=36. Regency of Mary of Lorraine. First Marriage of Mary Stewart.=--In 1554, Arran, who had been created _Duke of Chatelherault_ by the French king, went back to France, and _Mary of Lorraine_ became _Regent_. The league with France was drawn still closer by the marriage of the Queen with _Francis the Dauphin_. Francis became _King of France_ in 1559. The crown-matrimonial of Scotland was then granted to him, so that the two countries were for a short time united under one crown. On the strength of this the French began to give themselves airs of superiority which the Scots could ill bear from strangers, and before long they became well-nigh as unpopular as the English had been. The Regent was unconsciously doing her best to foster this feeling of dislike by placing foreigners in offices of trust, above all by making Frenchmen keepers of the strongholds. But there was another influence now at work, the desire of religious reform, which wrought a change in the national life greater than any that had been felt since the time of the first Robert. =37. Social Progress.=--The intercourse with the French which arose from the close alliance of Scotland with France, influenced the social development of the nation throughout this period more strongly than during any other time either before or after it. The members of the National Council when they met in parliament were not, as in England, divided into lords and commons; the representatives of the three Estates, the _Barons_, the _Clergy_, and the _Commons_, assembled in one chamber, as was the French custom. All the tenants holding direct from the Crown were required to present themselves at these assemblies; but James the First released the lesser barons from this attendance, which they felt to be rather an irksome duty than a privilege, by allowing them to send commissaries in their stead. These commissaries, with the deputies from the cities and burghs, formed the Third Estate. The supreme court of justice, the _Court of Session_, established by James the Fifth, was formed on the model of the _Parliament_ of _Paris_. The Universities were founded in the fifteenth century, at _St. Andrews_, at _Glasgow_, and at _Aberdeen_. Of these, Aberdeen was an exact imitation of the University of Paris. The architecture of this period, both domestic and ecclesiastical, is in many respects like the French. Melrose Abbey, and the palaces of _Falkland_ and of _Stirling_, which were very richly ornamented, were built in the time of the Jameses. The houses of the nobles were also built in imitation of the French style. There are no remains of burgh domestic architecture older than the sixteenth century. Many French words also found their way into the Lowland Scotch, as the language of the Lothians came to be called. By this time there was so much difference between this dialect and that spoken at the English court, that the people who spoke the one could scarcely understand the other.