Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

1543.] OF CHURCH AND STATE IN SCOTLAND. 87
and which I shall here insert, that I may not be obliged to
resume the consideration of this Nobleman's affairs, when
things of weightier moment require not to be interrupted.
On the 8th day of April, the Earls of Lennox and Glen-
cairn dispatched Hugh Cunningham and Thomas Bishop
from Dunbarton, with ample commission in their names to
meet and treat with the Lord Wharton and Sir Robert
Bowes, commissioners of the King of England, at Carlisle,
or elsewhere the said royal commissioners shall happen to be.
On the 17th of May, the Earl of Glencairn is at Carlisle,
and there, together with Robert Stewart, brother to the
Earl of Lennox, and Bishop-elect of Caithness, Hugh Cun-
ningham, and Thomas Bishop, he signs a contract betwixt
King Henry, the Earl of Lennox, and himself, in which the
two Earls promise all manner of assistance to King Henry
against their native country ; and King Henry, on his part,
promises to give in marriage to the Earl of Lennox the Lady
Margaret Douglas his niece, and that the said Earl shall be
Governor of the kingdom of Scotland under King Henry, in
the event of his being successful. The Bishop-elect of Caith-
ness is to remain a hostage in England for his brother's per-
formance of his part of this treaty ; and King Henry gives
in gratuity to the Earl of Glencairn 1000 crowns, and pro-
mises to continue in pension the Earl of Lennox. On the
26th of June the Earl of Lennox is personally present at a
treaty in England, whither he had sailed in the ships of
that nation, when they returned home from the descent
upon Scotland, which will come shortly to be mentioned ; in
which treaty that Lord obliges himself to deliver up to the
King of England the castle and territory of Dunbarton, to-
gether with the Isle of Bute, and other lands of his Lordship
lying within the kingdom of Scotland ; and King Henry
gives for wife to the said Earl the Lady Margaret Douglas,
with lands in England amounting to the value of G800 merks
Scots money, equal to 1700 merks English. 1 Item, the
1 This authentic document serves notably well to ascertain the propor-
tion betwixt the Scottish and English computation of money at that time,
viz. that the English mcrk contained but four of the Scottish. I had
formerly perceived by reading, that there was not in elder times such a
great disproportion betwixt the denominations of money of the two nations
as at present, but I do not remember of so clear an instance as this
before us. Query, Whether the English computation has risen, or the