YAMES V. TO ABDICA TION OF QUEEN MAR Y. 49
he had great store of all kind of silver wark, yet nottheless, for the greater maa,,anificence,
he set forth ane cupboard furnished with all sorts of glasses of the finest chrystal that
could be made ; and to make the said patriarch understand that there was great abundance
thereof in Scotland, he caused one of his servants, as it had been by aloth and
negligence, pull down the cupboard cloth, so that all the whole christellings suddenly
were cast down to the earth and broken ; wherewith the patriarch was very sorry, but the
Earl suddeuly caused bring another cupboard, better furnished with fine chrystal nor that
was; which the patriarch praised, as well for the magnscence of the Earl, as for the
fineness of the clirystal, affirming that he never did see better in Venice, where he himself
was born.”
The legate exercised considerable influence over the Queen Dowager, and on his departure,
transferred his legatine power to Cardinal Beaton.
Meanwhile, the people were filled with the utmost joy at the prospect of a peace, the
uncertainty which had prevailed for SO many years having nearly destroyed trade. The
merchants bestirred themselves immediately with the liveliest zeal, every seaport of the
kingdom exhibited the most active symptoms of preparation for renewing the commercial
intercourse, so long interrupted with England, and Edinburgh alone fitted out twelve
large vessels, and despatched them laden with the moat valuable merchandise. But the
Cardinal soon regained his liberty; and, aided by the co-operation of the Queen Dowager
and the contributions of the clergy, who at a convocation‘ held at St Andrews, in May
of the Eame year, not only voted him money, but even the silver vessels of their churches,
he speedily overturned all the amichle arrangements with the English Monarch, and the
numerous fleets of merchantmen, that had so recently sailed for the English seaports,
were there seized, their merchandise confiscated, and the crews declared prisoners of war.
The fist use the Cardinal made of this fund, was to turn his arms against his rivals at
home. The Earl of Lennox having appropriated the larger portion of thirty thousand
crowns sent by the King of France to aid the efforts of the Catholic party, the Cardinal
persuaded the facile Regent to raise an army to proceed against him to Glasgow, where
he then lay in the Bishop’s Castle there; but Lennox immediately summoning his own
friends and vassals *to his otandard, marched to Leith at the head of an army of ten
thousand men, from whence he sent a message to the Cardinal at Edinburgh, intimating
that he desired to save him such a journey, and would be ready to meet him any day he
chose, in the fields between Edinburgh and Leith.
Thus were the nobles of Scotland divided into rival factions, and bent only on each
others, overthrow, when, on the 1st of May 1544, an armament, consisting of two hundred
sail, commanded by Dudley Lord l’Isle, then High Admiral of England, which had
been prepared by Henry to send against the French coast, made its appearance in the
Firth of Forth j and so negligent had the Cardinal proved in providing against the enemy,
whom he excited to this attack, that the first notice he had of their intentions, was the
disembarkation of the English forces, under the command of the Earl of Hertford, at
Newhaven, and the seizure of the town of Leith.’ The Cardinal immediately deserted the
capital and fled in the greatest dismay to Stirling. The Earl of Hertford demanded the
unconditional surrender of the infant Queen, and being informed that the Scottish capital
Bishop Lealie’a History of Scotland, Ban. Club, p. 179. ’ Ibid, p. 180.
Q
