gap would be opened to demand the Abrogation of all positive Ecclesiastical Constitutions by which only the Prerogative given by Christ to the Church of Rome is preserved for by those which are of Divine appointment no profit doth arise but that which is spiritual So that the Princes who expected any redress from them were in a fine case Camden in his History of Queen Elizabeth assures us The French Affairs after the Peace till the end of the Council the true reason why the Prince of Conde clapt up this Peace upon such easie and disadvantageous terms was because he had been deluded by the Queen with the vain hopes of succeeding his Brother the King of Navarr as General of all the Forces of France and that he should marry the Queen of Scotland too which he afterwards refused The English were then possess'd of Havre de Grace The Siege of Havre de Grace and had a Garrison in it and now both the Protestants and the Roman Catholicks united their Forces to deprive them of it without repaying any of the Money the Queen had expended in the War or considering what need they might after have of that Princess's protection and assistance Both parties on the contrary protest That if the English do not forthwith restore that place they should forfeit their Right to Calais which was reserved to them by the Treaty of Cambray and when this would not do they proclaimed a War against the English in France the 7th of July which was return'd them by the English till they should restore Calais The Earl of Warwick who was then Governour of Havre de Grace finding the French well disposed to betray the English in that Town into the hands of their Country-men and that they had entered into a Conspiracy to that purpose with the Rhinegrave who lay not far off with some German Forces He thereupon turn'd all the French both Protestants and Papists out of the Town without any difference and seized upon all their Ships The French thereupon without ever reflecting on their own Conspiracy against the English began a loud complaint That the English came not to protect the French in their distresses but to get the possession of the Town dealing with them not as with Brethren but as Foreigners And hereupon the French resolved to take this place upon any terms from the English and the King sent a Trumpet to the Governour to demand the Town who returned for an Answer That if the King of Spain would pass his word that Calais should be restored according to the Treaty of Cambray at the time by it appointed and that the King of France the Queen-Mother and the Princes of the Blood Royal would confirm the same by their Oaths and Register it in all the Parliaments of France and then give them Hostages of the Prime Nobility of France he would then deliver up the Town This being rejected the 22d of July Montmorency the Constable took the field all things being by that time prepared to reduce it by force The next day they summon'd the Town again Warwick replied he would suffer death rather than deliver up the place without the Queen's knowledge The Protestants fight against the English His Messenger whom he sent with this Answer happened to meet one Monie a Protestant French Captain with whom he had been familiarly acquainted in the Siege of Roan to whom he said He much wondred to see the Protestants of France who were of the same Religion with the English and for whose relief they came into France in the Camp against them Le Monie replied As you fight for your Queen so we for our King the contest is now for our Country and Religion is no way concern'd The business of Religion is now determin'd and setled by the King's Edict once for all and therefore you Sir are not to wonder if of Friends we are suddenly become your Enemies and resolved to destroy you if you do not deliver up the place to the King. When the Earl of Warwick heard this he sent presently into England for Supplies There was then a Plague in the Town which discouraged the English more than all their Enemies without There came some Ships with Relief from Eugland but the Plague continuing the Queen to preserve so many brave men gave order to the Earl of Warwick to surrender the place upon as Honourable Terms as he could get The 28th of July the Articles were Signed the next day there came sixty Ships and 1800 men to the Relief of the place but it was too late so the English that remain'd Havre de Grate surrendred to the French. were sent on Board the Fleet who had the misfortune to carry this Plague with them into England and within one year there died in London only A Plague in London 21530 persons of this Disease There was so much joy in France for the recovery of this small place that the Chancellor of France said openly That now the most malicious must needs confess That the granting Liberty of Conscience had at once delivered France from a most destructive Civil War united the Princes of the Blood Royal and enabled them to recover too what had been seized by their Enemies during the War and that chiefly by the help of the Protestants who before were so dreadful to them whilest they fought for their Religion The Queen to cut off all pretences to the Guardianship of the King by the advice of the Chancellor Charles the Ninth declared out of His Minority by the Parliament of Roan resolved to have him declared out of his Minority by the Parliament of Roan pursuant to a Constitution of Charles the Fifth King of France made in the year 1373 tho' he had then entered only into the Fourteenth year of his age which was accordingly done the 19th of August when he declared again That he was resolved not to suffer his Edicts to be disputed by his Subjects as had been done during his Minority and especially the last for the peace of Religion which he was resolved to make all his Subjects obey till it was otherwise setled by a Council This Decree met with some opposition from the Parliament of Paris which pretends to be the Supreme Court of that Kingdom and said they ought to have had the honour of declaring the King of Age and no other which was soon over-rul'd The desire I had to prosecute the Affairs of France The Scotch Affairs in 1562. and the Story of the Council of Trent has kept me from mentioning Scotland and its Affairs so that I am behind hand with that Kingdom two years In the beginning of the year 1562 Mary Queen of the Scots took her Progress towards the North At Sterling she was Petition'd by certain Commissioners of the Church for the Abolishing of the Mass and other Superstitious Rites of the Roman Religion the punishing Blasphemy the contempt of the Word of God the Profanation
the English that had not been slain into the Town The Castle being thus gained the Duke of Guise put a strong Garrison into it The English so soon as the Tide returned again which filled the Dikes stormed the Castle in hopes to regain that important Post and being beaten off they planted four Cannon against the Bridge and forced open the Castle-gate and then stormed it the second time but having lost two hundred of their best Men to no good purpose they then began to treat of a Surrender which at last was agreed The Governour and fifty others being to become Prisoners of War The Soldiery and Townsmen to be at liberty to pass into England or Flanders without any Injury as to their Lives or Liberties And all the Ammunition Cannon Housholdstuff Gold Silver Merchandise and Horse was to be left to the disposal of the Duke of Guise On these Conditions was Calais delivered up to the French the fourteenth of January 1557 58 when it had been two hundred and ten Years in the hands of the English The Place was no sooner yielded up but great numbers of Ships came over who understanding what had passed returned back King Philip had smelt the Design of the French upon this Place and had wrote to Queen Mary that he would put Succours into the Town but this was suspected by the English as a Design to get Calais into his own Hands and so his Prediction came to pass After Calais was taken they fell to consider Guines taken Whether they should attack Guines which was in the Hands of the English and lay two French Leagues from Calais to the South or Graveling a Town of Flanders three Leagues to the N. E. But they resolved to attempt Guines which was nearer and more necessary for the securing the Possession of Calais the Lord Gray was Governour of it who had a good Garrison and had received some Succours from King Philip yet at the first Attack he left the Town and fled into the Castle but whilst the French were plundering the Town returned again and drove them out and firing the Town returned into the Castle again which in a short time after he surrendred when he had eight hundred English Spanish and Flemmings to have continued the Defence of it but the Hearts of the English were down for Gray was reputed a good Soldier There was now nothing left to the English but a small Place call'd the Comte de Oye which had a Castle not strong but almost unaccessible as being surrounded with unpassable Marshes and which had no Passage but over a Timber-Bridge This Place lies almost two Leagues from Calais towards Graveling the Garrison of which never staid for a Summons but hearing of the loss of Guines fled and left the Place open and unguarded and Sipetra took possession of it without any further trouble for the French. Burnet calls this Castle Hammes and Thuanus Oye but the Castles of Hammes lay directly between Guines and Calais One Sir Edward Grimstone was then Comptroler of Calais and a Privy Counsellor and he had often given Advertisement of the ill condition of the Garrison but the Treasury was low the People discontented and the Thoughts of the Queen and her Council more set upon extirpating Heresie as they called it than upon preserving this important Post so it was lost and the Grief and Dishonour of this Misfortune sat so heavy upon the Spirits of the Queen that she never joyed after The next thing the French undertook was the taking of the Castle of Herbemont in the Forest of Ardenne belonging to the Count of Beilisteine which was very troublesome to the Inhabitants of Ivoy this enterprize succeeded well too and they took the Castle the sixteenth of February and after it several other small Places on the Frontiers were deserted by their Garrisons This Year a Fleet of one hundred and twenty Turkish Galleys loosed from Prevesa a Port of Epirus and passing by Brindisi took and plundred Reggio A Turkish Fleet land in several Places of Italy and carry many into Slavery a City in the South of Italy after which landing in the Bay di Surrneto they carried four thousand persons into Slavery among which was a great many Monks and Nuns The Grief and Shame of this was the greater because it was done in sight of Naples From thence it sailed to the Coast of Provence and having refreshed the Sailors it returned to Minorca and took the Town of Citadella with great difficulty and the loss of four hundred Men after which it returned in August into Turkey The French Fleet in the Mediterranean was able to do nothing for want of Money so the Fear was much greater than the Hurt The twenty fifth of May the Dauphine was married to Mary Queen of the Scots The Dauphine married to Mary Queen of Scotland yet the Scotch Ambassadors refused to promise under their Hands and Seals to procure the Dauphine in the next Convention of their States to be received and owned as King of Scotland and thereupon four of them dying soon after it was suspected that they had been poisoned Yet in the next Convention the thing was granted and the Earl of Argile was appointed to bring the Marital Crown into France But in the mean time Mary Queen of England dyed which occasioned a great Change in England France and Scotland The greatest part of the Scots were not pleased with this Marriage and the French too underhand disliked it as tending to the exalting the House of Guise and the depressing that of Montmorency and Gasper de Coligny Admiral of France who were both at this time Prisoners to King Philip. A meeting in the mean time being appointed at Perone between Christierna the Mother of the Cardinal of Lorraine and Perrenot Bishop of Arras for King Philip The first Proposals of a Peace between France and King Philip. and the Duke and Cardinal of Loraine for the French Perrenot deploring the progress of the Turkish Arms during this unfortunate War and above all things the increase of Heresie in France and the Netherlands cunningly offered the House of Guise their Assistance for the ruining Montmorency Coligny and Andelot as favourors of the Reformation when a Peace were once setled between these two Crowns The House of Guise hereby only seeking to aggrandize it self upon the Ruine of these three great Men and the Spaniards to imbroil and weaken France The Cardinal at his return acquaints the King with what concerned Andelot intermixing a mention of a Peace with it Henry II was a mild and most merciful Prince but had an implacable aversion for the Reformation which had been instilled into him in his Infancy by those who had the Care of him and he had before this heard something of Andelot's Inclinations to favour that Party and thereupon sent for him who waited upon the King at Monceaux a Castle near Meaux Andelot Marshal of France ruined by
to be done they would give but three The French Provocations against the English The English Merchants were ill used in France A Servant of Throcmorton's the Embassadour was sent by Francis Grand Prior of France the Brother of Guise publickly to the Gallies A Pistol was discharged against the Embassadour in his own Lodgings And he had no Plate allowed him for his Table but what had the Arms of England engraven on it in contempt Du Brossay was also sent with Supplies of French into Scotland And the Gallies of France were brought from Marseille in the Mediterrancan into the British Seas This was the State of Affairs between France and England The Scotch Complaints against the French. when the Troubles of Scotland broke out and the Lords of the Articles sent William Maitland their Secretary who made a deplorable Representation of the State of that Kingdom to Queen Elizabeth setting forth That since the Marriage of their Queen to the Dauphine of France the Government of Scotland had been charged the French Soldiers laid all waste The principal Employments were given to Frenchmen their Forts and Castles put into their Hands and their Money adulterated to their Advantage That the Design was apparently to possess themselves of Scotland if the Queen should happen to die without Issue Cecil who was the Queens Prime Minister imployed Henry Percy Earl of Northumberland to find out what the Lords of the Articles designed and what Means they had to attain their Ends and upon what Terms they expected Succours from England They said They desired nothing but the Glory of Jesus Christ the sincere Preaching of the Word of God the extirpation of Superstition and Idolatry the Restraint of the Fury of Persecution and the Preservation of their ancient Liberties That they knew not for the present how to effect this but they hoped the Divine Goodness which had begun the Work would bring it to its desired End with the Confusion of their Enemies That they earnestly desired to enter into a Friendship with the Queen of England to the Preservation of which they would Sacrifice their Lives and Fortunes The Consideration of these things was not warmly entertained in England Queen Elizabeth holds off at first but be cause the Scots had little Money and were not over-well cemented among themselves so they were only advised Not to enter rashly into a War. But as soon as the English knew that the Marquess of Elboeuf the Queen of Scots Unkle was listing Men in Germany by the Rhinegrave for a War in Scotland That Cannons were sent to the Ports and Preparations made to conquer that Kingdom and that in greater Quantities than seemed necessary to reduce a few unarmed Scots That the French to draw the Danes into this War had proffered That the Duke of Lorrain should renounce his Right to Denmark And that they were renewing their Solicitations with the Pope To give a declaratory Sentence for the Queen of Scot against the Queen of England Thereupon Sir Ralph Sadler a wise Man was sent to the Earl of Northumberland and Governour of the middle Marches on the Borders of Scotland at last is forced to unite with the Protestants of Scotland Reasons assigned for the driving the French out of Scotland to assist him and Sir James Croft Governour of Berwick The English Council could not see whither all this tended unless the French designed to invade the Kingdom of England as well as assume the Title and Arms of it Upon this the Council of England began to consider in good earnest and with great Application of the Scotch Affairs it was thought a thing of very ill and dangerous Example that one Prince should undertake the Protection of the Subjects of another Prince who were in Rebellion But then it was thought impious not to assist those of the same Religion when persecuted for it And it was certainly a great Folly to suffer the French the sworn Enemies of England when they challenged the Kingdom of England too and were at Peace with all the rest of the World to continue armed in Scotland which lay so near and convenient for the Invasion of England on that side which had the greatest number of Roman Catholicks both of the Nobility and Commons This was thought a betraying the Safety and Quiet of the whole Nation in a very cowardly manner And therefore it was concluded It was no Time now for lazy Counsels but that it was best to take up their Arms and as the English Custom was To prevent their Enemies and not stay till they should begin with us It was always as lawful to Prevent an Enemy as to repel him and to defend our selves the same way that others Attack us That England could never be Safe but when it was Armed and Potent and that nothing could contribute more to this End than the securing it against Scotland That in order to this the Protestants of Scotland were to be protected and the French Forces driven out of it and this was not to be done by Consultations but by Arms. That the neglect of these Methods had not long since lost Calais to our great Hindrance and Shame That a little before whilst the French pretended to preserve the Peace with great Fidelity they had surprized the Fort of Ambleteul and some other Places near Bologne and by that means forced the English to surrender that important Place That we must expect the same Fate would attend Berwick and the other Fronteer Garrisons if they did not forthwith take Arms and not rely any longer on the French Pretences of maintaining the Peace which were never to be believed their Counsels being secret their Ambition boundless and their Revenues immense so that it was then a Proverb in England France can neither be Poor nor Quiet three Years together And Queen Elizabeth was used to say that Expression of Valentinean the Emperour was good The War resolved Francum amicum habe at non vicinum Let a Frank be thy Friend but not thy Neighbour So that upon the whole it was concluâ—â—d That it was Just Honest Necessary and our Interest to drive the French as soon as was possible out of Scotland Hereupon William Winter Master-Gunner in the Fleet The War begun was sent with a Fleet to Edinburgh Frith who to the great terror of the French fell upon their Ships of War on that Coast and their Garrison in the Isle of Inchkeith The Duke of Norfolk then Lieutenant of the North was also sent towards Scotland William Lord Grey who had well defended Guines against the French tho unsuccessfully was made Governour of the Eastern and Middle Marches and Thomas Earl of Sussex who had been Lieutenant of Ireland in the Reign of Queen Mary was sent thither again with the same Character and commanded to have a particular care the French did not excite the barbarous and superstitious Irish to a Rebellion under the Pretence of Religion The French in
well as I can I return now to Scotland The Messengers they had sent into France to procure the Royal Consent to the Acts they had made in their last Parliament were no sooner return'd with a positive denial and a dreadful Reprimand which frighted and exasperated the Nation both at once but they had the Joyful News of the Death of King Francis II. to their great satisfaction and the no less affliction of the French Faction in that Kingdom On the other side the Nobility who had lent their Assistance to the Expulsion of the French immediately met at Edinburg and after a Consultation sent the Lord James to their Queen to perswade her to return into Scotland Lesley however prevented them and got to her some days before the Lord James She was then at Vitrie in Campaigne whither she was retired to lament her Loss His business was Queen Maryâ— resolves to return into Scotland to bespeak her favour to the Catholick Party and return into Scotland The first she readily promised and as for the other she ordered him to Attend till she had resolved what to do It was soon after resolved that she should leave France so that the Lord James found her fixed to return when he came into France yet his Assuring her of the great desires the Nobility of Scotland had to see her there again much confirm'd her So she sent him back with Orders to see that nothing should be attempted contrary to the Treaty of Leith in her absence In March following M. Giles Noailles a Senator of Bourdeaux arrived at Leith with three Demands from the new King of France 1. That the old League between France and Scotland should be renewed 2. That the late Confederacy with England should be dissâ—lved 3. That the Church-men should be restored to all they had been deprived of But the Council replied That it did not befit them to treat of things of that Consequence before the Assembly of the States which was to be held the 21st of May when the Lord James made answer That the French and not the Scots had broke the old League by endeavouring to enslave them 2. That they could not violate the Treaty made with England and as to the third That they did not acknowledge those he interceded for to be Church men and that Scotland having renounced the Pope would no longer maintain his Priests and Vassals About the same time the Earls of Morton and Glencarn returned from England whither they had been sent with Assurances That the Queen would assist them in the Defence of the Liberties of the Kingdom if at any time they stood in need of her Help which was heard with much Joy. As the Lord James returned into Scotland he waited upon Queen Elizabeth and advised her to stop Queen Mary if she came by England as he expected she would 'till he had secured the State of Religion in Scotland The Pretestant Religion setled in Scotland for tho' she had promised She would continue all things in the State she found them yet he would not intirely rely upon her Promise having so often heard the old Maxim from the late Regent To make sure work therefore he procured an Act to be passed in this Convention for the Demolishing all the Cloysters and Abby Churches which were yet left standing in that Kingdom the Execution whereof as to the Western Parts was committed to the Earls of Arran Argile and Glencarn as to the North to the Lord James and as to the Inland Counties to some Barons that were thought the most Zealous Whereupon ensued a most deplorable Devastation of Churches and Church-buildings saith Spotiswood throughout all the Kingdom for every one made bold to put to their Hands the meaner sort imitating the Example of the greater and those who were in Authority No difference was made but all the Churches were either defaced or pulled down to the ground The Church Plate and what ever Men could make Money of as Timber Lead and Bells were put to sale and the Monuments of the Dead the Registers of the Churches and Libraries were burn'd or destroyed and what escaped the Fury of the first Tumults now perisned in a common Shipwrack and that under the colour of publick Authority John Knox is said to have very much promoted this Calamity by a Maxim he published That the sure way to drive away the Rooks was to pull down their Nests which in probability he meant only of the Monks but now their Hands were in was extended to all the Church Buildings Noailles was then in Scotland and carried the News of this dreadful Reformation to the Queen into France She was much enraged at it The Queen angry with the Proceedings and said to some of her Confidents that she would imitate Mary Queen of England but however she had wit enough to dissemble her Resentment for the present In order to her return Queen Mary goes into Scotland she left Vitri and went to Paris and having waited upon the King and Queen-Regent to take her leave of them she took her Journy towards Calais Queen Elizabeth had sent the Earl of Bedford to condole the Death of Francis her late Husband and to desire her Ratification of the Treaty of Leith but this she said she could not do 'till she had consulted with the Nobility of Scotland and when the Ambassador replied They could not but approve of what they had made she replied They did but not all and when I come amongst them it will appear what mind they are of The Duke of Guise and the rest of the great Men of that Family attended her to Calais and the Marquess of Elboeuf and Francis Grand Prior of France went with her She took Ship the 14th of August and arrived at Leith in Scotland the 20th She was much concerned for fear Queen Elizabeth might intercept her in her way home and therefore sent again for the English Ambassador but when he still insisted to have the Treaty of Leith ratified she delayed it Her Uncle the Cardinal of Lorrain advised her to leave her Jewels and Treasures in France 'till she were safe in Scotland but she said It was folly to be more concerned for her Jewels than for her Person which she must hazard The truth is her Fear was well grounded for Queen Elizabeth sent a Fleet to way-lay her but the two Navies passed by one another in a dark foggy day unperceived and she safely arrived at Leith the 21th of August The beginning of her Government was very gracious and she condescended to grant That no Change or Alteration should be made in the present State of Religion Her beginning very gracious to the Protestants only she said she would use her own Religion apart and have a Mass in private which was and by many was thought very reasonable she having been Educated in the Roman Church and being a Sovereign Princess Yet the Preachers in their Sermons publickly