Protestantism in Scotland - James Aitken Wylie

French soldiers into Scotland; that the raw levies of
the Reformers would ultimately be worsted by the
disciplined troops of France, and that no more
patriotic and enlightened policy could England
pursue than to send help to drive the French
soldiers out of the northern, country; for assuredly,
if Scotland was put down, England could not stand,
encompassed as she then would be by hostile
armies. Happily these counsels were successful.
The statesmen of Elizabeth, convinced that this
was no Scottish quarrel, but that the liberty of
England hung upon it also, and that in no more
effectual way could they rear a rampart around
their own Reformation than by supporting that of
Scotland, sent military aid to the lords of the
Congregation, and the result was that the French
evacuated Scotland, and the Scots became once
more masters of their own country. Almost
immediately thereafter, Mary of Guise, the regent
of the kingdom, was removed by death, and the
government passed into the hands of the
Reformers. The way was now fully open for the
establishment of the Reformation. It is hardly
possible to over-estimate the impotence of the
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