ing one, and
afforded a {90} rallying point for malcontents, who asserted that her
mother's marriage with Henry VIII. was invalidated by the refusal of
the Pope to sanction the divorce. Mary Stuart, who stood next to
Elizabeth in the succession, formed a centre from which a network of
intrigue and conspiracy was always menacing the Queen's peace, if not
her life, and her crown.

Scotland, since the extinction of the line of Bruce, had been ruled by
the Stuart Kings. Torn by internal feuds between her clans, and by the
incessant struggle against English encroachments, she had drawn into
close friendship with France, which country used her for its own ends,
in harassing England, so that the Scottish border was always a point of
danger in every quarrel between French and English Kings.

In 1502 Henry VIII. had bestowed the hand of his sister Margaret upon
James IV. of Scotland, and it seemed as if a peaceful union was at last
secured with his Northern neighbor. But in the war with France which
soon followed, James, the Scottish King, turned to his old ally. He
was killed at {91} "Flodden Field," after suffering a crushing defeat.
His successor, James V., had married Mary Guise. Her family was the
head and front of the ultra Catholic party in France, and her counsels
probably influenced James to a continual hostility to the Protestant
Henry, even though he was his uncle. The death of James in consequence
of his defeat at "Solway Moss" occurred immediately after the birth of
his daughter, Mary Stuart (1542).

This unhappy child at once became the centre of intriguing designs;
Henry VIII. wishing to betroth the little Queen to his son, afterwards
Edward VI., and thus forever unite the rival kingdoms. But the Guises
made no compromises with Protestants! Mary Guise, who was now Regent
of the realm, had no desire for a closer union with Protestant England,
and very much desired a nearer alliance with her own France. Mary
Stuart was betrothed to the Dauphin, grandson of Francis I., and was
sent to the French Court to be prepared by Catharine de Medici (the
Italian daughter-in-law of Francis I.) for her future exalted position.

{92}

In 1561, Mary returned to England. Her boy-husband had died after a
reign of two years. She was nineteen years old, had wonderful beauty,
rare intelligence, and power to charm like a siren. Her short life had
been spent in the most corrupt and profligate of Courts, under the
combine