Scotland, Mary, and the "native prince" of France, Francis II., both
being minors. The French idea was that, if they secured the aid of a
native Protestant prince (Conde), they were in order, as against the
foreign Guises, and might kill these tyrants, seize the King, and call an
assembly of the Estates. Calvin was consulted by the chief of the
conspiracy, La Renaudie; he disapproved; the legality lent by one native
prince was insufficient; the details of the plot were "puerile," and
Calvin waited to see how the country would take it. The plot failed, at
Amboise, in March 1560.

In Scotland, as in France, devices about a prince of the native blood
suggested themselves. The Regent, being of the house of Guise, was a
foreigner, like her brothers in France. The "native princes" were
Chatelherault and his eldest son, Arran. The leaders, soon after Lord
James and Argyll formally joined the zealous brethren, saw that without
foreign aid their enterprise was desperate. Their levies must break up
and go home to work; the Regent's nucleus of French troops could not be
ousted from the sea fortress of Dunbar, and would in all probability be
joined by the army promised by Henri II. His death, the Huguenot
risings, the consequent impotence of the Guises to aid the Regent, could
not be foreseen. Scotland, it seemed, would be reduced to a French
province; the religion would be overthrown.

There was thus no hope, except in aid from England. But by the recent
treaty of Cateau Cambresis (April 2, 1559), Elizabeth was bound not to
help the rebels of the French Dauphin, the husband of the Queen of Scots.
Moreover, Elizabeth had no stronger passion than a hatred of rebels. If
she was to be persuaded to help the Reformers, they must produce some
show of a legitimate "Authority" with whom she could treat. This was as
easy to find as it was to the Huguenots in the case of Conde.