rown matrimonial for her husband roused
suspicions. It was known that the government of Scotland was discussed
at the French council-board, and whispers came of a suggestion that the
kingdom should be turned into an appanage for a younger son of the
French king. Meanwhile French money was sent to the Regent, a body of
French troops served as her bodyguard, and on the advance of the Lords
in arms the French Court promised her the support of a larger army.

[Sidenote: Scotland and Elizabeth.]

Against these schemes of the French Court the Scotch Lords saw no aid
save in Elizabeth. Their aim was to drive the Frenchmen out of Scotland;
and this could only be done by help both in money and men from England.
Nor was the English Council slow to promise help. To Elizabeth indeed
the need of supporting rebels against their sovereign was a bitter one.
The need of establishing a Calvinistic Church on her frontier was yet
bitterer. It was not a material force which upheld the fabric of the
monarchy, as it had been built up by the Houses of York and of Tudor,
but a moral force. England held that safety against anarchy within and
against attacks on the national independence from without was to be
found in the Crown alone, and that obedience to the Crown was the first
element of national order and national greatness. In their religious
reforms the Tudor sovereigns had aimed at giving a religious sanction
to the power which sprang from this general conviction, and at hallowing
their secular supremacy by blending with it their supremacy over the
Church. Against such a theory, either of Church or State, Calvinism was
an emphatic protest, and in aiding Calvinism to establish itself in
Scotland the Queen felt that she was dealing a heavy blow to her
political and religious system at home. But, struggle as she might
against the necessity, she had no choice but to submit. The assumption
by Francis and Mary of the style of king and queen of England, the
express reservation of this claim, even in the treaty of
Cateau-Cambresis, made a French occupation of Scotland a matter of life
and death to the kingdom over the border. The English Council believed
"that the French mean, after their forces are brought into Scotland,
first to conquer it,--which will be neither hard nor long--and next that
they and the Scots will invade this realm." They were soon pressed to
decide on their course. The Regent used her money to good purpose, and
at the approac