Stuart dynasty

134 THE STUART DYNASTY.
Sir Ralph, instead of getting possession of the infant
Queen Mary, had to content himself with the best
compromise available, out of the inconvenient con-
sequences of which the wily Cardinal intended to
escape.
David Beaton, a prince of the Catholic Church,
and Mary of Lorraine's most able minister, had,
it is said, strained a point to gain the Regency
of Scotland, " guiding the hand of James V. in
the moment of departure," and had thus obtained
a royal endorsement of his claim to supremacy.*
But his proclamation at the market cross of Edin-
burgh was repudiated when men learned the means
whereby the late King's signature had been secured,
and the election of Arran as Regent followed.
Beaton, moreover, was immediately arrested and
imprisoned in Blackness Castle, where he neverthe-
less remained cognisant of the course of events,
and the arbiter of Catholic counsels in Scotland.
Sir Ralph Sadler, on the other hand, had so
far justified the confidence of Henry VIII. in his
diplomatic skill, as to get it stated in treaty form,
and the document signed by the Regent Arran, that
Mary Stuart was to be affianced to Prince Edward
of England, and that, after the lapse of ten years, the
bride should be brought to Berwick, and rendered
up to the English, a ceremony of marriage being
then performed.! Beaton, however, skilfully posing
as the preserver of Scotch independence, schemed to
* Fronde's ' History of England,' edition 1858, vol. iv. p. 200.
f Burton's ' History of Scotland,' new edition, vol. iii. p, 202.