contained elements of weakness of which everyone was aware and which
speedily became manifest. The acts of violence which had attended the
revolt were filling the law-abiding citizens with dismay. The
destruction of church property in Perth and St. Andrew's had been
followed by similar excesses elsewhere. Especially disquieting had been
what had occurred at Scone immediately after the surrender of Perth. In
defiance of the protests of Knox, the lord James, and Argyle, the
reformers of Dundee had sacked and burned to the ground the abbey and
palace of that village--an outrage which Knox himself regretted in the
interest of his own cause. It was a further source of weakness to the
Congregation that their actions easily lent themselves to
misconstruction and misrepresentation. The Regent industriously spread
the plausible report both at home and abroad that their religious
professions were a mere pretext, and that their real object was to
overthrow herself and to make the lord James their king. But, above all,
the nature of the host that supported them was such that it invariably
failed them when their need was the greatest. The men who composed it
had to leave their daily business in town and country; and, as they
received no pay and their own affairs demanded their attention, their
military service did not extend beyond a few weeks. The Protestant
leaders had no sooner taken possession of Edinburgh than their following
began to dwindle. During the first week their numbers amounted to over
seven thousand men; by the third week they had diminished to one
thousand five hundred. In these circumstances the Regent had only to
bide her time, and her opportunity must come. On July 23d her troops,
led by D'Oysel and Châtelherault, marched on Leith, which they reached
on the morning of the 24th. As had been anticipated, neither that town
nor the capital itself was in a position to offer any effectual
resistance; and the leaders of the Congregation at once proposed a
conference for the discussion of terms. Accordingly, the Duke and the
Earl of Huntly on the one side, and Argyle, the lord James, and
Glencairn on the other, met on the east slope of the Calton hill and
agreed to the following adjustment: The Congregation were to give up the
coining-irons, of which they had taken possession, and they were to
evacuate Edinburgh within twenty-four hours. The town was to be left
free to choose its own religion; no French troops were to be introduced.
The Protestants were to be allowed complete liberty of worship, but were
to abstain from violence against the old religion, and these
arrangements were to hold till the 10th of the following January. By
this concession of liberty to worship according to their own consciences
the Protestants had apparently attained the main object for which they
had risen, but they well knew that they would enjoy this liberty only so
long as they were strong enough to enforce it. On leaving Edinburgh,
therefore, they proceeded to Stirling, where they came to an agreement
as to their future plan of action. As a necessary precaution for their
immediate security, they entered into a bond of mutual defence and
concerted counsels. Above all, they determined to spare no pains to win
support from England, which, as itself now a Protestant country, could
not look on with indifference while they were engaged in a
life-and-death struggle with France and Rome.
An event that had lately happened gave a new impulse to French action in
Scotland. On July 10th Henry II had been accidentally killed in a
tournament; and Mary Stuart, the niece of the Guises, was now Queen of
France. It was with greater zeal than ever, therefore, that the Guises
sought to direct Scottish affairs according to their own interests. In
the beginning of August the Protestant lords took a decided step: they
sent John Knox to England with instructions that might serve as a basis
of a treaty between England and the Congregation. The instructions were
that if England would assist them against France, the Congregation would
agree to a common league against that country. Knox only went as far as
Berwick; but he brought home a letter containing a reply to the
Protestant overtures from Elizabeth's secretary, Sir William Cecil. The
reply was discouraging; but it contained a practical suggestion, by
which, however, the Protestant leaders were either unwilling or unable
to profit. If it was money they were in need of, Cecil told them, that
need present no difficulty; if they would but do as Henry VIII did with
the monasteries, they would have enough money and to spare. The English
Queen was, in truth, in a position that demanded the wariest going.
Two-thirds of her own subjects were Catholics, and it would be an evil
example to set them if she were to assist rebels in another country.
Moreover, the treaty of Cateau-Cambrésis, concluded in the previous
April, debarred her from hostile demonstration against France. But the
peril from French ascendency in Scotland could not be ignored, and by
the gradual pressure of events Elizabeth was driven to support a course
which in her heart she abhorred. Shortly after Cecil's communication,
the veteran diplomatist, Sir Ralph Sadler, came down to Scotland with a
commission to effect a secret arrangement with the Protestant leaders,
and brought with him three thousand pounds to distribute to the best of
his wisdom.
What the Guises meant speedily became apparent. About the middle of
August a thousand French soldiers landed at Leith; and, as they were
accompanied by their wives and children, the object of their coming
could not be misunderstood. If the leaders of the Congregation,
therefore, were not to lose all the ground they had lately gained, a
time for vigorous action had again come. As had been previously
concerted, they met at Stirling on September 10th and took counsel as to
their further action. Here they were joined by an ally who, by his rank
and his claims, was of the first importance to their cause. This was the
Earl of Arran, the eldest son of the Duke of Châtelherault, who, a few
months previously, had been forced to flee from France by reason of his
Protestant sympathies. The value of the new confederate was soon
realized. Passing to Hamilton palace, the insurgent leaders there met
the Duke himself, to whom they held out such alluring prospects that he
openly identified himself with their cause. During these transactions at
Hamilton, alarming news came of the doings of the Regent. It was
reported that she was busily engaged in fortifying Leith--a proceeding,
the Congregation maintained, in direct violation of the late treaty.
Disregarding their protest, she steadily proceeded with the work; and,
as she was strengthened by a new contingent of eight hundred French
men-at-arms, her position by the middle of autumn was such as to excite
alarm alike in Scotland and England. Again there was no arbitrament but
by the sword.
On October 16th the insurgent leaders entered Edinburgh with the
intention of laying siege to Leith, where the Regent had taken refuge as
the safest place in the kingdom. One of their earliest steps was the
most audacious they had yet taken. They formally deposed Mary of
Lorraine from the regency, on the ground that she had ruled as a tyrant
and was betraying the country to a foreign enemy. But they soon found
that they had taken a task beyond their strength. Their force amounted
to but eight thousand men, most of whom were "cuntrie fellows" with no
experience in war, and whose service could not extend beyond a few
weeks. To this undisciplined host was opposed a garrison of three
thousand trained soldiers, with the command of the sea and intrenched in
a town fortified after the best military art of the time. Fortune,
moreover, was against the Congregation from the first. A new instalment
of one thousand pounds, secretly sent by Elizabeth, was cleverly seized
by James, Earl of Bothwell, afterward the notorious helpmate of Mary
Stuart. Their arms, also, met with no success. While a detachment of
their troops was in pursuit of Bothwell, the enemy found their
opportunity and made their way even into the streets of Edinburgh; and
on November 25th the reformers sustained so severe a reverse that the
capital was no longer a safe place for them. They had no money to pay
the few mercenaries whom they had hired; the town was tired of them; and
the earl Marischal, who had charge of the castle, held resolutely aloof.
As at the close of their previous rising, the leaders held a council at
Stirling to determine their future policy; before they entered on their
deliberations, Knox was called upon to preach a sermon--Knox, of whom it
was said that he "put more life" into those who heard him "than five
hundred trumpets continually blustering" in their ears. The
deliberations that succeeded took a sufficiently practical shape. Young
Maitland of Lethington, who had lately deserted the Regent for the
Congregation, was despatched to England with offers that might induce
Elizabeth to give direct support to the cause of Protestantism in
Scotland. As to their own future action, the lords made the following
arrangement: Châtelherault, Argyle, Glencairn, and the lords Boyd and
Ochiltry were to make their head-quarters in Glasgow; while Arran, the
lord James, the lords Rothes and Ruthven, and John Knox were to act from
St. Andrew's as their centre. Their counsels at an end, they separated
with the intention of reassembling at Stirling on December 16th. They
had thus tried two falls with the Regent, and in both they had been
worsted: the third trial of strength was to have a different ending.
The Regent was not slow to follow up her advantage. She took possession
of the capital two days after the Congregation had quitted it, and she
tried hard, but in vain, to persuade the earl Marischal to surrender the
castle. The arrival of fresh reënforcements from France at the beginning
of December enabled her to abandon her defensive policy and to take
decisive measures for the suppression of revolt. On Christmas Day, while
the Protestant lords were in council at Stirling, two detachments of her
troops, commanded by D'Oysel, drove them precipitately from the town.
Pursuing his advantage, D'Oysel despatched his troops across Stirling
bridge into Fife, and he himself with another detachment crossed from
Leith, apparently with the object of gaining possession of St. Andrew's.
The task proved a hard one. At every step he was beset by the Scots
under Argyle and the lord James. "The said Earl and Lord James," says
Knox, "for twenty-one days they lay in their clothes; their boots never
came off; they had skirmishing almost every day; yea, some days, from
morn to even." Yet, in the teeth of all obstacles, D'Oysel steadily
forced his way to within six miles of St. Andrew's, where Knox and his
friends had all but abandoned hope. But unexpected deliverance was at
hand. On January 23, 1560, a fleet of strange vessels appeared at the
mouth of the Frith of Forth. As a French fleet had been expected for
some weeks, D'Oysel concluded that his armament had come at last. He was
soon undeceived. Under his eyes the strangers seized two ships bearing
provisions from Leith to his own camp. The strange vessels were an
advanced squadron of a fleet sent by Elizabeth to block the Frith of
Forth against further succors from France. It was now D'Oysel who was in
extremities; and before he found himself safe in Linlithgow he had vivid
experience at once of the rigors of a Scotch winter and of the savage
hate which his countrymen had come to inspire in the nation which for
three centuries had called them friends and allies.
Meanwhile, the mission of Maitland to the English court was about to
lead to one of the most notable compacts in the national history. At
Berwick-on-Tweed, the lord James Stewart, Lord Ruthven, and three other
Scottish commissioners met the Duke of Norfolk and concluded a treaty
(February 27th) which was to insure the eventual triumph of the
Congregation, to make Scotland a Protestant country, and at a later day
a constituent part of a Greater Britain. The treaty was in effect a bond
of mutual defence against France--Elizabeth having reluctantly consented
that an English army should at once enter Scotland and assist the
Congregation in driving the French soldiery out of the country. While
her revolted subjects were thus making strong their hands against her,
fortune was otherwise deserting the cause of the Regent. A great French
armament, which was to have brought over a force sufficient to crush all
opposition, had been driven back by a succession of storms; and she
herself was already stricken with the disease which was soon to carry
her off. In these circumstances there was but one course open to her--to
fall back on the policy of self-defence and patient waiting on events.
After one somewhat wanton expedition against Glasgow and the Hamiltons,
her troops finally (March 29th) retired within the fortifications of
Leith, and she herself at her special request was received into the
castle of Edinburgh.
On April 4th the English and Scottish hosts joined forces at
Prestonpans, and on the 6th they sat down before Leith. The spectacle
was one suggestive of many reflections; English and Scots, immemorial
foes, were fighting side by side against the ancient friend of the one,
the ancient enemy of the other. There could not be a more memorable
illustration of the saying that "events sometimes mount the saddle and
ride men." Even with their united strength the allies had a formidable
task before them. At the outset of the siege the English amounted to
about nine thousand men, the Scots to ten thousand; but before many
weeks had gone, these numbers had dwindled to a half. With this force
the English commander, Lord Gray, had to besiege a town defended by four
thousand trained soldiers and fortified by the most skilful engineers of
the time. Two severe reverses sustained by the allies prove that in
discipline and skill they were no match for the enemy. On April 14th the
French sallied from the town, and, breaking through the English
trenches, slew two hundred men. A combined assault on the town (May 7th)
was brilliantly repulsed--the English and Scots leaving eight hundred
dead and wounded in the trenches. It was not long before all three
parties were sick of the contest. The Guises had their hands full at
home and needed every soldier they had; Elizabeth heartily disliked the
task of assisting rebel subjects and grudged every penny that was spent
in it; and the Congregation had never been in a position to support a
protracted war.
The death of the Regent on June 10th must have quickened the desire of
the Guises for peace; for where she had failed to effect their purposes
no one else was likely to succeed. Alike by her own character and gifts
and by the momentous policy of which she was the agent, Mary of Lorraine
is one of the remarkable figures in Scottish history. It was her
misfortune--a misfortune due to her birth and connections--that she
found herself from the first in direct antagonism to the natural
development of the country of her adoption, and that the circumstances
in which she ruled were such as to bring into prominence the least
worthy traits of the proud race from which she sprang. Yet in personal
appearance, as in courage and magnificence, she was the true sister of
Henry of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine, "the Pope and King of
France." Construed to a larger and more charitable sense than that in
which they were written, the words of Knox fitly enough sum up her
career. She was "unhappy--to Scotland--from the first day she entered
into it unto the day she finished her unhappy life."
On June 16th commissioners arrived from England and France with powers
to effect an arrangement between the contending parties. From England
came Cecil and Dr. Wotton, Dean of Canterbury and York; and from France,
Monluc, Bishop of Valence, and Charles de Rochefoucauld, Sieur de
Randan. From the beginning, the French representatives gave it to be
understood that any treaty that might be made was exclusively between
England and France; the Congregation were rebel subjects with whom their
prince could in no wise treat. After many difficulties that more than
once threatened to put an end to further negotiations, a settlement was
at length reached (July 6th). The final arrangement signally proved how
hopeless the Guises were of their immediate prospects in Scotland. Mary
and Francis were to desist from using the arms of England; no Frenchman
was henceforth to hold any important office in Scotland; the
fortifications of Leith were to be demolished; and the French soldiers,
with the exception of one hundred twenty, were at once to be sent home
in their own country. Till the return of Mary the government was to be
intrusted to twelve persons, of whom she was to appoint seven and the
estates five. In the treaty no arrangement was made regarding religion;
but, with the powers now placed at their disposal, there could be little
doubt how the Protestant leaders would interpret the omission. Thus had
Elizabeth and the Congregation gained every point for which they had
striven; and their victory may be said to have determined the future,
not only of Britain, but of Protestantism. So far as Scotland is
concerned, the treaty of Edinburgh marks the central point of her
history.
It now remained to be seen to what uses the Protestant party would put
their victory. The simultaneous departure of the French and English
troops relieved them from all restraint; and four days later the great
deliverance was signalized by a solemn thanksgiving in the Church of St.
Giles. For the effectual spreading of the Protestant doctrine, preachers
were planted in various parts of the country--Knox being appointed to
the principal charge in Edinburgh. But it was the approaching assembly
of the estates to which all men were looking with hopes or fears,
according to their desires and interests. The estates met on August 3d,
but it was not till the 8th that the attendance was complete. It was to
be the most important national assembly in the history of the Scottish
people; and the numbers of the different classes who flocked to it
showed that the momentous nature of the crisis was fully realized.
Specially noteworthy was the crowd of smaller barons from all parts of
the country. So unusual was the appearance of these persons that it had
almost been forgotten that their right to sit as representatives dated
from as far back as the reign of James I. A question raised, as to the
legality of an assembly which met independently of the summons or the
presence of the sovereign, was decisively set aside; and the House
addressed itself to the great issues involved in the late revolution.
The question of religion, as at the root of the whole controversy, took
precedence of every other. The first proceeding showed the national
instinct for the logical conduct of human affairs. The estates
instructed the ministers to draw up a statement of Protestant doctrine,
which might serve at once as a chart for their future guidance and a
justification for their present and their future action. In four days
the task (an easy one for Knox and his brother-ministers) was
accomplished; and under twenty-five heads the estates had before them
what was henceforth to be the creed of the majority of the Scottish
people. Article by article the Confession was read and considered, and,
after a feeble protest by the bishops of St. Andrew's, Dunkeld, and
Dunblane, approved and ratified by an overwhelming majority of the
estates.
The way being thus cleared, the next step was the logical conclusion of
all the past action of the Protestant leaders. In three successive acts,
all passed in one day, it was decreed that the national Church should
cease to exist. The first act abolished the jurisdiction of the Pope;
the second condemned all practices and doctrines contrary to the new
creed; and the third forbade the celebration of mass within the bounds
of Scotland. The penalties attached to the breach of these enactments
were those approved and sanctioned by the example of every country in
Christendom. Confiscation for the first offence, exile for the second,
and death for the third--such were to be the successive punishments for
the saying or hearing of mass.
Thus apparently had Knox and his fellow-workers attained the end of all
their labors; and it is instructive to compare the history of their
struggle with the experiences of other countries where the same
religious conflicts had successively arisen. In Germany the terrible
Peasants' War had been the direct result of Luther's revolt from Rome;
and in England the ecclesiastical revolution had been followed by the
religious atrocities of Henry VIII, by the anarchy under Edward VI, and
by the remorseless fanaticism of Mary Tudor. While the Congregation was
in the midst of its struggles with Mary of Lorraine, Philip II was
dealing with heresy in Spain. How effectually he dealt with it is one of
the notable chapters in the histories of nations. Here it is sufficient
to recall a single fact in illustration of the relative experiences of
Scotland and Spain. In 1559 Philip and his court, amid the applause of a
crowd of above two hundred thousand from all parts of Castile,
sanctioned with their presence the burning at Valladolid of a band of
persons, mostly women, accused of the crime of heresy. In France the
appearance of a new religion had evoked passions, alike among the people
and their rulers, which were to give that country an evil preeminence in
the ferocity of national and individual action. The _chambre ardente_,
the Edict of Châteaubriand (1551), the massacre of Amboise (1560), the
thirty years of intermittent civil war (1562-1592)--these were the events
of frightful significance that mark the development of religious conflict
in France. Compared with the tale of blood and confusion that has to be
told of Germany, France, England, and Spain, the history of the
Reformation in Scotland is a record of order and tranquillity.
What is thrust upon us by the narrative of events in Scotland is the
singular moderation alike of the representatives of the old and the new
religion. Heretics had been burned indeed, but the number was
inconsiderable compared with that of similar victims in other countries;
and, even in the day of their triumph, the Scottish Protestants, in
spite of the stern threat of their legislation, were guiltless of a
single execution on the ground of religion. What is still more striking
is, that difference of faith begot no fanatical hate among the mass of
the people. In France and Spain men forgot the ties of blood and country
in the blind fury of religious zeal, but in Scotland we do not find town
arrayed against town and neighbor denouncing neighbor on the ground of a
different faith. That this tolerance was not due to indifference the
religious history of Scotland abundantly proves. It was in the
convulsions attending the change of the national faith that the Scottish
nation first attained to a consciousness of itself, and the
characteristics it then displayed have remained its distinctive
characteristics ever since. It is precisely the combination of a fervid
temper with logical thinking and temperate action that have
distinguished the Scottish people in all the great crises of their
history.
It soon appeared that the Protestant triumph was not so complete as it
might have seemed. Those who saw furthest--and none was more keenly
alive to the fact than Knox--were well aware that many a battle must yet
be fought before the new temple they had built should stand secure
against the assault of open enemies and equivocal friends. The inherent
difficulties of the situation became speedily manifest. Mary and Francis
refused to ratify the late measures--a fact, says Knox, "we little
regarded or do regard." What he did regard, however, was the continued
alliance and support of England; and he was now to learn that, having
attained her own objects, Elizabeth was not disposed to be specially
cordial in her future relations to the Protestants in Scotland. It had
been for some time in the minds of the Protestant leaders that a
marriage between Elizabeth and the Earl of Arran would be an excellent
arrangement for both countries; and in October a commission was actually
sent to make the proposal. The reply of Elizabeth was that "presently
she was not disposed to marry." An important event made this rebuff
additionally unwelcome: on December 5th, Francis II, the husband of Mary
Stuart, unexpectedly died. Had her husband lived, Mary might have
continued to live in France, which had been so long her home, and
Scotland might have been left in large degree to settle its own affairs.
Now the probability was that Mary would return to her own country, and
with all the authority and prestige of a legitimate sovereign renew the
battle that had been lost by her mother. It was, therefore, with gloomy
forebodings that all sincere well-wishers to the Reformed Church in
Scotland saw the close of this year of their apparent triumph.