His policy, of course, was to maintain the Catholic religion, and this implied the defence of Scotch independence against England.

Henry VIII, with characteristic lack of scruple, plotted to kidnap the infant queen and either to kidnap or to assassinate the cardinal.

Failing in both, he sent an army north with orders to put man, woman and child to the sword wherever resistance was made.

Edinburgh castle remained untaken, but Holyrood was burned and the country devastated as far as Sterling.
[Sidenote: Cardinal Beaton] Defeated by England, Beaton was destined to {357} perish in conflict with his other enemy, Protestantism.

During this time of transition from Lutheranism to Calvinism, the demands of the Scotch reformers would have been more moderate than they later became.