Dominicans; Beaton's Abbey of Arbroath and the Abbey of Lindores were
also plundered. Clearly it was believed that Beaton was down, and that
church-pillage was authorised by Arran. Yet on September 3 Arran joined
hands with Beaton! The Cardinal, by threatening to disprove Arran's
legitimacy and ruin his hopes of the crown, or in some other way, had
dominated the waverer, while Henry (August 29) was mobilising an army of
20,000 men for the invasion of Scotland. On September 9 Mary was crowned
at Stirling. But Beaton could not hold both Arran and his rival Lennox,
who committed an act of disgraceful treachery. With Glencairn he seized
large supplies of money and stores sent by France to Dumbarton Castle. In
1544 he fled to England and to the protection of Henry, and married
Margaret, daughter of Angus and Margaret Tudor, widow of James IV. He
became the father of Darnley, Mary's husband in later years, and the
fortunes of Scotland were fatally involved in the feud between the Lennox
Stewarts and the House of Hamilton.

Meanwhile (November 1543) Arran and Beaton together broke and persecuted
the abbey robbers of Perthshire and Angus, making "martyrs" and
incurring, on Beaton's part, fatal feuds with Leslies, Greys, Learmonths,
and Kirkcaldys. Parliament (December 11) declared the treaty with
England void; the party of the Douglases, equally suspected by Henry and
by Beaton, was crushed, and George Douglas was held a hostage, still
betraying his country in letters to England. Martyrs were burned in
Perth and Dundee, which merely infuriated the populace. In April 1544,
while Henry was giving the most cruel orders to his army of invasion, one
Wishart visited him with offers, which were accepted, for the murder of
the Cardinal. {94} Early in May the English army under Hertford took
Leith, "raised a jolly fire," says Hertford, in Edinburgh; he burned the
towns on his line of march, and retired.