=22. Murder of the Regent.=--The Hamiltons had determined on Murray's death. Though the Duke was in prison, _John_, the archbishop, the constant stirrer up of strife, was at liberty, and he was popularly supposed to be the contriver of a plot against the life of the Regent. Murray was murdered by _James Hamilton_ of _Bothwellhaugh_, who shot at him as he was riding in state through that town on his way from Stirling to Edinburgh, February 23, 1570. This foul murder, the third which had disgraced Scotland within the last quarter of a century, was a great misfortune for the country, for Murray had ruled well and wisely, he had put down the Highlanders and the Borderers, and had enforced justice and order with a strong hand. In his time the land was visited by a famine and a plague, evils for which the people are ever apt to blame their rulers, but, in spite of these calamities, he was popular during his life, and was remembered after his death as the _Good Regent_. =23. Regency of Lennox.=--While the government was thus without a head, and the country was in confusion, two English armies invaded Scotland to punish the Borderers for the shelter which they had given to the leaders of the late rising in England. One of these armies came north as far as the _Clyde_ and wasted the _Hamilton country_. Hitherto the Queen's party had been chiefly made up of nobles with but a small following, but this attack on the part of the English aroused the old hatred of England and drove a large mass of the people to join them. The choice of _Lennox_, the King's grandfather, as the new Regent, did still more to divide the nation, for not only was he the subject of Elizabeth and recommended by her, but also, when he came to Scotland, it was as joint leader of one of these invading armies. Now, for the first time, the nation was truly divided against itself. The war which followed was the first real civil war in the annals of Scotland. It was no strife of class against class, or of one chief against another, but a war in which the commons were severed into two parties by the great questions of loyalty, national honour, and religion. _Grange_, whom Murray had made governor of _Edinburgh Castle_, declared for the Queen, and _Lethington_, who was there in ward on a charge of having had some part in the King's murder, followed his example.