concert with the Catholic party the scheme of an invasion of Eugland—the rising of the Catholics of the northern counties under the earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland the same year-the plot of the duke of Norfolk with Ridolfi in 1571, for which that unfortunate nobleman lost his head-the plots of Throgmorton and Creichton in 1584, and of Babington in 1586-to omit several minor attempts of the same kind-all testified the restless zeal with which the various enemies of the established order of things pursued their common end. Meanwhile, however, events were tending to a crisis which was to put an end to the outward show of friendship that had been so long kept up between parties that were not only fiercely hostile in their hearts, but had even been constantly working for each other's overthrow behind the thin screen of their professions and courtesies. The queen of Scots was put to death in 1587, by an act of which it is easier to defend the state policy than either the justice or the legality. By this time also, although no actual declaration of war had yet proceeded either from England or Spain, the cause of the people of the Netherlands had been openly espoused by Elizabeth, whose general, the earl of Leicester, was now at the head of the troops of the United Provinces, as the revolted states called themselves. An English fleet at the same time attacked and ravaged the Spanish settlements in the West Indies. At last, in the summer of 1588, the great Spanish fleet, arrogantly styled the Invincible Armada, sailed for the invasion of England, and was in the greater part dashed to pieces on the coasts which it came to assail. From this time hostilities proceeded with more or less activity between the two countries during the remainder of the reign of Elizabeth. Meanwhile Henry III., and, after his assassination in 1589, the young king of Navarre, assuming the title of Henry IV., at the head of the Huguenots, had been maintaining a desperate contest in France with the duke of Guise and the League. For some years Elizabeth and Philip remained only spectators of the struggle; but at length they were both drawn to take a principal part in it. The French war, however, in so far as Elizabeth was concerned, must be considered as only another appendage to the war with Spain; it was Philip chiefly, and not the League, that she opposed in France; just as in the Netherlands, and formerly in Scotland, it was not the cause of liberty against despotism, or of revolted subjects against their legitimate sovereign, that she supported, or even the cause of Protestantism against Catholicism, but her own cause against Philip, her own right to the English throne against his, or that of the competitor with whom he took part. Since the death of Mary of Scotland, Philip professed to consider himself as the rightful king of England, partly on the ground of his descent from John of Gaunt, partly in consequence of Mary having by her will bequeathed her pretensions to him should her son persist in remaining a heretic. Henry IV. having previously embraced Catholicism, made peace with Philip by the treaty of Vervins, concluded in May, 1598; and the death of Philip followed in September of the same year. But the war between England and Spain was nevertheless still kept up. In 1601 Philip III. sent a force to Ireland, which landed in that country and took the town of Kinsale; and the following year Elizabeth retaliated by fitting out a naval expedition against her adversary, which captured some rich prizes, and otherwise annoyed the Spaniard. Her forces continued to act in conjunction with those of the Seven United Provinces both by sea and land.

Elizabeth died on the 24th of March, 1603, in the 70th year of her age and the forty-fifth of her reign.

172.-MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.

PENNY CYCLOPÆDIA.

Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland, was born on the 7th December, 1542. She was the third child of King James V. of Scotland, by his wife Mary of Lorraine, daughter of the Duke of Guise, who had previously borne her husband two sons, both of whom died in infancy. A report prevailed that Mary too was not likely to live; but being unswaddled by her nurse at the desire of her anxious mother, in presence of the English ambassador, the latter wrote to his court that she was as goodly a child as he had seen of her age. At the time of her birth her father lay sick in the palace of Falkland; and in the course of a few days after, he expired, at the early age of thirty, his death being hastened by distress of mind, occasioned by the defeats which his nobles had sustained at Fala and Solway Moss. James was naturally a person of considerable energy and vigour both of mind and body, but previous to his death he fell into a state of listlessness and despondency, and after his decease it was found that he had made no provision for the care of the infant princess, or for the administration of the government. The ambitious Beatoun seized this opportunity, and producing a testament which he pretended was that of the late king, immediately assumed the office and title of regent. The fraud was soon discovered; but by the haste and imprudence of the regent Arran and Henry VIII. of England, who wished a marriage agreed to between his son and the young queen, Beatoun regained his influence in the country; and on the 9th of September, 1543, Mary was crowned by the archbishop, who was also immediately afterwards appointed lord high chancellor of the kingdom. He had even the address to win over the regent Arran to his views, both political and religious; and thus the French or Roman Catholic party obtained the ascendancy. The first two years of Mary's life was spent at Linlithgow, in the royal palace of which she was born; she was then removed to Stirling castle; and when the disputes of parties in the country rendered this a somewhat dangerous residence, she was carried to Inchmahome, a sequestered island in the Lake of Monteith, where she remained about two years. In the meantime a treaty of marriage had been concluded between her and the dauphin Francis; and in terms of the treaty it was resolved she should be sent into France to be educated at the French court, until the nuptials could be solemnized. Accordingly in the fifth year of her age she was taken to Dumbarton, where she was put on board the French fleet; and setting sail towards the end of July, 1548, she was, after a tempestuous voyage, landed on the 14th of August at Brest, whence she proceeded by easy stages to the palace at St. Germaine-en-Laye. At every town in her progress she was received with all the honours due to her royal rank, and as a mark of respect and joy the prisons were thrown open and the prisoners set free.

Soon after her arrival at her destination, Mary was placed with the French king's own daughters in one of the first convents of the kingdom, where she made such rapid progress in the acquisition of the literature and accomplishments of the age, that when visiting her in the end of the year 1550, her mother, Mary of Guise, with her Scottish attendants, burst into tears of joy. She did not however remain long in this situation. Perceiving the bent of her mind to the society and occupations of a nunnery, which did not accord with the ambitious projects entertained by her uncles of Lorraine, they soon brought her to the court, which, as Robertson observes, was one of the politest but most corrupt in Europe. Here Mary became the envy of her sex, surpassing the most accomplished in the elegance and fluency of her language, the grace and liveliness of her movements, and the charm of her whole

manner and behaviour. The youthful Francis, to whom she was betrothed, and was soon to be united in wedlock, was about her own age, and they had been playmates from early years there appears also to have grown up a mutual affection between them; but the dauphin had little of her vivacity, and was altogether considerably her inferior both in mental endowments and personal appearance. The marriage, which took place on the 24th of April, 1558, was celebrated with great pomp; and when the dauphin, taking a ring from his finger, presented it to the cardinal Bourbon, archbishop of Rouen, who, pronouncing the benediction, placed it on the finger of the lovely and youthful bride, the vaulted roof of the cathedral rung with the shouts and congratulations of the assembled multitude.

The solemnities being over, the married pair retired to one of their princely retreats for the summer; but that season was hardly gone when, a vacancy having ccurred on the throne of England by the death of Queen Mary, claims were put orth on behalf of the queen of Scots through her grandmother, who was eldest daughter of King Henry VII. of England; and notwithstanding Elizabeth had ascended the throne, and was, like her sister Mary (both daughters of Henry VIII.), queen both de facto and by the declaration of the parliament of England. yet this claim for the Scottish princess was made and continued to be urged with great pertinacity by her ambitious uncles the princes of Lorraine. On every occasion on which the dauphin and dauphiness appeared in public, they were ostentatiously greeted as the king and queen of England; the English arms were engraved upon their plate, embroidered on their banners, and painted on their furniture; and Mary's own favourite device at the time was, the two crowns of France and Scotland, with the motto Aliamque moratur, meaning that of England. Henri IL died in July, 1559, and in September of the same year Francis was solemnly crowned at Rheims. Mary was now at the height of her splendour; it was doomed however to be only of short continuance. In June, 1560, her mother died; and in December of the same year, her husband, who had been wasting away for some months, expired. By this latter event, Catherine de' Medici rose again into power in the French court, and Mary, who did not relish being second where she had been the first, immediately determined on quitting France and returning to her native country. The queen of England however interposed; and because Mary would not abandon all claim to the English throne, refused to grant her a free passage, being moved to this piece of discourtesy not less perhaps by envy than by jealousy. Mary notwithstanding resolved to go, and at length, after repeated delays, stili lingering on the soil where fortune had smiled upon her, she reached Calais. Here she bade adieu to her attendants, and sailed for Scotland; but as long as the French coast remained in view, she continued involuntarily to exclaim, Farewell, France' Farewell, beloved country!' She landed at Leith on the 19th August, 1561, in the 19th year of her age, and after an absence from Scotland of nearly 13 years. She was now, in the language of Robertson, "a stranger to her subjects, without experience, without allies, and almost without a friend."

A great change had taken place in Scotland since Mary was last in the country. The Roman Catholic religion was then supreme; and under the direction of Cardinal Beatoun the Romish clergy displayed a fierceness of intolerance which seemed to aim at nothing short of the utter extirpation of every seed of dissent and reform. The same causes however which gave strength to the ecclesiastics gave strength also, though more slowly, to the great body of the people; and at length, aftor the repeated losses of Flodden and Fala, and Solway Moss and Pinkey,which, by the fall of nearly the whole lay nobility and leading men of the kingdom, brought all classes within the influence of public events, the energies, physical and mental, of the entire nation were drawn out, and under the guidance of the reformes

Knox expended themselves with the fury of awakened indignation upon the whole fabric of the ancient religion. The work of destruction was just completed, and the Presbyterian government established on the ruins of the Roman Catholic, when Mary returned to her native land. She knew little of all this, and had been taught in France to shrink at the avowal of Protestant opinions: her habits and sentiments were therefore utterly at variance with those of her subjects; and, nurtured in the lap of ease, she was wholly unprepared for the shock which was inevitably to result from her being thrown among them.

Accordingly the very first Sunday after her arrival she commanded a solemn mass to be celebrated in the chapel of the palace; and as might have been expected an uproar ensued, the servants of the chapel were insulted and abused, and had not some of the lay nobility of the Protestant party interposed, the riot might have become general. The next Sunday Knox had a thundering sermon against idolatry, and in his discourse he took occasion to say that a single mass was, in his estimation, more to be feared than ten thousand armed men. Upon this, Mary sent for the The interview took place, as

reformer, desiring to have an interview with him. well as one or two subsequent ones from a like cause; but the only result was to exhibit the parties more plainly at variance with each other. In one of these fruitless conferences the young queen was bathed in tears before his stern rebukes. Her youth however, her beauty and accomplishments, and her affability, interested many in her favour; and as she had from the first continued the government in the hands of the Protestants, the general peace of the country remained unbroken. A remarkable proof of the popular favour which she had won, appeared in the circumstances attending her marriage with Darnley. Various proposals had been made to her from different quarters; but at length she gave up all thoughts of a foreign alliance, and her affections became fixed on her cousin Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, the youthful heir of the noble house of Lennox, to whom she was united on Sunday, 29th July, 1565, the ceremony of marriage being performed in the chapel of Holyrood House, according to the rites of the Romish church. Whether the queen had any right to choose a husband without consent of Parliament, was in that age, as Robertson observes, a matter of some dispute; but that she had no right to confer upon him, by her private authority, the title and dignity of king, or by a simple proclamation invest him with the character of a sovereign, was beyond all doubt yet so entirely did she possess the favourable regard of the nation, that notwithstanding the clamours of the malecontents, her conduct in this respect produced no symptom of general dissatisfaction. The queen's marriage was particularly obnoxious to Queen Elizabeth, whose jealous eye had never been withdrawn from her rival. Knox also did not look favourably on it. Nevertheless the current of popular opinion ran decidedly in Mary's favour, and it was even remarked that the prosperous situation of her affairs began to work some change in favour of her religion.

This popularity however was the result of adventitious circumstances only. There existed no real sympathy of opinion between Mary and the great body of her people; and whatever led to the manifestation of her religious sentiments dissolved in the same degree the fascination which her other qualities had created. It is in this way we may account for the assistance given to Darnley in the assassination of Rizzio-an attendant on Mary, who seems to have come in place of Chatelard. The latter was a French poet who sailed in Mary's retinue when she came over from the Continent; and having gained the queen's attention by his poetical effusions, he proceeded, in the indulgence of a foolish attachment for her, to a boldness and audacity of behaviour which demanded at last the interposition of the law, and he was condemned and executed. Rizzio, a Piedmontese by birth, came to Edinburgh

in the train of the ambassador from Savoy, a year or so before Chatelard's execution. He was skilled in music, had a polished and ready wit, and, like Chatelard, wrote with ease in French and Italian. His first employment at court was in his character of a musician; but Mary soon advanced him to be her French secretary; and in this situation he was conceived to possess an influence over the queen which was equally hateful to Darnley and the Reformers, though on very different grounds. Both therefore concurred in his destruction, and he was assassinated accordingly. Darnley afterwards disclaimed all concern in the conspiracy; but it was plain the queen did not believe and could not forgive him; and having but few qualities to secure her regard, her growing contempt of him terminated in disgust. In the meantime the well-known Earl of Bothwell was rapidly advancing in the queen's favour, and at length no business was concluded, no grace bestowed, without his assent and participation. Meanwhile also Mary bore a son to Darnley; and after great preparations for the event, the baptism of the young prince was performed according to the rites of the Romish church. Darnley himself was soon after seized with the smallpox, or some dangerous distemper, the nature and cause of which are not very clear. He was at Glasgow when he was taken ill, having retired thither to his father somewhat hastily and unexpectedly; Mary was not with him, nor did she visit him for a fortnight. After a short stay they returned to Edinburgh together, when Darnley was lodged, not in the palace of Holyrood, as heretofore, but in the house of Kirk of Field, a mansion standing by itself in an open and solitary part of the town. Ten days after, the house was blown up by gunpowder, and Darnley and his servants buried in the ruins. Whether Mary knew of the intended murder is not certain, and different views of the circumstances have been taken by different historians. The author of the horrid deed was Bothwell, and the public voice was unanimous in his reprobation. Bothwell was brought before the privy-council for the crime; but in consequence of the shortness of the notice, Lennox, his accuser, did not appear. The trial nevertheless proceeded, or rather the verdict and sentence; for without a single witness being examined, Bothwell was acquitted. He was upon this not only continued in all his influence and employments, but he actually attained the great end which he had in view by the perpetration of the foul act. This was no other than to marry the queen herself, which he did in three months after; having in the interval, met the queen, and carried her off a prisoner to his castle of Dunbar, and also raised a process of divorce against the lady Bothwell, his wife, on the ground of consanguinity, and got a decree in the cause just nine days before the marriage. Before the marriage, also, Mary created Bothwell Duke of Orkney; and the marriage itself was solemnized at Holyrood House by Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, according to the forms both of the Romish and Protestant religions.

Public indignation could no longer be restrained. The nobles rose against Bothwell and Mary, who fled before an armed and indignant people from fortress to fortress. At length, after they had collected some followers, a pitched battle near Carbery Hill was about to ensue, when Mary abandoned Bothwell, and threw herself on the mercy of her subjects. They conducted her first to Edinburgh, and thence to the castle of Lochleven, where, as she still persisted to regard Bothwell as her husband, it was determined she should at once abdicate in favour of the prince, her son James. Instruments of abdication to that effect were accordingly prepared, and she was at last constrained to affix her signature to them; upon which the prince was solemnly crowned at Stirling, 29th July, 1567, when little more than a year old. Mary continued a prisoner at Lochleven; but by the aid of friends, in less than twelve months, she effected her escape, and collected a considerable army. The battle of Langside ensued, where she was completely routed; upon this she fled