knew of his intention, but what happened afterwards seems to show that Mary would not have felt any very strong disapproval if she had known. The facts were these: Darnley, who had been ill, was lodged at Kirk o' Field to recover. On Sunday, Feb. 9th, 1567, Mary visited him there: in the evening she returned to Holyrood, where she danced at a ball with Bothwell. As the dawn broke next morning, Edinburgh learnt with horror that Kirk o' Field had been blown into the air with powder, and Darnley murdered. Bothwell had planned the deed; he had even ridden straight from the ball at Holyrood to see it done.

None doubted that Bothwell was guilty; most believed that the queen knew of his design. It was impossible to bring the murderer to trial, as he filled Edinburgh with his followers, and his accuser feared for his life to appear. Bothwell's next act was to carry Mary with him to Dunbar. As if to leave nothing undone that could shock or disgust her people, within three months of Darnley's murder Mary married the murderer.

Mary marries
Bothwell.

This was beyond endurance. The nobles gathered an army, and met Bothwell's men at Carberry. It could scarcely be called a battle. Bothwell's followers deserted him in scores. Bothwell himself Carberry. had to flee for his life; he left Scotland, and at last was taken to Denmark, where he died in a Danish prison. Mary herself was shut up in Lochleven Castle. As the castle lay on an islet in the midst of the loch, it was thought that she could not escape. Her son James was declared king; Moray, who was Mary's half-brother, and had been her best minister, was made regent.

Yet Mary still had friends. She contrived to escape in disguise, and joined her adherents, the Hamiltons.

Moray saw there was no time to lose. Although he had but few soldiers, he advanced Mary_escapes against the Hamiltons, met them at from Lochleven; Langside, and routed them. Mary rode Langside.

southward from the field, utterly desperate. In a last hope she resolved to throw herself on Elizabeth for help. Her letter to the English queen when she landed at Workington ran, "It is my earnest request that your Majesty will send for me as soon as possible, for my condition is pitiable, not to say for Mary flees a queen, but even for a simple gentle- to England. woman". Pity, however, was not the motive most likely to guide Elizabeth. Bad as Mary's fate had been, even worse was in store for her.

XX.-ROYAL MARRIAGES.

We have already followed the important effects of one royal marriage—we have seen how Henry VIII. married Catharine of Aragon, grew tired of her, and in order to obtain the divorce which he wanted had quarrelled with the pope and the King of Spain, and had ended by breaking with the Roman Catholic Church altogether. But this is only one of a series of royal marriages which at this time influenced not only England and Scotland at home, but affected their dealings with the rest of Europe. There are several others; and we cannot hope to understand the history of England at this time, unless we grasp the importance of these marriages.

To do this we must put modern ideas quite out of our head. We do not pay much attention to the marriages of the royal family now. For instance, the queen's grandson is German Emperor, but we do

not find on that account any close alliance between Great Britain and Germany. We do not dream of his attempting, should other heirs fail, to unite the two kingdoms. But it was very different in the sixteenth century. Countries were then regarded as the property of their sovereigns. Should the ruler of Spain marry the ruler of England, it was thought that the two countries would naturally be united in policy; should there be an heir to such a marriage, he would naturally rule both countries. And besides this, it was felt that he would do his best to compel his dominions to hold the same religion as he held himself. So that on the result of a royal marriage there often hung not only the policy of a nation in its dealings with other nations, but also its religion and institutions; nay, even its separate existence as a nation might be in danger.

Under these circumstances, it is easy to see that royal marriages concerned England and Scotland very closely indeed. And it happened, by a curious chance, that just at this time, when both peoples were more interested in the question of their religion than anything else, their religion was apparently at the mercy of a marriage. For in England two queens, Mary and Elizabeth, came one after the other; and at the same time the ruler of Scotland was also a queen, Mary Queen of Scots, who was further the next heir to the throne of England. Thus both nations followed with strained attention the marriage proposals for these queens.

Mary of England, the queen whom we have seen Mary Tudor gain the opprobrious name of "Bloody Marries Philip II. Mary", herself a Catholic, the child of of Spain. a Catholic mother, married her cousin, Philip II. of Spain, a ruler who is known in

Europe as the greatest persecutor of Protestantism who has ever lived. It is worth notice that the bitterness of Mary's persecution in England did not begin until after her marriage. Englishmen did not in those days think persecution wrong, but they did not give themselves enthusiastically to the task of burning heretics; that was a Spanish habit partly inherited by Mary from her Spanish mother, but still more learnt from her Spanish husband. Had Mary and Philip had a child he would have united England to Spain, and gone on with the cruelties of his father and mother to the Protestants. But fortunately no child came. Thus England was saved from falling into the clutches of Spain; for the next heir was Elizabeth, and she was a Protestant.

Yet it seemed as if the evil day was after all only put off. We had exchanged a Catholic queen for a Protestant, and that so far was good. But a queen was always dangerous. Elizabeth would be sought Marriage in marriage too: it was not likely that so Proposals for great a prize, the Queen of England, would Elizabeth. lack offers. In fact she was besieged with offers, both from France and Spain. Philip II., in his anxiety to add England to his dominions, even thought himself of marrying Elizabeth, though she was his late wife's half-sister, and though such a marriage was absolutely forbidden by his church. But Elizabeth, though she liked admiration and attention, and loved to coquet with her suitors, had no real wish to marry. To marry, she saw, would be to fall into the hands of a foreign prince. England, she declared, was her husband, and she remained a virgin queen.

This was satisfactory for the time, but gave at first little hope for the future. For if Elizabeth were to