Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 2.djvu/488

This page needs to be proofread.

for his son, and that he should himself be King of Scotland beyond the Forth. But Arran could not easily withstand the growing feeling of suspicion against England; and, though he ratified the treaty with Henry at Holyrood on August 25, in presence of a number of the nobility, he had even before that date resigned the charge of the infant Queen and her mother to the Cardinal and his friends. He then sought a meeting and reconciliation with the Cardinal at Falkirk, where he abjured his Protestant heresies. Immediately afterwards, on September 9, they crowned the child at Stirling as Queen. Henry's anger was intense. But the feeling of the Scots against England was still more aggravated by the discovery that some Scotch merchant-ships, whose safety ought to have been secured by the treaty, had been arrested at an English port on the plea that they were carrying victuals to France. Henry, moreover, let the two months expire within which he should have ratified the treaty; so that the Scots justly felt they had been deluded. Early in October a French fleet arrived at Dumbarton with money to oppose the designs of England. With it also came a French ambassador, La Brossé, and a papal Legate, Cardinal Grimani. But the Earl of Lennox at once intercepted the money, and, to maintain his opposition to Arran, left the party of France and joined that of Henry.

In September, while professing peace with Scotland, Henry had meditated a further outrage by an invasion under the Duke of Suffolk; but this was wisely forborne. The Scottish people were already deeply incensed; and the English ambassador, Sir Ralph Sadler, had to leave Edinburgh for his own safety, and take refuge in Angus' Castle of Tantallon. In December the Scotch Parliament met, declared the treaties with England no longer binding, and renewed the old league with France. Henry immediately sent a herald to Scotland with a threatening and reproachful message to be read to the Estates. It was received by the Governor after the Parliament had been dissolved. It apparently helped to bring about a formal agreement which Angus and Lennox made with him on January 13, 154-4«, and in which the Earls of Cassillis and Glencairn likewise took part, all promising to unite against the old enemy England. But the same lords presently asked England's aid to support them in their own country; and a treaty was signed at Carlisle on May 17, by Glencairn and by the Bishop of Caithness in behalf of Lennox, binding them to procure Henry's appointment as Protector of Scotland, to put the chief fortresses of the country into his hands, and, if possible, to get possession of the young Queen's person, and convey her to England. Lennox was then to have the regency of Scotland and to marry Henry's niece, Margaret Douglas. This marriage actually took place in the following summer; and Darnley was born of it next year.

But already at the beginning of the same month of May a fleet of 200 sail under John Dudley, Viscount Lisle, had appeared in the