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

1557-] OF CHURCH AND STATE IN SCOTLAND. 1G9
French Court at that time. For notwithstanding all the so-
lemn declarations made by that King, his son the Dauphin,
and our Queen, yet in one day, viz. the 4th of April, they
make the poor young Queen subscribe the three following
papers, viz. One, wherein she makes over the kingdom of
Scotland in free gift to the King of France, to be enjoyed
by him and his heirs, in case she shall happen to die without
children. Another, in which, lest, I suppose, that King
might be disappointed in the former, she is made to assign
to the King of France the possession of the kingdom of
Scotland, after her decease without children, until he shall
be reimbursed of a million of pieces d'or, or of any greater
sum that he shall be found to have expended on her enter-
tainment and education during her abode in France. And
a third, the worst of all, by which the Queen declares, That
although both before her marriage and after it, in compliance
with the desire of her Parliament, she shall sign a declara-
tion touching the lineal succession of her Crown, yet she
protests that the genuine sense of her mind is only contained
in the two preceding papers. 1
After the ambassadors had obtained every thing that was
contained in their Instructions previous to the marriage,
they afterwards, on the 19th day of April, proceeded to the
marriage-contract betwixt their Sovereign and Francis,
Dauphin of France. It was drawn up in the French lan-
guage, and because some curious persons may perhaps de-
sire to see it verbatim according to the original, I have put
it in the Appendix, 2 but shall notwithstanding give the Eng-
lish reader a short account of its principal contents. It is,
as I have said, dated the 19th day of April 1558, and con-
tains an obligation to celebrate the intended marriage on
Sunday thereafter, being the 24th of that month. The
jointure assigned by it to our Queen is 60,000 livres, in case
the Dauphin shall die King of France ; or a greater sum, if
1 Copies of these three Instruments are to be seen in a fine large MS.
in the Lawyers' [Advocates'] Library, containing all the Treaties, &c. be-
twixt our Kings and the Kings of France. It is said this was transcribed
from the Registers of France by order of the late King Louis XIV., and
given as a present by that monarch to Graham Viscount of Preston,
Minister from our King Charles II. to the Court of France, who requested
to have this in place of a gift in gold.
' J Appendix, Number XI.