worms, solemn thanks unto God, for His mighty deliverance, were
given in St. Andrews. Shortly after, the Earl of Arran and Lord
James apprehended the Lairds of Wemyss, Seafield, Balgonie, and
Durie, and others that had assisted the French. They were, however,
soon set at freedom, upon conditions that they never intended
to keep: for such men have neither faith nor honesty. Mr. James
Balfour, who was the greatest practiser, escaped. The English ships
multiplied daily, until they were able to keep the whole Firth. This
enraged the French and the Queen Regent, and they began to execute
their tyranny upon the parts of Lothian that lay near to Edinburgh.
[Sidenote: At Berwick, the Lords make a Contract with England.]
In the middle of February 1560, the Lord James, Lord Ruthven, the
Master of Maxwell, the Master of Lyndsay, Master Henry Balnaves,
and the Laird of Pittarrow were directed to England, from the
Duke's Grace and the Congregation. All these, except the Master
of Maxwell, departed with their honest companies and commission
by sea to Berwick. There they were met by the Duke of Norfolk,
lieutenant to the Queen's Majesty of England, and with him a great
company of the gentlemen of the North, and some also of the South,
having full power to contract with the nobility of Scotland. This
they did, upon such conditions as in the Contract are specified.
And because we have heard the malicious tongues of wicked men make
false report of our action, we have faithfully and truly inserted
in this our history the said Contract, that the memory thereof may
bide to our posterity. They may judge with indifference whether
we have done anything prejudicial to our commonwealth, or yet
contrary to that dutiful obedience which true subjects owe to their
superiors--superiors whose authority ought to defend and maintain
the liberty and freedom of the realms committed to their charge;
and not to oppress and betray these to strangers. The tenor of our
Contract follows.
[Sidenote: The principal Clauses of the Treaty of Berwick.]
"... The Queen's Majesty, having sufficiently understood, as well by
information sent from the nobility of Scotland, as by the manifest
proceedings of the French, that they intend to conquer the realm of
Scotland, suppress the liberties thereof, and unite the same unto
the Crown of France perpetually, contrary to the laws of the same
realm, and to the pacts, oaths, and promises of France; and being
thereto most humbly and earnestly required by the said nobility,
for and in name of the whole realm, shall accept the said realm of
Scotland, the Duke of Chatelherault, Earl of Arran, being declared
by Act of Parliament in Scotland to be heir-apparent to the Crown
thereof, and the nobility and subjects thereof, unto Her Majesty's
protection and maintenance, only for preservation of the same in
their freedoms and liberties, and from conquest during the time
that the marriage shall continue betwixt the Queen of Scots and the
French King, and a year after. And, for expelling out of the same
realm such as presently and apparently go about to practise the
said conquest, Her Majesty shall with all speed send unto Scotland
a convenient aid of men of war, on horse and foot, to join with the
power[160] of Scotsmen; with artillery, munition, and all other
instruments of war meet for the purpose, as well by sea as by land,
not only to expel the present power of French within that realm,
oppressing the same, but also to stop, as far as conveniently
may be, all greater forces of French from entering therein for
the like purpose. Her Majesty shall continue her aid to the said
realm, nobility, and subjects of the same, unto the time that the
French, being enemies to the said realm, are utterly expelled
thence. Her Majesty shall never transact, compone, nor agree with
the French, nor conclude any league with them, unless the Scots and
the French shall be agreed; that the realm of Scotland may be left
in due freedom by the French. Nor shall Her Majesty leave off the
maintenance of the said nobility and subjects, whereby they might
fall as a prey into their enemies' hands, as long as they shall
acknowledge their Sovereign Lady and Queen, and shall indure[161]
themselves to maintain the liberty of their country, and the estate
of the Crown of Scotland. And, if any forts or strengths within the
realm be won out of the hands of the French at this present time,
or at any time hereafter, by Her Majesty's aid, the same shall be
immediately demolished by the said Scotsmen, or delivered to the
said Duke and his party foresaid, at their option and choice. Nor
shall the power of England fortify within the ground of Scotland,
being out of the bounds of England, but by the advice of the said
Duke, nobility, and estates of Scotland.
[160] Forces.
[161] Remain of firm purpose.
"For which causes, and in respect of Her Majesty's most gentle
clemency and liberal support, the said Duke, and all the nobility,
as well such as be now joined, as such as shall hereafter join
with him for defence of the liberty of that realm, shall, to the
uttermost of their power, aid and support Her Majesty's arm against
the French, and their partakers,[162] with horsemen and footmen,
and with victuals, by land and by sea, and with all manner of other
aid to the best of their power, and so shall continue during the
time that Her Majesty's army shall remain in Scotland. They shall
be enemy to all such Scotsmen and French as shall in anywise show
themselves enemies to the realm of England in respect of the aiding
and supporting of the said Duke and nobility in the delivery of the
realm of Scotland from conquest. They shall never assent nor permit
that the realm of Scotland shall be conquered, or otherwise knit
to the Crown of France than it is at this present time only by the
marriage of the Queen their Sovereign to the French King, and by the
laws and liberties of the realm, as it ought to be....
[162] Allies.
"And, finally, the said Duke and the nobility joined with
him certainly perceiving that the Queen's Majesty of England
is thereunto moved only upon respect of princely honour and
neighbourhood for the defence of the freedom of Scotland from
conquest, and not of any other sinister intent, do by these presents
testify and declare that neither they nor any of them mean by this
count to withdraw any due obedience to their Sovereign Lady the
Queen, or to withstand the French King, her husband and head, in
any lawful thing that, during the marriage, shall not tend to the
subversion and oppression of the just and ancient liberties of
the said kingdom of Scotland; for preservation whereof, both for
their Sovereign's honour, and for the continuance of the kingdom in
ancient estate, they acknowledge themselves bound to spend their
goods, lands, and lives...."
[Sidenote: The Regent lays waste the Country.]
Shortly after this contract was completed, our pledges were
delivered to Master Winter, Admiral of the navy[163] that came to
Scotland, a man of great honesty, so far as ever we could espy of
him, and these were safely convoyed to Newcastle. Then the English
began to assemble near the Border; and the French and Queen Regent,
informed of this, began to destroy what they could in the towns
and country about. The whole victuals they carried to Leith; the
mills they broke; the sheep, oxen, and kine, yea, the horses of poor
labourers, they made all to serve their tyranny. In the end, they
left nothing undone which very enemies could have devised, except
that they demolished not gentlemen's houses, and burnt not the town
of Edinburgh: in this particular, God bridled their fury, to let His
afflicted understand that He took care of them.
[163] Fleet.
Before the coming of the land army, the French passed to Glasgow,
and destroyed the country thereabout. The tyranny used by the
Marquis upon a poor Scottish soldier is fearful to hear, and yet his
act may not be omitted. They would give no silver to the poor men,
and so they were slow to depart from the town; and, albeit the drum
was beaten, the ensign could not be got. A poor craftsman, who had
bought for his victuals a grey loaf and was eating a morsel of it,
was putting the rest of it in his bosom. The tyrant came to him, and
with the poor caitiff's own whinger first struck him in the breast,
and afterwards cast it at him. The poor man staggering and falling,
the merciless tyrant ran him through with his rapier, and thereafter
commanded him to be hung over the stair. Lord, Thou wilt yet look,
and recompense such tyranny; however contemptible the person was!
On the second of April, in the year of God 1560, the army by land
entered Scotland. Its conduct was committed to the Lord Grey, who
had in his company the Lord Scrope, Sir James Crofts, Sir Harry
Percy, and Sir Francis Lake; many other captains and gentlemen
having charge, some of footmen, some of horsemen. The army by land
was estimated at ten thousand men. The Queen Regent and some others
of her faction had passed to the Castle of Edinburgh. At Preston the
English were met by the Duke's Grace, the Earl of Argyll (Huntly
came not until the siege was confirmed), Lord James, the Earls of
Glencairn and Monteith, Lords Ruthven, Boyd, and Ochiltree, and all
the Protestant gentlemen of West Fife, Angus, and Mearns. For a few
days the army was great.
[Sidenote: The Siege of Leith: April 1560.]
After two days' deliberation at Inveresk, the whole camp marched
forward with ordnance and all preparation necessary for the siege,
and came to Restalrig upon Palm Sunday evening. The French had put
themselves in battle array upon the Links without Leith, and had
sent forth their skirmishers. These, beginning before ten o'clock,
continued skirmishing until after four o'clock in the afternoon,
when some horsemen of Scotland and some of England charged upon
them. But, because the principal captain of the horsemen of England
was not present, the whole troop durst not charge, and so the
overthrow and slaughter of the French was not so great as at one
time it appeared to be. The great battle was once at the trot; but
when the French perceived that the great force of the horsemen stood
still, and charged not, they returned and gave some resource to
their fellows that fled. Thus there fell in that defeat only about
three hundred Frenchmen. God would not give the victory so suddenly,
lest man should glory in his own strength. This small victory put
both the English and Scots in too great security, as the issue
declared.
The French enclosed within the town, the English army began to plant
their pavilions betwixt Leith and Restalrig. The ordnance of the
town, and especially that which lay upon St. Anthony's steeple,
caused them great annoyance; and eight cannon were bent against this
place. These shot so continually, and so accurately, that, within
few days, that steeple was condemned, and all the ordnance on it was
dismounted. This made the Englishmen somewhat more negligent than it
became good men of war to have been; for, perceiving that the French
made no pursuit outside their walls, they got the idea that they
would never ish more. Some of the captains for pastime, went to the
town:[164] the soldiers, for their ease, laid their armour aside,
and, as men beyond danger, fell to the dice and cards. So, upon
Easter Monday, at the very hour of noon, when the French ished, both
on horse and foot, and entered into the English trenches with great
violence, they slew or put to flight all that were found there.
[164] That is, to Edinburgh.
The watch was negligently kept, and succour was slow, and long in
coming; the French, before any resistance was made, approached
almost to the great ordnance. But then the horsemen trooped
together, and the footmen got themselves in array, and so repulsed
the French back again to the town. But the slaughter was great: some
say it exceeded double of that which the French received the first
day. And this was the fruit of their security and ours.
Matters were afterwards remedied; for the Englishmen, most wisely
considering themselves not able to besiege the town at all points,
made mounds at divers quarters of it. In these, they and their
ordnance lay in as good strength as did the enemy within the town.
The common soldiers kept the trenches, and had the said mounds
for their safeguard and refuge, in case of any greater pursuit
than they were able to sustain. The patience and stout courage of
the Englishmen, but principally of the horsemen, is worthy of all
praise: for where was it ever heard that eight thousand (they that
lay in camp never exceeded that number) should besiege four thousand
of the most desperate cut-throats that were to be found in Europe,
and lie so near to them in daily skirmishing, for the space of three
months and more. The horsemen kept watch night and day, and did so
valiantly behave themselves that the French got no advantage from
that day until the day of the assault.
In the meantime, another bond to defend the liberty of the Evangel
of Christ was made by all the nobility, barons, and gentlemen,
professing Christ Jesus in Scotland, and by divers others that
joined with us in expelling the French army.... This contract
and bond came not only to the ears but to the sight of the
Queen Dowager. Thereat she stormed not a little, and said, "The
malediction of God I give unto them that counselled me to persecute
the preachers, and to refuse the petitions of the best part of the
true subjects of this realm. It was said to me that the English
army could not lie in Scotland ten days; but they have lain nearly
a month now, and are more likely to remain than the first day they
came."
They that gave such information to the Queen, spoke as worldly wise
men, and as things appeared to have been. For, the country being
almost in all parts wasted, the victuals within reach of Leith
either brought in to their stores or else destroyed, and the mills
and other places cast down, it appeared that the camp could not have
been furnished, unless it had been by their own ships. That could
not have been for any long continuance of time, and so would have
been of little comfort. But God confounded all worldly wisdom, and
made His own benediction as evidently to appear as if, in a manner,
He had fed the army from above. In the camp all the time that it
lay, after eight days had passed, all kinds of victuals were more
abundant, and of more easy prices, than they had been in Edinburgh
at any time in the two previous years, or yet have been in that town
to this day. The people of Scotland so much abhorred the tyranny of
the French that they would have given their substance to have been
rid of that chargeable burden which our sins had provoked God to lay
upon us--in giving us into the hands of a woman, whom our nobility,
in their foolishness, sold unto strangers, and with her the liberty
of the realm....
[Sidenote: The Assault upon Leith is unsuccessful.]
The camp abounding in all necessary provision, arrangements were
made for the confirmation of the siege; and the trenches were drawn
as near to the town as they well might be. The great camp removed
from Restalrig to the west side of the Water of Leith; and the
cannons were planted for the bombardment, and shot at the south-west
wall. But all was earth, and the breach was not made so great during
the day but that it was sufficiently repaired at night. The English,
beginning to weary, determined to give the brush and assault. This
they did, upon the seventh day of May, beginning before daylight,
and continuing until it was near seven o'clock. Albeit the English
and Scottish, with great slaughter of the soldiers of both, were
repulsed, there was never a sharper assault given at the hands
of so few. The men that assaulted the whole two quarters of the
town exceeded not a thousand, and yet they silenced the whole
block-houses; yea, they once put the French clean off their walls,
and were upon both the east and west block-houses. But they had not
sufficient backing. Their ladders wanted six quarters of the proper
height; and so, while the foremost were compelled to fight upon the
top of the wall, their fellows could not get up to support them.
Thus they were dung back again, by overwhelming numbers, when it was
thought that the town was won.
[Sidenote: Sir James Crofts is blamed.]
Sir James Crofts was blamed by many for not doing his duty that day.
He, with a sufficient number of most able men, had been instructed
to assault the north-west quarter upon the sea-side, where, at
low-water, as at the time of the assault, the passage was easy:
but neither he nor his approached the quarter appointed. At their
first coming in, he had spoken with the Queen Regent at the front
block-house of the Castle of Edinburgh. Whether she had enchanted
him we knew not, but we suspected so that day. He certainly deceived
the expectation of many, and, so far as man could judge, was the
cause of that great repulse.... All the time of the assault, which
was both terrible and long, the Queen Regent sat upon the fore-wall
of the Castle of Edinburgh; and when she perceived our overthrow,
and that the ensigns of the French were again displayed upon the
walls, she gave a guffaw of laughter, and said, "Now will I go to
the Mass, and praise God for that which my eyes have seen!"
The French, proud of the victory, stripped naked all the slain,
and laid their dead carcases in the hot sun along their wall,
where they suffered them to lie more days than one. When the Queen
Regent looked towards this, she hopped for mirth and said, "Yonder
are the fairest tapestries that ever I saw: I would that the whole
fields that are betwixt this place and yon were strewn with the
same stuff." This act was seen by all, and her words were heard by
some, and misliked by many. Against this, John Knox spake openly in
pulpit, and boldly affirmed, that God would revenge that contumely
done to His image, not only on the furious and godless soldiers,
but even on such as rejoiced thereat. And that which actually
happened did declare that he was not deceived, for within a few days
thereafter the Queen Regent was smitten with disease.
[Sidenote: The Siege is continued. Illness of the Queen Regent.]
The Duke of Norfolk, who then lay at Berwick, commanded the Lord
Grey to continue the siege, and promised that he should not lack
men, so long as any were to be had betwixt Trent and Tweed; so far
was he lieutenant.... While the siege thus continued, a sudden fire
chanced in Leith, and this devoured many houses and much victual.
Thus did God begin to fight for us, as the Lord Erskine in plain
words said to the Queen Regent. "Madam," quoth he, "I can say no
more; but seeing that men may not expel unjust possessors from this
land, God Himself will do it; for yon fire is not kindled by man."
These words offended the Queen Regent not a little. Her sickness
daily increasing, she used great craft that Monsieur D'Oysel might
be permitted to speak with her. Belike she wished to bid him
farewell, for of old their familiarity had been great; but that
was denied. Then she wrote as if to her chirurgeon and apothecary,
explaining her sickness and requiring drugs. The letter being
presented to the Lord Grey, he espied craft. Few lines being written
above and much white paper left, he said, "Drugs are abundant and
fresher in Edinburgh than they can be in Leith: there lurks here
some other mystery." By holding the paper to the fire, he perceived
some writing appear, and this he read. But what it was, no other
man can tell; for he burnt the bill immediately, and said to the
messenger, "Albeit I have been her secretary, yet tell her I shall
keep her counsel. But say to her, such wares will not sell in a new
market."
[Sidenote: The Regent expresses Repentance, and receives godly
Instruction.]
When the Queen received this answer, she was not content; and
travailed earnestly that she might speak with the Earls of
Argyll, Glencairn, and Marischall, and with the Lord James. After
deliberation, it was thought expedient that they should speak with
her, but not altogether, lest some part of the Guisian practice
had lurked under the colour of such friendship. She expressed to
them all regret that she had behaved herself so foolishly, and had
compelled them to seek the support of others rather than of their
own sovereign; and she said that she sore repented that ever it came
to that extremity. But hers was not the wyte.[165] Her action had
been dictated by the wicked counsel of her friends on the one part,
and the Earl of Huntly upon the other; if he had not been there, she
would have fully agreed with them at their communing at Preston.
They gave her what counsel and comfort they could in that extremity,
and willed her to send for some godly learned man, of whom she might
receive instruction; for these ignorant Papists that were about her,
understood nothing of the mystery of our Redemption. Upon their
motive, John Willock was sent for. With him she talked a reasonable
space, and he did plainly show to her the virtue and strength of the
death of Jesus Christ, as well as the vanity and abomination of the
Mass. She did openly confess that there was no salvation but in and
by the death of Jesus Christ. We heard not her confession concerning
the Mass.
[165] Blame.
[Sidenote: Death of the Queen Regent.]
Some said the Queen was anointed in the papistical manner, a sign of
small knowledge of the truth, and of less repentance of her former
superstition. Yet, howsoever it was, Christ Jesus got no small
victory over such an enemy. For, albeit she had formerly avowed
that, in despite of all Scotland, the preachers of Jesus Christ
should either die or be banished the realm, she was compelled not
only to hear that Christ Jesus was preached, and all idolatry openly
rebuked, and in many places suppressed, but also she was constrained
to hear one of the principal ministers within the realm, and to
approve the chief head of our religion, wherein we dissent from all
Papists and papistry. Shortly thereafter she finished her unhappy
life; unhappy, we say, for Scotland, from the first day she entered
into it, to the day she departed this life, which was the ninth of
June, the year of God 1560....
[Sidenote: Peace with France is concluded.]
Upon the sixteenth day of June, after the death of the Queen Regent,
there came to Scotland Monsieur Randan, and with him the Bishop
of Valance, in commission from France, to entreat of peace. Their
negotiation was longsome; for both England and we, fearing deceit,
sought by all means that the contract should be sure. They, upon
the other part, intending to gratify those who had sent them and
meant nothing but mere falseness, protracted time to the uttermost,
even while those in Leith were very scarce of victuals, and those
on Inchkeith would have perished, had not they by policy got a
ship with victuals, and some munition. Yet in the end peace was
concluded....
[Sidenote: The English Army is withdrawn, with Honours.]
Peace proclaimed, immediate provision was made for transporting the
French to France. The most part were put into the English ships,
and these also carried with them the whole spoil of Leith. That was
the second benefit which Leith received from their late promised
liberty; the end is not yet come. The English army by land departed
on the sixteenth day of July, in the year of God 1560. The most part
of our Protestant nobility, honorably convoyed them, and in very
deed they had well deserved this honour. The Lord James would not
leave the Lord Grey and the other noblemen of England, until they
had entered Berwick. After that, the Council began to look upon the
affairs of the commonwealth, as well as upon the matters that might
concern the stability of religion....
[Sidenote: Public Thanksgiving in St. Giles's Kirk.]
A day was appointed, when the whole nobility and the greatest part
of the Congregation assembled in St. Giles's Kirk in Edinburgh, and
there, after the sermon made for that purpose, public thanks was
given unto God for His merciful deliverance, in form as follows:--