Anglo-French War of 1549-50

Knox had been released in February 1549, after spending a total of nineteen months in the galley-prison.

It is uncertain how he obtained his liberty.

Knox had taken refuge in England on his release.

The Reformation in England is a less radical movement than its Continental counterparts, but there is a definite breach with Rome.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, and the regent of King Edward VI, Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, are decidedly Protestant-minded.

However, much work needs to be done to bring reformed ideas to the clergy and to the people.

Knox is on April 7, 1549, licensed to work in the Church of England; his first commission is in Berwick-upon-Tweed.

He is obliged to use the recently released Book of Common Prayer, which is mainly a translation of the Latin mass into English and has been largely left intact and unreformed.

He therefore modifies its use along Protestant lines.

In the pulpit, he preaches Protestant doctrines with great effect as his congregation grows.

The English army on the frontier by May 1549 includes thirty-two hundred soldiers with seventeen hundred German and five hundred Spanish and Italian mercenaries.

The Scots have been able to maintain resistance with more military and financial assistance from France brought by Paul de Thermes.

André de Montalembert, sieur d'Essé, on June 19 takes Inchkeith.

The English abandon Haddington on September 19, 1549.

Henry II, anxious to regain control of Boulogne from England despite the treaty of 1546, had declared war in 1549 after a series of military and naval maneuvers in the Boulogne area calculated to harass the English.

In a combination of actions on sea and land, including the bribing of England’s German mercenaries, the French have encircled the city, but prove unable to reduce it.

France instead buys it back in early 1550 from a war-weary England, whose last two wars with France have driven the royal exchequer into debt.

Anglo-Scottish hostilities end on March 24, 1550, with Scotland comprehended in the Treaty of Boulogne, which is primarily between French and England.

There are conditions to return prisoners and dismantle border fortifications.

As part of the treaty, on April 7 six French and English hostages are to be exchanged.

These are, for France; Mary of Guise's brother the Marquis de Mayenne; Louis Trémoille; Jean de Bourbon, Comte de Enghien; Francis de Montmorency; Jean d'Annebaut; Francis of Vendôme, are sent to London.

For England; Henry Brandon; Edward Seymour, 1st Earl of Hertford; George Talbot; John Bourchier, 5th Baron FitzWarren; Henry Fitzalan; Henry Stanley.

The hostages at both courts have been well entertained and most had returned home by August 1550.

Henry II organizes a triumphal entry to Rouen on October 1, 1550, in which Mary of Guise and Mary, Queen of Scots take part.

The Treaty of Norham, concluded on June 10, 1551, formally ends what Sir Walter Scott, centuries later, will name the Rough Wooing; the English military presence withdraws from Scotland.

Aside from the English intervention at the Siege of Leith in 1560, the Anglo-Scottish War of 1542-49 is the last major conflict between Scotland and England before the Union of the Crowns in 1603.

Mary of Guise herself, welcomed in England by October 1551, travels from Portsmouth to meet Edward VI in London.

Dudley's heir John had in June 1550 married Somerset's daughter Anne as a mark of reconciliation, yet Somerset had soon attracted political sympathizers, hoping to reestablish his power by removing Dudley from the scene, "contemplating", as he later admitted, the Lord President's arrest and execution.

Relying on his popularity with the masses, he campaigns against and tries to obstruct Dudley's policies.

His behavior increasingly threatens the cohesion vital within a minority regime.

Warwick will take no chances in this respect; he now also aspires to a dukedom.

He needs to advertise his power and impress his followers; like his predecessor, he has to represent the King's honor.

His elevation as Duke of Northumberland comes in October 1551 with the Duke of Somerset participating in the ceremony.

Some days later, Somerset is arrested, while rumors about supposed plots of his circulate.

He is accused of having planned a "banquet massacre" in which the Council is to be assaulted and Dudley killed.

(Somerset will be acquitted of treason but will in January 1552, executed on charges of felony for assembling armed men without a license and plotting the murder of a privy councilor.)

Knox had been appointed a preacher of St. Nicholas' Church in Newcastle upon Tyne towards the end of 1550.

Quickly rising in the Anglican ranks, he is soon appointed one of the six royal chaplains serving the king, in which position he is to exert a reforming influence on the text of the Book of Common Prayer.

Knox condemns Dudley’s coup d'état in a sermon on All Saints Day.