afforded a rallying point for malcontents, who asserted that her
mother's marriage with Henry VIII. was invalidated by the refusal of
the Pope to sanction the divorce. Mary Stuart, who stood next to
Elizabeth in the succession, formed a centre from which a network of
intrigue and conspiracy was always menacing the Queen's peace, if not
her life, and her crown.

Scotland, since the extinction of the line of Bruce, had been ruled by
the Stuart Kings. Torn by internal feuds between her clans, and by the
incessant struggle against English encroachments, she had drawn into
close friendship with France, which country used her for its own ends,
in harassing England, so that the Scottish border was always a point of
danger in every quarrel between French and English Kings.

[Sidenote: Flodden Field 1513. Birth of Mary Stuart 1542.]

In 1502 Henry VIII. had bestowed the hand of his sister Margaret upon
James IV. of Scotland, and it seemed as if a peaceful union was at last
secured with his Northern neighbor. But in the war with France which
soon followed, James, the Scottish King, turned to his old ally. He was
killed at "Flodden Field," after suffering a crushing defeat. His
successor, James V., had maried Mary Guise. Her family was the head and
front of the ultra Catholic party in France, and her counsels probably
influenced Edward to a continual hostility to the Protestant Henry,
even though he was his uncle. The death of James in consequence of his
defeat at "Solway Moss" occurred immediately after the birth of his
daughter, Mary Stuart (1542).

This unhappy child at once became the centre of intriguing designs;
Henry VIII. wishing to betroth the little Queen to his son, afterwards