=34. Third English Invasion. Battle of Pinkie.=--Two years passed, and again the sorely scourged country was visited by its old enemy. _Hertford_, now _Duke of Somerset_ and _Protector of England_ during the minority of _Edward the Sixth_, thought by one well-aimed blow to wrest from the people their proud boast, the national independence. Two armies, the one led by himself and the other sent by sea, met at _Musselburgh_ and threatened the capital. The Regent had mustered a large force to resist them, and the two hosts faced each other on opposite banks of the _Esk_. But the Scots very foolishly left their strong position and forced the English to a battle, in which they were again defeated with great slaughter, at _Pinkie_, September 10, 1547. After the battle Somerset went back to England, and took the greater part of his army with him. As most of the strongholds were now in the hands of the English, it was thought best to send the Queen to France that she might be out of harm's way. The French sent six thousand men to help in driving out the English, a work that was not ended till 1550, when a short peace followed the nine years of cruel war. If we consider the difference of the times and the advance of civilization, the fiercest raids of _Malcolm_ and of _Wallace_ may be favourably compared with the misery wrought by _Hertford_ in these three savage and unprovoked attacks. =35. Internal Affairs.=--The overthrow of the monasteries, the seizure of their revenues, and the other changes in religious matters carried out by _Henry the Eighth_ in England, had been approved by a large party in _Scotland_. They were eager to begin the same work there, for the Church, by her abuse of power and by her persecution of all who differed from her, was fast losing her hold upon the people. The first outbreak of the popular feeling was the murder of _Cardinal David Beaton_, the _Primate_, the leader of the French party in the state and the chief mover of religious persecution. In revenge for the burning of _George Wishart_ in 1545, for preaching what was called heresy, sixteen of Wishart's followers murdered _Beaton_ in his own _Castle of St. Andrews_, which they had entered by a stratagem, and which they held for fourteen months, setting at defiance all the Regent's efforts to retake it. It was only with the help of the French that they were at last obliged to give in, and were sent to the French galleys. Among them was _John Knox_, who twelve years later became famous as the apostle of the Reformation among his countrymen. On the death of _Beaton_, _Arran_ made his own ambitious brother _John_ Archbishop of St. Andrews, in the room of the murdered Cardinal. The castle was destroyed.