Note 5 — Chapter I

Mr. Patrick Fraser Tytler very justly remarks how absurd was the idea “that a free country was to be compelled into a pacific matrimonial alliance, amid the groans of its dying citizens and the flames of its seaports” (History of Scotland, vi. 42). See also, on the Scottish policy of Henry VIII., the instructions given to the army in Scotland in April 1544 (vol. v. p. 473, and the Hamilton Papers, vol. ii. p. 325). They were to “burn Edinburgh town, and to rase and deface it when you have sacked it”; and all over the country “man, woman, and child” were to be put to the sword “without exception.”