unate cause of the
greater part of such turmoil and bloodshed as occurred in it, was MARY
STUART, QUEEN OF SCOTS. We will try to understand, in as few words as
possible, who Mary was, what she was, and how she came to be a thorn in
the royal pillow of Elizabeth.

She was the daughter of the Queen Regent of Scotland, MARY OF GUISE. She
had been married, when a mere child, to the Dauphin, the son and heir of
the King of France. The Pope, who pretended that no one could rightfully
wear the crown of England without his gracious permission, was strongly
opposed to Elizabeth, who had not asked for the said gracious permission.
And as Mary Queen of Scots would have inherited the English crown in
right of her birth, supposing the English Parliament not to have altered
the succession, the Pope himself, and most of the discontented who were
followers of his, maintained that Mary was the rightful Queen of England,
and Elizabeth the wrongful Queen. Mary being so closely connected with
France, and France being jealous of England, there was far greater danger
in this than there would have been if she had had no alliance with that
great power. And when her young husband, on the death of his father,
became FRANCIS THE SECOND, King of France, the matter grew very serious.
For, the young couple styled themselves King and Queen of England, and
the Pope was disposed to help them by doing all the mischief he could.

Now, the reformed religion, under the guidance of a stern and powerful
preacher, named JOHN KNOX, and other such men, had been making fierce
progress in Scotland. It was still a half savage country, where there
was a great deal of murdering and rioting continually going on; and the
Reformers, instead of reforming those evils as they should have done,
went to work in the ferocious old Scottish spirit, laying churches and
chapels waste, pulling down pictures and altars, and knocking about the
Grey Friars, and the Black Friars, and the White Friars, and the friars
of all sorts of colours, in all directions. This obdurate and harsh
spirit of the Scottish Reformers (the Scotch have always been rather a
sullen and frowning people in religious matters) put up the blood of the
Romish French court, and caused France to send troops over to Scotland,
with the hope of setting the friars of all sorts of colours on their legs
again; of conquering that country first, and England afterwards; and so
crushing the Reformation all to pieces.