Douglas, that skilful diplomatist returned from England with the more rational resolutions of Henry. They were accepted by the governor and a majority of the nobles in a convention held in Edinburgh in the beginning of June, and the treaties of peace and marriage were finally ratified at Greenwich on the 1st of July. By these treaties the young queen was to remain in Scotland till the commencement of her eleventh year; but an English nobleman, his wife, and attendants were to form a part of her establishment, and two earls and four barons were to be sent forthwith to England as hostages for the fulfilment of this condition. Care was taken to stipulate on the part of Scotland, that even should the queen have issue by the Prince Edward, that country should still retain its own name and laws.
Once more all was secured that a wise and just monarch could desire, and had Henry VIII. been such a monarch the union of England and Scotland might have been effected ages before it was, and much trouble and bloodshed prevented. But nothing could prevail on Henry to yield his arbitrary and selfish temper to sound and moderate counsels. Whilst he outwardly conceded the obnoxious articles of the negotiations, he bound the Douglas faction—Angus, Maxwell, Glencairn, and the rest—to assist him on the first opportunity in obtaining "all the things thus granted and covenanted, or at least the dominion on this side the Forth." This appears from a paper in the State Paper Office, dated July 1st, 1543, entitled "Copy of the Secret Devise."
The "Secret Devise," however, does not appear to have remained undiscovered by Beaton and the queen-dowager's party, and on the return of the commissioners to Scotland, they found that party in arms against the treaty, which they asserted was to hand over Scotland to the domination of England, and the Church to destruction at the hands of Henry. Filled with uncontrollable rage on receiving the news of this, Henry demanded through his ambassador, Sadler, that Arran should seize the person of Cardinal Beaton, as the author of all the opposition to the English alliance. Beaton, however, took care to place this out of the regent's power. In conjunction with the Earl of Huntly, he concentrated his forces in the north, Argyll and Lennox showed themselves in the west, and Home, Bothwell, and Buccleuch drew forth their feudal array upon the borders. They announced that they were compelled to this demonstration by the treachery of Arran, who, they declared, had sold the independence of the realm and the faith of Holy Church to Henry. They stigmatised Arran not only as a traitor, but as an Englishman, and in this they had some ground of justice. Arran, according to the assertion of Sadler, boasted of his English descent, and it is certain that he eagerly received Henry's money. He listened to, though he did not acquiesce in Henry's scheme of becoming King of Scotland as far as the Forth; and he proposed, in case the cardinal should become too powerful for him, that Henry should send to assist him and his friends. During these proceedings the young queen was living under the care of her mother, the queen-dowager, in the palace of Linlithgow, where she was strictly guarded by the regent and the Hamiltons. Beaton resolved to make a bold effort to secure the person of the sovereign, and for this purpose Lennox, Huntly, and Argyll marched towards Edinburgh, at the head of 10,000 men. At Leith they were joined by Bothwell with the Kers and Scotts, and the united army was now so strong, that the timid governor was terrified into the surrender of his royal charge, who, together with her mother, were conducted in triumph to Stirling.
Though thus successful, and acquiring in the possession of the person of the sovereign a vast accession of political strength, Beaton deemed Arran too formidable to be treated as an enemy, and he sought rather to detach him from the English interest, and at the same time, by winning him, to weaken the Protestant party of which he was the head. He therefore held out secret proposals to him of marrying his son to the young Queen Mary. Arran saw through the bait, and proceeded to ratify the treaty with England in a convention of the nobles held in the abbey church of Holyrood, on the 25th of August, which was done with great state and ceremony, Arran swearing to its observance at the altar. Beaton and his party not only stood aloof from this transaction, but they declared that it was carried by a mere faction, and was, therefore, not binding on the nation.
Whilst public opinion was in this state of fermentation, Henry VIII., irritated at the conduct of the cardinal and a large body of the nobles, committed one of those rash and foolish acts, into which the wild fury of his temper often precipitated him. After the proclamation of peace, a fleet of Scottish merchant vessels, driven by a storm, took refuge in an English port, where, under the recent treaty, they deemed themselves safe. But Henry had just proclaimed war on France, and making that a pretence, he accused them of carrying provisions to his enemies, and detained them. At this outrage the people of Edinburgh surrounded the house of Sadler, the English ambassador, and threatened to burn him in it, if the ships were not restored. Arran, the governor, came in for his share of the odium as the stanch ally of Henry; and the mutual friends of Arran and Henry, the traitorous faction of Angus, Cassilis, Glencairn, and the other barons under secret bond to England, proposed to call out their forces for immediate war. These base sons of a brave country asserted that the time was come for Henry to send a great army into Scotland, with which they would co-operate, "for the conquest of the realm."
Everything boded the immediate outbreak of a bloody war, when a new and surprising revolution took place. On the 3rd of September, Arran declared to Sir Ralph Sadler that he was most devotedly attached to the interests of Henry, and within a week afterwards he met the cardinal at Callender House, the seat of Lord Livingston, and entered into a complete reconciliation with him. Within a few days Beaton refused to hold any intercourse with him for fear of his life, and was seen riding amicably with him towards Stirling. This singular exhibition was quickly followed by Arran's renunciation of Protestantism; his return, with full absolution, into communion with the Roman Church; his surrender of the treaties with England, and the delivery of his son as a pledge of his sincerity. So marvellous a conversion must have had powerful causes, and they are only to be explained by the weakness of Arran's character, and the artful and alarming representations of his more able brother, the abbot of Paisley. This zealous partisan of both France and the
