Treaty of Berwick (1586)

The Treaty of Berwick was a 'league of amity' or peace agreement made on 6 July 1586 between Queen

Berwick upon Tweed.^[1]

The English diplomat

Thomas Randolph was sent to Scotland in February 1586 to commence negotiations on the proposed articles. His mission was opposed in the Scottish court by the French ambassador, the Baron d'Esneval,^[2] and Monsieur de Courcelles, the secretary of the French ambassador in London, but his cause was helped by the banishing of James Stewart, Earl of Arran.^[3]

Represented by

Catholic powers, Spain and France

.

Some believe Elizabeth only entered into the agreement to soften the blow of her next political move - the

English throne upon Elizabeth's death. A part of the agreement ensured James would receive an annual pension of £4,000 from the English state

, which led many to assume Elizabeth already considered James as an heir to her throne. James would succeed to the English throne in 1603.

James VI issued a proclamation on 5 July declaring extra penalties against cross-border raiders for the next forty days. A surviving paper indicates that the Scottish commissioners were to discuss a closer alliance beyond the twelve articles of the league; with an agreement for mutual redress against piracy, the people of Scotland might be made denizens of England and vice versa, so custom duties between England and Scotland would be abolished. The same arrangement existed between Scotland and France. Randolph had already indicated that this matter could not be included in Berwick articles.[4]

References

^ John Strype, Annals of the Reformation, vol. 3 part 1 (Oxford, 1824), p. 567: John Bruce, Leycester Correspondence (London: Camden Society, 1844), p. 345.
^ Sophie Crawford Lomax, Calendar State Papers Foreign Elizabeth, 20 (London, 1921), p. 352.
^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 8 (London, 1914), pp. 536-7.
^ Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol.8 (London, 1914), pp.501-507, 534: Rymer, Thomas, ed., Foedera, vol. 15, p. 805.