Martyrs and Murderers: The Guise Family and the Making of Europe by Stuart Carroll Page A

ship, the Mary Rose, in the Solent in 1545 with the loss of 500 men. The year before, in support of Charles V, the English had invaded northern France and seized the strategic port of Boulogne, to add to Calais, the last continental possession of the English crown. The death of Henry VIII did not end the policy and the ‘Protector’ of the new king Edward VI, the Duke of Somerset, continued to pursue aggressively the idea of Anglo-Scottish union. Further humiliation for France followed in 1547 when an English army, supported by a large fleet, invaded Scotland and crushed the Franco-Scottish forces at Pinkie.
    Francis’s successor, Henry II, had a vindictive streak. According to the Gascon captain Monluc, ‘he never forgot a fault or injury and could not easily conquer his resentments’. 1 This was probably because, as a child, he had had to suffer regular humiliation at the hands of his father.
    Aged only 6 he had been sent to Spain as a hostage in exchange for Francis; but when his father reneged on his agreement with Charles V, Henry was forced to spend three years as a prisoner in close and sometimes harsh confinement. His experience marked him for life with a loathing for the Spanish. ‘As for the emperor the king hates him and declares openly his hatred. He wishes him every evil that it is possible to desire for one’s mortal enemy. This virulence is so deep that death alone or the total ruin of his enemy can cure it.’2 On his return to France he had to endure his father’s indifference and, until his early death in 1545, the favouritism displayed to his younger brother, Charles. During the last years of Francis’s increasingly paranoid reign, Henry gathered around him counsellors, headed by his father’s disgraced favourite, Anne de Montmorency, critical of what they regarded as Francis’s pusillanimity. This shadow cabinet began to prepare for power.
    Henry was not yet ready to confront Spain when he ascended the throne. His energies were therefore directed at pursuing those he blamed for the fall of Boulogne, several of whom were banished; another died in prison and one, Jacques de Coucy, was beheaded and quartered. Within months the young king was reconnoitring Boulogne in person, the sight of whose strong defences reduced him to tears.
    Considerable sums were invested in a new navy: five new men-of-war, built in the ‘English’ design, were added to the Atlantic fleet in the first three years of the reign. The battle of Pinkie was dramatic reminder of the fragility of the Auld Alliance and warning that the idea of an Anglo-Scottish union, in the shape of a marriage between Mary Stuart and Edward VI, was more than just English rhetoric. Fortunately for the French, few Scots found English declarations of love and amity convincing; they saw the English occupation as one of conquest. In October 1547, Marie de Guise, Queen Regnant of Scotland since James V’s premature death, made a formal appeal to the French king for support, and he responded by assembling a fleet of 130 ships to transport 5,500 foot and 1,000 horse. On 7 July 1548, a month after the arrival of reinforcements, the Treaty of Haddington was ratified by the Three Estates of Scotland, in which French responsibility for Scottish security was sealed by dynastic union: Mary Stuart was to be betrothed to the dauphin, François; and the regent of Scotland, the Earl of Arran, who became Duke of Châtellerault, was naturalized a French subject and promised the hand of a French princess. The English now found themselves fighting on two fronts. In order to defend Boulogne against French attack, they were forced to evacuate their strongholds in Scotland. Internal instability further weakened English resolve and in March she conceded terms favourable to France: ceding Boulogne in return for 400,000 crowns and recognizing the status quo in Scotland.
    In the treaty negotiations, Henry assumed control of Scottish diplomacy and all matters pertaining to