YAMES l? TO ABDICATION OF QUEEN MAR Y. 63
The reforming party now proceeded to those acts of violence, which led to the destmction
of nearly all the finest ecclesiastical buildings throughout Scotland. The Queen
Regent, on learning of their proceedings at Perth and elsewhere, wrote to the Provost and
Magistrates of Edinburgh, requiring them to defend the town, and not suffer the Earl of
Argyle and the Congregation to enter-offering the aid of her French troops for their
defence. But this the Magistrates declined, declaring that the entire populace were
prepared to favour that party, and could not be restrained by them. Upon receiving this
reply, the Regent thereupon withdrew with her French guard from Holyrood Abbey, and
retreated towards Dunbar.
The Magistrates, though unable to resist this popular movement, exerted themselves to
the utmost to restrain its violence. They sent a deputation to the leaders of the reforming
party, entreating them to spare both their churches and religious houses,-the former to be
continued in use as places of Protestant worship, and the latter as seminaries of learning.
They also placed a guard of sixty men for the protection of St Giles’s Church, and, as a
further security, removed the carved stalls of the choir-within the safer shelter of the
Tolbooth j’ and such was the zeal they displayed, that the Regent afterwards wrote them
a letter of thanks for their services. Yet their efforts were only attended with very partial
mccess. Upon the first rumour of the approach of the Earl of Argyle, the populace
attacked both the monasteries of the Black and Grey Friars, destroying everything they
contained, and leaving nothing but the bare walls standing2
When the Earl of Argyle entered the town with his followers, they immediately proceeded
to the work of purification, as it was styled. Trinity College Church, and the
prebendal buildings attached to it, were assailed, and some parts of them utterly destroyed ;
and both St Giles’s Church, and St Mary’s, or the Kirk of Field, were visited, their altars
thrown down, and the images destroyed and burnt. They visited Holyrood Abbey, overthrowing
the altars, and otherwise defacing the church, and removed also from thence
the coining irons of the Nint, compelling the treasurer to deliver up to them a considerable
sum of money in his hands.’
The Regent finding herself unable to resist this formidable party by force, entered into
negotiations with them, for the purpose of gaining time, while they, on the other hand,
corresponded with Queen Elizabeth and besought lier aid ; but the Engll’sh Queen was too
politic to commit herself by openly countenancing a fraction so recently sprung up, and
contented herself with evasive answers to their request, a d many of their adherents
meanwhile falling away, they were compelled to retreat as hastily from the town as they
had entered, on the sudden return of the Regent from Dunbar.
Commissioners from both parties met, and a mutual accommodation was agreed on
between them, and signed by the Earl of Arran and Monsieur d’oysel, on the 25th of
July, at Leith Links, and immediately thereafter the Queen Regent returned and took up
her residence in Holyrood Palace.
One of the chief clauses in this agreement required the dismissal of the French troops j
and with a special view to the enforcement of this, an interview took place on the following
day between the Earls of Arran and Hantly, and some of the leaders of the Congregation,
.
Maitland, p. 16. ’ Calderwood, vol. i. p. 475, ’ Bishop Lealie, p. 275.
64 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
including the Earls of Argyle and Glencairn, and the Lord James Stewart. The place of
meeting was the Quarry Holes, or as it is not inappropriately styled by the writers of the
time, the Quarrel Holes ; a famous place of meeting for duels and private rencontres, at
the east end of the Calton Hill, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Palace of Holyrood-
and there the two first-named Earls engaged, that should the Regent fail to fulfil
the conditions of agreement, and especially that of the dismissal of the French troops, they
would willingly join forces with them to enforce their fulfilment.‘
Although the main body of the reformers had withdrawn from
Edinburgh, Nome of the leaders continued to reside there, and the
people refused to yield up St Giles’s Church to be again used for
means, to recover it. She had already received notice of further
assistance coming from France, and did not choose to provoke a
quarrel till thus reinforced. As one means of driving them from
the church, the French soldiers made it a place of promenade during
the time of service, to the great disturbance of the Congregation. But though the preacher,
Mr Willocks, denounced them in no measured terms from the pulpit, and publicly prayed
God to rid them of guch locusts, the people prudently avoided an open rupture, (‘ except
that a horned cap was taken off a proud priest’s head, and cut in four quarters, because
he said he would wear it in spite of the Congregation.”
In the month of September 1559, Sir Ralph Sadler arrived at Berwick from Queen
Elizabeth, and entered into secret negotiations with the reformers, paying over to them,
for their immediate use, the sum of two thousand pounds, with the promise of further
pecuniary assistance, for the purpose of expelling the French from Scotland, so that it
could be managed with such secrecy as not to interfere with the public treaties between
the two nations.
The Queen had
already received a reinforcement of a thousand French troops, who disembarked at Leith
in the end of August, and with their aid she immediately proceeded to enlarge and complete
the fortifications of that port, while she renewed her entreaties to the French Court
for further aid.
Shortly after, the Bishop of Amiens arrived at Edinburgh, aN legate from the Pope, and
earnestly laboured to reconcile the reformers to the Church ; but any little influence he
might possibly have had, was destroyed in their eyes by the discovery that he had arrived
in company with a second body of French auxiliaries.
The Congregation at length marched to Edinburgh, towards the end of October, with
a force amounting to twelve thousand men, resolved to dislodge the French garrison from
Leith ; and the same day the Regent hastily retreated from Holyrood Palace, and took up
her residence within the protection of the fortifications at Leith.
The Congregation proceeded in the most systematic manner,-conmittees were chosen
for the direction of civil and religious affairs, and a letter was immediately addressed to the
,
I the service of the mass, although the Regent sought, by various
The preparations for war were now diligently pursued by both parties.
* Bishop Keith, vol. i. p. 224. * Calderwood, vol. i. p. 502.
VIQNETTE--COFbel from the old south door of St ailea’a Church.
