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In 1550-51 Mary of Guise, visiting France, procured for Arran the Duchy of Chatelherault, and for his eldest son the command of the Scottish Archer Guard, and, by way of exchange, in 1554 took from him the Regency, surrounding herself with French advisers, notably De Roubay and d'Oysel.
As a Catholic, of the House of Lorraine, Mary could not but cleave to her faith and to the French alliance. In 1554 she had managed to oust from the Regency the Earl of Arran, the head of the all but royal Hamiltons, now gratified with the French title of Duc de Chatelherault. To crown her was as seemly a thing, says Knox, "if men had but eyes, as a saddle upon the back of ane unrewly kow."
During this interval we find Charles VII. and Joan of Arc at Chatelherault, at Poitiers, at Tours, at Florent-les-Saumur, at Chinon, and at Blois, going to and fro through all that country to push forward the expedition resolved upon, and to remove the obstacles it encountered.
Knox in his "History" does not mention an attack on the monastery of Lindores during the truce. In fact, the brethren were the truce-breakers. Knox gives only the assurances signed by the Regent's envoys, the Duke of Chatelherault and d'Oysel. They include a promise "not to invade, trouble, or disquiet the Lords," the reforming party. The situation is clear. The two parties exchanged assurances.
Above all, they are not to back the Hamiltons, whose chief, Chatelherault, had been a professor, had fallen back, and become a persecutor. All the movements of that time are not very clear. Apparently Lorne, Lord James, and the rest, in their letter of March 10, 1557, intended an armed rising: they were "ready to jeopardise lives and goods" for "the glory of God."
The only way in which I can suppose that Knox and his friends reconciled their consciences to their conduct is this: Knox tells us that "when all points were communed and agreed upon by mid- persons," Chatelherault and Huntly had a private interview with Argyll, Glencairn, and others of his party. They promised that they would be enemies to the Regent if she broke any one jot of the treaty.
Andrews, of which Lord James was Prior. Knox later made Chatelherault promise this obedience; what his views were in November 1561 we know not. Andrews. Knox complains that the girls danced when they "got the house alone"; not a public offence! He had his intelligencers in the palace. The story was perhaps a fable, but Arran had been uttering threats.
So many reflections connected with my mission at Chatelherault and other affairs of state would intrude that I seemed to be occupied rather with the results of my death at this juncture, and particularly the injury which it must inflict on the King's service, than with the question how I could escape. However, Parabere soon recalled me to the point.
As a near claimant to the Scottish throne he was welcomed at the English court, and was led to believe that if he acted prudently he might become the husband of Elizabeth, and the king of a united England and Scotland. He was dispatched into Scotland, where he succeeded in detaching his father, the Duke of Châtelherault, and several other nobles from the side of the regent.
Elizabeth "accepted the realm of Scotland" Chatelherault being recognised as heir-apparent to the throne thereof for so long as the marriage of Queen Mary and Francis I. endured, and a year later. The Scots, however, remain dutiful subjects of Queen Mary, they say, except so far as lawless attempts to make Scotland a province of France are concerned.
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