Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 2

15G0-1.] OF CHURCH AND STATE IN SCOTLAND. 19
a Commission from the new King of France, consisting of
these three Points : — 1. That the ancient League betwixt
the two kingdoms might be renewed. 2. That the late
Confederacy with England should be dissolved. 3. That the
Churchmen should be restored to their places and benefices.
But the Junto, unwilling to meddle with matters of that
importance, thought fit to remit him to the Convention
which had been appointed to meet in the month of May.
Meantime the Lord James and Mr John Leslie, deputed
by the different parties to repair into France to the Queen,
had taken different routes to accomplish their journey ; the
former departed from Edinburgh overland,^ the 18th day of
March ; the latter sailed from the Port of Aberdeen to the
Brill in Holland,^ and both of them made such equal dis-
patch, that Mr Leslie, by his own account, arrived at Vitry^
in Champagne, where the Queen then was,* but one single
separate class of Nobility, called Noblesse de Role, or Nobility of the Oown.
Those Parliameuts were close self-elected corporations, exercising a ter-
rible despotism over the country, from which it was almost impossible to
obtain redress. They often deviated from the letter of the law, and
decided accoiding to what they called rules of equity. This originated
the French proverb — Dini, nous r/arde de Viquite dio Parliament. They had
great power in criminal cases, and could inflict death on very slight proofs
of guilt.— E.]
^ It has been reported that the Prior concerted and communicated
matters while he passed and repassed through England. — [The future
Regent jNIoray's mercenary and political intrigues to ruin Queen Mary
are now historical facts. He had personal reasons for proceeding by
London in his route. " The Prior, Lord James," says Chalmers, " was
now thirty. — His nature and education prompted his ambitious spirit. As
early as 1552, he, who had no religion, put himself at the head of the reli-
gion. In 1558, 1559, and 1560, he was in fact King under the manage-
ment of Cecil and Elizabeth." See "INIemoir of the Regent Moray,"
ajmd " Life of Mary, Queen of Scots," by George Chalmers, London, 4to.
1818, vol. ii. p. 291.— E.]
2 fBriel, or Brielle, a seaport town on the south side of the Island
of Voorn, in the Province of South Holland, near the mouth of the
Maas, twelve miles west of Rotterdam, twenty-four miles north-west
of Dordrecht, and six miles north of Helvetsluys. In 1572 it became the
celebrated seat of the independence of the Dutch Republic. — E.]
^ [Vitry le Fran9ois, in the district of Pertois, a former division of
Champagne, one of the most extensive Provinces of France. — E.]
■* Our Queen, after the death of her husband, perceiving her mother-in-
law's countenance — who came now to have a great hand in the govern-
ment — to be not kindly towards her, had retired to Rheims in Picardy,
where she remained all the rest of the winter with the Cardinal of