24. =War with Scotland and France. 1542-1546.=--Henry, anxious to disarm Scottish hostility, proposed a marriage between his son Edward and the young queen. The proposal was rejected, and an alliance formed between Scotland and France. In =1544= Henry, having formed an alliance with Charles V., who was now at war with France, invaded France and took Boulogne after a long siege--thus enlarging the English possessions in the neighbourhood of Calais--whilst Charles concluded a peace with Francis at Crêpy and left his ally in the lurch. In the same year Henry sent Lord Hertford, Jane Seymour's brother, to invade Scotland. Hertford burnt every house and cottage between Berwick and Edinburgh, took Edinburgh itself, and burnt the town. In =1546= peace was made between England and France, in which Scotland was included. The war had been expensive, and in =1544= Parliament had come to Henry's help by enacting that he need not repay a loan which he had gathered, yet even then Henry had had recourse to the desperate remedy of debasing the coinage. [Illustration: Armour as worn in the reign of Henry VIII.: from the brass of John Lymsey, 1545, in Hackney Church.] [Illustration: Margaret, wife of John Lymsey: from her brass in Hackney Church, showing the costume of a lady _circa_ 1545.] 25. =The Litany and the Primer. 1544-1545.=--In =1544=, when Henry was besieging Boulogne, Cranmer ordered prayers to be offered for his success. In the true spirit of the Renascence he wished these prayers to be intelligible, and directed that they should be in English. In the same year he composed the English Litany, intended to be recited by priests and people going in procession. This Litany was the foundation-stone of the future Book of Common Prayer. It was issued in =1544= together with a Primer, or book of private prayer, also in English. In the public services the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments were to be in English, the remainder being left in Latin as before. [Illustration: Thomas Howard, third Duke of Norfolk, 1473(?)--1554: from the picture by Holbein at Windsor Castle.]