CHAPTER XVI.  THE MINORITY OF MARY STUART.

When James died, Henry VIII. seemed to hold in his hand all the winning cards in the game of which Scotland was the stake.  He held Angus and his brother George Douglas; when he slipped them they would again wield the whole force of their House in the interests of England and of Henry’s religion.  Moreover, he held many noble prisoners taken at Solway—­Glencairn, Maxwell, Cassilis, Fleming, Grey, and others,—­and all of these, save Sir George Douglas, “have not sticked,” says Henry himself, “to take upon them to set the crown of Scotland on our head.”  Henry’s object was to get “the child, the person of the Cardinal, and of such as be chief hindrances to our purpose, and also the chief holds and fortresses into our hands.”  By sheer brigandage the Reformer king hoped to succeed where the Edwards had failed.  He took the oaths of his prisoners, making them swear to secure for him the child, Beaton, and the castles, and later released them to do his bidding.

Henry’s failure was due to the genius and resolution of Cardinal Beaton, heading the Catholic party.

What occurred in Scotland on James’s death is obscure.  Later, Beaton was said to have made the dying king’s hand subscribe a blank paper filled up by appointment of Beaton himself as one of a Regency Council of four or five.  There is no evidence for the tale.  What actually occurred was the proclamation of the Earls of Arran, Argyll, Huntly, Moray, and of Beaton as Regents (December 19, 1542).  Arran, the chief of the Hamiltons, was, we know, unless ousted by Henry VIII., the next heir to the throne after the new-born Mary.  He was a good-hearted man, but the weakest of mortals, and his constant veerings from the Catholic and national to the English and reforming side were probably caused by his knowledge of his very doubtful legitimacy.  Either party could bring up the doubt; Beaton, having the ear of the Pope, could be specially dangerous, but so could the opposite party if once firmly seated in office.  Arran, in any case, presently ousted the Archbishop of Glasgow from the Chancellorship and gave the seals to Beaton—­the man whom he presently accused of a shameless forgery of James’s will. {91}

The Regency soon came into Arran’s own hands:  the Solway Moss prisoners, learning this as they journeyed north, began to repent of their oaths of treachery, especially as their oaths were known or suspected in Scotland.  George Douglas prevailed on Arran to seize and imprison Beaton till he answered certain charges; but no charges were ever made public, none were produced.  The clergy refused to christen or bury during his captivity.  Parliament met (March 12, 1543), and still there was silence as to the nature of the accusations against Beaton; and by March 22 George Douglas himself released the Cardinal (of course for a consideration) and carried him to his own strong castle of St Andrews.