the country with Charles V.; while France was 'the antient enemy,' the usurper, as men still had not forgotten, of the fair provinces on the Continent which had once been the inheritance of the English sovereigns.

In this spirit the public relations of the country were accepted by Parliament with the expenses which those relations would entail. When the war broke out the exchequer was empty. The first payment of the subsidy which had been granted in the year preceding had not as yet fallen due, and the King, in anticipation of the approaching return, had applied for a loan which had been raised in graduated proportions from the ordinary tax-payers. He had in fact required and received a portion of the parliamentary grant a few months before its time. The people, who were aware that a war involved a war taxation, submitted without complaining to a proceeding which was manifestly necessary. On the meeting of Parliament the accounts of the expenditure were produced for inspection; and the legislature being prepared, as a matter of course, to find supplies, and knowing that the subsidy in itself would now be insufficient, by a retrospective sanction converted the loan into an additional tax, and left their original grant still to be collected in its integrity. The King of France, they said, in justification of their resolution, owed a large debt to England which he refused to pay. He had betrayed Europe to the Turks; he had provoked the Scotch to break their engagements. His Majesty, therefore, was forced, and could of his honour no less do but determine himself, by the help of Almighty God, to

levy war and prosecute his enemies with the sword, trusting so to bring them to reasonable conditions: and his loving subjects, considering it was their office and duty to support his Majesty in all just quarrels with their bodies, lands, and substance, and minding to bear with his Highness in this his most gracious and godly enterprise, calling to remembrance that certain sums of money had been advanced to his Highness by way of loan-which sums of money, as was notoriously known, his Highness had fully and wholly converted and employed for the commonwealth and defence of the realm -declared that all such loans should be finally remitted and released.'

The funds being thus provided, at least for immediate necessities, it remained, since the King was going in person into France, to make arrangements for his possible death in the course of the campaign. In 1536, when he seemed to be without a legitimate child, he had been empowered to fix the succession by his will." There was now a prince, and although from the present Queen there was no visible prospect of issue, yet it was necessary to provide for the possibility of further issue being born. A will, as the law stood, would have been

believed that the Parliament was generous to the King at the expense of a limited number of credulous and injured capitalists. On a question of taxation, the proof of contemporary

1 35 Henry VIII. cap. 12. I confess myself unable to see the impropriety of this proceeding, or to understand the censures which historians have so freely lavished upon it: unless, indeed, they have believ-complaint is the only justification of ed that all wars in any generation historical disapprobation. but their own are necessarily unjust, and all taxation tyranny; or have

2 28 Henry VIII. cap. 7.

a sufficient instrument; but Henry, sensible, as he said, of the trust and confidence that his loving subjects had placed in him,' desired to exercise the power which they had bestowed with the knowledge and consent of Parliament.' It was enacted, therefore, briefly, that from Henry the crown should pass to Prince Edward. If the prince died without issue, and there were no other legitimate children, it should descend to the Lady Mary, under conditions which the King in his will would determine. If Mary died without issue, it should go to Elizabeth under the same restrictions. The three children might all fail; but beyond this point it was thought imprudent to make a public disposition. The Queen of Scots was next of blood in the collateral line; and the possibility of the succession of a Queen of Scots could be neither admitted for the present, nor wisely denied for the future.1 This point, therefore, was left to the future judgment of Henry.

His decision would probably depend on the result of the opening war. Weary years of persevering forbearance had concluded in a final effort of liberality. The King had offered peace in return for invasion, and the union of the Crowns on equal terms as a reward for incurable hostility. The Scotch Estates had first petitioned for his mercy, then accepted his proposals; had sworn to observe them, and then immediately had flung them back in scorn. The noblemen who had volunteered to serve him, had broken faith through mingled weakness

135 Henry VIII. cap. I.

and fickleness. The Douglases, who had so long been his pensioners, were now beyond doubt playing a double game. They had signed a bond to give the crown to Henry if the treaty was broken. They had now signed a second with the Cardinal against their 'auld enemies of England;' and although the Earl of Angus still sent private assurances that in secret he was true to the King, the word of a man who was a traitor to one side or the other could no longer be depended on.1 Arran was passive in the hands of Beton; and Beton, the undisputed master of Scotland, was making rapid use of his opportunities of evil. A specimen of his administration in the January of this year, 1544, will illustrate the purpose for which he was seeking power, and the spirit from the dominion of which the King of England was labouring to rescue the unhappy country.

Lord Ruthven, the hereditary Provost of Perth, was one of the few nobles who had looked favourably on the Reformers, and within the limits of his jurisdiction the leaven had dangerously spread. In the late autumn, on Allhallows eve, a noticeable scene had taken place in the church of the town. A friar, in the course of a sermon, told the people that the morrow was the day in which they were to offer for their fathers' souls in purgatory. One of his audience, a man named Robert Lamb, stood up, holding a Bible in his hand, and exclaimed, 'I charge you in the name of Christ Jesus, whose verity is here written, that ye teach nothing to

1 State Papers, vol. v. pp. 355-359.

his people except his only truth. If ye otherwise do, here is the book of his truth to bear witness against you in the day of the Lord.' The congregation was divided, but the speaker had but few friends, the friar had many. 'The baily of the town called for fire and faggot.' The baillie's sister threw her keys in Lamb's face,' and called him a false thief.' It was with some difficulty that he was dragged alive out of the crowd. Men called him unwise to be meddling in matters with which he had no concern. He replied that he must do the work of the Lord, and he would be happy if he suffered for his faith.

Men who can find their happiness in suffering need not be left long to wish for it. The story was reported to Beton, and after the separation of the Estates, which had met in December, the Cardinal, accompanied by the Regent, proceeded to Perth to inquire and punish. On arriving, he found that Lamb was not the only criminal of whom the Church dignitaries complained. A nest of heretics was rooted out; wicked men who, in defiance of proclamations, had eaten meat on fast days and had been disrespectful to the saints, and a wicked woman who in childbirth had declined to call upon the Virgin for assistance.

A court was held in the Grey Friars' place. On the same Allhallows eve it was proved that the heretic who had interrupted the friar had held a feast at his house. Indictments were found against the party, where the offending woman, the wife of one of the others, had been also present. They were brought in guilty of