TROUBLES SURROUNDING HER CHILDHOOD.
On the death of James V., the Earl of Arran, head of the powerful house
of Hamilton, became Governor of Scotland. Arran was weak and
unreliable, and favourably affected, both in religion and politics,
toward the English party. On the other hand, Cardinal David Beaton,
Archbishop of St. Andrews, stood forth as the representative of Scottish
independence and the French alliance; and through his influence the
progress of negotiations for the English alliance was checked. But, for
reasons which I need not delay to explain, an agreement of marriage
between Mary and Edward was afterwards signed. So strongly, however,
were the masses of the people opposed to any measure that might bring
Scotland under the power of the "auld enemy," and so enraged were they
at certain humiliating conditions attached to the marriage contract,
that the treaty was broken up within a fortnight after it had been
signed. "I assure you," said a Scotsman to the English envoy, "that our
nation, being a stout nation, will never agree to have an Englishman
King of Scotland; and though the whole nobility of the realm should
consent to it, yet the common people, and the stones of the streets
would rise and rebel against it."
Henry VIII., whose patience was not his predominant virtue, was enraged
at this opposition to his will, and hastened troops into Scotland, both
by land and sea, with instructions so savagely cruel, that we could
hardly believe them to have been issued did we not see them realized in
the subsequent conduct of the soldiery. On the 3rd of May, 1544, an
English fleet suddenly appeared off Leith, which, in conjunction with a
land army, proceeded to carry out the instructions of their royal
master, namely, "To put all to fire and sword, to burn Edinburgh town,
and to raze and deface it when you have sacked it and gotten what you
can out of it, as that it may remain for ever a perpetual memory of the
vengeance of God lighted upon it for their falsehood and disloyalty."
"Do what you can," the instructions continue, "out of hand and without
long tarrying, to beat down and overthrow the Castle, sack Holyrood
House and as many towns and villages about Edinburgh as you conveniently
can. Sack Leith and burn and subvert it and all the rest, putting man,
woman and child to fire and sword, without exception, when any
resistance shall be made against you. And this done, pass over to
Fifeland and extend like extremities and destructions to all towns and
villages whereunto ye may reach conveniently; not forgetting amongst all
the rest to spoil and turn upside down the Cardinal's town 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."
Another army sent into Scotland in September of the same year, converted
the southern portion of the country almost into a waste, no scruple
being made of burning mothers and children in their homes. Between the
8th and the 23rd of September, the army destroyed, among other things,
seven monasteries, sixteen castles, five market towns, two hundred and
forty-three villages, thirteen mills and three hospitals. These
barbarities had the effect of uniting the two parties in Scotland and of
retarding the very movement that Henry had hoped they should accelerate.
The greatest obstacle to the progress of Henry's designs on Scotland was
still Cardinal Beaton. Beaton was not only a distinguished prelate, but
also a statesman of European reputation. Henry was anxious to get him
out of the way; but negotiations for his murder, though entered into on
various occasions, fell through, because the interested parties could
not agree on the price of the Cardinal's blood. However, the work was
accomplished later; on the 29th of May, 1546, a band of conspirators
entered the Castle of St. Andrews, murdered the Cardinal and, having
dressed his corpse in priestly vestments, suspended it from the Castle
wall. Henry was shortly afterwards called to his reward, but the war
against Scotland was carried on by Somerset, the Protector, and in
September, 1547, Scottish independence being seriously threatened, after
the disastrous battle of Pankie, the young queen was quickly removed
from Sterling and hurried away to the Priory on Inchmahone, in the lake
of Menteith, in Perthshire. Here, unconscious of the fierce conflicts
of which she was the occasion, Mary passed her days in childish sports,
in company with her four playmates, who were destined to become her
maids of honor--Mary Beaton, Mary Seton, Mary Fleming and Mary
Livingston.
Some decisive step with regard to the young queen had soon to be taken.
The Estates convened and decided to give her in marriage to the Dauphin,
and to send her to France to be educated. Accordingly, on the 7th of
August, 1548, Mary, being then scarcely six years old, embarked at
Dunbarton, and six days later landed at Roscoff, near Brest. Surrounded
by every mark of respect corresponding to her dignity, she was conducted
to the Court of Henry II., and was henceforward treated with the
distinction due to a crowned queen (for the coronation ceremony had been
performed in Scotland), and the betrothed of the heir to the French
throne.