Faction was so common and so bitter that it was able to call in the national enemy without utterly discrediting itself.

A second element was jealousy of France.

For a time, with the French marriages of James V with Mary of Lorraine, a sister of the Duke of Guise, and of Mary Queen of Scots with Francis II, there seemed more danger that the little kingdom should become an appanage of France than a satellite of her southern neighbor.

The licentiousness of French officers and French soldiers on Scotch soil made their nation least loved when it was most seen.

[Sidenote: Influence of religion] But the great influence overcoming national sentiment was religion.