The history of Henry’s intrigues becomes at this point very intricate, and we must be content with a mere outline.  On James’s death he conceived the plan of seizing the Scottish throne, and for this purpose he entered into an agreement with the Scottish prisoners taken at Solway Moss.  They professed themselves willing to seize Mary and Cardinal Beaton, and so to deprive the national party of their leaders.  Then came the news that the Earl of Arran had been appointed regent in December, 1542.  He was heir-presumptive to the throne, and so was unlikely to acquiesce in Henry’s scheme, and the traitors were instructed to deal with him as they thought necessary.  But the traitors, who had, of course, been joined by the Earl of Angus, proved false to Henry and were falsely true to Scotland.  They imprisoned Beaton, but did not deliver him up to the English, and they came to terms with Arran; nor did they carry out Henry’s projects further than to permit the circulation of “haly write, baith the new testament and the auld, in the vulgar toung”, and to enter into negotiations for the marriage of the young queen to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward VI.  The conditions they made were widely different from those suggested by Henry.  Full precautions were taken to secure the independence of the country both during Mary’s minority and for the future.  Strongholds were to be retained in Scottish hands; should there be no child of the marriage, the union would determine, and the proper heir would succeed to the Scottish throne.  In any case, no union of the kingdoms was contemplated, although the crowns might be united.  These terms were slightly modified in the following May.  Beaton, who had escaped to St. Andrews, did not oppose the treaty, but made preparations for war.  The treaty was agreed to, and the war of intrigues went on, Henry offering almost any terms for the possession of the little queen.  Finally, in September, Arran joined the cardinal, became reconciled to the Church, and left Henry to intrigue with the Earl of Lennox, the next heir after Arran.

Hostilities broke out in the end of 1543, when the Scots, enraged by Henry’s having attacked some Scottish shipping, declared the treaty annulled.  In the spring of 1544, the Earl of Hertford conducted his expedition into Scotland.  The “English Wooing”, as it was called, took the form of a massacre without regard to age or sex.  The instructions given to Hertford by Henry and his council read like quotations from the book of Joshua.  He was to leave none remaining, where he encountered any resistance.  Hertford, abandoning the usual methods of English invaders, came by sea, took Leith, burned Edinburgh, and ravaged the Lothians.  Lennox attempted to give up Dumbarton to the English, but his treachery was discovered and he fled to England, where he married Margaret, the daughter of Angus and niece of Henry VIII, by whom he became, in 1545, the father of Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, who thus stood within the possibility of