this probably induced the latter to attach himself to the party of the Hamiltons. During the meeting of parliament in Edinburgh, in April, 1520, a favourable opportunity seemed to present itself to the partisans of Arran to crush their rival while the great body of his supporters were at a distance; and Beaton and other leaders of the Hamilton faction held a council in the church of the Blackfriars, for the purpose of concerting their measures. Angus sent his uncle, the celebrated Gawin Douglas, bishop of Dunkeld, to the meeting, to remonstrate against their warlike preparations, and to endeavour to compose their differences. Addressing himself to the Chancellor as the official conservator of the laws of the realm, Douglas entreated him to act as a peacemaker. Beaton, however, had actually prepared for the expected struggle, by putting on a coat of mail under his robes, and in answer to the appeal of Douglas said, "Upon my conscience, I know nothing of the matter;" at the same time striking his hand upon his breast, which caused the armour to return a rattling sound. "My lord," replied the bishop, "your conscience clatters" (tells tales); and leaving the meeting after this pointed rebuke of Beaton's insincerity, he returned back to his nephew, and told him he must defend himself with arms. In the conflict which ensued—long remembered by the name of "Clean the Causeway"—the Hamiltons were completely worsted, and driven from the city. Archbishop Beaton took refuge behind the high altar of the church of the Blackfriars' monastery, but his place of retreat was discovered by the Douglases, who tore off his rochet, and would have slain him on the spot, but for the interposition of the bishop of Dunkeld. For some time after this defeat of his party Beaton lived in obscurity, till the return of the Duke of Albany, by whose influence he was, in 1523, appointed to the metropolitan see of St. Andrews. Soon after this, however, he changed sides, and entered into a coalition with Angus against the faction of the queen-mother and Arran, and was in consequence, in 1524, thrown into prison at Berwick, and deprived of his Chancellorship. After an imprisonment of four months he was set at liberty, on the decline of the queen's power; and before the end of the year he was restored to his former honours, and appointed one of the privy council for the education of the young king, and the government of the kingdom. Dr. Magnus, the English ambassador, in a letter written at this time to Cardinal Wolsey, calls Beaton "the greatest man, both of lands and experience, within this realm." But he adds, "the said archbishop is noted to be subtle and dissembling," and accuses him of intriguing with both the French and English factions. He speaks also of the magnificence of the entertainments given by the primate, and says, "I understand there hath not been such a house kept in Scotland many days before as of late the said archbishop hath kept and yet keepeth; he gave livery nightly to twenty-one score of horses." On the revival of the power of the Douglases, and the accession of Angus to supreme power in the state, Beaton joined the queen-mother and Lennox in an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the young king from the ignominious thraldom in which he was held by that tyrannical noble. This course of policy drew down upon the archbishop the displeasure of the Douglas faction; and after the defeat and death of Lennox in the skirmish near Lithlingow, in 1525, the primate was compelled to flee for his life to the hills of Balgrumo in Fife, where he assumed the disguise of a shepherd, and tended a flock of sheep for three months, in order to elude the pursuit of his enemies. The Douglases, meanwhile, wreaked their vengeance on his estates, and pillaged the abbey of Dunfermline and the castle of St. Andrews. The primate, however, ultimately succeeded in making his peace with the Douglases, by liberal gifts of money, and the surrender of the abbey of Kilwinning. He was not slow to avail himself of the power which he thus regained to promote the aggrandisement of the church; and the celebrated Patrick Hamilton, the protomartyr of the Reformed church in Scotland, fell a victim to the reconciliation which now took place between Angus and Beaton. (See Patrick Hamilton.) Several other persons suffered persecution or death about the same time for their adherence to the Protestant faith. A number, including the celebrated George Buchanan, Gavin Logie, rector of St. Leonard's college, and the learned Dr. John M'Bee, sought refuge in England or on the continent. The crafty prelate, though apparently in close alliance with the Douglases, contrived quietly to intrigue against their power; and was a party to the plot by which the young king, James V., regained his liberty. On the overthrow of Angus, Beaton was reinstated in all his dignities, except that of chancellor, which was conferred on Gavin Dunbar, archbishop of Glasgow, the king's former preceptor. The aged primate passed the remainder of his active life in comparative retirement and tranquillity. The principal employment of his closing years was the erection and endowment of the new college of St. Andrews. But the greater part of the funds which he had destined for that purpose were unfortunately misapplied by his executors. He died in 1539.—J. T.
BEATON, James, archbishop of Glasgow, was nephew of Cardinal Beaton. He was educated in Paris under the eye of his uncle, who was at that time ambassador from James V. On his return to Scotland he was appointed chanter of Glasgow cathedral, under archbishop Dunbar. In 1543 he succeeded his uncle in the rich abbey of Aberbrothock, and was employed by him in many important transactions. In 1552, though the murder of his powerful relative had in the interval deprived him of his patron, he was promoted to the archbishopric of Glasgow, and became one of the most important personages in the kingdom. His niece, Mary Beaton, was one of the "four Maries" who attended on the young Queen Mary in France. The archbishop enjoyed the confidence both of the Regent Arran and of the queen dowager, and was the first of the commissioners appointed by parliament, in 1557, to be present at the marriage of Queen Mary to the dauphin of France. He was one of the confidential counsellors of the queen regent, Mary of Lorraine, and strenuously co-operated with her in a fruitless effort to stem the advancing tide of the Reformation. In 1559 the cathedral was stripped of its images, and a garrison was placed for a short time in the archbishop's palace, by his former friend Arran, who had now embraced the Reformed faith. On the death of the queen regent in 1560, Beaton perceived that the Romish church could no longer maintain its ground in Scotland, and that the safety of its prelates and leading supporters was seriously endangered; he therefore returned to France, carrying with him all the valuable plate, and the records and other documents belonging to the see. Among these records, which were very valuable, were two chartularies; one of which, entitled "The Red Book of Glasgow," was written in the reign of Robert III. The archbishop spent the remainder of his long life as ambassador from the Scottish court to the French king. He was highly esteemed and trusted by Queen Mary; and her son, James VI., in 1588, restored Beaton to the temporalities of his see, although the presbyterian faith was now the established religion of Scotland. He died April 24th, 1603, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, shortly after the accession of James to the English throne, having held the office of ambassador to three generations of the Scottish sovereigns. Archbishop Spottiswood, his successor, describes him as "a man honourably disposed, faithful to the queen while she lived, and to the king, her son; a lover of his country, and liberal according to his means to all his countrymen." He bequeathed his large fortune to the Scots college at Paris, an institution founded in 1325 by a bishop of Moray, for the benefit of poor Scottish scholars; and to the monastery of the Carthusians, to be restored, however, to Glasgow, as soon as its inhabitants should return to the Roman Catholic church. The valuable documents which he carried off from Scotland were deposited in this college, together with an immense mass of diplomatic papers; but the whole collection was unfortunately destroyed or lost on the breaking out of the first French revolution.—J. T.
BEATRICE PORTINARI, a name which recalls the first love, the life-long sorrow, and much of the poetry of Dante. In the "Vita Nuova" we are told that the poet met Beatrice at a banquet in the house of her father, Folco Portinari, when they were each at the age of nine years. Their intimacy lasted till the death of Beatrice, sixteen years after their first interview. She is immortalized in cantos xxx. and xxxi. of the Purgatorio.—J. S., G.
BEATRIX, daughter of Ferdinand, king of Naples and Aragon, died at Ischia in 1508. In 1475 she married Mathias Corvinus, king of Hungary, and subsequently became celebrated in the history of that country by her political intrigues, by means of which she sought to counteract the intention of the king to leave his throne to his natural son, John Corvinus. She has been accused of poisoning her husband with a view to marry his successor, but having been disappointed in her object, she passed the remainder of her life in voluntary exile.—G. M.
BEATSON, Robert, LL.D., born at Dysart, Fife, in 1742; died at Edinburgh, 18th April, 1818. He wrote "A Political Index to the Histories of Great Britain and Ireland," "Naval and Military Memoirs of Great Britain from 1727 to 1804.
