al enemy, France, was
for the latter country to keep a tight hold of its alliance with
Scotland, by means of which English force might be diverted at any time.
The existence of the Scottish "back door" to England, with the ever
probable enemy behind it, had long been a check upon English power, and
a humiliation to English kings in their efforts to hold the balance
between the Continental rivals. But with the spread of Lutheranism in
Germany and Henry VIII.'s defiance of the Papacy, the Catholic powers,
drawn together in the face of common danger, found a fresh bond of union
in their orthodoxy which partially superseded old rivalries.

In these circumstances the English policy, which had aimed at the
control of Scottish foreign relations to the exclusion of French
influence, became not only desirable as it always had been, but vitally
necessary to preserve England's independence.

Henry VIII.'s policy towards Scotland had been that of _divide et
impera_, and a series of royal minorities and the greed and poverty of
the semi-independent Scottish nobles had aided him. The rout of the
Scots at Solway Moss, and the pathetic passing of the gallant James V.,
leaving his new-born daughter, Mary, as queen (December 1542), seemed at
length to place Scotland in England's power. The murder of Cardinal
Beaton, the bribery of the Douglases, and the marriage of Lennox with
Henry's sister were all subsequent moves in the same game. Mary was
betrothed in her cradle to the heir of England, and France, whose sheet
anchor for centuries had been the "auld alliance" with the Scots,
appeared to be helpless against a coalition of England and the emperor.

Thenceforward, England's main object was to keep a tight grip upon
Scotland by religion or otherwise, while at first France, and
subsequently the Catholic league, strove ceaselessly, with the help of
Mary Stuart, to free Scotland from English influence. The marriage
juggle of Elizabeth was largely inspired by her Scottish aims, and if
the fortuitous adjustment of her qualities kept England Protestant, and
France wavering for all those critical years, if she secured the
inactivity of Spain, the resistance of Protestant Holland, and the
freedom of navigation by her skilful statecraft, her rival Mary Stuart
was a hardly less powerful factor in the final triumph of England by
reason of certain defects in her character, the consequences of which
are dealt with in this book.

Mary possessed a