de de pourvu que ce qui aura été fait pour la fortification demeure, car cela servira à y tenir moindre nombre gens de guerre. Et cesseront tous appareils guerre, tant par mer que par terre, d'une coté et d'autre; savoir, du coté de la dite Reine d'Angleterre, que de celui du Roi et Reine de France; de façon, qu'aucune navire portant gendarmes, ou autre appareil de guerre, tant de France, d'Angleterre, que d'ailleurs ne pourra passer en Ecosse en faveur de l'une ou de l'autre partie. Et moi, obligé Evêque de Valence, je m'oblige à l'observance de ce dernier article, jusqu'à ce que la paix soit publiée, ou que nous soyons rompus. Fait à Lislebourg, ce 19me de Juin, 1560. MONLUC, E. De Valence.* RANDAN.+ * John de Monluc, Bishop of Valence. He had been Ambassador from Henry II. of France to the Queen Dowager of Scotland in 1553, and was appointed to manage the present negociation as a person who thoroughly understood the national character and policy of the latter country. Sir James Melvil, who some years before had accompanied this Prelate into Ireland, whither he was sent to exasperate the ancient chiefs against the English government, gives us a remarkable instance of his furious temper, and turn for gross debauchery; which Burnet, in his hatred to the Romish clergy, hath very impertinently transcribed into his History of the Reformation. Historians † Charles de la Rochfoucault, Sieur de Randan. mention him as a person inferior to none of that age in address and political knowledge. Neither this gentleman nor his colleague, however, appear to have engaged in the Scottish intrigues of that time beyond the precise limits of their commission :—a proof, perhaps, of their wisdom. No. XI. (Cecil Papers.) Answer to the demand that the Commissioners of England made for a recompense which they pretend the Queen our Sovereign ought to make for that she has borne the title and armories of England against the will of the Queen their Mistress. AFTER debating to and fro we have answered that we have no power to talk of any recompense, wherefore we may not for this time offer any other thing than that, since the offence came of the said title and armories, the King and Queen our Sovereigns shall henceforth forbear to use and bear the said title and armories, and also shall forbid their subjects the using of the said title, in what sort soever it be, and in all parts of their countries and siegneuries. Likewise they shall forbid, as much as in them shall lie, the joining or mingling, any manner of ways, of the arms of England with those of the Queen our Sovereign; and where letters shall be found, made in times past, wherein the said title is mentioned, or that the same letters have been sealed with any seal containing the said armories, they shall be corrected, without putting to them the title or arms of England or Ireland; and that all letters containing the said title, or being sealed with the said armories, not being renewed or reformed within six months after the publishing of this treaty, shall be void and of no effect. And as touching the articles that hereupon have been given us by the said Commissioners, and which we could not accept, we will send them to the King, who shall make us an answer, and here after commune thereupon in such place as shall be thought good; and likewise decide and end the difficulties of the strife and difference touching the said recompense; and if it happened, which God forbid, that we could not agree, then the matter of the said recompense shall be remitted and put into the hands of the Catholic King, to do therein according to his judgment, provided that he do decide it within one year, if, through the consent of both parties, the time be not prolonged. And in case his Majesty could not within the time appointed give his sentence, that then the right and action for the demanding of the said recompense shall remain unto the said Queen of England whole and in full strength. In the mean time, we offer to compose the affairs of Scotland with the Scottish Lords with all due and reasonable means, and likewise other differences with the Englishmen, if any such are; also we will covenant with the said commissioners that the English army, as well by sea as land, and the French and Scottish soldiers which are within Leith, shall depart at one time, after such fashion and manner as shall be agreed between the said Commissioners and us; lending unto us ships, both here and at Newcastle, for to carry home the said French soldiers, as heretofore has been offered. And the fortifications at Leith shall be broken and defaced. And as for Dunbar and Inch Keith, the number of soldiers that are there shall be diminished so much as shall be agreed between us and the said Lords of Scotland; and if any thing has been made at the said Dunbar to make the same able to receive more people than it was before, it shall be cast down again; provided that that which has been done there for the fortifying thereof may remain, for that may serve to keep a less number of men of war there. Also that all apparels and preparation of war, as well by land as sea, shall cease on both sides; that is to say, on the Queen of England's side, and the French King and Queen's; so that no ship, carrying men of war, or other apparel for the war, either from France, England, or from any other place, shall pass into Scotland in the favour of the one part or the other. And I, the above bounden Bishop of Valence, do bind myself for the observation of this last article, until the peace be published, or that we do break off. Done at Edinburgh, this 19th of June, 1560. No. XL (Cecil Papers.*) SIR WILLIAM CECIL AND DOCTOR WOTTON It may please your Majesty, SINCE Our last letters we have spent much time, and yet have had partly no leisure, partly no certainty of matter to advertise your Majesty, since that time until this present, by any our other let * See in Haynes, 327, their letter of the same date to the Council, referring to this for information. 2 D VOL. I. ters. The 11th of this month* the Queen Dowager died here at Edinburgh, as we understand of a dropsy; by whose death the nobility of Scotland are entered into greater boldness, for maintenance of their quarrel than before they durst shew. We imparted to the French King's Ambassadors her death upon the 12th of this present, (journeying in the way with us toward Berwick) wherewith they were much perplexed, and said that, although the Scots might prove thereby harder to be reconciled, yet the treaty (with us and them both) on their part should be harder by her death, because the weight of most points that might fall in question were, as they doubted, much referred to her advice and contentation; and, also, the burden of conclusion should now be so great for them to bear, being the lesser number of the Commissioners, but therein we knew what we had to * Anderson, in his royal genealogies, a work which exhibits fewer errors than might be expected in such a multifarious collection, tells us that this lady died on the 29th of May. Dr. Robertson, coming nearer to the mark, says the 10th of June. †The Bishop of Amiens, and the Sieurs la Brosse and d'Oisel, who, though included in the French King's commission, seem to have been considered as parties peculiarly interested for the Queen Dowager. The first article in Elizabeth's instructions to her Commissioners (in Dr. Forbes' Papers) directs that these gentlemen shall not be permitted to have access to the Bishop of Valence and M. de Randan, lest, by discovering the real state of the besieged, they might be the means of protracting the negotiation. Thus three of the five commissioners were actually kept in confinement, and debarred from all communication with their brethren, during the progress of what was called a free treaty. So gross a piece of injustice passing unresented affords a remarkable proof of Elizabeth's superiority over France, as well as Scotland, at that time. |