At first the Lords of the Congregation carried everything before them. But they knew that, before long, the Regent would have an army of well-trained French soldiers under her command; and it was vain to suppose that religious fervour could prevail against military discipline. Help must be found in some quarter; and a correspondence was opened with the Court of England. James, third Earl of Arran, was, after his father, the Duke of Chatelherault, heir-presumptive to the throne of Scotland.[17] A marriage between him and Elizabeth might, it was suggested, settle the Scottish question. A majority of the Scots were Protestant; and in the turmoil of the civil war which had now begun, Mary of Scotland might, with the help of England, be dethroned by her own subjects, against whom she had allowed a foreign army to be sent. If Arran and Elizabeth were married, the Crowns of England and Scotland would then be united; and thus the schemes of France would be frustrated. There can be little doubt that all this was understood between the Congregation and their friends in England, though it was not openly expressed. Cecil encouraged the idea, probably with the assent of Elizabeth; and the Lords of the Congregation implored her to come to the rescue, and carry out that union of the realms for which so many wise men had long laboured in vain.[18] The death of Henry the Second did not change the policy of France. Scotland was to be subdued; and then Elizabeth could be dealt with. The councils of England were divided; but Cecil was in favour of sending help to Scotland. “The best worldly felicity,” he said, “that Scotland can have is either to continue in a perpetual peace with the kingdom of England, or to be made one monarchy with England, as they both make but one isle divided from the rest of the world.” But this was impossible if the French were allowed to govern Scotland; for they would use Scotland for their own purposes, and “make a footstool thereof to look over England as they may.” As no heir had been born to the Queen of Scots, and as she was absent from her kingdom, the nobles and commons of Scotland ought, under the guidance of the Hamiltons, who were the next heirs to the Crown, to free the land of idolatry by such a Reformation as had already taken place in England; and, “before the French grew too strong and insolent,” a number of abuses which threatened to ruin the country should be remedied. If the Queen did not agree to these reforms, then she must be held to have forfeited the Crown.[19]