.

THE MINORITY OF MARY STUART.
When James died, Henry VIII.

seemed to hold in his hand all the winning cards in the game of which Scotland was the stake.

He held Angus and his brother George Douglas; when he slipped them they would again wield the whole force of their House in the interests of England and of Henry's religion.

Moreover, he held many noble prisoners taken at Solway--Glencairn, Maxwell, Cassilis, Fleming, Grey, and others,--and all of these, save Sir George Douglas, "have not sticked," says Henry himself, "to take upon them to set the crown of Scotland on our head." Henry's object was to get "the child, the person of the Cardinal, and of such as be chief hindrances to our purpose, and also the chief holds and fortresses into our hands." By sheer brigandage the Reformer king hoped to succeed where the Edwards had failed.