporter of the 
 Lutheran faith, as Beaton, by publishing the 
 will which nominated himself as governor, had 
 driven him to the side of the religious reform- 
 ers, and had thereby given them hope of brighter 
 days. In his household Arran openly kept two 
 ministers of the new faith, and, shortly after his 
 elevation to the governorship, caused one of 
 them to preach regarding the abuses of the 
 Church, and to recommend the publication of 
 an English version of the Bible. Great im- 
 
 s 
 
274 PROTESTANTISM AND WISHART. 
 
 portance was attached to the reading of the 
 Bible. Lord Lisle strongly urged the gover- 
 nor to " let slip " amongst the people the 
 " Bible and the New Testament in English," 
 that they might know the truth and might 
 learn how to eschew sedition. Arran, in reply, 
 complained that there were no translations of 
 the Bible in the realm, but begged that an 
 Englishman be sent to Scotland to sell copies 
 of the Scripture in the vulgar tongue, and pro- 
 mised him protection. The demand for the 
 Old and New Testament was great. " They be 
 marvellously desired of the people," wrote Suf- 
 folk to the English Privy Council, as he advised 
 that the demand of the Scottish people be sup- 
 plied from England.^ The Scottish Parliament 
 was without means to satisfy this want of the 
 people ; but by an Act of March 1543, the 
 reading of the Scriptures was made lawful, in 
 face of the protests of the clergy. - 
 
 Arran for a time showed zeal as a reformer : 
 he asked Sadler to write to England for copies 
 of the Bible and of Henry's statutes for the 
 reformation of the clergy, and " the extirpation 
 of the Bishop of Rome." Henry most willingly 
 fostered the governor's reforming zeal. Bibles, 
 
 1 Hamilt. Pap., i. 298, 299, 303, 316. - Acts of Pari., ii. 
 
THE BIBLE IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 2*75 
 
 however, were expensive, and there is no men- 
 tion of a supply being forwarded to Scotland ; 
 but advice cost nothing. After promising to 
 send for publication a copy of a volume contain- 
 ing pure and true doctrine, he advised the gov- 
 ernor to warn the people to receive the Bible 
 reverently and humbly, with a desire " to learn 
 by it how they may direct their manners, living, 
 and true worshipping of God, and not by carnal 
 fancy to frame themselves such vain and evil 
 opinions as hath by seditious persons been 
 raised in the heads of unlearned people." Henry 
 was explicit in his advice to Arran to abolish 
 the relio-ious orders. Commissioners ouo^ht to 
 procure information regarding the manner of 
 the living of the monks ; and thereafter the 
 governor should take into council some of the 
 chief nobles, agreeing with them, in the first 
 instance, as to the share each would demand of 
 the lands of the abbeys. After the nobles had 
 been satisfied, and the governor himself had 
 secured his own share of the Church spoils, he 
 ought to deal with the bishops apart, or with 
 the tractable ones, and induce them to sanction 
 this ecclesiastical revolution by promise to them 
 of the lands of their sees, and additions there- 
 to from surrounding inferior religious houses. 
 
276 
 
 PROTESTANTISM AND WISHART. 
 
 Henry advised that certain abbeys be altered 
 " to the state [estate ?] of secular priests," and 
 be charged to send so many poor men to the 
 universities in order that the state of the 
 clergy " be better preserved ; and further, that 
 a provision be made for present members of 
 the religious houses during their lifetime, and 
 that a good portion of the Church lands be set 
 aside for the maintenance of the crown/ Henry's 
 scheme for the demolition of the monasteries 
 was marked by thoroughness ; but his scheme 
 for the destination of the property was founded 
 on theft, since each notable person was to take 
 what he wished. Arran advised the people to 
 read the Bible with reverence ; and promised 
 Henry that when peace was secured between 
 the two countries, he would proceed with the 
 demolition of the monasteries — a purpose justi- 
 fied to his Protestant mind by the argument 
 that, seeing that purgatory did not exist, there 
 was no need to support men to pray for the 
 souls of the dead. In order that Arran might 
 be further strengthened in his reforming work, 
 Henry commissioned a priest, known as Sir 
 Eobert Eichardson, to go to Scotland.^ The 
 
 ^ Hamilton Papers, i. 348. 
 
 ^ Richardson, a canon of Cambuskenneth, dedicated, in 1530, 
 
SIR ROBERT RICHARDSON. 
 
 277 
 
 governor received him well, and afterwards sent 
 him to the Cardinal. AYhat was the purpose of 
 Eichardson's visit to Beaton is unknow^n ; but 
 possibly he was sent by the governor, who was 
 not wise in the ways of prelates, to suggest to 
 Beaton the demolition of the religious houses, 
 and to ascertain what share of the property the 
 Cardinal would require. Eichardson, however, 
 was not resident in Scotland for any length of 
 time, since, shortly after his arrival, the gover- 
 nor, passing to the Cardinal's side in politics, 
 returned to the old religious faith.^ 
 
 Arran's apostasy or conversion, whatever it 
 be named, w^as of public significance, inasmuch 
 as it hindered the aid which through the Parlia- 
 ment or the council might have been given to 
 the spread of the Protestant doctrines. In the 
 Parliament of December 1543, he showed his 
 change of faith by indicating that there were 
 grave rumours of widespread heresy in the 
 realm, and his zeal as a proselyte by exhorting 
 the churchmen to inquire for heretics, and to 
 proceed against such according to the laws. 2 
 
 Arran had certainly strong reason as a 
 
 his ' Exegesis ' to Myln the abbot. A few years afterwards 
 he appeared in. London as a Protestant, and became the zealous 
 servant of Cromwell, Henry's minister. 
 1 Sadler, i. p. 217. ^ Acts of Parliament, ii. 
 
278 
 
 PROTESTANTISM AND WISHART. 
 
 Catholic to draw the attention of Parliament to 
 the state of the realm. It seemed as if the 
 Eeformation of Knox's days had begun. In 
 Dundee the houses of the Black and Grey friars 
 were spoiled ; and the abbey of Lindores was 
 attacked. In Edinburgh an attempt was made 
 to destroy the Blackfriars' monastery, and. in 
 Arbroath a similar attack against the abbey 
 was frustrated only through the interference of 
 Lord Ogilvy. We have further information 
 regarding the religious condition of Scotland at 
 this period from the correspondence of the 
 Papal legate, Marco Grrimani, who arrived in 
 Scotland in the autumn of the year 1543 ; and 
 from him we learn how marked w^as the advance 
 of the Lutheran faith. 
 
 The Pope, Paul III., wrote to the Scottish 
 king, before the battle of Solway, giving him 
 permission to gather a portion of the tithes 
 of the kingdom for the purpose of defending 
 the realm against Henry VIII.; and, at the 
 same time, commanded Grimani to proceed to 
 Scotland to aid in collecting the tithes. In 
 June 1543, Grimani wrote from Paris to Eome 
 that he had learned from one of Beaton's agents 
 the divided condition of Scotland, and the 
 certainty of a civil war, and that his presence 
 
MARCO GRIMANI. 
 
 279 
 
 in Scotland would be dangerous to himself and 
 useless to the Church. Possibly Beaton viewed 
 with jealousy the approach of a Papal ambassa- 
 dor, who might interfere with his own spiritual 
 rule ; or possibly Grimani knew that Henry's 
 ships were watching for him in the Channel. 
 In spite of his own letter, however, Grimani, 
 after going through the form of excommuni- 
 cating those who had imprisoned Beaton, left 
 Paris in July, and proceeded to Scotland. 
 Henry had prepared Arran for Grimani's arrival, 
 and Arran declared that if the Papal legate 
 made any garboil with his fulminations of 
 cursing, or stirred any division or inquietation, 
 he would certainly never return home. 
 
 The exact date of Grimani's arrival is un- 
 known, but he has left an account of the re- 
 ligious condition of Scotland at the time of his 
 arrival. The realm was full of heresy, and but 
 for the interposition of God would soon be in 
 the condition of England. The queen-dowager 
 and the Cardinal had spent their money in the 
 cause of the Church ; and the clergy were un- 
 able to give any aid, as the fruits of their bene- 
 fices had been seized by the Lutherans.^ 
 
 If these statements are true, the progress of 
 
 1 Conf. Stevenson's Mary Stuart, p. 48 et seq. 
 
280 PROTESTANTISM AND WISHART. 
 
 the reformed faith at this date had made 
 marked advance, and an advance greater than 
 that represented on the pages of the early 
 historians. It may not indicate strength of 
 religious conviction, but it certainly shows 
 strength of numbers, that the Lutherans were 
 able to seize the spoils of the churchmen. If 
 therefore, in 1543, the Lutherans were numer- 
 ous, as thus indicated, the reason for the delay 
 in the downfall of the Church can only be found 
 in the political fact, that the independence of 
 the country was in danger. The Scots, such of 
 them as were patriotic, banded themselves to- 
 gether under Beaton for the preservation of the 
 national liberty ; and while the independence of 
 the realm was in danger, through the action of 
 England, that change in the national Church 
 could not be effected which was advocated by 
 the King of England. 
 
 Beaton, as nationalist leader, did not, how- 
 ever, trust to his popularity as the only means 
 to secure the safety of the ancient Church, but 
 resolved to follow the usual procedure for the 
 extirpation of heresy. In the beginning of the 
 year 1544 he was made legate a latere, — a 
 dignity which he had long sought, and which 
 at last was bestowed on him in response to 
 
BEATON A LEGATE A LATERE. 281 
 
 letters from Arran. The original Bull, dated 
 3 Kal. Feb. 1544, and now in the English 
 State Paper Office, was not despatched from 
 Eome till the following year, when it fell into 
 the hands of English sailors, and never reached 
 its intended destination.^ Beaton in this year, 
 1544, was chancellor of the kingdom, arch- 
 bishop of St Andrews, and primate of Scotland, 
 cardinal and legate a latere. In actual power 
 he was governor of the realm, since Arran was 
 but his tool ; and to no higher ecclesiastical 
 dignity, save the highest, could he attain. 
 Arran indeed, on one occasion, declared that 
 Beaton, instead of giving up his cardinal's hat, 
 would rather embrace and receive the three 
 crowns ; and before the eyes of Beaton, as of 
 Wolsey, may have floated the golden vision of 
 the Papal tiara. 
 
 Beaton might have been expected to mark 
 his acquisition of the legatine dignity by a 
 prosecution of the heretics ; but while such 
 prosecution was then part of the avowed pol- 
 icy of the Catholic Church, afi'airs in Scot- 
 land prevented the leaders of the Church from 
 an attack on her enemies. From the date of 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry VIIL), v. p. 443 ; vide copy of the 
 Bull, Burnet's Collection. 
 
282 PROTESTAXTISM AND WISHART. 
 
 the martyrdoms in 1540, till that of Beaton's 
 attainment of the legatine power, the progress 
 of the new faith was notable, and the most 
 signal help to that progress was found in the 
 declaratory Act anent the reading of the Bible. 
 That Act was published in Edinburgh a few 
 months after the Pope in Eome had sanctioned 
 the adoption by the Catholic Church of a plan 
 for the destruction of heretics. At the colloquy 
 held in Ratisbon, 1541, the Catholic Church, 
 through its chief re23resentatiYe, Caspar Con- 
 tarini, made an honourable overture for re- 
 conciliation with the Protestant Church ; but 
 Contarini's action w^as repudiated at Eome, and 
 in 1542, on the advice of Cardinal Caraffa, the 
 future Pope Paul lY., the inquisition was 
 authorised by a Bull of date July 21. In 
 Italy especially the inquisition w^as disastrous 
 to the Protestant faith ; but while the Bull 
 of inquisition w^as addressed to the whole 
 Church, it w^as impossible for Beaton, the pri- 
 mate of Scotland, at once to obey it. Towards 
 the end of 1545, however, the Cardinal found 
 leisure amidst his political cares to turn his 
 attention to the business of the Church in Scot- 
 land.-^ Accompanied by the governor, by 
 
 1 Conf. Keith, i. 97, for this date. 
 
THE HERETICS OF PERTH. 
 
 283 
 
 Argyle the Lord Justice-General, and by the 
 Bishops of Dunblane and Orkney, he made a 
 journey through the diocese of St Andrews. 
 At Perth, if tradition is true, he exhibited 
 unparalleled ferocity against certain of the 
 new faith. Buchanan relates that four men 
 were put to death for eating flesh on a for- 
 bidden day ; and that a woman also suffered 
 death because she refused during the time of 
 her delivery to pray to the Virgin. Knox, who 
 dates the incident at St Paul's day before the 
 first burning of the city of Edinburgh, narrates 
 how a great number of honest men and women 
 were called before the Cardinal and accused of 
 heresy. The special charge against them was 
 that they had eaten a goose upon Friday. 
 Four men were hanged, and the wife of one of 
 them was drowned. At the same time several 
 men were banished, and Eoger, a Black friar, 
 w^as removed to St Andrews, where he was 
 murdered or died in the act of trying to escape. 
 
 Spottiswood's account of this raid on the 
 heretics of Perth is more graphic and detailed. 
 He relates that five men were apprehended at 
 the charge of Friar Spence, and were executed : 
 one for saying that a man could be saved with- 
 out prayer to the saints ; three for nailing two 
 
284 PROTESTANTISM AND WISHART. 
 
 horns on the head of an image of St Francis, 
 for " the putting of a cowes rump to his tail," 
 and for eating a goose on All-Hallow evening ; 
 the fifth for keeping company with the others. 
 A woman was charged with refusing, while in 
 labour, to pray to the Virgin, and saying that 
 she would pray to God only in the name of 
 Jesus Christ. Lamb, who had denied the effi- 
 cacy of prayer to the saints, besought the 
 people, when he was at the place of execu- 
 tion, to fear God and to forsake the " leaven 
 of papistical abominations." The woman made 
 known her wish to die with her husband, who 
 was one of the accused men ; but she was con- 
 demned to be drowned. As she parted from 
 her husband she said, " Husband, be glad. We 
 have lived together many joyful days, and this 
 day which we must die, we ought to esteem the 
 most joyful of all, because now we shall have 
 joy for ever ; therefore I will not bid you good- 
 night, for we shall shortly meet in the kingdom 
 of heaven." Tradition has added to the his- 
 torians' accounts that Beaton witnessed the 
 execution of the men, as he sat in the Spy 
 Tower — a building in the Earl of Gowrie's gar- 
 den by the side of the Tay ; ^ while Lindsay of 
 
 1 Chronicle of Perth (Maitland Club). 
 
VISITATION OF ANGUS AND MEARNS. 285 
 
 Pitscottie tells that the Earl of Argyle, for hav- 
 ing, as Justice-General, pronounced sentence on 
 those men, was from that day till his death 
 ever diseased both in body and spirit.^ 
 
 According to Buchanan and other historians, 
 the Cardinal proceeded from Perth to Dundee, 
 then the centre of the adherents of the new 
 faith. From Dundee, Beaton with the gover- 
 nor journeyed through Angus and Mearns, and 
 reached St Andrews at Christmas, when great 
 entertainment was made for the pleasure of the 
 governor. This extensive visitation was un- 
 attended by any prosecution of the heretics, 
 though it may have been meant to strike terror 
 into their hearts. In his account of this visita- 
 tion, Buchanan has recorded, either as humour 
 or fact, that such was the ignorance of the 
 priests that they contended that the New 
 Testament was a book lately written by Martin 
 Luther. 
 
 Beaton's journey through his diocese was un- 
 dertaken probably for the purpose of counter- 
 acting the influence of George Wishart, who 
 had made himself prominent in those parts as 
 
 1 Beaton granted to Argyle the charter of certain lands for 
 services to the Church at that time when Lutheran heresies 
 were springing up on every side. — Report on Hist. MSS., iv. 
 p. 484. 
 
286 
 
 PROTESTANTISM AND WISHART. 
 
 a preacher of the Eeformed doctrines. Heresy- 
 was rife, and the new opinions as contrary to 
 the established creed might be crushed by the 
 armed authority of the Church ; but everywhere 
 there was a clamour which could not be silenced 
 against the profligacy of the clergy. Hay in his 
 'Panegyric' on the Cardinal, printed in 1540, 
 dared, even while praising a churchman, to point 
 out the corruptions in the Church, and the 
 dangers involved in their continuance. Tradi- 
 tion has preserved many stories of Beaton's im- 
 morality ; and if they be true, he certainly w^as 
 not the man to call the clergy to purity of life. 
 Yet a great danger to the Church seemed to 
 him. to arise out of those charges of profligacy 
 which were continually being made against the 
 monks and priests. That danger must be over- 
 come, and Beaton therefore summoned a pro- 
 vincial council to meet at Edinburgh on the 
 13th of January 1546 ; and at this meeting of 
 council it was his intention to frame measures 
 for the rooting wp of heresy, and for the reform 
 of the manners of the clergy. 
 
 Beaton, with the governor, proceeded from 
 St Andrews to Edinburgh for the purjDOse of 
 presiding over this council, of which, how- 
 ever, little is known, since the Cardinal's plans 
 
WISHART IN ENGLAND. 
 
 287 
 
 were suddenly upset by the news tliat George 
 Wishart was at the house of Ormiston in East 
 Lothian. More important to the best interests 
 of the Church, it seemed to Beaton, than the 
 reform of the lives of the clergy, was the 
 capture of Wishart, who for a time, in vari- 
 ous parts of the country, had been a noted and 
 effective preacher of Protestantism. 
 
 Beaton's name has been interwoven with that 
 of Wishart in Scottish ecclesiastical history ; 
 and hence Wishart, apart from his own con- 
 spicuous merit as a preacher, claims attention. 
 
 George Wishart was a teacher of Greek in 
 Montrose, as he is first presented to us on the 
 page of history.^ He is next seen in Bristol, 
 where he was accused of heresy, and w^here he 
 recanted. After sojourning on the Continent 
 and returning to England, as is conjectured, he 
 went back to Scotland with the commissioners, 
 Knox says, who had gone to England to deliber- 
 ate with Henry on the treaties ; and immediately 
 after his return he began to preach the Eeformed 
 doctrines. In Dundee the people flocked to 
 hear him, and showed their zeal for the new 
 
 1 It is commonly said that Wishart was of the family of 
 Pittarrow ; but Laing, in his edition of Knox, declares that 
 nothing is known of Wishart's family. 
 
288 PROTESTANTISM AND WISHART. 
 
 faith by violence to the houses of the represent- 
 atives of the old. The magistrates of Dundee, 
 when the danger of violence was extreme, inter- 
 dicted him from preaching; and so he passed 
 to the western counties, where he openly in- 
 structed the people. In the west he was 
 opposed by the Archbishop of Glasgow ; but he 
 passed from town to town, till the outbreak of 
 the plague in Dundee recalled him to that 
 place. There, with great devotion, he min- 
 istered to the stricken people, and left the 
 town only when an urgent message called him 
 to Edinburgh to meet the friends of the 
 Keformation. 
 
 A beautiful picture of Wishart has been made 
 by one who was his pupil, — " courteous, lowly, 
 lovely, glad to teach, desirous to learn " ; but 
 the Wishart long popular in tradition was the 
 denunciator of coming woes, w^ho seemed as if 
 he were one of the stern Hebrew prophets who 
 had broken the limits of the centuries and 
 appeared in Scotland. 
 
 In Knox's account, Wishart, from the be- 
 ginning of his career in Scotland, was persecuted 
 by the Cardinal. It was Beaton who contrived 
 to have him interdicted from preaching in 
 Dundee, and it was he who bade the Arch- 
 
WISHAET IN SCOTLAND. 
 
 289 
 
 bishop of Glasgow oppose liim in the west. 
 It was Beaton who suborned a priest to as- 
 sassinate him in Dundee, and it was Beaton 
 who, on that plot failing, tried to entice him 
 by a forged letter into the hands of his 
 enemies. 
 
 These statements, if taken as true, must be 
 accepted on the sole authority of Knox. Yet it 
 is certain that Beaton souoiit, from the bes^innino' 
 of Wishart's public appearances in Scotland, to 
 seize him, and failed because of those who pro- 
 tected him. 
 
 In the west, w^hen Wishart was opposed by 
 the Archbishop of Glasgow, one of his guards- 
 men was the Earl of Glencairn ; when he left 
 Dundee for Edinburgh, it was by invitation of 
 the Earl of Cassilis; when preaching round 
 about Edinburgh, one of his friends and followers 
 was Crichton, the Laird of Brunston ; and when 
 in Inveresk, one of his audience was Sir George 
 Douglas, who, after the sermon, openly pro- 
 fessed his change of creed. Those men, friends 
 of the Eeformation though they may have been, 
 were the political creatures of Henry VIII. ; 
 and three of them at least, Cassilis, Brunston, 
 and Douglas, were mixed up in the plot for the 
 murder of Beaton. Moreover, in the first inti- 
 
 T 
 
290 PKOTESTANTISM AND WISHART. 
 
 mation in the State correspondence of a plot 
 against Beaton's life, note was made that "a 
 Scottish man called Wishart brought a letter 
 from the Laird of Brunstone." 
 
 It is not possible to identify this Wishart, so 
 as to assert or deny that he is George Wishart 
 the martyr. It has been argued by friends of 
 the martyr's good reputation that Wishart was 
 not an uncommon name in Scotland ; that one 
 cannot be certain that Wishart returned to Scot- 
 land in 1543, the year in which the ambassa- 
 dors were ens-as^ed with the treaties :^ that there 
 is no evidence to show that Wishart ever left 
 Scotland after his return ; and that a saint like 
 the martyr would not have made himself party 
 to a plot of assassination. On the other side, 
 it has been pointed out that the Wishart who 
 had audience of Henry was not likely to be an 
 obscure and unknown man ; that George Wishart, 
 from his knowledge of England and his habits 
 of travel, was fitted to be the bearer of confi- 
 dential letters, and was not likely to arouse the 
 Cardinal's suspicion that an intrigue was being 
 planned ; and also that nothing is now known 
 of George Wishart 's place of residence at the 
 
 1 See note at end of tliis chapter regarding this date, and its 
 importance in reference to Wishart. 
 
WISHART AND THE BRUNSTON LETTER. 291 
 
 date of Brimston's letter. Further, it lias been 
 pointed out that one cannot argue from modern 
 ethical ideas against George Wishart's conniv- 
 ance at a plot of murder, since religious zealots 
 in former times approved of murder, if done as 
 for God's sake ; and that J ohn Knox applauded 
 the murder of Beaton when it was actually done. 
 Further still, it has loeen shown that the first 
 plot was for the capture or slaying of the Car- 
 dinal, and that George Wishart, if he were the 
 bearer of the letter, might have approved not 
 of the slaying but of the capture of Beaton. ^ 
 From the documents known to us, a definite 
 conclusion cannot be come to res^ardino; the 
 identity of the Wishart who was the bearer 
 of Brunston's letter ; but if that Wishart 
 was the future martyr, his share in the 
 plot of assassination may in part account for 
 the perseverance with which Beaton pursued 
 him. 
 
 Whatever the decision at w^hich we arrive in 
 regard to this question of identity, we are not in 
 doubt as to George Wishart's connection with 
 the men who were plotting against the Cardi- 
 nal. Though he were ignorant of the intrigues, 
 
 1 Contrast the arguments of Tytler (History and also in the 
 Life of Sir T. Craig), and of Laing (edition of Knox's History). 
 
292 PROTESTANTISM AND WISH ART. 
 
 lie must surely have kno^\TL the character of 
 Brunston, one of the visitors with him at Or- 
 miston, who in the business of spying had passed 
 from Beaton to Arran, and from Arran to Henry 
 of England ; and he was from time to time in 
 the company of Cassilis and Sir George Douglas, 
 and his own death was avenged — at least one 
 of the conspirators said so — when the Laird of 
 Grange and the Master of Eothes murdered the 
 Cardinal in the castle of St Andrews. When 
 it is seen that among Wishart's friends were 
 Brunston, Cassilis, Douglas, Kirkaldy of Grange, 
 and the Master of Eothes — the men whose 
 names are found in the documents which wit- 
 ness to the plots for Beaton's assassination — 
 it appears reasonable to conclude that George 
 Wishart was the bearer of the Brunston 
 letter. 
 
 Wishart's prophetic utterances — if the words 
 were not put into his lips by later writers — 
 afford further proof of his complicity with the 
 
 English lords," the enemies of Beaton's poli- 
 tical schemes. Those utterances, if more than 
 general diatribes against wickedness and warn- 
 ings of " the wrath to come," must have been 
 founded on definite information. In Dundee 
 he spoke in mysterious words of some impend- 
 
wishart's prophecies. 
 
 293 
 
 ing calamity ; ^ and though the plague which 
 visited Dundee seemed afterwards to verify 
 his prophecy, it is now known that in 1543, 
 the probable date of Wishart's prophetic utter- 
 ances, Henry VIII. was meditating the destruc- 
 tion of Scotland. 
 
 Another of the prophetic utterances has been 
 recorded by Knox. It was spoken against Had- 
 dington, on an occasion when Wishart, preach- 
 ing there, did not obtain the audience he ex- 
 pected. "Yea, thou Haddington in special," 
 cried the preacher, " strangers shall possess 
 thee ; and you, the present inhabitants, shaU 
 either in bondage serve your enemies, or else 
 ye shall be chased from your own habitations, 
 and that because ye have not known nor will 
 not know the time of God's merciful visitation." 
 Spottiswood, remembering the year 1548, added, 
 " Which came shortly to pass." Knox asserts 
 that he was present when this denunciation 
 was pronounced ; and it is reasonable, there- 
 fore, to suppose that the incident occurred 
 immediately before the seizure of Wishart at 
 Ormiston, when Knox is known to have been 
 in his company. If this supposition be correct, 
 
 1 Knox says that the beginning of "Wishart's " doctrine was in 
 Montrose ; therefrom he departed to Dundee.'' 
 
294 PEOTESTANTISM AXD WISHAKT. 
 
 we conclude that the preacher was a true pro- 
 phet of the events of 1548, or that in his zeal 
 or anger he used words which amid the troubles 
 of the State he was almost safe to utter. Knox, 
 however, admits that he was not accurate with 
 dates, and consequently, if the prophecy were ful- 
 filled, the time when it was uttered was earlier 
 than that of the visit to Ormiston. There is one 
 other plausible explanation of the insertion of 
 the words into Knox's 'History.' The historian, 
 WTiting in after-years, and remembering what 
 actually happened to Haddington in 1544, and 
 what w^ere Wishart's experiences there on the 
 occasion of his preaching, put into his lips words 
 which never were spoken.^ In 1544 instructions 
 w^ere given to the English commander, Sir Ealph 
 Eure, to visit Haddington and burn it, and these 
 instructions were carried out, most likely as a 
 punishment to Both well for his defection from 
 Henry. This fact was probably present to 
 Knox's mind when he pictured Wishart as the 
 prophet of Haddington's evil fate. 
 
 Wishart, it may well be believed, could not 
 have had information regarding Henry's inten- 
 
 1 Wisliart's words apply to the destruction of Haddington in 
 1544 rather than to the English occupation of the town in 
 1548. 
 
WISHART'S PROPHECIES. 
 
 295 
 
 tions, if the date of the supposed prophecy was 
 anterior to that of the destruction of the town 
 in 1544. Henry's letter of instruction to the 
 English commander was wTitten shortly before 
 the 14th of April 1544,^ and on the 24th of the 
 same month it was reported that Wishart, the 
 bearer of the Brunston letter, had arrived in 
 England. We are safe to conclude, therefore, 
 that if George Wishart was the bearer of the 
 letter, he could not by any possibility have 
 returned to preach in Haddington before May, 
 when the Hertford devastations beg^an ; and are 
 safe also to conclude that before the time when 
 the letter of instructions to the English com- 
 mander was written, the preacher could not 
 have learned Henry's intentions regarding 
 Haddington. 
 
 It has been argued that this prophecy is 
 indicative of Wishart 's participation in, and 
 knowledge of, the schemes and plots of Henry 
 and the " English lords " ; and that it affords 
 another proof of his share in the political in- 
 trigues of the day, one of which was the assas- 
 sination of Beaton.2 Could it be proved that 
 
 1 The exact date is unknown, but on April 14th, Eure made 
 known to Hertford the instructions regarding Haddington. 
 Haines' State Papers, i. 26. 
 
 2 Tytler. Appendix to Life of Sir Thomas Craig. 
 
296 PROTESTANTISM AXD WISH ART. 
 
 before May 1544 Wishart gave utterance to the 
 prophecy, there would certainly be con\dncing 
 evidence of his interest in the political move- 
 ments of the party opposed to the Cardinal ; 
 but while he may have had this interest, it 
 is highly improbable that he ever uttered the 
 words which Knox has recorded. 
 
 Wishart's zeal as a Protestant preacher is 
 enough to account for Beaton's anxiety to lay 
 hold of him, and even to account for the at- 
 tempts which, according to Knox, he made on 
 Wishart's life ; but if the Cardinal knew that 
 Wishart was a party to the plots of Brunston, 
 and if he knew of the plots, as he probably did, 
 of Cassilis and Douglas, Wishart's friends, it is 
 still more easy to explain the reason of the per- 
 sistent persecution which ended in Wishart's 
 death. 
 
 Wishart, as has been seen, left Dundee in 
 response to a call from the Earl of Cassilis. 
 The supporters of the Eeformation probably 
 intended some new departure in their policy, 
 which was abandoned when they learned that 
 Beaton had appointed a clerical council to be 
 held in Edinburgh. While attending the meet- 
 ing of this council, the Cardinal learned that 
 Wishart was at Ormiston, and he hastened to 
 
WISHART'S trial at ST ANDREWS. 297 
 
 lay hands on him. On the evening of the 
 day on which he preached in Haddington, 
 according to Knox's account, Wishart was at 
 Ormiston in company with Cockburn, the master 
 of the house, Sandilands of Calder, and Crichton 
 of Brunston. At midnight the Earl of Both- 
 well and a company of his men surrounded 
 the house and demanded the surrender of 
 the inmates. Wishart, after an assurance that 
 his life would be safe, yielded himself to Both- 
 well, and was then taken to Elphinstone, 
 where Beaton with a force of 500 men was 
 waiting his arrival. Brunston escaped, but 
 Cockburn and Sandilands were conveyed to 
 Edinburgh, where for a time they were kept 
 as prisoners. 
 
 Bothwell, in accordance with his promise, 
 took Wishart to Hales, the Earl's own resi- 
 dence, but shortly afterwards delivered him to 
 the Cardinal. Knox, with his hatred of the 
 queen -dowager, declares that by unholy pro- 
 mises she gained Bothwell, who was not able 
 to withstand "gold and women, which have 
 corrupted all worldly and fleshly men from the 
 beginning." The register of the Privy Council 
 of Scotland shows, however, that Bothwell was 
 forced to deliver his prisoner into the hands of 
 
298 PROTESTANTISM AND WISHART. 
 
 the governor. Wishart was removed to St 
 Andrews, where the Cardinal summoned a 
 council to deliberate on the case of this heretic. 
 Arran could not, or would not, attend at St 
 Andrews ; but, on the secret advice of Hamilton 
 of Preston, proposed that proceedings should be 
 stayed till it was possible for him to take part 
 in the case. Beaton, however, w^ould not coun- 
 tenance delay, and by virtue of his legatine 
 powers proceeded at once to a trial. A charge 
 of eighteen counts was preferred against Wishart, 
 relating to the sacraments, saints, purgatory, 
 and the marriage of priests. 
 
 Wishart, in his defence, claimed that his 
 teaching was in accord with that of the Bible, 
 and that he was at liberty to deny all doctrines 
 not founded on the Bible. Kesolute in his 
 answers, he made no attempt to save his life 
 by the sacrifice of truth ; and mercy was not 
 shown him. He was condemned to death, and 
 on the 28th of March 1546 was burned at St 
 Andrews, praying thrice as he knelt : "0 Thou 
 Saviour of the world, have mercy upon me; 
 Father of heaven, into Thy hands I commit 
 my spirit." 
 
 The guns of the castle, Knox reports, were 
 directed against the square in which Wishart 
 
wishart's death. 
 
 299 
 
 was burned, lest an attempt at rescue should 
 be made ; and, according to Buchanan and 
 Lindsay of Pitscottie, the windows of the castle 
 were hung with tapestry and silk, as if the day 
 were a holiday or festival — and from these 
 windows the Cardinal and his friends witnessed 
 the death of the martyr. Fortunately for the re- 
 putation of the Cardinal, this instance of tyran- 
 nic cruelty may be doubted. In the earliest 
 edition of Knox's ' History ' and of Foxes 
 ' Martyrs,' and in the ' Tragedy ' of Sir David 
 Lindsay, there is no mention of this barbaric 
 display ; and there is every reason to think 
 that those men would not have been silent 
 regarding a scene which, had it been enacted, 
 they must have known. They are silent also 
 as to the prophecy regarding Beaton's death, 
 which others have attributed to Wishart. The 
 dying Wishart is reported to have said, " He 
 who in such state, from that high place, feedeth 
 his eyes with my torments, within a few days 
 shall be hanged out at the same window, to be 
 seen with as much ignominy as he now leaneth 
 there in pride." 
 
 If those are Wishart's words, they are the 
 witnesses of his meanness of soul. The first 
 martyr of the Christian Church died like his 
 
300 PEOTESTAXTISM AXD WISH ART. 
 
 Master, in the spirit of charity. Sir Thomas 
 More, to take another example, passed from 
 earth with the courtesy of a gentleman and the 
 charity of a Christian. George Wishart, if he 
 uttered the prophecy ascribed to him, had not 
 learned how to die as a Christian. 
 
 The prophecy could not have proceeded from 
 a store of supernatural knowledge ; and those 
 who believe that Wishart was a prophet, must 
 be able to show that he was not speaking with 
 something like a criminal knowledge of in- 
 tended murder. 
 
 As the historians who are silent regarding 
 the scene of the draped windows of the castle 
 are silent also regarding this prophecy, it may 
 be accepted as truth that Wishart died, as be- 
 fitted a martyr for the cause of Christ, display- 
 ing the mildness and the charity of his Master. 
 
 Note, — Emery Tylney and Knox are the sole authorities re- 
 garding the date of Wishart's return to Scotland. Tylney says : 
 "About the year of our Lord 1543 there was in the University 
 of Cambridge one Master George AVishart. ... He went into 
 Scotland with divers of the nobility who came for a treaty with 
 Henry VIII." Knox's words are : " In the midst of all the 
 calamities that came upon this realm, after the defection of the 
 governor from Jesus Christ, came into Scotland that blessed 
 martyr of God, Master George Wishart, in company of the com- 
 missioners before mentioned, in the year of our Lord 1544." 
 These commissioners, Knox says, " were sent from the Parlia- 
 ment to King Henry " ; and as it is known that they returned 
 
NOTE OX WISHART's JOURNEY TO SCOTLAND. 301 
 
 in July 1543, it seems reasonable to take 1543 as the year of 
 Wishart's journey into Scotland. It has been argued, however, 
 that there were certain commissioners who went in 1544 from 
 Scotland to England, and that Wishart probably travelled back 
 with them. These men, acting not in the name of the Scottish 
 Parliament, but in the names of Lennox and Glencairn, arranged 
 a secret and private treaty with Henry's commissioners at Car- 
 lisle. They do not correspond to Knox's description of the men 
 with whom Wishart journeyed. It is not probable, moreover, 
 that Wishart went from Cambridge to Carlisle in order to cross 
 the Border with them ; and it is still less probable that Tylney 
 knew anything about commissioners intrusted with the business 
 of an intrigue. Amidst the troubles of the Hertford expedition 
 Wishart perhaps returned, but it is to be remembered that as 
 in July 1543 Arran, the governor, professed the Reformed faith, 
 Wishart was safe to proceed to Scotland. Before May 1544, the 
 date of the private treaty between Henry and Lennox, Arran 
 had renounced the new faith, and was under the domination of 
 Beaton. It seems reasonable to conclude from the whole evi- 
 dence that Wishart returned in 1543, and not in 1544 when 
 Arran was the tool of the cardinal. 
 
302 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE ASSASSmATIOX OF BEATOX. 
 
 The political events of 1544 and 1545, wlien 
 Henry wrought disaster in Scotland and tried 
 to overthrow her independence, made Beaton 
 the most popular man in the country. The 
 popularity was deserved, inasmuch as it was he 
 who successfully baffled the plans and intrigues 
 of Henry and the " English lords " ; but public 
 opinion regarding the Cardinal was largely 
 changed by his procedure in the case of Wish- 
 art. Whatever may have been the private 
 reasons which induced Beaion to pursue his 
 victim with such vehemence, the martyrdom, 
 apart from its ethical and religious bearing, 
 was a gross blunder in public policy. The 
 plans to assassinate Beaton could, in the nature 
 of things, be know^n to only a few persons ; and 
 
DECLINE OF BEATON's POPULARITY. 303 
 
 thougli "Wisliart may have been implicated in 
 these plots, and the full measure of his guilt 
 known to the Cardinal, the people who were 
 ignorant of the plots looked with favour on 
 Wishart. Many accepted him as a teacher of 
 divine truth, and many admired him for his 
 benevolence during the time of the plague in 
 Dundee. Besides those people, there were 
 doubtless others who had the strongest anti- 
 pathy to the sacrifice of men to death because 
 of their religious opinions, and who, without 
 consciously admitting or asserting the doctrine 
 of toleration, were opposed to the punishment 
 of heresy by death. On the other hand, the 
 ignorant and the bigots, who were under 
 priestly domination, applauded the Cardinal's 
 conduct ; but while the numbers of his adher- 
 ents and opponents cannot be determined, the 
 loss to his popularity was great, and only the 
 successful baffling of another English intrigue 
 could have restored him to his former posi- 
 tion in the public favour. The opportunity of 
 regaining popularity never, however, came to 
 him. 
 
 After Wishart's death, John Leslie, brother 
 of the Earl of Rothes, declared openly that 
 
304 THE ASSASSINATION OF BEATON. 
 
 he would assassinate the Cardinal ; and Norman 
 Leslie, the Master of Eothes, made the same 
 declaration, in spite of the fact that he was 
 joined to Beaton under the ancient Scottish 
 form of a bond of manrent, in virtue of which 
 he pledged himself to protect, and render service 
 to, Beaton. Knox declares that John Leslie 
 " in all companies spared not to say that that 
 same dagger, showing forth his dagger, and 
 that same hand should be put in the Cardinals 
 breast," or as Spottiswood says, ''that his hand 
 and dagger should be the Cardinal's priests." 
 The Leslies, however, had a grudge against the 
 Cardinal, as Norman Leslie and he had cjuar- 
 relled. It appears that Sir James Colville of 
 Easter Wemyss, one of the first judges of the 
 Court of Session, espoused the cause of the 
 Douglases, and with them departed to England 
 when they were outlawed by James Y. In 
 1540, after his death, Colville's estates were 
 forfeited and given to the family of Eothes ; 
 but this forfeiture, by the influence of Beaton, 
 was reduced by Parliament in 1543, and the 
 Leslies were in consequence ofi'ended with the 
 Cardinal. Probably Beaton had promised some 
 equivalent to the Leslies ; and the supposition 
 is that, shortly before the Cardinal's death, he 
 
BEATON AXD THE LESLIES. 
 
 305 
 
 and Norman Leslie had quarrelled over the 
 non-fulfilment of this promise.^ It is to be 
 remembered that Norman Leslie was one of 
 those who consented to the plan of assassina- 
 tion divulged in the Brunston letter. 
 
 Beaton probably heard of the threats against 
 him, but held them of no account, seeing he 
 had overcome so many attempts against his 
 life, and seeing also he was on terms of friend- 
 ship with many of the most powerful nobles 
 through their common opposition to England. 
 Further security seemed to lie in the fact that 
 he had entered into bonds of manrent with 
 several of the nobles who were thus engaged 
 to protect him. 
 
 Shortly after the death of Wishart, Beaton 
 proceeded to Finhaven Castle, Forfarshire, where 
 his daughter was married in great state and 
 pomp to the eldest son of the Earl of Craw- 
 ford. Hearing that Henry was preparing for 
 another invasion of Scotland, he returned in 
 haste to St Andrews to urge forward the work 
 of fortifying his castle. After Easter, according 
 to Knox, he visited Edinburgh, and there there 
 was rumour of a plot against him, devised by the 
 
 1 Hay's MS., quoted iu Brunt on and Haig. See also Tytler's 
 Life of Craig. 
 
 U 
 
306 THE ASSASSINATION OF BEATON. 
 
 Douglases, which came to nothing. From the 
 records of the Privy Council, it is proved that 
 he was in Edinburgh on the 23d of May, when 
 he attended a meeting of the Council, held for 
 the purpose of considering a cjuestion relating 
 to the Borders. 
 
 Immediately after the meeting of the Council 
 he went back to St Andrews, and, Knox says, 
 called a meeting of the gentlemen of Fife for 
 Monday, the last day of May. This treason- 
 able purpose was not understood, but from 
 letters and other sources it transpired that he 
 meant to kill or capture the Leslies and others 
 who were mixed up in the plot which resulted 
 in the murder of the Cardinal." What Knox in 
 this passage describes as treasonable apjDears to 
 be a very innocent act of prudence by a man 
 who had heard sinister rumours against his 
 own safety. It does not seem likely that 
 Beaton would thus have sought to kill or cap- 
 ture his enemies, or that those enemies w^ould 
 have been foolish enough, amidst rumours and 
 reports of their intended act, to trust them- 
 selves into his hands. Buchanan gives a more 
 plausible account of the purpose of this meet- 
 ing at Falkland, when he says that it was 
 Beaton's intention to seek the aid of the gentle- 
 
THE COXSPIRATORS. 
 
 307 
 
 men of Fife in arranging for the protection 
 of the east coast against attack from Henry. 
 Beaton, however, did not live to see the 
 Monday of Knox's story. 
 
 On Friday the 28th of May 1546, Norman 
 Leslie went by night to St Andrews, where he 
 found the younger Kirkaldy of Grange,^ and at a 
 later hour they were joined by John Leslie. In 
 the early morning of Saturday the conspirators 
 gathered in knots around the castle ; and when 
 the gates were opened and the drawbridge was 
 let down, arrangements necessary for the work of 
 repair then being carried out, the sentinel told 
 Kirkaldy, who questioned him, that the Car- 
 dinal was not yet awake. While the sentinel 
 was thus talking to Kirkaldy, Norman Leslie 
 and his company passed into the court of the 
 castle, as he was probably wont to do, without 
 raising suspicion ; but when John Leslie ap- 
 proached, a man who had threatened his dagger 
 against the Cardinal's life, the sentinel sus- 
 pected foul play, and sprang to the bridge 
 across the moat. But the attempt to draw 
 the bridge was too late, and the sentinel, 
 his head broken, was cast dead into the ditch, 
 
 1 Kirkaldy's father, probably by Beaton's influence, had been 
 deposed from the office of Treasurer. 
 
308 THE ASSASSINATION OF BEATON. 
 
 and the conspirators witli his keys were left 
 masters of the principal gate. The noise of 
 this tumult roused the fears of the workmen 
 for their own safety; and they, numbering a 
 hundred, were easily put outside the walls. 
 The servants and attendants of the Cardinal, 
 to the number of fifty, were ejected in the 
 same easy fashion ; and the suspicion naturally 
 arises that means had been used to prepare at 
 least the chief servants and attendants for this 
 attack. Possibly the conspirators, through 
 Norman Leslie, who had entrance to the castle, 
 had taken the opportunity of Beaton's absence 
 in Edinburgh to corrupt the servants, and gain 
 their promise to ofi'er no resistance when an 
 attack was made. 
 
 Kirkaldy, who knew the secret arrangements 
 of the place, hastened to the postern -gate, lest 
 Beaton should escape by it. Beaton, when he 
 heard the tumult in the castle-yard, and learned 
 that the Leslies were there, went at once 
 towards this postern, but escape was there 
 impossible. Instantly he returned to his room, 
 and caused his chamberlain to heap up boxes 
 inside the door. It was not long till John 
 Leslie found his way to this door and demanded 
 entrance. Who calls ? " asked the Cardinal. 
 
''the judgment of god." 
 
 309 
 
 " My name is Leslie," was the reply. " Is that 
 Norman ? I will have Norman, for he is my 
 friend," cried the Cardinal, but his cries were 
 in vain. He besought the conspirators to 
 promise to spare his life, and after this 
 promise he would give them entrance ; but the 
 promise was not made, and fire was set to the 
 door, which was instantly opened from within. 
 The Cardinal, sitting on a chair, cried to the 
 men who thronged his chamber : "I am a 
 priest ! I am a priest ! ye will not slay me ! " 
 John Leslie was the first to strike a blow with 
 that dagger which he had declared was to be 
 the Cardinals priest. Then followed Peter 
 Carmichael with his dagger, and last of all, 
 James Melvil approached, a man, according to 
 Knox, most gentle and most modest, who, 
 thrusting aside the other assassins because of 
 their anger, said, "This work and judgment 
 of God, although it be secret, ought to be done 
 wdth greater gravity." Melvil, presenting the 
 point of his sword at the wounded Cardinal, 
 called on him to repent of his former wicked 
 life, and especially of shedding the blood of 
 Wishart ; and then, when his speech was done, 
 and without giving time for repentance, he 
 struck his sword twice or thrice through 
 
310 THE ASSASSINATION OF BEATON. 
 
 Beaton's body. Thus was Beaton killed, and as 
 lie was dying, he murmured, " I am a priest ; fy, 
 fy, all is gone.'*' ^ " These things we write mer- 
 rily," says Knox, in his account of the murder. 
 
 Althousjh the loon be well awav, the deed was 
 foully done,'' are Sir David Lindsay's words. 
 
 Xews of the fray quickly reached the town ; 
 but the murderous business in the castle was 
 speedily transacted, and when the townspeople 
 arrived Beaton was dead. They, ignorant of 
 what had happend, demanded to see the Car- 
 dinal ; and his friends began to prepare a rescue, 
 when they were stopped by the sight of the 
 dead body. The conspii'ators, that the people 
 might see their god, as one report had it,- 
 fastened the body of the Cardinal, dressed in 
 the pontifical robes, by the leg and arm to a 
 sheet, and lowered it through a window and 
 down the wall, and left it before the gaze of 
 the horrified spectators.^ The window through 
 which the body was lowered, it is now said, 
 was that afterwards chosen by tradition as the 
 one from which the Cardinal had witnessed the 
 dying sufterings of AVishart. 
 
 1 Buchanan, Knox, &c. 
 
 2 State Papers (Henry VIII.), v. p. 560. 
 2 Conf. Stevenson's Mary Stiiait, p. 69. 
 
Beaton's burial. 
 
 311 
 
 The curious who may wish to find examples 
 of savage treatment of the dead will learn in 
 Lindsay of Pitscottie the indignity said to be 
 done to the body of the man who, according 
 to Knox, was killed with the gravity due to a 
 work and judgment of God — and in Dempster, 
 the punishment which, he says, fell upon the 
 perpetrator of this indignity. 
 
 The body was preserved in salt and encased 
 in lead, and then placed in the sea-tower of the 
 castle, till such time as the funeral obsequies 
 might take place. Those obsequies were long 
 delayed, and were never made in the style 
 deemed fitting for a prince of the Church and 
 a chancellor of the kingdom. Nothing is known 
 for certain regarding the grave of Beaton. It 
 was said that he was buried in Kilrenny church- 
 yard, beside dead members of his family ; but 
 Sir James Balfour wrote that the body, after 
 lying nine months in the sea-tower, was buried 
 secretly in the ground of the Blackfriars' mon- 
 astery in St Andrews.^ 
 
 Owing to the loss or destruction of the State 
 correspondence, already referred to, it is now 
 impossible to determine the share of Henry 
 YIII. in the murder of Beaton. It is beyond 
 
 1 Vide Wood, ' East Xeuk of Fife.' 
 
312 THE ASSASSINATION OF BEATON. 
 
 question, however, that the absence of official 
 correspondence is in itself enough to rouse 
 suspicion that documents implicating the Eng- 
 lish monarch have been at some time inten- 
 tionally destroyed. In the letters sent to 
 England regarding the murder, there is no 
 mention of Wishart's death as having led to it ; 
 but it is said simply in one letter that Norman 
 Leslie slew the Cardinal, — and in another, that 
 Norman Leslie and Kirkaldy of Grange were 
 the slayers of the Cardinal. A third letter, one 
 to Lord Wharton, gives an account of the assas- 
 sination, and mentions by name only Norman 
 Leslie, Kirkaldy, and James Melvil, and speaks 
 of Norman Leslie as the leader of the company.^ 
 Neither the Leslies nor Kirkaldy had reason 
 to be aggrieved by Wishart's death, as James 
 Melvil professed to be; and it is not at all 
 probable, therefore, that Wishart's martyrdom 
 had any connection with the action of the Leslies 
 and Kirkaldy of Grange. Nor is it likely that 
 a personal dispute between Leslie and the Car- 
 dinal, probably regarding a contract implied 
 in a bond of manrent, was a sufficient incite- 
 ment to murder, for those who joined them- 
 selves together to slay the Cardinal. 
 
 1 State Papers (Henry YIII.), v. pp. 560, 561. 
 
LETTERS TO ENGLAND. 
 
 313 
 
 The official correspondence lost out of the 
 State Papers could possibly have told Henry's 
 terms with those who had offered to murder the 
 Cardinal, and have explained why, in two un- 
 signed letters to unnamed recipients, Leslie 
 and Kirkaldy alone are mentioned from among 
 the conspirators. These men w^ere among 
 Henry's pensioners, and it may be that word was 
 sent to England to show that they had done 
 something to earn their pensions. Certainly, 
 they must be considered to have earned the 
 pensions, since they were continued to them 
 after Beaton's death ; but the lost correspond- 
 ence and the two secret letters suggest that 
 Henry had not at least drawn back from his en- 
 couragement of the plots of assassination. The 
 continuation of the pensions, and the help sent 
 to the conspirators in the castle, are the only 
 positive evidence that Beaton's death cost the 
 King of England any sum of money ; but in 
 the absence of sufficient motives to account 
 for the formation of the band of conspirators 
 against the Cardinal's life, we are forced 
 to conclude either that Leslie and Kirkaldy 
 were inspired to the murder by promises of 
 reward from Henry, or that they did the 
 deed, hoping for reward, and certain that 
 
314 THE ASSASSINATION OF BEATON. 
 
 their act would be pleasing to the King of 
 England. 
 
 According to the canon law, mass could not 
 be celebrated within the realm till atonement 
 had been made for the death of the Cardinal.^ 
 On the 10th of June 1546 the conspirators were 
 summoned to appear before Parliament, but, 
 paying no heed to the summons, they continued 
 to hold the castle of St Andrews. Procla- 
 mation w^as accordingly made by the Privy 
 Council that no one should hold speech with the 
 conspirators, nor should supply them with, nor 
 sell to them, any victuals. In order, however, 
 that they might not plead fear of the Cardinal's 
 friends as an excuse for not answering the 
 summons to appear before Parliament, pro- 
 clamation was made that those mentioned in 
 the summons should be allowed to pass unmo- 
 lested to Edinburgh ; but even this offer of 
 safe -conduct did not induce the conspirators 
 to leave their stronghold, and they were there- 
 fore declared traitors.^ The Church, too, added 
 her penalty to this sentence of treason, and 
 they were formally excommunicated according 
 to ecclesiastical usage. 
 
 1 Stevenson's Mary Stewart, p. 75. 
 
 2 Regist. of Privy Council of Scotland, i. pp. 26, 31, 32, 38, 39. 
 
INDICTMENT OF ROTHES. 315 
 
 On the 12tli of July 1547, a commission was 
 issued in name of Mary, Queen of Scots, 
 appointing certain judges ''to call and accuse 
 by indictment" the Earl of Eothes, father of 
 Norman and brother of John Leslie, for being- 
 art and part of the treasonable murder of 
 David, Cardinal Archbishop of St Andrews, and 
 Chancellor of the kingdom. 
 
 After the usual formalities, a court was held 
 on the 15th of July, in presence of the governor 
 and the Lord Chancellor, in the fields near the 
 water of Yarrow, in the county of Selkirk, at 
 seven o'clock in the morning. At this court 
 the Earl of Eothes appeared and denied com- 
 plicity in the murder, and thereafter was ac- 
 quitted and altogether freed of the crime 
 charged against him.^ 
 
 Norman Leslie, Kirkaldy of Grange, the 
 Lairds of Brunston and Ormiston, and others 
 of the conspirators, had found a refuge in 
 England; 2 but in 1554, after the coronation of 
 Mary of England, they were banished from that 
 country, and so passed to France. Norman 
 
 1 Eeport on Hist. MSS., iv. p. 504. 
 
 2 After the siege of St Andrews, Kirkaldy of Grange, the two 
 Leslies, and Peter Carmichael were taken as prisoners to France. 
 In Mont St Michel they overcame their guards and escaped, and 
 afterwards passed to England. 
 
316 THE ASSASSINATIOX OF BEATON. 
 
 Leslie, who by tliis time "liad repented very 
 soir" of his sliare in tlie murder of Beaton, 
 sought to recover his lost honour by service 
 in war ; and having gained the charge of a 
 hundred light horsemen of the army of Henry 
 of France, fought valiantly in a war against 
 the Emperor, but died of his wounds on the 
 29th of August 1554. The King of France, 
 to recompense this service, sent Kirkaldy of 
 Grange and his companions back to Scotland, 
 and by his influence gained from the queen 
 and the Estates the reversion to them of their 
 lands. 1 One ^Titer has pointed out that the 
 murderers of Beaton each died a violent death 
 — Norman Leslie from wounds received in bat- 
 tle, and Kirkaldy of Grange on the gallows. 
 
 On the 3d of July 1575, in consequence of 
 the repentance of John Leslie for his share in 
 the Cardinal's murder, the Earl of Crawford, 
 grandson of Beaton, and others of the Beatons, 
 executed a deed of remission, known by the 
 name of Letters of Slains, by which they for- 
 gave to John Leslie the rancour of their wrath 
 and deadly feud and malice for the slaughter 
 of the Cardinal, and received him into their 
 hearty love, favour, and kindness, as lovingly 
 
 1 Lesley, p. 249. 
 
FATE OF THE COXSPIRATOES. 317 
 
 as if lie bad never committed tlie said slaughter, 
 or been partaker tbereof.^ In Leslie House 
 there is still preserved an ancient dagger which 
 tradition says is the weapon with which the 
 Master of Eotbes stabbed the Cardinal."^ 
 
 The murderers of Beaton, as has been shown, 
 and all implicated in the deed, or connected 
 with the actual perpetration, were excommuni- 
 cated ; and as this excommunication affected 
 many men of high rank, and involved many 
 social as well as spiritual hardships, the governor 
 wrote to the Pope, and to the King of France to 
 solicit the Po]De, for absolution to all concerned 
 in the murder.^ Francis seems to have secured 
 and sent to Arran a kind of absolution for the 
 " slayaris " ; but for some reason this absolution 
 was deemed insufficient, and Henry, King of 
 France, w^as therefore asked to send to the Pope 
 for wider absolution.^ There is no document to 
 show that the Pope agreed to the demand of 
 Arran, yet there is reason to believe that a soli- 
 citation from the governor of Scotland would 
 meet with a favourable response from Eome. 
 With the absolution from the Church, and the 
 Letters of Slains from the family of the Beatons, 
 
 1 Report on Hist. MSS., iv. p. 492. 
 3 Ibid., V. p. 309. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 4 Ibid., p. 651. 
 
318 THE ASSASSINATION OF BEATON. 
 
 the work of charity towards the murderers of 
 Beaton was complete; and, as illustrating the 
 social order of Scotland in the period imme- 
 diately anterior to the Eeformation, it is to be 
 observed that though the murderers of Beaton 
 were known, and though they w^ere murderers 
 of the Primate of the Church and Chancellor of 
 the realm, none of them suffered death for the 
 crime. 
 
 Beaton's death was followed before many 
 months by that of Henry YIII. Both had 
 gained and both had lost in their long struggle, 
 but neither lived to see the ultimate gain and 
 loss. Throughout a generation plots were 
 planned, intrigues devised, battles fought, and 
 gold was spent, and against those fearful odds the 
 independence of Scotland was maintained. By 
 policies less heroic and successes less glorious 
 than those of the days when Wallace was de- 
 liverer and Bruce was king, Beaton saved Scot- 
 land from the grasp of England. His work 
 before he died was a preparation of defences 
 against what proved to be Henry's last attack 
 on the country which the English had so often 
 assailed ; but he died before that attack was 
 made, and before he knew that Scottish liberty 
 was safe. 
 
KING AND CARDINAL. 
 
 319 
 
 It is not often given to a priest, who can 
 achieve no victory by the splendour of his arms, 
 to be numbered among the saviours of civil 
 liberty and political independence ; yet plain 
 historic truth must give to Beaton, what popular 
 tradition refuses him, a place among Scotland's 
 greatest statesmen and among her patriots. 
 
 Henry YIII. heard the welcome news that his 
 plots against Beaton were at last successful, and 
 that his enemy was slain ; but he did not live 
 to learn that the vision which English kings for 
 many centuries had cherished, and which he 
 himself had kept ever before his eyes, the vision 
 of England's political supremacy over Scotland, 
 was but an empty dream. Nor did he live to 
 know, what Beaton never knew, that the Kefor- 
 mation of the Church in Scotland was nothing 
 short of a social and spiritual revolution. Scot- 
 land's independence was to be preserved, but 
 her ancient Church was to be destroyed ; and 
 thus in the struggle which lasted throughout a 
 generation, Beaton and Henry VHL, while they 
 did not witness the end of the struggle, each 
 lost and each won. 
 
 Nearly three hundred and fifty years have 
 passed since Beaton's death, and his political 
 work is forgotten, and he is remembered only 
 
320 THE ASSASSINATION OF BEATON. 
 
 as the man around wliose name cluster stories 
 of immorality, who was the destroyer of George 
 Wishart the mart}^;. AVishart has kept the 
 memory of Beaton living, and but for him the 
 name of "the o-reat Cardinal" mig;ht have been 
 known to none save the students of history. 
 Beaton has suffered the fate of those whose lot 
 it was to belong to an old and dying social 
 order, and his best work with his worst has 
 been buried with the past. He spent himself, 
 apart from his purely political interests, in con- 
 tinuing a spiritual system which was inadequate 
 to the wants of the people, and in supporting a 
 Church which, to say nothing worse of it, was 
 an anachronism. His labour was in vain, and 
 whatever may be the truth of Protestantism or 
 of Catholicism, Scotland chose Protestantism ; 
 and the revolution, which was accomplished at 
 the Eeformation, utterly destroyed the work of 
 Beaton and of the lesser men who had striven 
 to support the old social and spiritual order. 
 With that labour which was in vain there has 
 been forgotten that political work which was 
 not in vain ; and there remains only the Car- 
 dinal Beaton of tradition, the destroyer of the 
 Protestant martyrs, the vicious prelate. 
 
 Moralists will ever regret the unchastity of 
 
CHARACTER OF ''THE GREAT CARDINAL." 321 
 
 men who, in their day, were conspicuous by 
 their social influence ; and preachers will lament 
 the worldliness of those who, representing a 
 religious institution, violated its spiritual laws. 
 It is not, however, to lower the value of the 
 moralist's or the preacher's calling to assert 
 that history is less concerned with the morality 
 or the piety of her chief actors than with their 
 public policies. Beaton, it is to be asserted, 
 was a typical prelate of the pre-Reformation 
 times, in so far as immorality and worldliness 
 are concerned ; and while in these respects he 
 fitly represents the character of that Church, 
 he also stands as one who, by his rank and 
 power, was responsible for her spiritual and 
 moral degradation. The order of prelates, one 
 which was spiritual in its origin, was in later 
 times but a part of the larger order of social 
 aristocrats whose aims were worldly, and whose 
 habits of life were morally gross and politically 
 tyrannical ; and whether the Church corrupted 
 the world or the world corrupted the Church, 
 the religious and social life of Scotland before 
 the Eeformation had sunk to depths of degra- 
 dation, and the prelates on the one hand, and 
 the nobles on the other, witnessed to this deg- 
 radation. 
 
 X 
 
322 THE ASSASSINATION OF BEATON. 
 
 Beaton was guilty of the sins of the prelate 
 and of the vices of the aristocrat : unchaste and 
 worldly he was, and his reputation has paid 
 the full penalty of his sins and vices. Pos- 
 terity has been more kindly in its treatment 
 of the moral reputation of his great adversary, 
 because he was not a churchman. Yet Henry's 
 morals were as corrupt as Beaton's, and his 
 ecclesiastical tyranny was even more violent : 
 but Henry was a king, and Beaton was a 
 churchman, and posterity, while too merciful 
 to the king, has been pitiless towards the 
 priest. 
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM BLACKWOOD AKD SOKS. 
 
DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 201-5503 1 
 
 
 
 PRINTED L.S.A. 
 
J. 4