Jane E. A. Dawson. The Politics of Religion in the Age of Mary, Queen of Scots: the Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and Ireland.

Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xviii + 251 pp. index. map. chron, bibl. $60. ISBN: 0-521-80996-7.

In 1560, negotiators from England and Scotland fashioned a diplomatic revolution whereby the English promised military aid to the Scottish lords in their rebellion against the regent, Mary of Guise, and the Scots agreed to send troops to Ireland. This "British policy," hammered out in the secret treaty of Berwick and confirmed in the subsequent Treaty of Edinburgh, envisioned a confederation of the three kingdoms, united in their Protestantism and common desire to be free from continental powers. It was the work of Sir William Cecil, and the subject of this important work, Archibald Campbell, fifth Earl of Argyll. Although undertaken with high hopes, five years later the new policy was in shambles, and when the Queen of Scots fled to England in 1568, it was over. Elizabeth, who had never been comfortable either with negotiating with rebels or with Scottish interference in Ireland, was now the dominant partner and was glad to get back to a policy of putting England's interests first. Argyll, for his part, felt betrayed and also turned away from it. It is Jane Dawson's contention, however, that even although his British policy failed, Argyll's actions preserved Protestantism even as they paved the way for the Ulster plantation.

Dawson shows that Argyll was uniquely qualified to play the key role in formulating this British policy. As Highland Chief of Clan Campbell, he was at home in the Gaelic-speaking community of the West and the Isles; as Scottish peer he had estates in the Scottish-speaking Lowlands; as brother-in-law to Mary, Queen of Scots, he had access to the court; and as a recently converted Protestant, he had a common bond with Cecil.

What caused the new policy to die so quickly? Dawson admits that the alliance had been held together only by Argyll's vision and the need the new Elizabethan regime had for peace on the island. The loss of Calais, Mary's marriage to the Dauphin, and a temporary peace between the major continental powers made Elizabeth and Cecil realize how precarious their situation was, but as the emergency passed, so did their desire to have a common policy with their neighbors.

Dawson believes that the key to Elizabeth's change of heart was Mary herself. The deaths of Mary of Guise and then Francis II led to the young widow's return to Scotland, relieving Elizabeth of the threat of a French presence in the north. Mary's insistence on being named Elizabeth's heir heightened the English queen's discomfort with the alliance. Later Mary's impetuous marriages and their disastrous consequences tore apart the fragile internal truce that Argyll had valiantly hammered out. Mary's marriage to Lord Darnley precipitated rebellion in Scotland and led to the brink of war with England. Darnley's subsequent murder, and Mary's abduction by Bothwell shattered the alliance beyond repair. The final blow was Mary's flight to England which Dawson calls a "catastrophic error of judgement" (155). With Mary under her protection, Elizabeth realized that power had shifted and she no longer had to appease Scotland, which was now a client state. For Argyll the last straw came when his English allies refused to give military assistance in Ireland. He now rejected the British policy he had worked so hard to bring about. For the rest of his short life, he concentrated on bolstering his clan's affinity at home.

Dawson admits that Argyll had two flaws that hampered his ability. First, his failed marriage, which dominated his adult life, became a public as well as a personal tragedy. And secondly, he was not a skilled politician, being "paralyzed by indecision" (150) caused by the conflict between his traditional loyalty to his sovereign and his dream of a Protestant union of the three kingdoms.

Dawson's political biography is topically and chronologically arranged, which might be confusing as she analyzes the shifting alliances in both Scotland and Ireland, but a ten-page table permits readers to keep straight the complexities of the different worlds Argyll lived in.

ROBERT C. BRADDOCK

Saginaw Valley State University