History of the Fife Pitcairns

104 THE FIFE PITCAIRNS.
May 20, Berwick. Earl of Sussex to Sir William Cecil. Letters
of the Earl of Morton, &c, to the Commendator of Dunfermline.
No force is levying against the Queen of England's troops, so they
do what they will ; but they hear that the French are looked for
presently.
Pitcairn returned from the English Court with the Queen
of England's answer.
" The Queen was astonished that now, in the fourth
month after the Regent's death, she had for the first time
been made acquainted with the state of affairs. Worn
out by daily complaints of the Queen of Scots, she had
promised to give her cause a hearing, but upon condition
that hostilities were to be stopped and the English Exiles
returned. On these conditions she promised a conference ;
but having bound herself by this agreement, she could
not be a party to create a Regent, lest she should
seem to prejudge the cause of the Queen of Scots without
hearing it."
Not knowing what to do when they received this answer,
the Council decided for the present to elect an inter-
Regent to govern the country for the time being, and
created Matthew, Earl of Lennox, grandfather to the
King, inter-Regent.
Whilst they endeavoured to quieten the kingdom, on
the 10th of July letters came very opportunely from the
Queen of England, in which, with many expressions of
regard towards the King and kingdom of Scotland, she
said " she knew of no person who ought to be preferred
before the King's grandfather to that office, because no
one could be asked who would be more faithful to the pupil
as a minor, and who, besides, had the preferable right." 1
Encouraged by these letters, the Earl from inter- Regent
was declared Regent by the unanimous suffrages of the
Estates. When Lennox was chosen Regent, Maitland
then severed himself from the King's party, and Pitcairn
was chosen to succeed him as Secretary.
1 Calendar of State Papers for Scot, entries 1393, 1404; addition to the
Register from Haddington MS.