This petition discovers great moderation on the part of the protestants. Historians differ as to the precise time at which it was presented. Spotswood (p. 108) places his account of it after the martyrdom of Mill. And the writer of the Historie of the Estate of Scotland from 1559 to 1566 (p. 1) says that it was presented in July 1558. On the contrary, Knox (p. 120, 122) places it before the death of Mill. It is highly probable that the protestants petitioned the queen regent both before and after that event, and that on both occasions they employed Sir James Sandilands as their representative. In this light I have represented the matter in the text. But I am inclined, upon the whole, to consider Knox’s statement as the most correct. He had the best opportunity of ascertaining the fact. This was the part of his history which was first written by him, soon after his arrival in Scotland, when the transactionmust have been fresh in the recollection of all his associates. There is no reference in the petition to the illegal execution of Mill, which would scarcely have been omitted, if it had previously taken place. The objection urged by Keith, from the clause in the petition which supposes that the queen was married, does not appear to have great weight. The parliament, in December 1557, had agreed to the solemnization of the marriage; their commissioners had sailed for France, in February, to be present at the ceremony, which was appointed to take place on the 24th of April. In these circumstances the protestants might, without any impropriety, request that they should be allowed liberty to use the common prayers in the vulgar tongue, to the end that they might “be induced, in fervent and oft prayers, to commend unto God—the queen our soverane, hir honorabill and gracious husband,” &c. Keith is wrong when he says that Knox has fixed the execution of Mill “to the 8th of April, which was above two weeks before the queen’s marriage.” History, p. 80, note. Knox says he was put to death “the twentie aucht day of Aprylle,” which was four days after the marriage. Historie, p. 122.
After the martyrdom of Mill, the protestants renewed their application to the regent, with a warm remonstrance against the cruelty of the clergy. Knox, Historie, p. 122. As the parliament held in November 1558 was approaching, they delivered another petition to her, desiring that it should be laid before the meeting of the estates. In this they requested, that the laws, by which the clergy justified their severe and cruel proceedings against them, should be abrogated, or suspended until the present controversies in religion were regularly determined; or, if this could not be granted, that the clergy should not act as judges, but be obliged to sustain the character of accusers before a temporal judge, and that the same mode of defence should be granted to persons accused of heresy as in other criminal processes. Being persuaded by the promises of the regent to desist from laying this petition before that meeting of parliament, they substituted a protestation; in which they declared that, having waived urging their petitions from regard to the state of public affairs, they should not be liable to any penalties for using that liberty to which they had a just title, and for which they hadfrequently petitioned, and that, if any tumult was excited by religious differences, or by violent attempts to reform those abuses in religion which were become intolerable, this should not be imputed to them, who had always requested an orderly reformation of these abuses, but to the persons who had resisted every attempt of this kind. Ibid. p. 122–125. Spotswood, 119, 120.
Dissimulation of the Queen Regent.—I am sensible that my account of the conduct of the queen regent to the protestants differs from that which has been given by Dr Robertson. He imputes her change of measures entirely to the overruling influence of her brothers, and seems to acquit her of insincerity in the countenance which she had shown, and the promises which she had repeatedly made, to the protestant leaders. In any remarks which I shall make upon this account, I wish to be understood as not detracting in the slightest degree from the merit of his able, accurate, and luminous statement of the plans conceived by the princes of Lorrain. Having mentioned the first symptoms of the regent’s alienation from the reformers, Dr Robertson says: “In order to account for this, our historians do little more than produce the trite observation concerning the influence of prosperity to alter the character and corrupt the heart,” I do not know the particular historians to whom he may refer, but those of the protestant persuasion whom I have consulted, impute her change of conduct, not to the above cause, but to the circumstance of her having accomplished the great objects which she had in view, upon which she no longer stood in need of the assistance of the reformers. Accordingly, they charge her with duplicity in her former proceedings with them. Knox, 96, 110, 122, 125. Buchanan, i. 312. Spotswood, 117, 119, 120. I think they had good reasons for this charge. At a very early period, she gave a striking proof of her disposition and talent for the deepest dissimulation. I refer to her behaviour in the intercourse which she had with Sir Ralph Sadler, in 1543, on which occasion she acted a part not less important than cardinal Beatoun himself, threw the ambassador into the greatest perplexity, andcompletely duped the English monarch. Sadler, i. 84–88, 100, 111–113, 249–253. The governor wanted not reason to say, “as she is both subtle and wily, so she hath a vengeable engine and wit to work her purpose.” It is impossible to read the account of her smooth conduct to the reformers, without perceiving the art with which she acted. There is also reason for thinking that she was privy to the execution of Walter Mill, and had encouraged the archbishop of St Andrews to take that step. Indeed, in his letter to the Earl of Argyle, written a few weeks before that event, the archbishop expressly says, that she murmured heavily against him because he did not use severe measures to check the progress of heresy; and Argyle, in his answer, does not call this in question. Knox, 103, 108.
I do not doubt that the regent was precipitated into the most violent measures which she adopted by the counsels of her brothers; and that she remonstrated against the impolicy of these, is attested by Castelnau, to whom Dr Robertson refers as one of his authorities. But I think that she had altered her conduct to the protestants, and declared her resolution to abet the measures of the clergy against them, previous to the time that she is said to have received these strong representations from France. This appears even from the narrative of Castelnau, who has connected the advice given by the princes of Lorrain with the mission of La Brosse and the bishop of Amiens, who did not arrive in Scotland until September 1559, after the civil war was kindled. Jebb, ii. 246. Keith, 102. Sadler, i. 470. But it will be still more apparent from an examination of the testimony of Sir James Melvil, the other authority to whom Dr Robertson appeals. Melvil says that, after the treaty of Chateau‑Cambresis was concluded, Bettancourt was sent into Scotland to procure the ratification of it by the queen regent; and that he was charged by the cardinal of Lorrain to inform her, that the popish princes had agreed to join in extirpating heresy, and to require that she should immediately take steps for suppressing the Scottish protestants. Melvil adds, that these instructions, mixed with some threatenings, having been received, the regent “determined to follow them. She therefore issued out a proclamation, a little before Easter, commanding every man, great and small, to observe the Romancatholic religion.” Melvil’s Memoirs, p. 23, 24. Lond. 1683. The proclamation to observe Easter in the catholic manner is mentioned by all our historians as the decisive declaration of the queen’s change of measures. Now the treaty of Chateau‑Cambresis was not concluded until the 2d of April, 1559. Forbes, i. 68, 81. But Easter fell that year on the 29th of March, six days before Bettancourt could undertake his journey to Scotland. The proclamation respecting the observance of that festival must therefore have been issued some weeks before Bettancourt’s arrival. Nay, we know from other evidence, that the breach between the queen regent and the protestants had taken place on the 6th of March; for this is the date from which the act of oblivion afterwards granted is reckoned. Keith, 141, 151. There is, therefore, a glaring anachronism in Melvil’s narrative; and whatever influence Bettancourt’s embassy had in instigating the regent to more violent measures, she had previously taken her side, and declared her determination to oppose the progress of the Reformation.
There are several other mistakes which Sir James Melvil has committed in his narrative of the transactions of this period. Even in the account of his own embassy into Scotland, in the reign of Henry II., and of the speech which the constable Montmorency made to him on that occasion, he has introduced the constable as mentioning, among his reasons, the shipwreck of the marquis D’Elbeuf, which did not happen till some months after, when the French king was dead. Memoirs, p. 31. Sadler, i. 417. In my humble opinion, all our historians have given too easy credit to Melvil, both in his statements of fact, and in his representations of character.
Trial of the Reformed Preachers.—July 7, 1558. Item, the said day, to David Lindsay, Rothesay herauld, passand of Edinburgh, with letteris, to summond George Luvell, David Fergusone, and certain utheris personis within the burt of Dunde, to tak sourte of thame that thai sall compeir befoir the justice and his deputies in the tolbuith of Edinburgh, the xxviii day of Julii instant,for thair wrongus using and wresting of the scripture, and disputting upoun erroneus opinions, and eiting of flesche in Lenterone and utheris forbidding tymes, contrair the actis of parliament, iijli vs. (Compot. Thesaur.)