was included in the peace made between
England and France in 1550.

All the time, the Reformed faith was rapidly gaining adherents, and
when, in April, 1554, the queen-dowager succeeded Arran (now Duke of
Chatelherault) as regent, she found the problem of governing Scotland
still more difficult. The relations with England had, indeed, been
simplified by the accession of a Roman Catholic queen in England, but
the Spanish marriage of Mary Tudor made it difficult for a Guise to
obtain any help from her. She continued the policy of obtaining French
levies, and the irritation they caused was a considerable help to her
opponents. Knox had returned to Scotland in 1555, and, except for a
visit to Geneva in 1556-57, spent the rest of his life in his native
country. In 1557 was formed the powerful assembly of Protestant clergy
and laymen who took the title of "the Congregation of the Lord", and
signed the National Covenant which aimed at the abolition of Roman
Catholicism. Their hostility to the queen-regent was intensified by the
events of the year 1558-59. In April, 1558, Queen Mary was married to
the dauphin, and her husband received the crown-matrimonial and became
known as King of Scots. Scotland seemed to have passed entirely under
France. We know that there was some ground for the Protestant alarm,
because the girl queen had been induced to sign documents which
transferred her rights, in case of her decease without issue, to the
King of France and his heirs. These documents were in direct antagonism
to the assurance given to the Scottish Parliament of the maintenance of
national independence. The French alliance seemed to have gained a
complete triumph, while the shout of joy raised by its supporters was
really the swan-song of the cause. Knox and the Congregation had
rendered it for ever impossible.

Nor was it long before this became apparent. In November, 1558, Mary
Tudor died, and England was again Protestant. Henry II ordered Francis
and Mary to assume the arms of England, in virtue of Mary's descent from
Margaret Tudor, which made her in Roman Catholic eyes the rightful Queen
of England, Elizabeth being born out of wedlock. The Protestant Queen of
England had thus an additional motive for opposition to the government
of Mary of Guise and her daughter. It was unfortunate for the
queen-regent that, at this particular juncture, she was entering into
strained relations with the Reformers. Hitherto she had succeeded in