HISTORY
OF
THE
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND,
ACCESSION OF ALEXANDEE III. TO
THE UNION.
BY
PATRICK ERASER TYTLER,
F.B.S.E. AND F.A.S.
NEW EDITION.
IN TEN VOLUME
VOL. IX.
EDINBURGH:
WILLIAM P. NIMMO.
1866
w
MUBEAY AND GIBB, PKIXTERS, EDINBURGH.
CONTENTS OF THE NINTH VOLUME.
CHAP. I.
JAMES THE SIXTH.
1586-71589.
Psge
Elizabeth's conduct on the death of Mary, . . . 1, 2
Her great injustice to Davison, 2, 3
James receives the news of his mother's death, . . 3, 4
Letter of Walsingham to Chancellor Maitland, .... 6
The Borders break loose> 8
James' cautious policy, 9, 10
Fall of the Master of Gray, 11
The king attains majority, . . . . . . .12
Reconciliation of the nobility, 13
Intrigues of Huntley and the Catholics, 14
Difficulties of Elizabeth, . . . . . .15,16
Lord Hunsdon communicates with James, . . . .18
James' proceedings against the Catholic lords, . . . .19
Destruction of the Spanish Armada, 20
James deceived by Elizabeth, ib.
Fowler's character of James, 21
Huntley and Errol's intrigue^ with Rome, . . . .23
Their letters intercepted, . . . . . . . . ib.
James' vigorous proceedings against them, . . .25, 26
James' negotiations for his marriage with Anne of Denmark, 27, 28
The bride sails, but is driven back, 29
The king embarks for Denmark, 32
Marriage and return of the king, 32, 33
Coronation fetes, ......... 34
CHAP. II.
15901593,
State of the kingdom, 35, S6
Chancellor Maitland and the Earl of Bothwell, . . .37
Ma.tland's plans for consolidating the king's power, . 38
VI CONTENTS.
Paso
Comparative power of the Protestants and Catholics, . . 39
Reforms at court, 4C, 41
James' activity, 42
His embassy to the Princes of Germany, 43
Embassy to Elizabeth, 44
She sends him the Garter by the Earl of Worcester, . . ib.
Elizabeth's letter to James on the rise of the Puritans, . . 46
Cordiality between Elizabeth and James, . . . .48
Chancellor Maitland's letter to Burghley, . . . .49
James' activity against the witches, SO
Bothwell accused of plots with the Wizard Graham against the
king, 51
Bothwell imprisoned. He escapes, 52, 53
Disorganized state of the kingdom, 55
Bothwell's attack on the palace, 56
Murder of the " Bonny" Earl of Moray by Huntley, . 57, 59
The Chancellor Maitland driven from court, . . . .61
James' difficulties, ......... ib.
He makes advances to the Kirk, 63
Presbytery established by parliament, 64
Intolerance of the Kirk, ........ 65
Arrest of Mr George Ker, 67
Discovery of Spanish intrigues, ib.
Intercepted letters of the Catholic lords, 68
Huntley and Errol imprisoned, .69
James' spirited conduct to Bowes, 70
Elizabeth's letter to James, 71
James' angry expostulation with Bowes, . . . . .72
His activity against the Catholic lords, 74
Mission of Lord Burgh to James, 75
James' leniency to the Catholic lords, . . . . .76
He gives audience to Lord Burgh, ib.
The ambassador's intrigues with Bothwell, . . . .78
Miserable state of the kingdom, 79
The Kirk propose the entire extirpation of the Catholics, . 80, 81
James' opposition. Deserted by the Kirk, . . . .82
Impotence of the laws, 82,83
Reappearance of Captain James Stewart, formerly Earl of Arran, 84
The king's vigorous conduct, 85
Parliament assembled. Bothwell forfeited, . . . .86
Proceedings suspended against Huntley, Errol, and Angus, . 87
Indignation of the ministers, 88
Bothwell seizes the palace, and becomes master of the government, 89
CONTENTS Vll
James' dissimulation, 91
Bothwell and Dr Toby Mathews, 92
Mathews' letter to Burghley, 92, 97
Bothwell's letter to Elizabeth, 97
Bothwell's trial and acquittal, 99
James' unsuccessful attempt to escape, .... 100, 101
He regains his liberty, , . .102
CHAP. III.
15931594.
James' resolute conduct, 104
Elizabeth courts the Catholics, 105
Her duplicity, and letter to James, 106
Bothwell ordered to leave the kingdom, 107
Vigour and power of the king, aad return of the Chancellor
Maitland, . 108
James' wise measures, 110
Alarm of the Kirk, Ill
Excommunication of the Catholic lords, and public Fast, . 112, 113
The Catholic lords supplicate to have their trial, . . .115
The Kirk insists on delay, 116
They summon the people to meet in arms at Perth, . . .117
Danger of a hostile collision, 118
James takes a middle course, 119
His severe decree against the Catholics, 121
The Kirk complain of his leniency, 122
Elizabeth's letter to James, 124
Lord Zouch's (the English ambassador) interview with James, 127
Lord Zouch's conspiracies against James, . . . . 128
Birth of Prince Henry, 130
Zouch and Bothwell's plot discovered, ib.
Defeated by the king, 132
James' letter to Elizabeth, .133,136
James' embassies to foreign States, on the birth of his son, . 1 36
His resolution to pursue the Catholic lords, . . . . 1 37
Embassy of Sussex, and baptism of Prince Henry, . . .138
Letter of Elizabeth to James, . . . . . . 138,139
Letter of James to Elizabeth, 141,142
Elizabeth discards Bothwell, 143
James' preparations against the Catholics, . . . ib.
Argyle marches against Huntley, 145
Besieges Ruthven castle, but repulsed, 147
Vlll CONTENTS.
Page
BATTLE OF GLENLIVAT, 149, 152
The king attacks and entirely defeats Huntley, . . .152
Commits to the Duke of Lennox the temporary government of
the North, 153
CHAP. IV.
15941597.
The queen breaks her promises to James, 156
His extreme rage and disappointment, .... 157, 158
Emulation between the Chancellor Maitland and the Earl of
Mar, 159
Disagreement between the king and queen, . . . .160
Commotions in the North, 161, 162
Convention of the nobles, 164
Miserable state to which Bothwell is reduced, . . . . ib.
Spanish intrigues resumed, 165
Errol and Huntley leave Scotland, 167
James' judicious measures, 168,169
Slaughter of David Forrester, 170
James' rebuke of the chancellor, 171
Rivalry of Maitland and Mar, ib.
The king and queen reconciled, 173
State of the Western Isles, 175
Elizabeth's negotiation with Maclean, 176
Power of Maclean, 177,178
Letter of Maclean to Bowes, 180
Death of the Chancellor Maitland, 181,182
Fears of the Kirk at the renewal of Spanish intrigues, . 183, 184
Appointment of the Octavians, 185
Sir Robert Bowes sent by Elizabeth to Scotland, . . 185, 186
Bowes' interview with the queen, 188
Bowes' negotiation with Maclean, 189
His observations on James' character, 190
Meeting of the General Assembly, 191
Their satisfaction with James' proceedings, . . . .193
Seizure of Kinmont Willie, 194,196
Buccleuch carries him off from Carlisle castle, . . .197,198
James commits Buccleuch to ward, 199
Huntley returns secretly to Scotland, 201
James anxious for his recantation and restoration to his honours, 202
Extreme indignation of the Kirk, ...... ib.
They insist on violent measures, 203
CONTENTS. IX
Page
Mr David Black's attack upon Queen Elizabeth, . . . 204
Complaint of the English ambassador, 205
Black's defence, . . 206,207
James' interview with the commissioners of the Kirk, . 209, 211
Black found guilty, and banished, 212
The commissioners of the Kirk ordered to leave the city, . .213
The king's declaration, ib.
Twenty-four citizens banished the capital, . . . .215
Great tumult in the city, 217
The king leaves his capital and retires to Linlithgow, . .218
The Kirk write to Lord Hamilton, 220
Mr John Welsh's seditious sermon, ib.
Lord Hamilton refuses the offers of the Kirk, and gives their
letter to the king, 221
Vigorous proceedings of the king, 223
His return to Edinburgh, and submission of the citizens, . . 224
James resolves on the establishment of Episcopacy, . . . 225
His " Queries " directed to the Kirk, .... 226, 227
Answers of the Kirk, 228
Meeting of the General Assembly, 229
Success of the king, . 231
Plot of Barclay of Ladyland to seize " Ailsa," .... 233
Huntley's recantation, and reconciliation to the Kirk, . . 234
Visitation of St Andrews, and removal of Andrew Melvil, . 235
Petition by the Kirk to have a voice in parliament, . . . 237
Meeting of the General Assembly, ...... 238
Angry debates, 239
Agreed that the ministers shall have a voice in parliament, . 240
Final establishment of Episcopacy in 1600, . . . 240,241
CHAP. V.
1597-981600.
State of the country, 242
Death of Sir Robert Bowes, 243
Mission of Sir William Bowes to Scotland. .... 244
James' anxiety on the subject of his title to the crown of
England, 244,245
Affair of Valentine Thomas, 246
James' complaint against Spenser's " Fairy Queen," . .247
Increase of witches, and imposture of Aitken discovered, . 248, 249
Proposals of Donald Gorm to Queen Elizabeth, . . 250
Maclean slain by Sir James Macdonald, . . . .251, 252
VOL. ix. a 2
X CONTENTS.
Page
James' schemes for the civilisation of the Isles, . . . 253
The Lewis and Skye let to a company of Lowland barons, . ib.
Their disasters and failure, 254
The magistrates of Edinburgh's spirited resistance to the crown, 255
Contest between the king and the Supreme Court, . . . 256
Death of Lord Burghley, 257
Sir Robert Cecil manages the Scottish affairs, . . . 258
His alarms for James' orthodoxy, ib.
James' financial embarrassments, 259, 260
Mission of Sir William Bowes, 261
" Basilicon Doron," ib.
Andrew Melvil attacks it, 262
Publication of the king's book, 263
A general Fast, ib.
Sir Edmund Ashfield kidnapped, 264, 265
James' indignation, 265
Arrival of a French ambassador, 266
Alarm of the Kirk at the arrival of " English Players," . 266, 267
General " Band " on the succession, ..... 268
James' harangue on the same subject, 269
His scheme of taxation defeated, ib.
Spirited resistance of the burghs, ...... 270
First day of the year altered from 25th March to 1st January, . ib.
CHAP. VI.
1600.
THE GOWRIE CONSPIRACY, 271
Early life of the young Earl of Gowrie, 272
Education at Padua, 273, 274
His stay at Paris, 275
His reception at the English court, ib.
Coldness between Elizabeth and James, .... 276, 278
Bothwell reported to be in Scotland, 279
Reflexions on the state of parties, 280
Gowrie's return to Scotland, 281
Anecdotes, 282,283
He retires from court, , . . . 284
Convention of Estates, and deoates, 285
Gowrie opposes the king, 287
James' rage at Gowrie and the burghs, 288
Remarks, 289, 290
Gowrie's plot and accomplices, 29 J
CONTENTS. XI
Page
He studies Machiavel, 292
Logan of Restalrig and Laird Bower, ib.
The Master of Ruthven, 293
Gowrie House and Fastcastle, 294
Letter of Logan to the unknown conspirator, 18th July, . 295, 296
Logan to Laird Bower, 297
Logan to the unknown conspirator, 27th July, .... 298
Logan to Gowrie, July 29, 299, 302
Logan to the unknown conspirator, 302, 304
Summary of the letters, 304
Progress of the plot, 305, 308
The king arrives at Gowrie House, 309
Progress of the plot, 310, 311
James follows the Master of Ruthven to the private room, . 311
The struggle between them, 313
The catastrophe. Death of the Master and Gowrie, . . 314, 316
Popular tumult, 317
James returns to Falkland, 318
Rejoicings when he returns to Edinburgh, . . . 318, 319
CHAP. VII.
16001603.
Scepticism of the Kirk on the Gowrie conspiracy, . . . 320
James' impatience and impolitic conduct, . . . . .321
Severe proceedings against the House of Ruthven, . . . 322
Elizabeth's Letter to James, 324
Ashfield's directions to James as to the " Succession," . . 325
Differences between the king and his queen, .... 326
Birth of a prince, afterwards Charles the First, . . ' 327
Friendly letter of Elizabeth to James, .... 327, 328
James interests himself for the Earl of Essex, .... 329
Embassy of the Earl of Mar and the Abbot of Kinloss to Eliza-
beth, 330
Elizabeth's cold reception of them, 331, 332
James' secret instructions to the ambassadors, . . . 333, 335
The ambassadors gain Secretary Cecil, ..,. 336
Elizabeth's letter to James, 337
Last parliament of Elizabeth, 338, 339
The queen abolishes monopolies, 340
Mission of the duke of Lennox to Elizabeth, . . .341
The duke's secret negotiations in England, . . . ib.
Cecil and Howard's secret correspondence with James, . 342, 344
Xll CONTENTS.
Page
James' wise and spirited conduct, .... . 345
His difficulties in conciliating the Catholics, . . . 345, 347
Former mission of Pourie Ogilvy, 347
James' alleged letter to the pope, 348
Difficulty in discovering the truth as to these intrigues, . . 349
All parties favour his title, 350
Reconciliations and stanching of feuds amongst the Scottish
nobles, ib.
Elizabeth's last letter to James, ... . 352
Elizabeth's last illness, 354, 358
Her death. James proclaimed her successor, .... 359
Sir Robert Carey's journey to Scotland, 360
James sets out for England, 361
His triumphant progress, . . . ~ . . . . 362
He enters London, and takes possession of the English throne, . ib.
CONCLUSION OF THE HISTORY. ... . 364
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM UNPRINTED MANUSCRIPTS.
No.
I. Huntley's Rebellion, with Errol, Angus, and Bothwell, 367
II. Queen Elizabeth to King James, 29th May, 1590, . 369
III. Queen Elizabeth to Henry the Fourth, 27th July, 1591, 370
IV. Queen Elizabeth to the King of Scots, 12th August, 1591, 371
V. Elizabeth to Henry the Fourth, 9th November, 1591, . 373
VI. Elizabeth to James, 25th November, 1591, . . 374
VII. Queen Elizabeth to James, 4th December, 1592, . ib.
VIII. The present state of the nobility in Scotland, 1st July,
1592, 376
IX. Elizabeth to James, 1593, . . . . . . 382
X. Elizabeth to James, June 1594, 384
XI. Kinmont Willie, 385
XII. Elizabeth to James, April 1596, 387
XIII. After Kinmont Will's rescue and deliverance by Buc-
cleuch, 1596, 389
XIV. Elizabeth to James, 1st July, 1598. On the subject of
Valentine Thomas, 390
XV. James to Elizabeth, 10th February, 1601, . . .391
XVI. Elizabeth to James, May 1601, 392
XVII. Elizabeth to James, 2d December, 1601, . . . 393
XVIII. Elizabeth to James, 4th July, 1602, . . 394
HISTORY
OF
SCOTLAND.
CHAP. I.
JAMES THE SIXTH.
1586-71590.
CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.
England.
Elizabeth.
France.
Henry III.
Henry IV.
Qermany.
Rudolph II.
Spain.
Philip II.
Portugal.
Philip II.
Pope.
Sixtus V.
THE conduct of Elizabeth on the death of the Queen
of Scots was marked by much dissimulation and in-
justice. After having signed the warrant for her
execution, commanded it to be carried to the Seals, and
positively interdicted Davison, to whom she delivered
it, from any further communication with her till it
was obeyed, she suddenly turned fiercely round upon
him and her council, and cast on them the whole guilt
of Mary's blood. In a moment she denied, or pre-
tended to forget, everything which she had done. She
had declared to Sir Robert Melvil, that she would not
spare his royal mistress' life for one hour ; now she
swore vehemently that she never intended to take it.
She had assured Davison, with a great oath, that she
meant the execution to go forward ; now she loudly
VOL. IX. A
2 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1586-7.
protested that she had commanded him to keep the
warrant till he received further orders. She had
laboured anxiously with Paulet to have Mary secretly
made away with ; and now she did not scruple to call
God to witness, under awful obtestations, that her
determined resolution had been all along to save her
life.* And her subsequent conduct was perfectly in
character with all this. On the day after the execu-
tion, Lord Shrewsbury wrote from Fotheringay to the
court, which was then at Greenwich. Next morning,
at nine, his letters were brought to the palace by his
son Henry Talbot, and the news became public. Soon
after, the bells of the city, and the blazing of bonfires,
proclaimed the happiness of the people.^ It was im-
possible that these demonstrations should have escaped
the notice of Elizabeth ; and we know from Davison,
every word of whose "Apology" carries truth and
conviction with it, that the queen that same night was
made aware of Mary's execution ; J but she took no
notice, and kept an obstinate silence. Apparently
none of her ministers dared to allude to the event ;
and when, after four days, the news was at last forced
upon her, she broke into a hypocritical passion of
astonishment, tears, and indignation. She upbraided
her councillors with having purposely deceived her,
chased Burghley from her presence, and committed
Secretary Davison to the Tower. It was in vain that
this upright and able, but most unfortunate of men
* Supra, vol. viii. p. 338. Life of Thomas Egerton, Lord Chancellor,
p. 119. Chasteauneuf to Henry III., 28th February, 1587. Also, MS.
Minutes of Carey's Message, Warrender MSS.
+ Life of Egerton, pf 117, 119. Letter of Chasteauneuf to Henry III.,
28th February, 1587. It ought to be remembered that Chasteauneuf uses
the new style.
I Sir Harris Nicolas' Life of Davison, p. 268.
Wright, Life and Times of Elizabeth, vol. ii. p. 332. Wolley to
Leicester, Sunday, 1586. This Sunday was the 12th February.
1586-7. JAMES VI. 3
pbaded, with all the energy of truth, the commands
of his sovereign for everything that he had done. She
knew he had no witnesses of their conversation ;
charged him with falsehood and disobedience ; com-
pelled Burghley, who must have been well assured of
his innocence, to draw up a severe memorial against
him ; had him tried before the Star-chamber ; degraded
him from his office of secretary ; inflicted on him a
fine which amounted to absolute ruin ; and never after-
wards admitted him to the least enjoyment of her
favour.*
All this was in keeping with the subtlety and dis-
regard of truth which sometimes marked Elizabeth's
proceedings, when she had any great object to gain.
It was part of a premeditated plan by which she hoped
to mislead Europe, and convince its States that she
was really guiltless of Mary's blood : but ultimately
it had no effect on the continent ; and it was too
palpably fictitious to be successful for a moment in
Scotland, where the facts were well known. In that
country, the news of Mary's execution was received
with a universal burst of indignation, and open threats
of revenge. But the English wardens, Lord Scrope
and Sir John Foster, were provided against immediate
attack ; and the season of the year, which was seed-
time, rendered it difficult for the Scots to assemble in
any force. -f-
It was Mr Roger Ashton, a gentleman of James 1
bed-chamber, whom he had sent to London some time
before this, that brought the king the first certain
* Nicolas' Life of Davison, pp. 82, 83 ; and Appendix, pp. 235, 236, 260,
263.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Sir John Foster to Walsingham,
26th February, 1586-7. Also, MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Scropa
to Walsingham, 14th February, 1586-7.
4 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1586-7.
intelligence of his mother's death. Ash ton arrived in
o
Edinburgh about the seventh day after the execution ;
and Lord Scrope, who had despatched a spy to watch
James' motions, wrote in alarm to Walsingham, that
the monarch was grievously offended, and had sworn
that so foul an act of tyranny and injustice should
not pass unrevenged.* The feelings, however, of this
prince were neither deep nor lasting. Even at this
sad moment, selfishness and the assurance of undivided
sovereignty neutralized his resentment; and he suf-
fered some expressions of satisfaction to escape him,
which his chief minister, Secretary Maitland, did not
choose should reach any but the most confidential
ears.*f* Meantime, as Ashtori's information was secret,
James took no public notice of it, but sent in haste for
Lord Maxwell, Ker of Ancrum, and young Ferny-
hirst.:}: These were reckoned amongst his most war-
like Border leaders ; and whilst the country rang with
threats of revenge, the king shut himself up in his
palace, and held conference with them and his most
confidential nobles.
Amid these consultations, Mr Robert Carey was
despatched by the English queen to convey her apology
to Scotland. This young courtier was the son of Lord
Hunsdon, Elizabeth's cousin-german, and she selected
him as a personal favourite of the Scottish king. He
carried with him a letter, written in her own hand, in
which she expressed the excessive grief which over-
whelmed her mind, in consequence of what she termed
" the miserable accident which had befallen, far con-
* Lord Scrope to Walsingham. Queen Elizabeth and her Times, vol. ii.
p. 333, 21st February, 15%-7. Also, State-paper Office, B.C., Sir H.
Woddrington to Walsingham, 25th February, 1586-7.
f MS. Calderwood. British Museum, Ayscough, 4738, fol. 974.
Lord Scrope to Walsingham, 21st February, 1586-7. Wright's Eliza-
beth, vol. ii. p. 333.
1586-7. JAMES VI. 5
trary to her meaning;""* and he was instructed to
throw the entire blame of the tragedy at Fotheringav
upon Davison and her council. On arriving at Ber-
wick, Carey forwarded a letter requesting an audience ;
but this the king declined to grant till the envoy had
stated, on his honour, whether his mother, the Queen
of Scots, was dead or alive ; and when it was answered
that she was executed, James peremptorily refused to
see the ambassador, and commanded him to proceed
no farther into Scotland. He added, however, that
he would send some members of his council to Berwick,
to whom the letter and message of the English queen
might be delivered.
On any other occasion the wrath of Elizabeth would
have blazed high and fierce at such an indignity ; but
at this moment she was placed in circumstances which
compelled her to digest the affront ; and Carey com-
municated her false and ungenerous version of the
story of Mary's death to Sir Robert Melvil and the
Laird of Cowdenknowes, who met him for this purpose
at Berwick. -f* All this failed, as may readily be believed,
to convince James, or appease the general indignation
of the people. By this time the execution of the
Scottish queen, with its affecting details, was known
throughout the country; and whatever may have been
the king's secret resolutions upon the subject, he felt
that it would be almost impossible to resist the deep
and increasing current of popular fury which was
sweeping on to its revenge.
Many symptoms daily occurred to show this: Already
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Wcddrington to Walsingham,
25th February, 1 586-7. Also, Warrender MSS., vol. A., p. 240. MS. Letter,
Elizabeth to James.
t Warrender MSS., vol. A., p. 241. Mr Carey's Credit. MS. Letter,
State-paper Office, B.C., Woddrington to Walsingham, 10th March, 1586-7.
6 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1586-7.
the Scottish Border chiefs had so strictly waylaid
every road and pass, that not a letter or scrap of in-
telligence could be conveyed to the English court :
three Scottish scouts, with troopers trained to the
duty, and armed to the teeth, were stationed at Lin-
ton Bridge, Coldingham Moor, and beyond Hadding-
ton, who watched day and night, and pounced on every
packet. The system of secret intelligence was at a
stand ; Walsingham pined for news, and complained
that his " little blue-cap lads," who used to bring him
word of all occurrences, were no more the men he had
known them. Although the season of the year was
unfavourable, the Borders were already stirring ; some
minor Scottish forays took place ; and Bothwell, whose
power was almost kingly on the marches, intimated
unequivocally, that he only delayed his blow that it
might fall the more heavily. He refused to put on
mourning, striking his mailed glove on his breast, and
declaring that the best " dule weed " for such a time,
was a steel coat. Nor did he stand alone in these
sentiments. Lord Claud Hamilton, and his brother
Arbroath, offered, on the moment, to raise three thou-
sand men, and carry fire and sword to the gates of
Newcastle; whilst Buccleuch, Cessford, and Ferny-
hirst, were only restrained from an outbreak by the
positive injunctions of the king, and stood full armed,
and fiery-eyed, straining like blood-hounds in the slip,
ready to be let loose on a moment's warning against
England.
The first circumstance which offered any perceptible
check to these dread appearances, was the arrival of an
able letter addressed by Walsingham to Sir John
Maitland of Thirlstane, the Scottish Secretary of
State, which was evidently meant for the king's eye.
1587. JAMES vi. 7
Thirlstane, originally bred to the law, was then high
in his master's favour, and had risen by his talents as
a statesman to be his most confidential minister. He
was the sou of Sir Richard Maitland, and younger
brother of the Secretary Lethington ; and although
his powers were less brilliant and commanding than
those wielded by that extraordinary man, his good
sense, indefatigable application to business, and per-
sonal intrepidity, made him a valuable servant to his
sovereign, and a formidable antagonist to the higher
nobility, who envied and disliked him. To him, there-
fore, Walsingham wisely addressed this letter, or rather
memorial, in which he argued the question of peace or
war, and pointed out the extreme folly and impolicy
of those counsels which, at such a moment, urged the
young king to a rupture with England. His reasons
were well calculated to make an impression upon James.*
Adverting to the injustice of the quarrel, he described,
with great force of argument, the effects that a war
with England must inevitably produce on his title to
the succession after the queen's death, and the certain
alienation of the whole body of the English nobility
and people from a prince who first revived the ancient
and almost forgotten enmity between the two nations,
and then hoped to be welcomed as the successor of so
great and popular a princess as Elizabeth. As for
Spain and France, on whose assistance it was reported
he chiefly depended, could he for a moment imagine
that Spain would prove true to him? a country
which hated him for his religion ; or France, whose
policy was to counteract, by every possible method,
an event which must be so fatal to her power as the
* His letter, which is very long, is printed entire by Spottiswood,
pp. 359, 360, 361, 362.
8 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1587.
union, whether by conquest or otherwise, of the crowns
of England and Scotland ? Could he believe that the
French monarch would assist him to a conquest which,
if completed, must threaten his own crown ? Had he
forgotten that the monarchs of England still insisted
on their right to the throne of France ? Besides,
could it be credited for an instant, that the king of
that country would ever cordially unite his interests
with a monarch so nearly allied as James to the family
of Guise ; a house which Henry hated in his heart,
and which he suspected to aim at his deposition ?
There can be no doubt that these arguments of
so far-sighted a statesman as Walsingham, were not
thrown away eventually upon James ; but at the
moment the impression was scarcely perceptible, and
for some time everything portended war.
The Scottish Borders, which during the winter and
spring had been kept in tolerable quietness, broke into
open hostility as the summer advanced. Six suc-
cessive Scottish forays swept with relentless havoc
through the Middle Marches ; and Sir Cuthbert Col-
lingwood, who commanded in those parts, found him-
self too weak to restrain the incursions of the fierce
marauders of Cessford, Fernyhirst, Bothwell, and
Angus. In a piteous letter to Walsingham, he
described the country as having been reduced to a
desert, wasted with fire and sword, and filled with
lamentation and dismay ; * and he remonstrated with
the Scottish wardens in strong terms. But so little
impression did Collingwood's complaints make on the
Scottish government, and so inadequate was the assis-
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Collingwood to Walsingham,
12th July, 1587. Ibid., B.C., same to same, 21st May, 1587. Ibid., B.C.,
same to same, with enclosure, 23d June, 1587 ; and ibid., same to same,
23d August, 1587.
1587. JAMES VI. 9
tance sent him by his own, that Buccleuch, Cessford,
and Johnston, with a force of two thousand men,
attacked him iu his castle at Eslington, slew seven-
teen of his garrison, took one of his sons prisoner,
severely wounded another, and but for the fleetness of
his horse had made captive the warden himself.
It seems difficult to reconcile these flagrant outrages,
which continued more or less throughout the year
1587, though unnoticed by our general historians, with
James" warm coalition with Elizabeth in 1588. The
probable explanation may be, that the young King of
Scots, without serious intentions of war, was not dis-
pleased that Elizabeth should have a little temporary
experience of his power of disturbing her ; that he was
not annoyed by such excesses ; and even, as Foster
asserted and Burghley suspected, secretly encouraged
them.* He knew that Elizabeth was anxious to con-
ciliate him, and had determined, at all hazards, to
purchase peace with Scotland ; and he, on his side,
had resolved that he would not sell it too cheap. He
was well aware of the embarrassments with which the
English queen was now surrounded. The mighty
preparations of Spain against England were no secret.
The rebellion of Tyrone in Ireland was at its height.
In Scotland the Catholic lords, Huntley, Errol, Angus,
Maxwell, and their adherents, were powerful, warlike,
and stirring, animated with the bitterest animosity
against Elizabeth, whom they detested as the mur-
deress of their queen and the implacable enemy of
their religion. Another thorn in the side of England
was the constant friendly intercourse between the
Irish insurgents and the Scottish Isles. From these
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Robert Carryle to Walsingham,
4th December, 1587. Also, MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Burghley to
t, 17th April, 1588.
10 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1587.
nurseries of warlike seamen and soldiers, strong rein-
forcements had already joined Tyrone; and the chiefs,
who were as fierce and potent as so many little sea
kings, drove a lucrative trade by serving him against
England at a high price. This was another weapon
in the hand of James. By means of his lieutenants,
Huntley and Argyle, to whom the administration of
the northern parts of his dominions was intrusted, he
could let loose the Islesmen against Elizabeth, or
detain them at home, as suited his policy ; and that
queen repeatedly requested him to exert this influence
in her favour. To do this, however, with greater
profit to himself, the king was not unwilling she should
feel his power ; and, with this view, he shut his eyes
to the Border inroads, delayed remonstrating with
Huntley on his intrigues with Spain, refused to appre-
hend the Jesuits who were lurking in his dominions,
and gave himself no trouble to check the rising ani-
mosity against England. Yet in his heart he had no
inclination for war. He felt the truth of Walsing-
hanTs argument, that any prolonged struggle at this
moment with England would be fatal to his hopes of
succession ; and he flattered himself that he had the
reins over the Catholic lords and the Spanish intriguers
so completely in his hands, that he could command
peace with England at whatever moment the queen
chose to have his amity on his own terms. In such a
hope it turned out that he was deceived. The Catholic
party, supported by the money of Spain, commanding
nearly all the northern counties, and having with
them the sympathies of the people, who were enraged
at the execution of Mary, gained in a short time a
strength on which he had not calculated, and far from
being bridled, for some time dictated terms to him.
1587. JAMES VI. H
But it is time to return from this digression to the
course of events in Scotland.
The king, who was now on the eve of his majority,
assembled a convention of his nobility at Edinburgh,
and determined to despatch ambassadors to the courts
of France and Denmark.* To Henry the Third he
proposed a renewal of the ancient league between the
two kingdoms; whilst to the Danish monarch he made
overtures of a matrimonial alliance.^ But Henry,
who was at this moment disposed to be on favourable
terms with England, treated James 1 advances coldly;
and although the Danish alliance eventually took
place, its first suggestion does not appear to have been
very cordially welcomed. J
The same convention was signalized by an event
which brought a merited punishment on one of the
basest of men. This was the fall of the Master of
Gra} 7 , who was tried for high treason, condemned, and
on the point of being executed, when his life was
spared, and the sentence changed to banishment, at
the intercession of the Earl of Huntley and Lord
Hamilton. His accuser was Sir William Stewart,
now about to proceed on the French embassy ; and
in his dittay or indictment, which has been preserved,
were contained various points of treason. But his
most flagrant offence, which was completely proved,
was the base betrayal of his trust in his recent nego-
tiation in England, where he secretly recommended
* Moyse's Memoirs. Bannatyne edition, p. 64.
+ MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C.. Carvyle to Walsingham, 3d June,
1587.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, A. B. to Walsingham, 19th August,
1587. Also, Car to Walsingham, B.C., State-paper Office, 1 1th September,
1587. Moyse's Memoirs, p. 65.
Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. i. part iii. p. 157. Historie of James
the Sext, p. 227. Spottiswood, p. 363.
12 HISTORY" OF SCOTLAND. 1587.
the death, instead of pleading for the life, of the Scot-
tish queen. At first, with his wonted effrontery, he
attempted to brazen out the matter and overawe his
enemies ; but in the end he pleaded guilty ; and, as
abject as he had been insolent, threw himself on the
king's mercy. None lamented his disgrace ; for,
although still young in years, Gray was old in false-
hood and crime. Brilliant, fascinating, highly edu-
cated, and universally reputed the handsomest man of
his time, he had used all these advantages for the most
profligate ends ; and his life, which to the surprise of
many was now spared, had been little else than a tissue
of treachery. He retired to France ; and although,
after some years, he was again permitted to return ta
Scotland, he never recovered the commanding station
from which he fell.*
James had now attained majority, and important
subjects began to occupy his mind. Amid much that
was frivolous and volatile, this young prince sometimes
evinced a sagacity in detecting abuses, and a vigour
in devising plans for the amelioration of his kingdom,
which surprised even those who knew him best. To
reconcile his nobility, and extinguish those fierce and
sanguinary family feuds which so frequently defied
the laws and tore the kingdom in pieces ; to arrange
the affairs of the Kirk, provide for its ministers, and
establish a certain form of ecclesiastical polity ; to
escape from the pressure of an enormous debt by re-
covering the crown lands, which had been greatly
dilapidated during his minority ; and to take some
decisive steps on the subject of his marriage; these were
the chief points which now pressed themselves upon
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Woddrington to Walsingham,
29th April, 1587. Ibid., Carvyle to Walsingham, 12th May, 1587.
1587. JAMES VI. IS
his attention, and to which he directed the labours of
his principal minister, the Secretary Maitland. But
difficulties encountered him at every step. Outwardly,
indeed, the king's desire for a reconciliation amongst
the nobles was accomplished ; and at the conclusion
of the parliament held in the capital,* the principal
street exhibited a singular spectacle. A table was
spread at the Cross, where a banquet was prepared by
the magistrates ; and a long line of nobles, who had
been previously reconciled and feasted by the king in
the palace at Holyrood, was seen to emerge from its
massive gateway, and walk in peaceful procession up
the principal street of the city. Bothwell and' Angus,
Hume and Fleming, Glammis and Crawford, with
many other fierce opponents who had been compelled
by their sovereign's threats or entreaties to an unwill-
ing embrace, marched hand in hand to take their
seats at the board of concord, where they drank to
each other amid the thunder of the castle guns, and
the songs and shouts of the citizens. It was an im-
posing ceremony, but really an idle and hollow farce.
The deep wounds of feudal hatred, and the sacred duty
of feudal revenge, were not so easily cured or forgotten ;
and many of the hands now locked in each other were
quivering with a desire to find occupation rather in
grappling the throat than pledging the health of their
brother. Before the year concluded, all accordingly
was nearly as bad as before.
There was one point, however, on which all seemed
agreed a desire to attack England and avenge the
death of Mary. So deep was this feeling, that Thirl-
stane, now raised to the high office of chancellor, in
closing the parliament, made a stirring appeal to the
* Historic of James the Sext, p. 229.
14 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1587-
assembled Estates ; and such was the impression of
his eloquence, that the nobles, in a transport of pity
and enthusiasm, threw themselves upon their knees
before the king, and, amid the clang of their weapons
and imprecations against Elizabeth, took a vow that
they would hazard their lives and fortunes in the
quarrel.*
These indications encouraged Huntley and the potent
faction of the Catholic lords to a renewal, or rather
more active continuance, of their intrigues with Spain
and the Low Countries. Messengers were despatched
thither, (not without the connivance of James,) who
held out hopes to Philip of Scottish assistance in his
great enterprise against England. *f* Various Jesuits
and seminary priests in disguise (of whom Gordon and
Dury were the most active) glided through North-
umberland into Scotland, proceeded to the late con-
vention at Edinburgh, and from thence to Aberdeen,
where they continued their efforts, in conjunction with
their foreign brethren, for the reestablishment of the
Catholic faith and the dethronement of Elizabeth.]:
Apparently, all this was encouraged by the Scottish
king. It is, indeed, sometimes exceedingly difficult
to get at the real sentiments of a prince who prided
himself upon his dissimulation: but, either from policy
or necessity, he was soon so utterly estranged from
England, and so completely surrounded by the Spanish
faction, that Elizabeth began to be in serious alarm.
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Carvyle to Walsingham, 3d
August, 1587.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Car to Walsingham, llth Sept.,
1587. Also, ibid., B.C., Woddrington to Walsingham, 29th April, 1587.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Collingwood to Walsingham, 21st
May, 1587.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Lord Hunsdon to Burghley, 14th
November, 1587.
Jo 87. JAMES vi. 15
That great princess was at this moment surrounded
by dangers of no ordinary magnitude. Philip the
Second of Spain was collecting against her that mighty
armament, which was idly deemed to be invincible.
The ports of Spain and Flanders rang with the din
of arms and the bustle and confusion of military pre-
paration. The queen had been persuaded by Burgh-
ley and her chief councillors, that the execution of
the Queen of Scots would prove a death-blow to the
Catholic party, extricate her from all her difficulties,
and confer upon her life and crown a security to which
she had for many years been a stranger. But she
was miserably disappointed. The accounts of the
death of Mary were received by nearly the whole of
Christendom with one loud burst of astonishment and
indignation. No sovereign had enforced more rigidly
than Elizabeth the dogma of the inviolability and
divine right of princes, and their responsibility to
God alone. The doctrine was generally received and
acted upon by her royal allies ; and they now arraign-
ed her as an apostate from her own principles, and an
open despiser of all that was holy, just, and true.
Mary's servants and household were many of them
foreigners ; and, returning to their homes, spread
over the continent the touching story of her death.
The hypocritical pretences of the Queen of England,
by which she had endeavoured to shield herself from
the odium of the execution, were generally discredited.
It was said that, for the gratification of her own pri-
vate revenge, she had not scrupled to stain her hands
with the blood of an innocent queen ; and that, to
escape the infamy of the fact, she had meanly and
falsely thrown the blame upon an innocent councillor.
The press teemed throughout Catholic Europe with
16 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1587-8.
innumerable publications. Histories, poems, pamph-
lets, and funeral orations, were circulated in every
quarter on the alleged martyrdom of the Scottish
queen, and the execrable guilt of her by whom she
had been murdered. The whole course of Elizabeth's
public and private life was dissected, attacked, and
exaggerated ; and she was held up to the detestation
of the world as the true daughter and inheritrix of
all the wickedness, cruelty, irreligion, tyranny, and
lust of her father, Henry the Eighth. The effect of
all this, and the impression it made upon the Catholic
mind throughout Christendom, was great : and when
Philip began his mighty preparations against Eng-
land, the projected invasion of that country partook
of something like the sanctity of a crusade.
Surrounded by such complicated difficulties, it was
not without alarm that Elizabeth heard of the estrange-
ment of the Scottish king, and the bold proceedings
of her enemies the Catholic lords. Confident of the
assistance of Spain, with whose vast preparations they
were well acquainted, they hoped to revolutionize
Scotland, get possession of the king's person, destroy
his Protestant advisers, and reestablish the Catholic
religion.* It was one principal branch of their plan
to produce a diversion against England in Ireland and
the Western Isles, which should take place at the
moment of the invasion by the Armada. For the
accomplishment of these great designs, Lord Maxwell,
a leading and powerful Catholic lord, was on the con-
tinent in communication with Spain and Rome; Archi-
bald Douglas was suspected to be seconding their efforts
in England, and the disgraced Master of Gray in
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, " f to Walsingham, 1st January,
1587-8.
1587-8. JAMES VI. 17
France ; whilst Sir William Stewart, the brother of
the once-powerful Arran, was busy at the head-quar-
ters of the Prince of Parma.* In Scotland, Huntley,
the great leader of the Catholic lords, with Lord Claud
Hamilton, Mar, Angus, and Bothwell, were prepared,
on the briefest warning, to assemble a force which the
king, in his present circumstances of poverty and de-
sertion, could not control. As was usual in Scotland,
schemes of private assassination were mixed up with
plots against the government : not only the Chancellor
Maitland but the king himself considered their lives
in danger ;*f* and James, in self-defence, was com-
pelled to dissemble, and to aim at a neutrality which
promised a temporary security. J But throughout all
this the real sentiments of the monarch experienced
no alteration. He continued firm in his opposition
to Spain, true to the reformed religion, and ready to
league with England the moment Elizabeth, throwing
off her parsimony, showed a sincere determination to
assist hirn with money and troops. This the immi-
nent dangers with which she was surrounded at length
compelled her to do ; and Lord Hunsdon, her cousin,
who had recently gained an intimate knowledge of the
intrigues of France by robbing the French ambassa-
dor, Courcelles, of his despatches, was selected to open
a communication with the King of Scots. But at this
moment a circumstance, apparently slight, had nearly
overturned all. Jane Kennedy, the daughter of a
noble house, who had attended Mary in her last hours,
suddenly arrived from France, obtained a private audi-
* MS. State-paper Office, January, 1587-8. Occurrences out of Scot-
land.
+ MS. Letter, British Museum, Caligula D, fol. Hunsdon to Burghley,
25th November, 1587. Also, MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., same
to same, 14tb December, 1587 : and ibid., same to same, 27th December,
1587. I Id. ibid.
VOL. IX. B
18 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1587-8.
ence of the king, was closeted with him for two hours,
and gave so touching an account of the tragedy at
Fotheringay, that James refused to be comforted ;
and denouncing vengeance, broke off the conferences
with England. But these feelings were evanescent : the
violence of the northern earls, the fear of losing Eliza-
beth and cutting himself out of the succession, restored
him to his calmer mood ; and he despatched the Laird
of Carmichael to meet Hunsdon on the Borders at
Hutton Hall.* All, however, had to be transacted
with the utmost secrecy ; and nothing could be more
alarming than the picture of the kingdom drawn by
the English diplomatist. Huntley and the Catholics,
he said, were almost in open rebellion, earnestly press-
ing Philip and the Duke of Parma to attack Eng-
land through Scotland; and offering, the moment
the Spaniards made their descent, to join them with
a body of troops which should overwhelm Elizabeth.^
Against this there was little to oppose : for the Scot-
tish king and the Kirk were on bad terms ; and the
Chancellor Maitland, the only man of statesmanlike
views, although in heart a Protestant and a friend to
England, lived in hourly dread of assassination by
Bothwell or some of his desperate associates. J Under
such trying circumstances, it says something for the
King of Scots that he resisted the high offers made
to him at this crisis by foreign princes, declared him-
self the determined opponent of Spain, resolved to
support the reformed opinions, and cooperated cor-
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Hunsdon to Burghley, 23d Janu-
ary, 1587-8. Also, ibid., same to same, 17th January, 1587-8.
f MS. 1588-9, State-paper Office. Intercepted letters of Huntley, Mor-
ton, and Lord Claud Hamilton, in the name of the Catholic gentlemen of
Scotland, to the King of Spain. This is a decipher hy the noted Phelipps.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Hunsdon to Burghley, 31st March,
15bU
1588. JAMES VI. 19
dially with the Queen of England. He assured Eliza-
beth that she could not detest more deeply than
himself the plots of the Papists ; that none of the
messengers of Antichrist, their common enemy, should
be encouraged; and that his single reason for sus-
pending their usual loving intelligence was a feeling
that she had failed to vindicate herself from the guilt
of his mothers blood. To prove his sincerity against
the Catholics, he summoned his forces, attacked the
castle of Lochmaben, belonging to Lord Maxwell, who
had now assumed the title of Morton, and, reinforced
by an English battering-train, beat the castle about
the ears of its captain, David Maxwell, whom he
hanged with six of his men.* This spirit and severity
enchanted Elizabeth; and she forthwith despatched
Mr William Ashby to the Scottish court with her
thanks and congratulations. But the ambassador
promised far more than the queen had the least in-
tention of performing. His royal mistress, he said,
was ready to settle a duchy on her good brother, with
a yearly pension of five thousand pounds. She would
immediately raise for him a body-guard of fifty Scot-
tish gentlemen ; and, to meet the danger of a revolt
by the Popish lords on the approach of the Armada,
she would levy a corps of a hundred horse and a hun-
dred infantry to act upon the Borders, f With these
high offers James immediately closed ; and Walsing-
ham, for whose piercing glance and universal intelli-
gence nothing was too minute or remote, having dis-
covered that Thomas Fowler, an attached friend of
the house of Lennox and a favourite of the Scottish
* Historic of James the Sext, p. 236.
+ MS. Letter, State-paper Office , William Ashby to Lord Burghley,
6th August, 1588.
20 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1 588.
king, was about to proceed on some private personal
affairs to Edinburgh, contrived, through his means, to
open a secret correspondence with James, and Maitland
his chief minister, which enabled them to traverse and
overthrow the designs of Huntley and the Spanish
faction. * All this was of the utmost importance to
Elizabeth. Ireland was saved from any invasion by
the Islesmen ; the Borders between England and Scot-
land were kept quiet; no Scottish auxiliaries were
permitted to pass over to the service of her enemies ;
and she was enabled to concentrate her whole naval
and military energies to meet the great crisis of her
fate, the meditated invasion of the Armada. This
she did, accordingly, in the noblest and most effective
manner : and the result is familiar to all, in the utter
discomfiture and dispersion of that mighty armament.
Not long after this occurred the assassination of the
Duke of Guise and his brother the Cardinal of Lorraine,
which removed two of her most powerful and talented
opponents : so that, although the clouds still lowered,
the imminency of the danger on the side of Spain and
France had passed.
James now naturally looked for the performance of
her promises ; but he was cruelly disappointed. With
the cessation of alarm, Elizabeth's deep-rooted habits
of parsimony revived : the promised duchy with its
princely revenue, the annual pension, the intended
body-guard, the English auxiliaries to act upon the
Borders, melted away and were no more heard of.
Ashby, the ambassador, it was alleged, had much
exceeded his instructions ; and the king, in great
wrath, complained that he had been dandled and duped
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Ashby to Walsingham, 13th November,
1588. Also, ibid., Fowler to Walsingham, 18th December, 1588.
1588. JAMES VI. 21
like a boy.* These irritated feelings were encouraged
by the Spanish faction. Many urged the king to seek
revenge. Bothwell, ever anxious for broils, boasted
that, without charging his master a farthing, he would
bleed Elizabeth's exchequer at the rate of two hundred
thousand crowns a-year, or lay the country waste to
the gates of Newcastle. The more moderate party
hardly dared to advise ; and the Chancellor Maitland,
hitherto the firm friend of England, found himself
compelled to unite with Huntley. The character of
the young prince, and the dangerous and unsettled
state of Scotland at this time, were strikingly described
by Fowler in one of his letters to Walsingham. He
found James, he said, a virtuous prince, stained by
no vice, and singularly acute in the discussion of all
matters of State, but indolent and careless ; and so
utterly profuse, that he gave to every suitor, even to
vain youths and proud fools, whatever they desired.
He did not scruple to throw away, in this manner,
even the lands of his crown ; and so reckless was he
of wealth, that, in Fowler's opinion, if he were to get
a million from England, it would all go the same way.
His pleasures were hunting, of which he was passion-
ately fond ; and playing at the mawe, an English game
of chance, in which he piqued himself on excelling.
In his dress he was slovenly, and his court and house-
hold were shabby and unkingly ; but he sat often in
council, was punctual in his religious duties, not miss-
ing the sermons thrice a-week ; and his manners be-
trayed no haughtiness or pride. It was evident to
Fowler that he detested the rude and ferocious bear-
ing of his great nobles, who were content to obey him
in trifles, but in all serious matters, touching life or
* MS. State-paper OSaee,- Fowler to Walsingham, 2Pth December, 1588.
22 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1588.
justice, took the law into their own hands, and openly
defied him. Upon this subject Fowler's expressions
were remarkable. When it came to the execution of
justice, it was evident, he said, his subjects feared him
not, whilst he was terrified to deal with so many at
once, looking tremblingly to the fate of his ancestors,
of whom such as attempted to execute justice with
severity, were uniformly put to death by their nobles.*
Often had the king assured the intimate friend who
wrote these letters, that it was misery to be constrained
to live amid the wickedness of his barons, and that
they made his existence a burden to him. Nor could
he look for redress to his council. Even the wisest
and greatest amongst them, not excepting the Chan-
cellor Maitland, were infinitely more occupied in
private quarrels and family feuds than with the public
business of the State ; and, to increase their indivi-
dual power, were content to flatter the king in the
basest manner, and become suitors at court for every-
thing ungodly and unreasonable. Well might Wal-
singham exclaim, in answer to this sad, dark picture
of regal weakness and feudal misrule, " God send that
young prince, being of himself every way well-inclined,
good, wise, and faithful counsellors, that may carry
him in a constant course for the upholding of religion
and the establishing of justice in that realm."" [ As
a cure for this miserable condition, the English secre-
tary recommended a Court of Star-chamber, and a
change of councillors from the great nobles to the
barons and burgesses. But neither measure was prac-
ticable ; and Maitland, at this moment James" 1 chief
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Fowler to Walsingham, 18th Decem-
ber, 1588. Also, ibid., Fowler to Walsingham, 29th December, 1588.
f- MS. Letter, State-paper Office, original draft, Walsingham to Fowler,
&<; December, 1588.
) 588-9. JAMES VI. 23
adviser, assured Fowler that the death of the Guises,
instead of being attended with any favourable result
in strengthening the English party in Scotland, would
have an opposite effect. " Your queen," said he,
" thinks that she has lost in Guise a great enemy, and
my master a great friend. Be assured it is not so.
For a long time the king hath had no dealings with
the Guise : he loved him not ; nor is he sorry but
rather glad that he is gone. But, mark me, this will
make the King of Spain seek my master, and esteem
him. more than before : for by the Duke of Guise that
prince thought to have had all France at his devotion,
except the Protestants ; to have subdued even them
ere long, and to have been so strong as to have had
his revenge on England, without our help here ; but
now Scotland is his only card to play against England,
and that you will see ere long."*
These predictions were soon fully verified. The
Popish earls, led by Huntley and Errol, entered into
a more active and deep-laid correspondence with Spain
and Rome. Large sums of money were remitted to
them from Philip and the pope ; and letters were
intercepted by Burghley, which proved, in the clearest
manner, an intended rebellion. They were seized on
the person of a Scotsman, who was detected carrying
them to the Prince of Parma ; and expressed, on the
part of Huntley, Morton, Errol, and the rest of the
Catholic noblemen and gentry of Scotland, their in-
finite regret at the discomfiture of the Armada, and
their sorrow that the fleet had passed so near their
coast without visiting them, when they were able to
have raised a force such as could not have been resisted.
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Fowler to Walsingham, 4th January,
1588-9.
24 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1588-9.
They assured the Spanish king, that the outlay of a
single Galeas in Scotland would have gone farther
than ten on the broad seas ; and that six thousacd
Spaniards once landed there, would be joined by an
infinite multitude of Scotsmen animated with the bit-
terest hatred to England, and who would serve him as
faithfully as his own subjects. Huntley at the same
time assured Parma, that his late confession and his
signature to the Protestant Articles had been extorted
O
from him against his conscience ; but that in spite of
all this he continued a true Catholic, and by this pre-
tended change had acquired a greater power over the
young king. In the same letters Errol professed the
utmost devotion to the Catholic faith, congratulating
himself on having been called from darkness to light ;
and Bruce informed Parma of the seasonable arrival
of Chisholm, their agent, with the large sum intrusted
to him, and of their having secured the Earl of Both-
well, who, though still a Protestant, had been bribed
to embrace their party.
Copies of these letters were instantly sent down to
James, who at first disbelieved the whole story, and
dealt so leniently with the principal conspirators, that
the plot, instead of being crushed in its first growth,
spread its ramifications throughout the country, espe-
cially the northern counties, and grew more dangerous
than before. Huntley was, indeed, imprisoned ; but
his confinement was a mere farce. The king visited
him in his chamber and dined there ; permitted his
wife and servants to communicate freely with him ;
wrote him an affectionate remonstrance, and even
kissed and caressed him.* This could end only one
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Ashby to Burghley, Edinburgh, 10th
March, 1588-9. Also, ibid., same to same, 14th March, 1588-9.
1 589. JAMES VI. 25
way. The captive, after a brief imprisonment, during
which he made the most solemn asseverations of his
innocence, was restored by the too credulous monarch
to his former authority, and basely abused the royal
forgiveness by seducing the fierce and potent Earl of
Bothwell from his allegiance, and breaking into open
rebellion.
This insurrection at first assumed the most formid-
able appearance : the whole of Scotland north of
Aberdeen was on the eve of revolt ; and Bothwell
threatened, that if James ventured to take arms
against the remoter insurgents, he would ravage the
south in his absence and compel him to draw home-
wards. But this bravado, instead of intimidating,
effectually roused the king, who, for the first and
almost the last time in his life, exhibited a military
spirit worthy of his ancestors. An army was instant-
ly assembled ; a conspiracy for the seizure of James
and his chief minister, Maitland the chancellor,
promptly discovered and defeated.* The Protestant
nobles, led by the young Duke of Lennox and the
chancellor, rallied in great strength ; the Earl of Mar,
the three Lords Warden, Hume, Cessford, and Car-
michael, the Earls of Morton, Angus, Marshal,
Athole, and the Master of Glammis, gathered and
concentrated their forces beyond the Forth ; and the
monarch, who was described by Ashby the English
ambassador, as " fellon crabbed" pushed on, at the
head of his troops, to St J ohnston, loudly declaring
his resolution to wreck his rebels, and destroy them
with fire and sword. ^
This vigour and resolution had the best effect. The
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Ashby to Burghley, 8th April, 1589.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Fowler to Burghley, 9th April, 1589.
26 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1589.
formidable stories of the mighty strength and pre-
parations of the Catholic earls were found false and
ridiculous, their troops melted away. BothwelFs
force, which was to effect such wonders, soon shrunk
to thirty horse; and James, advancing by Dundee
and Brechin, carried everything before him, and com-
pelled the rebels to evacuate Aberdeen, the centre of
their strength. It had been expected that the enemy
would here give battle, but their courage failed them.
Crawford secretly fled ; others openly deserted ; and
the king, who had shown unusual hardihood, and
watched two nights in his arms, was disappointed of
an opportunity to win his spurs. But the expedition
was completely successful : Huntley was driven from
Aberdeen to Strathbogie, his own country, where he
surrendered himself prisoner, and was carried in
triumph by the king to Edinburgh. Slaines, the
principal castle of Errol, was taken and garrisoned ;
the Lairds of Frendraught, Grant, and Macintosh,
the powerful clans of the Drummonds and the For-
beses, with many others who had been seduced from
their allegiance by the Catholic faction, submitted
themselves; and James, in high spirits and exultation,
returned to his capital with the resolution of pro-
ceeding instantly against Bothwell. But this fierce
chief, who was now crest-fallen and in no state to
make resistance, threw himself on his knees before
the king in the chancellor's garden, and was sent
prisoner to Holyrood.*
A convention of the nobility was now held at
Edinburgh ; and the rebel earls, Huntley and Craw-
ford, having been brought to trial and convicted of
high treason, escaped with imprisonment, contrary
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Ashby to Walsingham, 12th May, 1589.
1589. JAMES vi. 27
to the remonstrances of the leaders of the Kirk, who
clamoured for the death of idolaters. Their* corifes-
ston, however, had softened the king ; and theirnigh
connexions rendered it dangerous to use extremities.
Bothwell also was brought to trial ; but, after his
usual fierce fashion, declared his innocence ; reviled
and accused the chancellor, and stood on his defence.
The circumstance of his being in arms against the
government, and his cordial cooperation with the
northern rebellion, was, indeed, notorious to all ; but
the dread of his power and revenge intimidated the
court. The trial was prolonged till midnight ; and it
required the presence and remonstrances of the king
to procure a conviction. He was then shut up in
Tantallon ; * but was enlarged, after a few months,
on payment of a heavy fine to the crown, -f*
This untisual exertion of James in destroying the
designs of Huntley and the Catholics, was followed by
a fit of extraordinary activity on another subject : his
marriage with Denmark. At the time of the first
proposal of a matrimonial alliance with this kingdom,
Arran was in power, and had engaged to Elizabeth
that his royal master should continue single for three
years. Accordingly, on the arrival of the Danish
ambassadors, they found themselves treated with such
irritating coldness and neglect, that it required much
management on the part of Sir James Melvil to pre-
vent an open rupture, and convince them that the
affront proceeded not from the young king but his
haughty minister. J His endeavours, however, suc-
ceeded ; and although the Danish monarch, in some
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Ashby to Walsingham, 25th May,
1589. Ibid., Fowler to Walsingham, 26th May, 1589.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Ashby to Walsingham, 26th Aug., 1589.
J Melvil's Memoirs, Bannatyne edition, p. 337.
28 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 158.9.
disgust, disposed of his eldest daughter, the princess-
royal, the intended bride of Jarnes, to the Duke of
Brunswick, he afterwards declared his willingness to
bestow her sister, the Princess Anne, upon the Scot-
tish king. The intrigues of England, however, con-
tinued. Elizabeth, who had gained to her interest
the Chancellor Maitland, recommended the Princess of
Navarre ; and the celebrated poet Du Bartas visited
Scotland on a secret mission to propose the match.
This preference probably proceeded from a suspicion
that the Princess Anne was not sound in her attach-
ment to the Protestant opinions, which afterwards
turned out to be well founded ; but James utterly
disrelished the dictation of the queen and the boldness
of his council. It was time, he felt, that in so weighty
a matter as his marriage he should vindicate his liberty
of choice and follow his own judgment : lie had, be-
sides, heard a report that the Princess of Navarre was
old and crooked ; and although his great nobles affected
the alliance with France, the bulk of his people, the
burgh towns and the merchants, were all keen for
Denmark.* This decided the young king; and he
now despatched the Earl Marshal, with a noble suite,
to proceed to Copenhagen and conclude the match.
On his arrival, the Scottish ambassador found that,
if cold or slow at first, the Danish court were hot
enough (to use Ashby's expression to Walsingham)
as soon as there was a serious proposal made. All
was soon arranged, and the utmost bustle prevailed.
In some amusing contemporary letters, the queen-mo-
ther is described as the soul and centre of the whole
preparations perpetually buying silks, or cheapening
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Ashby to Walsingham, 22d July, 15P9.
Melvil's Memoirs, pp. 363, 364.
1589. JAMES VI. 29
jewellery, or urging on a corps of five hundred tailors,
who sat daily stitching and getting up the most
princely apparel. Women, guards, pages, lackeys,
all, from the highest to the lowest, who were to com-
pose the suite of the bride, received orders to hold
themselves in readiness. A fleet of twelve sail with
brass ordnance, was fitted out to transport her ; and
it was reported that she was likely to land in Scotland
before James' wedding hose were ready or a house
furnished to receive her.* But these anticipations
proved fallacious ; and the king, who had worked up
his usually phlegmatic temper to an extraordinary
pitch of chivalrous admiration, was kept for some
weeks in an agony of suspense by contrary winds and
contrary counsels. This did not prevent him, however,
from forwarding to his ambassadors a gentle remon-
strance touching the smallness of the "tocher," or
dowry ; but Denmark refused to add a farthing to it ;
and the monarch, affecting the utmost anxiety for the
young princess, who, he had persuaded himself, was
utterly in despair and love-sick at the delay, urged
her instant departure.^ At length she sailed ; but
the squadron encountered a tremendous storm, which
shattered and dispersed the ships, and compelled them
to return to Norway in so leaky and disabled a con-
dition, that every hope of resuming their voyage for
that season was abandoned.]: During all this period
of suspense, the young king's romantic agitation con-
tinued. He was a true lover, as Ashby described
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Ashby to Walsingham, 22d July, 1589.
Fowler to Walsingham, 5th August, 1589.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Fowler to Walsingham, 5th August,
1589.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Ashby to Walsingham, 5th, 24th
Sept., 1589. Also, ibid., same to same, 2d Oct., 1589. Ibid., same to
same, 10th Oct., 1589. Ibid., same to Queen Elizabeth, 23d Oct., 1589.
SO HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1589.
him to Walsingham in a letter from the court at
Holyrood ; thinking every day a year till he saw his
love and joy approach : at one time, flying to God,
and commanding prayers and fasting for her safe
arrival ; at another, falling upon the Scottish witches,
to whose unhallowed rites and incantations he ascribed
the tempests which delayed her. Nor were these pre-
tended agonies : for when at last the news arrived of
her danger and escape, he suddenly adopted the idea
of proceeding in person to Norway, and determined
(to use the poetic phraseology of Ashby to Queen
Elizabeth) " to commit himself and his hopes, Leander
like, to the waves of the ocean, all for his beloved
Hero's sake. 1 ' *
This resolution he carried into effect on the twenty-
second of October embarking at Leith, accompanied
by the Chancellor Maitland, who had been forced to
wave his repugnance to the match ; by his favourite
minister and chaplain Mr David Lindsay, and a select
suite of his nobility. On the day after his departure,
a declaration of the reasons which had prompted so
unusual a step was delivered to the privy-council, and
afterwards made public. It was written wholly in the
king's hand, and is ludiqrously characteristic of the
monarch. We learn from his own lips that it had
been very generally asserted by his loving subjects,
that their sovereign was a " barren stock," indisposed
to marriage, and careless of having children to succeed
him in the throne. His mind, too, had been attacked
in most unmannerly terms : it was insinuated that the
chancellor " led him by the nose," as if he were an
unreasonable creature, a mere child in intellect and
resolution, or an " impudent ass that could do nothing
* Spottiswood, pp. 377, 378.
1589. JAMES VI. 31
of himself." To confute the first slander, he had
determined to seek his queen forthwith, and marry
her as speedily as the winds and waves would permit.
To give the lie to the second aspersion, he assured his
people, on the honour of a prince, that he alone, un-
known to chancellor or council, had conceived the first
idea of this winter voyage ; that his resolution was
taken in the solitude of his chamber at Craiffmillar ;
O
and that, till the preparations were concluded, and he
was ready to step on board, the purpose was shut up
in his own bosom. "Let no man, therefore, (he con-
cluded,) grudge at this proceeding, but conform to the
directions I have left."*
These directions, notwithstanding the undignified
singularity of the paper which accompanied them,
were marked 'by prudence and good sense. The chief
authority during the royal absence was committed to
the Duke of Lennox, who was made president of the
privy-council. Bothwell, whose turbulent disposition
and power upon the Borders rendered it dangerous for
him to be disobliged, was conciliated by being placed
next in rank and authority to Lennox. The other
councillors were, the treasurer, comptroller, the lord
privy-seal, the captain of the castle of Edinburgh,
with the lord advocate and clerk-register. A com-
mittee of noblemen was ordered to attend "in their
courses," at Edinburgh, for fifteen days : the Earls of
Angus and Athole, with Lords Fleming and Inrier-
meith, to begin ; and the next course to be kept by
the Earls of Mar and Morton, with Lords Seton and
Yester. The chief military power, as lord-lieutenant,
was intrusted to Lord Hamilton, to be assisted in
any emergency by Lords Boyd, Herries, Maxwell -
* Spottiswood, pp. 377, 378-379.
32 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1589.
Home, Cessford, and other principal barons within the
marches. All conventions of the nobles were pro-
hibited during the king's absence ; and the ministers
and preachers enjoined to exhort the people to obedi-
ence, and to commend their sovereign and his journey
in their prayers to God.*
Having given these directions, the king set sail ;
and his insulated fit of love and chivalry met with its
reward. After an initiatory gale, just sufficient to try
the royal courage, the squadron reached Upsal on the
fifth day, and James rode to the palace, where his
inamorata awaited him ; hurried, " booted and spurred,"
into her presence ; and, in the rude fashion of Scot-
land, would have kissed her, had he not been repulsed
by the offended maidenhood of Denmark. But she was
soon appeased; explanations followed ; the manners of
the royal bridegroom's land were comprehended ; and,
"after a few words privily spoken between his majesty
and her, there passed," we are told by a homely chron-
icler of the day, "familiarity and kisses." {
The marriage took place (November twenty-three)
in the church at Upsal : the ceremony being performed
by the king's favourite minister, Mr David Lindsay.
Much rejoicing and banqueting, as usual, succeeded ;
and it appears to have required little argument in the
queen-mother to persuade her new son-in-law to eschew
the dangers of a winter voyage, and convert his in-
tended visit of twenty days into a residence of nearly
six months in Denmark. This interval was passed
by the king to his entire satisfaction. The time being
divided between in-door revelries and pageants ; out-
door sports ; discussions on astronomy with Tycho
* Spottiswood, p. 379.
t Moyse's Memoirs, Bannatyne edition, p. 81.
1590. JAMES VI. S3
Brahe, whom he visited at Uranibourg; disputes with
the learned Hemingius, on predestination and other
points in divinity ; and consultations with the Chan-
cellor Maitland, regarding the safest method of curbing
the overgrown power of his nobles, and vindicating, on
his return, the authority of the crown. In the spring
he determined on his voyage home ; and carrying his
youthful queen along with him, accompanied by a
splendid retinue of Danish nobles and ladies,* arrived
at Leith on the first of May, 1590. The royal pair
were received, on disembarking, by the Duke of Len-
nox, Lord Hamilton, the Earl of Bothwell, and a
crowd of his nobility. A Latin oration of welcome
was followed by a sermon of Mr Patrick Galloway ;
and after divine service, the king, mounting his horse,
followed by his youthful bride in her chariot, drawn
by eight horses gorgeously caparisoned, proceeded to
the palace of Holyrood. She was encircled by a
galaxy of Danish and Scottish beauty, and attended
by all the chivalry of her new dominions.
Her coronation foll6wed not long after, performed
on a scale of unusual magnificence, and only clouded
by a dispute between the king and the Kirk, on the
subject of anointing ; a ceremony represented on the
side of the Puritans as Jewish, Papal, and abominably
superstitious : on the other, as Christian, holy, and
Catholic. The royal arguments, however, were en-
forced by a threat that one of the bishops should be
sent for. The dread of this worse profanation procured
the admission of the lesser : the ceremony was allowed
to proceed according to the king's wishes ; and, to use
the naive expression of a contemporary, " the Countess
of Mar, having taken the queen's right arm, and opened
* Rymer's Foedera, vol. xvi., p. 51-60.
VOL. IX. C
34 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1590.
the craigs of her gown, Mr Robert Bruce immediately
poured forth upon those parts of her breast and arm
of quhilk the clothes were removed, a bonny quantity
of oil."*
The coronation was followed by the queen's tri-
umphal entry into her new capital ; a ceremony con-
ducted by the worthy merchants and burgesses on a
scale of splendour which argued increasing wealth and
success in commercial enterprise. But the particulars,
though curiously illustrative of manners, would fatigue
by their complexity. Latin addresses were, as usual
in this age, the great staple of compliment ; and when
the Danish princess entered the gates, she was greeted
in a classical panegyric by " Master John Russell,
appointed thereto by the township"; whilst the son
of the orator, " little Master John Russell," who had
been artificially and wonderfully shut up in a gilded
globe stuck upon the top of the gate, fluttered down
in the dress of an angel, and delivered to her majesty
the keys of the city in silver. +
* The Coronation of the Querns Majestie, p. 53. One of the curious tracts,
reprinted by Mr Gibson-Craig in his interesting volume presented to the
Bannatyne Club, entitled, " Papers Relative to the Marriage of James the
Sixth of Scotland."
f Papers Relative to the Marriage of James the Sixth, pp. 39, 40.
1590.
JAMES VI.
35
CHAP II.
JAMES THE SIXTH.
15901593.
CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.
England.
France.
Germany.
Spain.
Portugal.
Popes.
Sixtus V.
Elizabeth.
Henry III.
Rudolph II.
Philip II.
Philip II.
Urban VII.
Henry IV.
Gregory XIV.
Innocent IX.
Clement VIII.
THE period which James passed in Denmark was one
of unusual and extraordinary tranquillity in Scotland.
Previous to his departure, the king had exerted him-
self to conciliate Elizabeth, and many circumstances
in his conduct had concurred to please this princess.
His cordial cooperation against the Spanish king ;
the readiness with which he had furnished her with
a body of auxiliaries, commanded by the Laird of
Wemyss ; his spirit and success in putting down the
rebellion of the Catholic earls, and his sending out of
his dominions a body of Spanish soldiers and mariners,
whose vessels (part of the once formidable Armada)
had been wrecked and stranded on the northern shores
of Scotland : * all this had been exceedingly agreeable
to the Queen of England ; and she repaid it by pre-
* " To the number of 660 men, of whom 400 were serviceable, and the
rest sick, miserable wretches." They were shipped from Leith, '25th July,
1589. MS. Letter, State paper-Office, Ashby to Burghley, 28th July, 1589.
Also, ibid., same to Walsingham, 22d July, 1589.
86 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1590.
serving the most friendly relations during the absence
of the king. Nor was the peace of the country, in
this brief and happy interval, broken by the usual
sanguinary baronial feuds ; although, as the result
fully showed, they were silenced, not eradicated.
Huntley, Errol, Crawford, Maxwell, and the great
body of the Roman Catholic party, had too recently
experienced the weight of the royal vengeance to think
of active hostility for some time ; and the judicious
division of power between the Duke of Lennox, Lord
Hamilton, and the Earl of Bothwell, balanced by the
authority committed to Angus and Athole, Mar and
Morton, with other great barons, produced the best
effects, and put all upon their honour and good conduct.
The Kirk, too, was in a state of tranquillity rejoi-
cing in the recent detection and discomfiture of Roman
Catholic intrigue, looking forward in calm exultation
to the utter extermination of prelatical principles, and
anticipating no distant triumph to what it believed to
be the truth.
On the return of the king, therefore, all at first
appeared tranquil ; but it needed no deep discernment
to detect the existence of many latent causes of dis-
turbance. The great struggle between the principles
of the Reformation and the ancient faith was lulled
only, not concluded.* The minor, but sometimes not
less bitter contest between Prelacy and Presbyterian-
ism, was merely suspended for a time. Amongst the
nobles, the right of private war ; the ties of rnanrent ;
the abuses of baronial jurisdictions ; the existence of
blood-feuds, which often from trifling quarrels depopu-
* MS. Letter, Stats-paper Office, Sir R. Bowes to Burghley, 16th May,
1590. The Roman Catholic faction were called the " Confederates of the
Brig of Dee."
] ,:90. JAMES vr. 37
lat'ed whole districts and counties ; and in the Isles,
and remoter provinces of the north, the lawless and
fierce habits of the petty chieftains and pirate adven-
turers, who assumed the state and independence of sea
kings : all these circumstances combined to threaten
c5
the public tranquillity, and to convince the king that
the sky so clear on his arrival might soon be black
with its wonted tempests.
Amid these elements of political strife and nascent
revolution, two men were to be seen evidently destined,
from their power and political position, to take the chief
lead in State affairs. Both were well aware of the
easy and indolent temper of the king ; both had re-
solved to engross to themselves the supreme power in
the government : and for some years, the history of
the country is little else than the conflicts of their
intrigue and ambition. These were, Maitland of
Thirlstane the chancellor, James 1 favourite and prime
minister, who had accompanied his royal master to
Denmark ; and Francis Stewart earl of Bothwell,
the king's near relative, and, perhaps, the most dar-
ing, powerful, and unprincipled of all the higher
nobles. Maitland, born of an ancient family, but
only the second son of a simple knight, (the blind
poet Sir Richard Maitland of Lethington,) belonged
to the body of the lesser barons ; but he was connected
with some of the greatest houses in the land. He
had risen by his commanding talents to the highest
legal office in the kingdom ; and he was strong in the
friendship of his prince, and the respect of the Kirk
and the great body of the middle classes the rich
burghers, merchants, and artisans. During his ab-
sence in Denmark with his royal master, they had
held many grave consultations on the broken, disjoint-
38 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1590.
ed, and miserable state of his kingdom. The extreme
poverty of the crown, the insolence and intolerable
oppressions of the higher barons, who, strong in their
hereditary power, dictated to the monarch on all the
affairs of his government, thrust themselves uncalled-
for into his councils, attended or absented themselves
from court at their pleasure, and derided alike the
command of their prince or the decisions of the laws :
all this was pointed out by the chancellor to the king,
and the absolute necessity of some speedy and efficient
reformation insisted on. It was time, he said, that
the monarch, who was now in the prime of his years
and vigour, allied by marriage to a powerful prince,
the heir of a mighty kingdom, and able, from his
position, to take a leading part in European politics,
should no longer be bearded by every baron who chose
to consider himself as a born councillor of the realm.
It was time that those illegal coalitions of the nobles,
whose object it had so often been to seize the king's
person, and compel him into an approval of all their
atrocious designs, should be broken up, and for the
future rendered impossible. To effect this, the crown
must strengthen itself in every possible way : it must
support its judges and officers in the execution of
their duty against baronial oppression and insolence ;
it must increase its revenues by a prudent economy
and retrenchment of the superfluous offices in the
royal household ; it must save its escheats, its ward-
ships, its fines, its rentals, and all the sources of its
wealth, to form a fund for all emergencies, but espe-
cially for the support of a body of waged troops, who,
by their constant readiness for service, and superior
discipline, might overawe the nobles and their vassals.
To effect this would require some sacrifices on the
1590. JAMES VI. 39
part of the prince. Amongst these, a more rigid and
practical attention to business, a correction of the
mischievous habit of granting every petition without
inquiry, and a resolution to hold himself more distant
and dignified to his nobility, were absolutely neces-
sary ; but if ready to consent to these, it would not,
he said, be difficult to effect a thorough reformation ;
and he the chancellor, for his part, was ready to back
the king to the utmost of his power to accomplish it.
To this end, he represented to James the wisdom of
keeping up the present friendly relations with Eng-
land, and the necessity of watching the motions of
Huntley and the Roman Catholic party, who, though
apparently subdued and silent, were still powerful in
the kingdom, busy in their intrigues with Spain, and
ready to seize any opportunity for a new effort.* Nor
was there any reason why this large and powerful
body of men should despair of success, but rather the
contrary. Ample proof of this may be found in a
remarkable paper in the hand of Lord Burghley, writ-
ten shortly before James" 1 arrival from Denmark, and
drawn up apparently for his own guidance, which
brings forward, in clear contrast, the comparative
strength of the Catholic and Protestant parties in
Scotland. From it we learn, that all the northern
part of the kingdom, including the counties of Inver-
ness, Caithness, Sutherland, and Aberdeen, with
Moray, and the sheriffdoms of Buchan, of Angus, of
Wigton, and of Nithsdale, were either wholly, or for
the greater part, in the interest of the Roman Catho-
lic party, commanded mostly by noblemen who secretly
adhered to that faith, and directed in their movements
* MS. State-paper Office, Sir R. Bowes to Lord Burghley, 16th May,
1590.
40 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1590.
by Jesuits and priests, who were concealed in various
parts of the country, especially in Angus. On the
other hand, the counties of Perth and Stirling, the
populous shire of Fife, and the counties of Lanark,
Dumbarton, and Renfrew, including the rich district
of Clydesdale, were, with few exceptions, Protestant ;
whilst the counties of Ayr and Linlithgow were
dubious, and could not be truly ranged either on one
side or the other.* Are we to be surprised that, in
a country thus divided, and with a prince so little
able to adopt a firm and determined line of policy as
James then was, the struggle between the two parties
should long be kept up with increasing obstinacy and
asperity ? But it is necessary to leave these general
remarks and resume our narrative.
In the end of May, the .Danish commissioners and
nobles, who had accompanied their young princess to
Scotland, took leave of the Scottish monarch, and re-
turned to Denmark. It had been arranged between
James and his chief minister Maitland, that no at-
tempt at reformation should be made till these stran-
gers had left the country ; but scarcely had they
embarked, when the king exhibited an unusual cou-
rage and activity, by making an effort to seize, with
his own hand, the Laird of Niddry, a baron who had
been guilty of a foul murder, and was protected by
Bothwell. This energy, although unsuccessful at the
moment, (for the culprit, receiving warning, escaped,)
had a good effect in convincing the country that he
was in earnest ; and about the same time the strictest
regulations as to audience were enforced at the palace.
Of this an instance occurred soon after, which made
* MS. State-paper Office. Names of the Terras and Noblemen in Scot-
land, and how they are Affected. 1589.
1590. JAMES VI. 41
some noise. Lord Hamilton, the first nobleman in
the country, and heir-apparent to the throne, sought,
as usual, to enter the king's presence-chamher, but
was stopped at the door by Sandilands, one of the
royal suite, who told him the king was quiet, and
would see no one. " I was sent for," said Hamilton ;
" I am ready to serve my prince, and thought to have
access freely as I was wont; but you may tell the
king, that this new order will offend more than me."
He then left the palace in a high fume, and would
have ridden home had he not been better advised.
James afterwards good humouredly appeased him ;
observing, that it ill became the heir-apparent to be
angry with the old laird, meaning himself. Bowes,
however, who was at court, and told the anecdote to
Burghley, observed, that such new restrictions gave
deep offence in Scotland, and caused much murmuring
with a proud nobility long accustomed to have the
freest access to their sovereign.*
Such discontent, however small in its beginning,
soon spread widely ; and unknown evils and reforms
being generally magnified in anticipation, the king^s
intentions created an alarm, which showed itself in a
coalition between those who hitherto had been in
constant and bitter collision the Catholic faction,
known by the name of the Confederates of the Brig of
Dee, and the Protestant associates of the Enterprise
at Stirling. The Earls of Huntley, Errol, Bothwell,
and Montrose, began to league together ; and James
had at first resolved to attempt a stroke of State policy
by committing them to ward, bringing them to trial
for their former offences, and at once destroying so
dangerous a combination. But the attempt was
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 23d May, 1590, Bowes to Burghley.
42 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1590.
deemed too hazardous ; and it was judged more pru-
dent to temporize, and keep up the two factions, bal-
ancing the one against the other. *
A convention of the nobles was appointed to be
held early in June. " The king," said Bowes to
Burghley, alluding to his projected improvements,
" according to his public promise in Edinburgh, and
solemn protestations to some noblemen, ministers,
and well-affected, is resolved to reform his house,
council, and sessions, and to banish all Jesuits and
Papists. He purposeth, further, to resume into his
hands sundry of his own possessions now in the hold-
ing of others ; to advance his 'revenues with some
portions of ecclesiastical livings, and to draw to due
obedience all persons attainted at horn, excommuni-
cated, or otherwise disobedient. In the execution of
which things," continued the ambassador, " he will
find no little difficulty : for I have heard that many
intend to seek to defeat and stay the king's course
herein ; and that sundry of the sessions will stand in
law to hold their places, notwithstanding any charge
to be given to avoid them."-f-
James, for some time, was active and serious in these
reforms. His household was greatly reduced in its
expenditure. After a general dismissal of officers,
which occasioned many murmurs, the gentlemen per-
sonally attendant on royalty were cut down from
thirty to four, with two pages ; and the monarch
drew up, in his own hand, some principal matters
relative to domestic and foreign policy, upon which he
required the immediate advice of his privy-council.
They must consider, he said, the state of the strengths
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 23d May, 1590, Bovres to Burghley.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 31st May, 1590, Bowes to Burghley.
1590. JAMES vi. 43
and munitions, and the necessary provision to be made
for the defence of the kingdom, in case of foreign in-
vasion ; the treaties required to be entered into, for
the preservation of foreign amity ; the best measures
to be adopted for the procuring secret foreign intelli-
gence ; the " griefs of the nobility and people, as well
against the king as the government of his councillors ;
the necessity of a rigid investigation into the true
state of the realm ; " the " ettling " * and disposition
of the nobility, and other persons of power and credit:
they must discover who were well affected to the true
religion ; who carried away by the persuasion of Jesuits
and Papists ; what was the best medicine to cure
diversities in religion, and heal the bloody wounds
occasioned by feuds and family quarrels ; what were
the true causes of the decay of the rents of the crown ;
and lastly, they must point out the best method to
enforce obedience to the acts of the last parliament,
and declare what properly belonged to every office of
the estate. Such were the grave and weighty matters
which the king now brought before his council. "f*
But these were not all : the monarch had resolved
to exert his utmost efforts to heal the wounds, not of
Scotland only, but of Europe, by establishing a peace
between England and Spain. To effect this, he de-
spatched Colonel Stewart and Sir John Skene on a
mission to the princes of Germany, to persuade the
Palsgrave, the Duke of Saxony, the Marquess of
Brandenburg, and the rest of these potentates, of the
absolute necessity of interfering between these two
mighty powers ; and to recommend them to send am-
* The " ettling," the " aim." To ettle ; to aim. The aim and leading
objects of the nobles.
+ MS. State-paper Office. Heads for our Privy Council, May, 1590.
Set down by the King of Spots.
44 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1590.
bassadors to England, France, and Spain, who might
remonstrate on the miserable consequences of the con-
tinuance of the war. If Spain were obstinate, a gen-
eral league was to be concluded amongst the princes
for the preservation of " the common cause of true
religion, and their ports were to be shut against Philip
till he was reduced to reason."*
These great designs the king communicated to
Elizabeth by Sir John Carmichael, whom he sent to
the English court with a copy of the Instructions
furnished to his German ambassadors ; and, as his
exchequer was at this time utterly impoverished, he
requested that princess to lend him sufficient to de-
fray the expenses of their voyage ; declaring his readi-
ness, in return, to place upon his privy-council any
nobleman whom she recommended, and to exert his
utmost strength in crushing the Roman Catholic fac-
tion, who were renewing their intrigues with Spain. -f-
The " Band " or Covenant, which united Huntley,
Errol, and their associates, in their recent treasonable
enterprise, had been traced to the hands of the Laird
of Auchendown, and Maitland the chancellor insisted
on its being produced ; assuring Elizabeth, with whom
he was then in great favour, that the association should
be broken up or Huntley wrecked for ever. J
To confirm the monarch in such good purposes, the
Queen of England sent him the Garter by the Earl of
Worcester, who arrived in Edinburgh during the sit-
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 4th June, 1590.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 9th June, 1590.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 4th June, 1590.
It was about this time that Bowes placed in James' hands a letter writ hy
her Majesty's own hand. It alluded to his great design for the reestablishment
of peace ; and was more free from the involution and pedantry which mark
her private letters than many of her epistles. It assured him that she was
happy to find him so grateful a king ; that she highly approved of his purpose ;
and that nothing could equal the careful thoughts for him and his realm
1590. JAMES VI. 45
ting of that convention from which such important
reformations were to have proceeded. James accepted
the queen's presents and letter in excellent part ; con-
gratulated himself on having so worthy a knight-com-
panion as the French king, (Henry had just been
chosen a knight of the order;) and held some merry
talk with Worcester on the cause of the Scottish
queen's invisibility, her majesty being then in the
family way, and pretending it was only th& tooth-
ache. * But, on proceeding from these lighter subjects
to speak of the intended reformations, it was evident,
even to the superficial observation of a stranger like
Worcester, that the course of improvements would be
beset with difficulties. When reformation of justice
was debated, the Lords of Session professed, indeed,
the utmost readiness to amend all ; and two of their
number, Mr David Makgill and Mr John Graham,
indulged very freely and bitterly in mutual accusations
of bribery and corruption ; but the rest pleaded their
privilege, granted by Act of Parliament, to " try them-
selves." With regard to the Kirk, when its leaders
insisted that every parish should be provided with a
minister, and every minister with a stipend, no objec-
tion was made by the nobles to the proposal, in gen-
eral ; but " the possessors of the church lands declared
their determination not to surrender any portion of
their tacks and leases unless the remainder should be
secured to them in fee-simple for ever ."[
which had occupied her since his peregrination. " And so," said she, " I
leave scribbling, but never end to love you and assist you with my friend-
ship, care, aud prayer to the living God to send you all prosperous success,
and his Holy Spirit for guide."
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Earl of Worcester to Burghley, Edin-
burgh, 15th June, 1590.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Worcester to Burghley, 15th June, 1590.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office. Royal Letters, Scotland. Elizabeth to James.
46 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1590.
In the end, however, some points were gained, which
pleased both James and the English queen, who now
acted together with much cordiality. The choice of
the king's Secret Council was left to his own will, and
Elizabeth knew she would be chiefly consulted. The
monarch, strengthened by the approval of the wisest
sort, led by the chancellor, held the Roman Catholic
faction in awe ; restrained the insolence of Bothwell ;
insisted on the appearance and delivery of all " at the
horn," who had hitherto defied the law ; took steps
for the speedy and amicable settlement of all Border
causes ; adopted measures to amend the coin which
had been much debased ; and, whilst he continued his
favour towards the Kirk, did not scruple to silence
some of the wilder sort of the brethren who, in their
public sermons, had attacked the Queen of England
for her recent severity to the English Puritans. On
this last subject, the excesses of the Puritans, Eliza-
beth felt keenly ; and her far-sighted glance had al-
ready detected the dangers of a sect then only in their
infancy, but professing principles which she deemed
inconsistent with the safety of any well- governed State.
Worcester had received pointed instructions in the
matter ; * and the queen herself, when she dismissed
Sir John Carmichael the Scottish ambassador, enfor-
ced her wishes in a private letter to James, which is
too characteristic to be omitted. It is as follows :
" Greater promises, more affection, and grants of more
acknowledgings of received good turns, my dear
brother, none can better remember than this gentle-
man, by your charge, hath made me understand ;
whereby I think all my endeavours well recompensed,
* MS. State-paper Office, 1590. Memorial of sundry things moved to
the King of Scots by the ambassador of England.
1590. JAMES VI. 47
that see them so well acknowledged ; and do trust
that my counsels, if they so much content you, will
serve for memorials to turn your actions to serve the
turn of your safe government, and make the lookers-on
honour your worth, and reverence such a niler.
" And lest fair semblances, that easily may beguile,
do not breed your ignorance of such persons as either
pretend religion or dissemble devotion, let me warn
you that there is risen, both in your realm and mine,
a sect of perilous consequence, such as would have no
kings, but a presbytery ; and take our place, while
they enjoy our privilege, with a shade of God's Word,
which none is judged to follow right, without by their
censure they be so deemed. Yea, look we well unto
them. When they have made in our people's hearts
a doubt of our religion and that we err, if they say
so what perilous issue this may make I rather think
than mind to write. Sapienti pauca. I pray you stop
the mouths, or make shorter the tongues of such minis-
ters as dare presume to make oraisons in their pulpits
for the persecuted in England for the gospel. Suppose
you, my dear brother, that I can tolerate such scan-
dals of my sincere government ? No : I hope, how-
ever you be pleased to bear with their audacity towards
yourself, yet you will not suffer a strange king receive
that indignity at such caterpillars' hands, that instead
of fruit I am afraid will stuff your realm with venom :
of this I have particularized more to this bearer, to-
gether with other answers to his charge ; beseeching
you to hear them, arid not to give more harbour to
vagabond traitors and seditious inventors, but to re-
turn them to me, or banish them your land. And
thus, with my many thanks for your honourable en-
tertainment of my ambassador, [she means here the
48 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1590.
Earl of Worcester,] I commit you to God ; who ever
preserve you from all evil counsels, and send you grace
to follow the best ! " * To these wishes of Elizabeth
both James and his prime minister, the Chancellor
Maitland, responded with the utmost readiness. In-
deed, the queen could scarcely resent the excesses of
the Puritan clergy more violently than her brother
prince ; although, from their influence over the people,
he was compelled sometimes to temporize. The minis-
ters, accordingly, were commanded to forbear prayer
in their sermons for the persecuted in England ;-f- and
equal activity was shown against the intrigues of the
Spaniards and the Catholic faction. When CTRourke,
an Irish chieftain, was detected in Glasgow, secretly
beating up for recruits against the English, the King
of Scots scrupled not to have him seized and delivered
to Elizabeth. " I would to God," said he, writing to
the queen, " your greatest enemies were in my hands;
if it were the King of Spain himself, he should not be
long undelivered to you : for that course have I taken
me to, and will profess it till I die, that all your foes
shall be common enemies to us both, in spite of the
pope, the King of Spain, and all the leaguers, my
cousins not excepted, and the devil their master." J
In return for this devotion to her wishes, Elizabeth,
forgetting her economy, transmitted, at various inter-
vals, large sums to the king, complimented the young
queen with presents, and flattered her by letters ;
whilst the chancellor, who had now consolidated his
* MS. State-paper Office. Royal Letters. Copy of the time, indorsed
6th July, 1590. Copy of her Majestie's letter, written to the King of Scots,
with her own hand, and sent by Sir John Carmichael.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 14th August, 1590.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office. Royal Letters. Indorsed, The King
of Scots' letter to the Queen's Majesty, by Roger Ashton, 22d March,
1590-1.
] 590. JAMES VI. 49
power, and could bid defiance to his opponents, enter-
ed into a cordial correspondence with Burghley. He
reminded him of the " old familiar acquaintance and
strict amity " which had subsisted between him and
his late brother, the well-known Lethington ; and
declared his readiness and anxiety to show himself
worthy of the Lord Treasurer's friendly dealing and
gentle messages sent recently by Carmichael. Speak-
ing modestly of his own inferiority, he yet hoped that
their mutual exertions would be followed by the best
effects. " If," said he, " this microcosme of Britain,
separate from the continent world, naturally joined
in situation and language, and, most happily, by re-
ligion, shall be, by the indissoluble amity of the two
princes, sincerely conserved in union, the Antichris-
tian confederates shall never be able to effect their
bloody and godless measures." In conclusion, he
promised, that whilst Burghley, by his large experi-
ence and wisdom, held the Roman Catholic party in
check, to " the benefit of all sincerely professing Christ
in Europe,"" he would himself keep a watchful eye over
their proceedings in Scotland ; * and so rigidly did he
fulfil this, that, before the end of the year, watchful-
ness was turned into persecution, and the Catholics
in vain petitioned for liberty of conscience, and pleaded
the cruelty of being compelled to subscribe the Pro-
testant Articles of religion.^ Under such circum-
stances, it is not surprising that their intrigues with
Spain and the continent should have continued ; and
that, although Bowes, the ambassador, informed
Burghley that the state of Scotland had been brought
* MS. Letter, State-paper' Office, Lord Thirlstane to the Lord High
Treasurer, 13th August, 15901
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 7th November,
1590.
VOL. IX. D
50 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1590.
to great quietness, it was that deceitful calm which
not unfrequently precedes the tempest.*
For a while, however, all went on smoothly ; and
the kins found leisure to become exceedingly active,
O O /
and agitated upon a subject which forms a melancholy
and mysterious chapter in the history of the human
mind: that of witchcraft. That many unfortunate
and miserable beings, driven by poverty and want, by
suspicion and persecution, by the desire of vengeance,
the love of power, or a daring curiosity after forbidden
knowledge, had renounced their baptismal vows, and
entered, as they believed, into a compact with the
author of all evil, cannot be doubted. The difficulty
is, to discover whether they were the victims of their
own imagination, the dupes of impostors, or, which is
not to be rejected as impossible or incredible, the sub-
jects and recipients of diabolic influence and agency.
During the summer of this year, the young Laird of
Wardhouse had been seized with a mortal sickness
which had carried him to the grave ; and it was dis-
covered that several witches had formed his image in
wax, which having " roasted at a slow fire, the gentle-
man,"" it was said, " pined away insensibly, but surely,
till he died."^ This was alarming enough; but in
the winter still darker deeds came to light, involving
higher culprits and more daring transactions. Agnes
Sampson, a woman, as Spottiswood says, " not of the
base or ignorant sort of witches, but matronlike, grave,
and settled in her answers," accused Bothwell of con-
sulting her as to the probable continuance of the king's
life ; and Richard Graham, a notorious sorcerer, aver-
red that the earl had sought him on the same errand.
* MS. State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley.
i f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 23d July, 1590.
1590. JAMES VI. 51
Agnes declared, when questioned by the judges, that
" she had a familiar spirit, who upon her call, appeared
in a visible form, and resolved her of any doubtful
matters, especially concerning life and death. The
mode in which she summoned him was by calling out
" Holla, Master ! " an invocation which he had taught
her himself. She added, that he had undertaken to
make away with the king, but had failed ; pronoun-
cing him, (when challenged by her for his want of suc-
cess,) to be invulnerable to his incantations, and mut-
tering, in a language which she did not understand,
but which turned out to be respectable French, " II
est homme de Dieu" * Of James' labours with this
miserable woman, who was condemned and burnt,
Bowes wrote to Burghley. The king, he said, by his
own especial travel, had drawn Sampson, the great
witch, to confess plainly her wicked estate and doings,
and to discover sundry things touching his own life :
how the witches sought to have had his shirt, or other
linen about him, for the execution of their charms.
In these doings the Lord Claud's name was implicated,
and sundry other noble personages evil spoken of.
The number of the witches known, were (he added)
about thirty ; but many others were accused of acts
filthy, lewd, and fantastical, "f On a future occasion,
the royal curiosity and acuteness were rewarded by
the discovery of more particulars involving the guilt
of Bothwell. They came out in an examination to
which James subjected the wizard Richard Graham,
who, upon some hope held out of pardon, confessed
that Bothwell sought to draw him to devise some
means to hasten the king's death, alleging that he was
* Spottiswood, p. 383.
t MS. Letter. State-paper Office. Bowes to Burghley, 7th December,
1590.
52 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1590-1.
driven to this to avoid his own ; since a necromancer
in Italy had predicted to him that he should become
great in power and temporal possession, kill two men,
fall into trouble with the king for two capital crimes,
be pardoned for the first and suffer for the second.
The three first events, he averred, had taken place as
foretold him: he had become a mighty baron, had
killed Sir William Stewart, and Dame the Devil, mean-
ing David Hume of Manderston ; been once pardoned ;
and now he or the king must go. Graham agreed to
assist him ; and James had the satisfaction of hearing
some particulars of the incantation. An image of the
royal person was formed of wax, and hung up between
a tod or fox, over which some spells had been muttered,
and the head of a young calf, newly killed. It was
added, that all this was well known to Jely Duncan,
who is described by Bowes as a kind of whipper-in
to the witches, being accustomed to scour the country
and collect together all the Satanic fraternity and
sisterhood. But although she admitted, at first, their
dealings with Bothwell, she afterwards denied all ;
and as these unfortunate wretches were so severely
tortured that one of them died under the rack, it is
impossible to receive their evidence without the utmost
suspicion.* Bothwell, however, amid loud assevera-
tions of innocence, was seized and sent to prison, and
an early convention of the Estates called for his trial.
But the evidence, by the king's own admission, was
slender ; the nobles seemed unwilling to countenance
any violent proceedings against him ; and the matter
was so long delayed, that his fierce temper would en-
dure confinement no longer ; and breaking his prison,
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 15th April, 1591.
1591. JAMES VI. 53
he buried himself amongst his friends and fastnesses
in the Borders.*
This result greatly irritated the king, who consoled
himself by bringing to trial one of the leading witches,
named Barbara Napier, a woman well connected, and
of whose conviction he entertained no doubt. To his
astonishment, the jury did not conceive the evidence
sufficient, and acquitted her. The verdict threw James
into the greatest rage ; yet it was difficult to know
what was now to be done. An assize of error, as it
was called, was a proceeding known and practised by
the law of England, but it had never been introduced
into Scotland ; nor had it been heard of for centuries,
that the king should sit in person as a judge in any
criminal matter. James, however, shut his eyes to all
difficulties, and determined to bring the refractory
jurors to justice. "f" Accordingly, on the seventh of June,
repairing from Falkland, he sat in person on the trial
of the delinquents. All of them pleaded guilty, and
put themselves, as it was then termed, in the king's will,
so that there was little scope given to the exercise of
regal acuteness. He made an oration, however, some
sentences of which give a good picture of the style of
his oratory : often pedantic and tedious, but not un-
frequently epigrammatic and sententious. Alluding
to the shocking state of the country and the prevalence
of crimes, " I must advertise you," said he, " what it
is that makes great crimes to bo so rife in this coun-
try ; namely, that all men set themselves more for
friend than for justice and obedience to the laws. This
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 5th May, 1591.
Also, ibid., same to same, 22d June, 1591.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 9th May, 1591.
Ibid., same to same, 21st May.
54 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1591.
corruption here bairns suck at the pap ; and let a man
commit the most filthy crimes that can be, yet his
friends take his part ; and first keep him from apprehen-
sion, and after, by fead or favour, by false assize, or some
way or other, they find moyen of his escape. The
experience hereof we have in Niddry. I will not speak
how I am charged with this fault in court and choir,
from prince and pulpit ; yet this I say, that howsoever
matters have gone against my will, I am innocent of
all injustice in these behalfs. My conscience doth set
me clear, as did the conscience of Samuel ; and I call
you to be judges herein. And suppose I be your king,
yet I submit myself to the accusations of you, my
subjects, in this behalf; and let any one say what I
have done. And as I have thus begun, so purpose I to
go forward ; not because I am James Stuard, and can
command so many thousands of men, but because God
hath made me a king and judge, to judge righteous
judgment.
" For witchcraft, which is a thing grown very com-
mon among us, I know it to be a most abominable sin ;
and I have been occupied these three quarters of a
year for the sifting out of them that are guilty herein.
We are taught by the laws, both of God and man,
that this sin is most odious ; and by God's law punish-
able by death. By man's law it is called Maleficium
or Veneficium, an ill deed, or a poisonable deed; and
punishable likewise by death. Now, if it be death as
practised against any of the people, I must needs think
it to be (at least) the like if it be against the king.
Not that I fear death ; for I thank God I dare in a
good cause abide hazard." * * " As for them," he
concluded, "who think these witchcrafts to be but
1591. JAMES VI. 55
fantasies, I remit them to be catechised and instructed
in these most evident points." *
James, perhaps, felt somewhat doubtful upon the
subject of his personal courage, and was aware that his
subjects shared in his apprehensions ; but he was little
aware how soon his courage and determination were to
be put to the test, by the frightful state of the country
and the frequent attacks upon the royal person. So,
however, it happened. Between private feuds, the
continuance of Catholic intrigues, the active and in-
dignant counter-movements of the Kirk, and the open
rebellion of Both well, whose power and reckless bravery
made him formidable to all parties, the whole land was
thrown into a deplorable state of tumult and insecurity.
In the Highlands, the Earl of Huntley and the Earl
of Moray, two of the greatest houses in the north,
engaged in a deadly quarrel, which drew in the Lairds
of Grant, Calder, Macintosh, and others, and made
the fairest districts a prey to indiscriminate havoc and
murder.^ At court all was commotion and apprehen-
sion from the rivalry of the Master of Glammis, who
began to be a favourite of the king, and Chancellor
Thirlstane, who would brook no rival in power.J On
the Borders, Bothwell welcomed every broken man and
cruel murderer who chose to ride under his banner.
Some time previous to the trials of the witches, this
daring chief had invaded the Supreme Court, and carried
off a witness from the bar, who was about to give evi-
dence against one of his retainers, whilst the king,
although in the next room, did not dare to interfere.
* MS. State-paper Office. The inquest which first went upon Barbara
Nep., called before the king in the Tolbooth, 7th June, 1591.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 7th December,
1590. Ibid., Lord Thirlstane to Burghley, 7th December, 1590.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 20th Nov., 1590.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 25th Jan., 1590-:.
56 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1591.
After his escape and triumph, his fierce temper im-
pelled him to still greater excesses ; and attacking the
palace of Holyrood at the head of his desperate follow-
ers, he had nearly surprised and made prisoners both
the king and the chancellor. Douglas of Spot, how-
ever, one of the principal leaders in this attack, lost
time, by attempting to set at liberty some of his men
who were imprisoned in the palace. An alarm was
given : the king took refuge in one of the turrets ; the
chancellor barricaded his room, and bravely beat off the
assailants ; whilst the citizens of Edinburgh, headed
by their provost, rushed into the outer court of the
palace, and cutting their way through the outer ranks
of the Borderers, compelled Bothwell to a precipitate
flight.* He soon, however, became as formidable as
ever ; entered into a secret correspondence with Eng-
land; leagued with the Duke of Lennox, who had
quarrelled with Thirlstane ; procured the countenance
of the Kirk, by professing the most determined hosti-
lity to Huntley and the Catholic faction ; and flattered
himself, not without good grounds, that his next at-
tack would be successful.
Meanwhile a tragedy occurred, which, even in that
age, familiar with scenes of feudal atrocity, occasioned
unusual horror. The reader may perhaps remember
the utter destruction brought by the Regent Moray
upon the great Earl of Huntley ; his execution, and
that of one of his sons ; the forfeiture of his immense
estates, and the almost entire overthrow of his house. f
It was now thirty years since that miserable event :
the favour of the king had restored the family of
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Roger Ashton to Bowes, 28th Decem-
ber, 1591. Also, ibid., Bowes to Burgbley, 31st December, 1591.
+ See supra, vol. vi. p. 264-267.
1591-2. JAMES VI. 57
Gordon to its estates and its honours, and Huntley's
ambition might have been satisfied ; but the deep prin-
ciple of feudal vengeance demanded blood for blood ;
and there was not a retainer of the house of Huntley,
from the belted knight that sat at his master's right
o o
hand to the serving-man behind his chair, who did not
acknowledge the sacred necessity of revenge. Time,
which softens or dilutes most feelings, only added
intensity to this ; and now when the hour of repay-
ment was come, the debt was exacted with fearful
interest. The then Earl of Moray, a Stewart, and
representative of the famous regent, was one of the
bravest and handsomest men of his time ; a favourite
at court, and dear to the people and the Kirk, who still
looked fondly back to the days of his great ancestor.
In deeds of arms and personal prowess, an old chronicle
describes him as a sort of Amadis; "comely, gentle,
brave, and of a great stature and strength of body. 11 *
This young nobleman had princely possessions in the
north, and for some years deadly feud had raged
between him and Huntley ; but Lord Ochiltree, a
Stewart, a firm friend of Moray's, was at this time
exerting himself to bring about an agreement between
the two barons ; and had so far succeeded, that Moray,
with a slender retinue, left his northern fastnesses,
and came to his mother's castle of Dunibersel, a short
distance from the Queensferry. Huntley, his enemy,
was then at court in constant attendance upon the
king ; and Ochiltree, who had communicated with
him, and informed him of Moray's wishes for a recon-
ciliation, took horse and rode to Queensferry, intending
to pass to Dunibersel and arrange an amicable meeting
between the rival earls. To his surprise, he found
* Historic of James the Sext, p. 246
58 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1591-2.
that a royal order had been sent, interdicting any
boats from plying that day between Fife and the
opposite coast. But little suspicion was occasioned :
he believed it some measure connected with the hot
pursuit then going on against Bothwell, and was satis-
fied to abandon his journey to Dunibersel. This
proved the destruction of his poor friend. That very
day, the seventh of February, the king hunted ; and
Huntley, giving out that he meant to accompany the
royal cavalcade, assembled his followers to the number
of forty horse. Suddenly he pretended that certain
news had reached him of the retreat of Bothwell ;
extorted from the king permission to ride against this
traitor; and passing the ferry, beset the house of Duni-
bersel, and summoned Moray to surrender. This
was refused ; and in spite of the great disparity in
numbers, the Stewarts resisted till nightfall, when
Huntley, collecting the corn-stacks, or ricks, in the
neighbouring fields, piled them up against the walls,
commanded the house to be set on fire, and compelled
its unhappy inmates to make a desperate sally that
they might escape being burnt alive. In this out-
break the Sheriff of Moray was slain ; but the young
earl, aided by his great stature and strength, rushed
forth all burned and blackened, with his long and
beautiful tresses on fire and streaming behind him,
threw himself with irresistible fury on his assailants,
broke through the toils like a lion,* and escaped by
speed of foot to the sea-shore. Here, unfortunately,
his hair and the silken plume of his helmet blazed
through the darkness ; and his fell pursuers, tracing
him by the trail of light, ran him into a cave, where
they cruelly murdered him. His mortal wound, it
* The simile is Ashton's, in a letter to Bowes.
1591-2. JAMES VI. 5.9
was said, was given by Gordon of Buckie, who, with
the ferocity of the times, seeing Huntley drawing back,
cursed him as afraid to go as far as his followers, and
called upon him to stab his fallen enemy with his
dagger, and become art and part of the slaughter, as he
had been of the conspiracy. Huntley, thus threatened,
struck the dying man in the face with his weapon,
who, with a bitter smile, upbraided him "-with having
spoilt a better face than his own."*
The outcry against this atrocious murder was deep
and universal. Ochiltree, who had been deceived by
Huntley and the chancellor, became loud in his
clamours for revenge. In the north, Lord Forbes,
an attached friend of Moray, carried his bloody shirt
on a spear's head; and marching with the ghastly
banner through his territories, incited his followers to
revenge. In the capital, the Lady Doune, mother of
the murdered earl, who with her daughters had nar-
rowly escaped death at Dunibersel, exhibited the
mangled corpses of her son and his faithful follower
the Sheriff of Moray in the church at Leith ; and
Huntley, followed everywhere by a yell of public exe-
cration, fled first to Ravensheugh, a castle of Sinclair
baron of Roslin, and afterwards to his own country
in the north.
Amid all this tumult and ardent demands for in-
stant justice and vengeance, the king exhibited such
indifference, that strange suspicions arose, not only
against James, but his great adviser the chancellor,
between whom and Huntley there had arisen, for some
time before Moray's murder, a suspicious familiarity.
Huntley pleaded a royal commission for everything
* MS. Letter. State-paper Office, Roger Ashton to Bowes, 8th February,
1591-2. Also, ibid., same to same 9th February, 1591-2.
60 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1592.
he had done. It was known that the king had been
deeply incensed against Moray by a report that he
had abetted Bothweli in his late attempt, and had
even been seen with him in the palace on the night of
the attack. It was remembered that Ochiltree had
been prevented, as was alleged, by a royal order sent
through the chancellor, from passing the ferry on the
day of the murder ; and the gossip of the court went
even so far as to say, that the young queen's favour
for Moray had roused the royal jealousy. All this
was confirmed, as may well be believed, when Hunt-
l^y, being summoned to deliver himself up and take
his trial, obeyed with alacrity ; entered into ward in
Blackness castle ; and after a trifling investigation
was dismissed and pardoned.* Against this gross
partiality, Ochiltree, Lennox, Athole, and the whole
friends of the murdered lord, loudly remonstrated.
Bothweli, a Stewart, and cousin-german to Moray,
availing himself of this favourable contingency, united
his whole strength with theirs. The Kirk, indignant
at the king's favour for Huntley, the head of the
Roman Catholics, threw all its weight into the same
scale ; and James soon found that Moray's death,
slightly as he regarded it at first, drew after it fatal and
alarming effects. In the north, the Earl of Athole,
with the Lairds of Macintosh, Grant, Lovat, and their
followers, carried fire and sword into Huntley's coun-
try, and kindled throughout that region innumerable
lesser feuds and quarrels, which, like the moor-burning
of their own savage districts, spread from glen to glen,
and mountain to mountain, till half the land seemed
in a blaze."!* In the south, the Chancellor Maitland
* Historic of James the Sext, p. 248.
+ Moyse'a Memoirs, p. 98. MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to
Burghley, 1st Jan., 1592-3. Also, ibid., Bowes to Burghley, 21st Nov., 1592.
1592. JAMES VI. Cl
was no longer able to guide the government with his
usual steady and determined hand. Hitherto he had
defied all court storms, and made a bold head against
his enemies ; but his implication as a conspirator with
Huntley in the murder of Moray, at first only sus-
pected, but now, from some recent discoveries, abso-
lutely certain, raised against him a universal detesta-
tion ; the hatred of the people added new strength to
his opponents, and he was driven from court.*
This retreat of his chief adviser weakened James.
Elizabeth's coldness also annoyed him ; and his un-
easiness was changed into indignation, when he dis-
covered that she looked favourably upon Bothwell ;
and that this traitorous subject, who had so lately
invaded and dishonoured him, was in correspondence
with her ministers. It was necessary, however, to
dissemble his feelings, as the difficulties which now
surrounded him were of a complicated kind. It had
recently been his policy to balance the two great
factions which divided the country, the Catholic and
Protestant, as equally as possible : so that into which-
ever scale he threw the weight of his own authority it
might preponderate. This mode of government, bor-
rowed from Elizabeth, was more difficult to be carried
through with success in Scotland than in the neigh-
bouring country, not only from the superiority in
vigour and intellect possessed by that princess over
James, but from the greater feudal strength of the
nobility of Scotland, and the greater weakness of the
royal prerogative in that kingdom. In England vari-
ous causes had concurred to destroy the greater barons :
the wars of the two Roses were especially fatal to them ;
* Moyse's Memoirs, p. 97. MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to
Burghley, 17th December, 1592.
62 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1592.
and it is well known that the reign of Henry the
Eighth had been the grave of many of those potent
families who, before that time, were in the habit of
dictating to the crown. But in Scotland not only
were the feudal prerogatives more large, but the arm
of the law was weaker ; and the great houses, such
as Hamilton, Argyle, Mar, Huntley, Douglas, and
Stewart, were fresh and in vigour. Of all this the
king was so well aware, that when Bowes, the English
ambassador, on one occasion complained to him, that
his reforms were ever in fieri not in posse, James an-
swered, that to reform such nobles as he had, would
require the lives of three kings.*
There can be no doubt, however, that James, al-
though clearly foreseeing the difficulties he was likely
to encounter, had determined to weaken and suppress,
as far as possible, the greater barons ; and had resolved,
by every means in his power, to strengthen the crown,
raise up the middle classes and the lesser barons; and
so balance and equalize the various powers of the con-
stitution, that he should be able to hold the reins
with a firm hand. There is a passage of a letter of
Hudson's, one of the king's favourites, and a gentle-
man of his court, which points to this ; and shows that,
although James greatly favoured the chancellor, he
was more his own minister than has been believed.
Elizabeth, it appears, alarmed by some recent favours
shown to Huntley, had instructed Hudson to gain this
high officer, hoping through him to influence the king;
to which Hudson replied to Burghley, that the common
opinion that James followed Maitland's guidance was
an error; that the king was "himself the very centre of
the government, and moved the chancellor and all the
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 25th Jan., 1590-1.
1592. JAMES VI. 63
rest as he turned, minions and all. Although (he
continued) he bestow favour in great measure upon
sundries, it doth not follow that he is directed by them.
The chancellor is a great councillor, and the king seeth
that his gifts merit his place ; but he followeth directly
his majesty"^ course in all."*
Acting along with this able minister, James had
hitherto been able to hold in check the power of the
higher nobles, and to keep the country in something
like tranquillity. But the murder of Moray, the im-
plication of the chancellor and suspected connivance
of the king in this foul transaction ; the compulsory
retirement of Maitland, and the formidable combina-
tion which had taken place between the majority of
the higher nobles and the Earl of Bothwell, threw
the monarch into alarm, and forced him upon some
measures which, under other circumstances, he would
scarcely have adopted. His late favour to Huntley
had damaged him in the affections of the Kirk: he
now resolved to court its aid and to flatter it by un-
wonted concessions. These it is important to notice,
as they led to no less a measure than the establish-
ment of Presbytery by a prince to whom this form of
ecclesiastical government appears to have been espe-
cially obnoxious. The acts passed in the parliament
1584, against the discipline and privileges of the Kirk,
had long been a thorn in the side of the ministers ;
and they now, in an assembly held some time previous
to the meeting of parliament, resolved to petition the
king, not only for the abolition of these obnoxious
statutes, but for a solemn legislative establishment of
the Presbyterian system of church government.
Accordingly, parliament having assembled in June
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Hudson to BurgHey, 7th Dec., 1591.
64 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1592.
1592, the assembly presented the four following articles
or requests to the king :
1. That the acts of parliament made in the year 1584
against the discipline and liberty of the Kirk, should
be repealed, and the present discipline be ratified.
2. That the act of annexation should be abolished,
and the patrimony of the Kirk restored. ,
3. That abbots, priors, and other prelates pretending
to ecclesiastical authority, and giving their vote in
matters without any delegated power from the Kirk,
should not be hereafter permitted to vote in parlia-
ment or other convention : and lastly,
4. That the land, which was polluted by fearful
idolatry and bloodshed, should be purged.*
The first article, which went to rescind the acts of
1584, was long and keenly debated : for James was
acute enough to detect the increased power which this
must give to the ministers ; and it is certain that no
change had taken place in the mind of the monarch
as to the dangers to be apprehended from the turbu-
lence and independence of these bold and able men.
The republican principles, the austere morality, and
the extreme pulpit license of the Kirk, were wholly
opposed to all his ideas of ecclesiastical polity or civil
government; but Maitland, who had now resumed
his influence, though still absent from court, was
solicitous to conciliate the friends of the murdered
Moray and to appease the people ; and assisting the
Kirk at this moment with the full weight of his influ-
ence and advice, the king, more from policy than
affection, assented to the proposal. An act, accord-
ingly, was passed, which is still regarded as the
" Charter of the Liberties of the Kirk."
* Calderwood, pp. 267, 268.
1592. JAMES vi. 65
It ratified its system of government by general
assemblies, provincial synods, presbyteries, and parti-
cular sessions. It affirmed such courts, with the juris-
diction and discipline belonging to them, to be just,
good, and godly ; defined their powers ; appointed the
time and manner of their meeting; and declared that
the acts passed in 1584 should be in no ways prejudi-
cial to the privileges of the office-bearers in the Kirk
in determining heads of religion, matters of heresy,
questions of excommunication, appointment and de-
privation of ministers ; that another act of the same
parliament, granting commissions to bishops to receive
the royal presentations to bishoprics, and to give colla-
tion, should be rescinded ; and that all presentations
should be directed to their particular presbyteries, with
full power to give collation and decide all ecclesiastical
causes within their bounds, under the proviso that
they admitted such ministers as were presented by
the king or other lay patrons.*
Had the Kirk contented itself with these triumphs,
and rested satisfied in the king's present dispositions,
which appeared wholly in its favour, all things might
have remained quiet : for the Catholics, convinced of
the madness of their projects, were ready to abstain
from all practices inimical to the religion of the State,
on the single condition that they should not be perse-
cuted for their adherence to the ancient faith. But
the Kirk were not disposed to take this quiet course.
The principle of toleration, divine as it assuredly is
in its origin, yet so late in its recognition even
amongst the best men, was then utterly unknown to
* M'Crie's Life of Melvil, p. 403. Aikman's Translation of Buchanan's
History of Scotland ; with a Continuation to the Present Time, vol. iii. pp.
185, 186.
VOL. IX. E
66 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1592.
either party, Reformed or Catholic. The permission
even of a single case of Catholic worship, however
secret ; the attendance of a solitary individual at a
single Mass, in the remotest district of the land, at
the dead hour of night, in the most secluded chamber,
and where none could come but such as knelt before
the altar for conscience' sake, and in all sincerity of
soul ; such worship, and its permission for an hour,
was considered an open encouragement of Antichrist
and idolatry. To extinguish the Mass for ever, to
compel its supporters to embrace what the Kirk con-
sidered to be the purity of Presbyterian truth, and
this under the penalties of life and limb, or in its
mildest form of treason, banishment, and forfeiture,
was considered not merely praiseworthy but a point t
of high religious duty ; and the whole apparatus of
the Kirk, the whole inquisitorial machinery of detec-
tion and persecution, was brought to bear upon the
accomplishment of these great ends. Are we to
wonder that, under such a state of things, the
intrigues of the Catholics for the overthrow of a
government which sanctioned such a system continu-
ed ; that when they knew, or suspected that the
king himself was averse to persecution, they were
encouraged to renew their intercourse with Spain ;
and to hope that a new outbreak, if properly directed,
might lead either to the destruction of a rival faith, or
to the establishment of liberty of conscience.
A discovery which occurred at this time corrobor-
ates these remarks, and drew after it important con-
sequences. The Kirk, in the course of its inquisitions,
in which it was assisted by Sir Robert Bowes, the
resident English ambassador, received certain infor-
mation that George Ker, a Catholic gentleman, and
1592 JAMES vi 67
brother of the Abbot of Newbottle, was secretly-
passing into Spain with important letters. Upon
this, Mr Andrew Knox minister ol Paisley, setting
off with a body of armed men furnished by Lord Ross,
traced Ker to Glasgow, and thence to the little isles
of the Cumrays in the mouth of the Clyde, where they
seized him in the night, immediately after he had got
on board the ship which was to carry him to the
continent. His luggage was then searched, the packets
of letters found, and he himself hurried a prisoner to
Edinburgh ; where the provost and the citizens,
alarmed by the reports which had already reached
them, received him with shouts of triumph and exe-
cration. The unfortunate man at first attempted to
deny all ; and as he had many friends in the council
who opposed severity, was likely to escape ; but at
the king's special command he was put to the torture,*
and on the second stroke of the boots confessed the
conspiracy ; the main branch of which \vas to secure
and hasten the descent of a Spanish force upon the
coast of Scotland. This army was to be joined by
the Earls of Huntley, Errol, and Angus, with Sir
Patrick Gordon of Auchendown, uncle to Huntley ;
and other Catholic barons. Amongst the letters
o
seized, and which appeared to be written by Scottish
Jesuits and seminary priests to their brethren on the
continent, there were found several signatures of the
Earls of Huntley, Errol, and Angus. These were
, ,
day. But many think that he shall suffer the torment without confession.
It appears by a letter of Bowes to the Queen of England, 21st January,
1592-3, that Mr Andrew Knox received an assurance from Elizabeth, that
" good disposition and regard should be had of his labours, charges, perils,
and services ; " whereupon Mr Andrew returned into his country to search
out the haunts of the English Catholics lurking in those parts.
68 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1592.
written at the bottom of blank sheets of paper, with
the seals of these noblemen attached to them ; from
which circumstance the plot received the name of the
" Spanish Blanks." It was at first suspected by
Bowes, who was familiar with all the arcana of con-
spiracy, that the blanks were written over with ink
of white vitriol, prepared ; * but it turned out that
they were to be filled up afterwards by Ker, according
to verbal instructions, and to be delivered to the King
of Spain. -f- It may well be imagined that this dis-
covery serious enough, certainly, in its known fea-
tures, and around which there was that air of mystery
which gave ample scope for all kinds of terror and
exaggeration was enough to throw the Kirk and the
people into a state of high excitement. The council,
having examined the letters, had no doubt of their
authenticity. Sir John Carmichael and Sir George
Hume were sent to the king, who was at Stirling, to
entreat his immediate presence. Angus, then at
Edinburgh, and recently returned from an expedition
to the north, was committed to the castle of Edin-
burgh ; and proclamation made that all Jesuits,
seminary priests, and excommunicates, should, within
three hours, depart the city on pain of death. J A
convention of the nobility and Protestant gentry was
forthwith held, and, headed by the ministers, pre-
sented themselves at the palace, and insisted on the
instant prosecution and punishment of the traitors ;
declaring their readiness to hazard life and property
in the service. The Queen of Scotland, and the
powerful house of the Setons, earnestly interceded for
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 1st Jan., 1 592-3.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 13th Jan., 1592-3.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 3d Jan., 1592-3.
1592-3. JAMES vi. 69
Ker,* wno in the end escaped; but Graham of Fintrv,
found to be deeply implicated, was imprisoned ; and
Angus' 1 trial and forfeiture was considered so certain,
that the courtiers, wolf-like, began to smell the prey ;
and Sir George Hume wrote pressingly to Lord
Hume, requiring him to come speedily to court that
he might have his share in the spoils. }
James 1 conduct at this crisis was both wise and
spirited. He had received information, much about
the same time when the Spanish conspiracy came to
light, that his traitorous subject Bothwell, who had
twice invaded his palace and attempted to seize his
person, was received in England and regarded with
favour by Elizabeth. Now was the time, he felt, to
put down Bothwell for ever. He was well aware
that this fierce and formidable insurgent was favoured
secretly by the Kirk, and by many of those nobles
who now insisted upon the instant pursuit of the
Popish earls. He was aware, too, that Elizabeth's
alarm on the discovery of the Spanish Blanks would
prompt her to advise the most severe measures against
the delinquents, and he ably availed himself of all this.
To the Kirk and the Protestant barons he gave the
most friendly reception ; spoke loudly of Angus 1 in-
stant forfeiture ; and not only agreed to the pursuit
of Huntley, Errol, and their associates, but declared
that he would lead the army in person and seize them
in their northern strongholds. Nor were these mere
words. Huntley, Errol, and Auchendown, were com-
manded to enter themselves in ward at St Andrews
before the fifth February ; public proclamation was
made that all men should be ready, on the twenty-fifth
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office. 13th January, 1592-3.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burgbley, 13th Jan., 1592-3.
70 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1592-3.
of the same month, with armour and weapons, to
march with the king in person against the traitors if
they failed to deliver themselves ; and various com-
mittees were appointed for the examination of all sus-
pected persons, belonging either to the nobility, barons,
burgesses, or clergy.*
All this was most gratifying to the Kirk and the
Protestant leaders amongst the nobility. But, in
return for this, the king demanded as cordial a cooper-
ation on their side for the attack and destruction of
Bothwell, whose treasons, though of a different nature,
were even more flagrant than those of the Catholic
earls ; and this they were not in a situation to refuse.
Having thus secured the cooperation of the Kirk and
the Protestant lords against Bothwell, James gave
audience to Bowes, who was little prepared for the
violence with which he was to be received. The am-
bassador had recently found himself in a difficult
situation. He had been familiar with all the plots of
Bothwell, and looked upon them with no unfavourable
eye, although he took care not directly to implicate
himself. He had repeatedly applied to Burghley to
receive instructions and understand the queen's wishes :
but Elizabeth was too cautious to commit herself;
whilst Bowes knew for certain that she encouraged
Bothwell secretly, and expressed the highest scorn and
contempt for Huntley and the Spanish faction, whom
she branded as base traitors who had sold their country.
On this subject Elizabeth, shortly before this,-J- had
sent a letter to James, part of which, relating to the
Spanish faction, from its vigour, is worthy of preser-
vation :
* M.S. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 19th Jan., 1592-3.
t Cm the 4th December,
1593. JAMES VI. 71
" Advance not," said she, " such as hang their hopes
on other strings than you may tune. Them that gold
can corrupt, think not your gifts can assure. Who
once have made shipwreck of their country, let them
never enjoy it. Weed out the weeds, lest the best
corn fester. Never arm with power such whose bitter-
ness must follow after you ; nor trust not their trust
that under any colour will thrall their own soil.
" I may not, nor will I, conceal overtures that of
late full amply have been made me, how you may
plainly know all the combiners against your State, and
how you may entrap them and so assure your kingdom.
Consider, if this actor doth deserve surety of life, not
of land, but such as may preserve breath, to spend
where best it shall please you. When I see the day,
I will impart my advice to whom it most appertains.
" Now bethink, my dear brother, what farther you
will have me do. In meanwhile, beware to give the
reins into the hands of any, lest it be too late to revoke
such actions done. Let no one of the Spanish faction
in your absence, yea, when you are present, receive
strength or countenance. You know, but for you, all
of them be alike for me, for my particular. Yet I may
not deny, without spot or wrinkle, but I abhor such
as set their country to sale. And thus, committing
you to God's tuition, I shall remain the faithful holder
of my avowed amity,
" Your most affectionate Sister and Cousin." *
What was James 1 reply to this obscure epigram-
matic epistle is not known ; but very shortly after it
was written, the Spanish conspiracy came to light, and
* Warrender MSS., vol. B., p. 361. Indorsed, Delivered by Mr Bowes,
4th December, 1592.
72 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
the Scottish king at the same time discovered the
favour shown to Bothwell in England with the full
countenance of the queen. Mr Lock, an agent of
Burghley and a near relative of the notorious intriguer
John Colvil, brother to the Laird of Easter Wemyss,
had been sent down to Scotland with instructions to
form a faction with the Kirk and the Protestant barons
for Bothwell's restoration ; and their plots had pro-
ceeded so far, that the attack upon the palace, which
afterwards occurred in the autumn of this year, would
probably have been enterprised sooner, but for the
discovery of the Spanish Blanks.* Of all these Eng-
lish intrigues James was now aware ; and when Bowes
was admitted to an audience, the monarch broke into
a violent passion. The Queen of England, he declared,
did him foul injustice in countenancing a rebel and a
traitor like Bothwell. Her subjects received and
harboured him, and they pleaded her warrant to do
so. If so, he must account it done to his scorn and
dishonour. However, he should investigate the mat-
ter closely ; and should it turn out so, (this he said
loudly, and in the hearing of many about him,) there
was an end to his amity with the queen, and with
every man in England.
So unwonted a storm had never yet broken the
serene tenor of James' temper ; and Bowes found it
difficult to appease it even by the most earnest assur-
ances of Elizabeth's innocence. ) In a subsequent
interview, however, he was somewhat more successful.
The Queen of England despatched a letter written
wholly in her own hand, in a strain of so much con-
ciliation, and fraught with so much sound advice, that
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 27th Dec., 1592.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 19th January, 1592-3.
1593. JAMES VI. 73
the monarch was recovered ; showed the epistle, with
many expressions of admiration, to his confidential
councillors and some of the chief ministers, and lis-
tened to their exhortations to proceed roundly against
the Catholic lords. There were some difficulties, how-
ever, in the way. Huntley solemnly declared his
innocence, and affirmed that the blanks were not signed
by him. If he, Errol, and Angus, delivered them-
selves by the appointed day, and were once secured in
prison, there was little doubt of the issue ; but if, as
suspected, they fled and raised their feudal strength,
the king must march against them ; and, with an im-
poverished exchequer, who was to pay his troops ?
Elizabeth's bounty, he said, had flowed in a far more
niggard stream than had been promised. He had
looked to have five thousand a-year, the sum allowed
by Henry the Eighth to the queen herself when
princess ; but she had only given him three thousand.*
As to that occasion of which she reminded him, when
one year's charges for his behoof had come to nine
thousand pounds, and six thousand men been kept in
readiness for his service, he protested that by no effort
could he recall such things to memory ; but never
would he press her for money unless at a time of ex-
treme need like the present. But to explain all more
fully, he meant (as he assured Bowes) to send her an
ambassador, Sir Robert Melvil, or some other confi-
dential councillor.-f-
Meantime, before any such resolution could be acted
on, Elizabeth's anxiety, and the alarming confessions
of Ker, prompted her to despatch Lord Burgh with a
message to the king, and instructions to press on the
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to B&rghley, 27th Jan., 1592-3.
t Id. .bid.
74 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
trials of the Spanish lords by every possible method.
What had been fully expected by all who knew these
bold insurgents had now occurred. Instead of a sur-
render of their persons on the day appointed, Huntley,
Errol, Auchendown, and their associates, kept them-
selves within their strongholds in the north. Angus
escaped from the castle of Edinburgh, letting himself
down the walls by a rope, and joined his friends in the
Highlands ; and the king^s council, with the higher
nobles, became cold and inactive. But the monarch
himself was roused by this opposition into unwonted
energy. He alone had conducted the examination of
Ker, had advocated the use of torture against the
advice of his ministers, and by this horrible expedient
had extorted a confession. He now hurried forward
the trial of Graham of Fintry, had him found guilty,
and instantly executed ; and having requested the
prayers of the Kirk for success in his expedition, and
appointed the Earl of Morton to be Lieutenant-general
in his absence, he placed himself at the head of his
army and proceeded against the rebels.* To this ex-
traordinary vigour of the king against the Spanish
faction, Bowes, in his letter to Burghley, bore ample
evidence. After mentioning that Fintry had offered
fifty thousand pounds Scots to save his life, the am-
bassador observes, "the king in this hath remained
resolute ; and alone, without the assistance of any of
his council, prosecuted the cause. And now, he saith,
that as alone he hath drawn his sword against his
rebels, without the counciFs aid or allowance of his
nobility, so he will proceed, with the help of God, to
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 14th February,
1592-3. Same to same, lth February, 1592-3. Same to same, 21st Feb-
ruary, 1592-3.
1593. JAMES VI. 75
punish and prosecute the traitors in these high treasons,
by all the means in his power ; and with the assistance
of his barons, burghs, and Kirk, whom he findeth
ready to aid him therein. He was occasioned to stay
his journey two days beyond his diet for the trial and
execution of Fintry, and for some wants which are yet
slenderly supplied : nevertheless, he is ready and de-
termined to enter into his rode to-morrow, wherein he
shall be well strengthened with his barons ; but few
noblemen shall attend upon him." *
On the twenty-fourth of February, Lord Burgh,
Elizabeth's ambassador, arrived in Edinburgh ; and on
his heels came intelligence of the success of the Scot-
tish king.-f- James had advanced without a check to
Aberdeen. Huntley and Errol, finding it impossible
to make head against the royal forces, had fled, slen-
derly accompanied, to Caithness ; and the Earl of
Athole, who joined the king with twelve hundred fool
and nine hundred horse, was appointed Lieutenant-
general beyond Spey, to reduce those unquiet regions
and prevent their again falling under the power of the
rebels. J Meanwhile, the Catholic earls were declared
forfeited, and their estates seized by the crown ; but,
from some circumstances, it was augured that the
king meant to deal leniently, and not utterly wreck
them. Strathbogie castle, belonging to Huntley, was
given to Archibald Carmichael, with sixteen of the
royal guard for a garrison ; but the Countess of Hunt-
ley, sister to the Duke of Lennox, was allowed to re-
tain, for her winter residence, the Bog of Gicht, his
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 15th Feb., 1592-a
+ MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Lord Burgh to Burghley, 26th Feb.,
1 M8, Letter, State-paper Office, Lord Burgh to Burghley, 6th March,
1592-3.
76 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
greatest castle and estate. A thole received the rest
of his lands, not in gift, but to hold them as factor for
the crown. ErroFs father-in-law, the Earl Marshal,
bought his son's escheat for a thousand marks, with
the keeping of his castle of Slaines : his mother held
his other house of Logie- Almond for her jointure ;
and Athole, whose sister he had married for his second
wife, became factor of his other possessions. Angus
was more severely dealt with, not being saved by any
connexion or relationship with men in power.* His
house and castle of Tantallon were delivered to the
keeping of the Laird of Pollard ; Bonkle and Preston
to William Hume, brother of the king's favourite, Sir
George Hume ; Douglasdale, and the rest of his lands,
seized for debt. On the whole, however, the rebel
lords, considering their crimes, were leniently dealt
with. Their persons were safe in the fastnesses of
Caithness ; their patrimonial interest, and rights of
succession, were considered to be still entire till an
act of parliament had confirmed the forfeitures ; and
part of their estates were placed in friendly hands.
So evident was all this, that Lord Burgh wrote to
Burghley, that the king " dissembled a confiscation,"
and would leave the rebels in full strength.-}-
On his return from his northern expedition, James
gave audience to Lord Burgh, and expressed himself
gratified by the message and advice of Elizabeth. It
* Angus' mother was a Graham, daughter of the Laird of Morphy. He
married the eldest daughter of the Lord Oliphant. MS. State-paper Office,
1st July, 1592. A Catalogue of the Nobility in Scotland. The original
indorsement had been simply " Of the nobility in Scotland." Burghley has
prefixed the words " A catalogue." I mention this minute circumstance to
prove the authenticity of the paper, which is a highly valuable document,
showing the ages, matrimonial descent, and marriages, of the whole body
of the Scottish nobility at the period, 1st July, 1592. See Proofs and Illus-
trations.
\- MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Lord Burgh to Burghley, 5th March,
159-2-3.
1593. JAMES v;. 77
was her interest, he said, to cooperate heartily with
him in all his present actions, and assist him to her
utmost. Was she not as deeply concerned to hinder
the Spaniard setting his foot in Scotland as in France
or the Low Countries ? At this moment money was
imperatively called for ; an armed force of large extent
must be kept up ; he needed troops to guard his per-
son, exposed to hourly danger from the plots of his
nobles, and the snares of the arch-traitor Bothwell,
with whose daring character she was too well ac-
quainted : he needed them to overawe the districts
still favourable to the Catholic lords; to garrison their
houses, which, according to his good sister's advice,
he had seized ; to watch the coast where the Spaniards
were likeliest to land : to repulse them, if they effected
a descent. The cause was common to both ; and he
looked not only for sympathy and counsel, but for
hard coin and brave men. On one point he assured
Burgh, that the message which he took back must be
peremptory. " Bothwell," said he, " that vile traitor,
whose offences against me are unpardonable, and such
as, for example^s sake, should make him to be abhorred
by all sovereign princes, is harboured in England : let
my sister expel him, or deliver him up, as she tenders
her own honour and my contentment. Should he
henceforth be conforted or concealed in her dominions,
I must roundly assure her, not only that our amity is
at an end, but that I shall be enforced to join in friend-
ship with her greatest enemies for my own safety." *
This spirited remonstrance was not out of place ;
for at this moment Elizabeth, pursuing her old policy
of weakening Scotland, by destroying its tranquillity
* Answers for the Lord Burgh, concerning Bothwell. MS. wholly in
James' hand. Warrender MSS., Book B., p. 401.
78 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
and keeping up its internal commotions, was encour-
aging Bothwell to a new and more desperate attempt
against the king and his government. Lord Burgh
had received secret instructions to entertain this fierce
and lawless man. To discover his strength and means,
and increase his faction at court and with the ministers
of the Kirk, was the secret part of this ambassador's
mission ; and when James expressed to Bowes his
admiration of the eloquence, grace, and courtly man-
ners of this nobleman, he little knew the hidden mine
which he was digging under his feet. Yet so it was.
Bothwell had offered his services to the English queen ;
had written to Lord Burghley ; had received an answer
of encouragement, though cautiously worded ; and had
been ordered by the High Treasurer to write secretly
to the queen.* It will immediately appear how rapidly
this new conspiracy came to maturity, and how sud-
denly it burst upon the king.
Meanwhile, the various factions and family feuds
amongst the nobility had increased to such a degree,
that the whole cares of the government fell upon the
monarch ; and James, naturally indolent and fond of
his pastimes, began to languish for the return of the
Chancellor Maitland. This powerful minister had been
driven from court by the antipathy of the Queen of
Scots, the Duke of Lennox, and the whole faction of
the Stewarts, who held him as their mortal enemy,
and had repeatedly plotted against his life. The exact
cause of the queen's "heavy wrath" against Maitland,
appears to have been a mystery alike to the king and
to Bowes ; but it was deeply rooted, and nearly touched
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bothwell to Thomas Musgrave, whom
he styles his "Loving brother, Captain of Bewcastle," 7th March, 1592-3.
MS. State-paper Office, Mr Lock's Instructions, 10th Feb., 1592-3, wholly
in Lord Burghley 's hand.
1593. JAMES vi. 79
her honour. He was at deadly feud also with the
Master of Glammis, and hated by Bothwell, who re-
garded him as the author of all his calamities, and the
forger of that accusation of witchcraft, under the im-
putation of which he was now a banished and broken
man. It was difficult for the king to recall to power
a minister who lay under such a load of enmity; and,
for the present, he was contented to visit him in his
retreat at Lethington, and consult him upon the affairs
of government.* All, however, looked to his probable
restoration to power ; and the bare idea of it occasioned
the utmost jealousy and heart-burning in court.
Nothing, at this moment, could be more deplorable
than the torn and distracted state of the Scottish no-
bility. The Duke of Lennox and the Lord Hamilton,
the two first noblemen in the realm, were at mortal
feud ; the subject of their quarrel being an attempt,
on the part of Lennox, to get himself declared the
next in succession to the crown, to the exclusion of
the prior right of the family of Hamilton.^ Huntley
again, and all those barons who supported him, were
at feud with the potent Earl of Athole, and the whole
race of Stewart ; the cause of their enmity being an
unquenchable thirst of revenge for the murder of the
Earl of Moray. Argyle, Ochiltree, and all the barons
who adhered to them, were at feud with Lord Thirl-
staue the chancellor, Lord Hume, Lord Fleming, and
their faction and allies ; in which course they were
urged forward by the enmity of the Queen of Scots. J
It is difficult, by any general expressions, to convey
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 6th Feb., 1592-3.
Also, ibid., 7th April, 1593. " Occurrents in Scotland " brought by the
Lord Burgh, who came to the court 14th April. This indorsation is by
Burghley. Also, ibid., Bowes to Burghley, 19th April, 1593.
+ MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 20th May, 1593.
J MS. State-paper Office, Occurrents of Scotland, 7th April, 1593.
80 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 15.93.
a picture of the miserable state of a country torn by
such feuds as these. Nor were these the sole causes
of disquiet : Huntley, Angus, and Errol, although
declared traitors, were at large in the north ; Both-
well, whom the king justly regarded as his mortal
enemy, was also at liberty, harboured sometimes on
the Borders, sometimes in England, and even daring
to enter the capital in disguise and hold secret inter-
course with the noblemen about the king^s person.
The intrigues of the Catholics, although checked by
the late discoveries, were not at an end ; and the min-
isters of the Kirk, utterly dissatisfied with the leniency
which James had exhibited to the rebel earls, began
to attack his conduct in the pulpit, and to throw out
surmises of his secret inclinations to Popery. Is it a
subject of wonder that James, thus surrounded with
danger and disquietude, without a minister whom he
could trust, or a nobility on whose loyalty and affec-
tions he could for a moment depend, should have been
driven into measures which may often appear incon-
sistent and capricious ? The sole party on whom he
could depend was that of the ministers of the Kirk,
with the lesser barons and the burghs ; * and their
support was only to be bought at the price of the utter
destruction of the Catholic earls, and the entire extir-
pation of the Catholic faith.
To this sweeping act of persecution the monarch
would not consent. At this moment thirteen of the
nobility of Scotland were Catholics ;*f* and, in the north-
ern counties, a large proportion of the people were at-
tached to the same faith. It was insisted on, by the
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Lord Burgh to Burghley, 30th March,
] 593.
t MS. State-paper Office, Catalogue of the Nobility of Scotland, 1st July,
1 Dk/K.
1593. JAMES VI. 81
leading ministers of the Kirk, in a convention of the
Estates which the king summoned at this time,* that
the strictest investigation should be made for the dis-
covery and imprisonment of all suspected of heresy ;
and that, under the penalties of forfeiture and banish-
ment, they should be compelled to recant, and embrace
the reformed religion. The severity and intolerance
of such demands will be best understood by quoting
the words of the original. The Kirk represented that,
" Seeing the increase of Papistry daily within this
realm," it was craved of his majesty, with his council
and nobility at that time assembled, " that all Papists
within the same may be punished according to the laws
of God and of the realm. That the act of parliament
might, ipso facto, strike upon all manner of men, landed
or unlanded, in office or not, as it at present strikes
against beneficed persons. That a declaration be
made against all Jesuits, seminary priests, and traf-
ficking Papists, pronouncing them guilty of treason;
and that the penalties of the act may be enforced
against all persons who conceal or harbour them, not
for three days, as it now stands, but for any time
whatsoever. That all such persons as the Kirk had
found to be Papists, although they be not excommuni-
cated, should be debarred from occupying any office
within the realm, as also from access to his majesty's
company, or enjoying any benefit of the laws. That
upon this declaration, the pains of treason and other
civil pains should follow, as upon the sentence of ex-
communication ; and that an act of council should be
passed to this effect, which in the next parliament
should be made law." If the king agreed to these
demands, the convention promised, for their part, that
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 19th April, 1593.
VOL. IX. F
82 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
" their bodies, goods, friends, allies, servants, and pos-
sessions, should be wholly at his service, in any way
he was pleased to employ them." During the whole
pursuit of this cause, (the utter destruction of all
Papistry within the realm,) they declared, that not
only their whole numbers should be, at all times, a
guard to the royal person, but that the king might
select from them any force he pleased as a daily body-
guard ; the pay of which, however, they prudently
added, ought to be levied from the possessions of the
Catholics ; and if this were not enough, they would
themselves make up the difference.*
To these sweeping and severe penalties James would
by no means consent ; and the Kirk, irritated by his
refusal, withdrew that assistance and cooperation which
it had hitherto lent him in preserving peace and good
order. The effects of this were soon apparent. In-
stead of the happy tranquillity which had reigned
during his absence in Denmark, and which he had
mainly ascribed to the efforts of the ministers, the
capital, as the time of the parliament approached, pre-
sented almost daily scenes of outrage and confusion.
The security and sanctity of domestic life were invaded
and despised ; ruffians, under the command of, and open-
ly protected by the nobles, tore honourable maidens from
the bosom of their families, and carried them off in
open day. James Gray, a brother of the notorious
Master of Gray, seized a young lady named Carnegie,
an heiress, and then living under her father's roof;
carried her forcibly down a narrow close, or street, to
* MS. State-paper Office, Humble petition of the General Assembly of
the Kirk, craved of his Majesty's Council and nobility presently convened.
Fra Dundee, this Lord's day, 29th April, 1593. Also, MS. State-paper
Office, " The Effects of the Answers of this Convention to the Articles pro-
poned by the King's Majesty."
1593. JAMES VI. 83
the North Loch, a lake which then surrounded the
castle ; delivered her to a party of armed men, who
dragged her into a boat, her hair hanging about her
face, and her clothes almost torn from her person ;
whilst Graves associate, Lord Hume, kept the streets
with his retainers, beat off the provost who attempted
a rescue, and slew some of the citizens who had pre-
sumed to interfere. Next day, the chief magis-
trate carried his complaint in person before the king.
" Do you see here any of my nobles whom you can
accuse?" said James. At that moment Hume was
standing beside James ; but when the unhappy provost
encountered his fierce eye, the impeachment stuck in his
throat from terror, and he retired silent and abashed.*
The outrage was the more shameful, as Gray was a
gentleman of the king^s suite, and had been assisted by
Sir James Sandilands and other courtiers ; whilst the
Duke of Lennox and the Earl of Mar were playing tennis
hard by, and abstained from all interference. So atro-
cious an insult upon the laws, and the miserable weak-
ness exhibited by the king and the chief magistrate, ap-
pear to have made a deep impression on Burghley, who
has written on the margin of Bowes' letter this pithy
note : " A miserable State, that may cause us to bless
ours, and our governess."^ It was not long after this
that a day of law, as it was termed, was to be kept for the
trial of Campbell of Ardkinglass, accused of the murder
of the Laird of Caddell, a gentleman of the name of
Campbell, who had himself been a principal actor in
the tragedy of the Earl of Moray. Ardkinglass was
a relative and favourite of Argyle, who assembled his
* MS. Calderwood, British Museum, Ayscough, 4738, fol. 1137. MS.
Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, JOth June, 1593.
t Id. Ibid.
84 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
friends, and on the day of trial entered the capital
with a formidable force. The accused was about to be
married to a natural daughter of Lord John Hamilton,
which occasioned the muster of the whole power of
that house; and the Chancellor Thirlstane, esteem-
ing the opportunity a favourable one to exhibit his
strength, and prepare the way for his return to court,
Tode from his retirement into the city, attended by
Arbroath, Montrose, Seton, Livingston, Glencairn,
Eglinton, and other powerful friends.* This again
was sufficient to rouse the fears of his enemies, the
party of the queen ; who assembled in great strength,
led by the Duke of Lennox, and numbering in their
ranks, Mar, Morton, Hume, the Master of Glaminis,
Sir George Hume, Lord Spiny, and Sir James Sandi-
lands. The Border barons, too, Lord Maxwell and
Cessford, were on their march ; the Lords of Session,
who had to try the criminal, and trembled for their
lives, had resolved to raise a body of a hundred men
to protect them; and the townsmen were, in the mean-
time, kept day and night under arms. All this was
most formidable to the king, who found himself almost
alone amid his difficulties.^ The danger, too, was
increased by the sudden apparition, amid the darkness,
of a meteor which had ever indicated perplexity and
change. Captain James Stewart, once the formidable
and haughty Earl of Arran, had been seen lately in
the palace. It was known he had been favourably
received by James in several secret interviews ; the
queen and the duke were his friends ; his misfortunes
had neither tamed his pride, nor quelled that fierce
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 17th June, 1593.
Also, ibid., same to same, 20th June, 1593.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 17th June, 1593.
1593. JAMES VI. 85
energy and unscrupulous daring which had prompted
him to destroy the Regent Morton ; and at this crisis,
when all were anticipating the return of the chancellor
to power, it was suspected that the enemies of Mait-
land had determined to recall Stewart, and employ
him for the destruction of this minister.* He had
already pulled down one far mightier from his palmy
state : what, said the queen and Lennox, was to pre-
vent him from being successful against another ?
Amid these complicated distresses James had scarce-
ly one councillor on whom he could rely. With his
capital bristling with steel-clad barons, each feeling
himself superior to the throne or the law ; the streets
in possession of tumultuous bodies of retainers and
feudal banditti, armed to the teeth and commanded by
men at mortal feud with each other: his court and
palace divided by the intrigues of the several rival
factions ; diffident even of the gentlemen who waited
on his person ; distracted by reports that troopers had
been seen hovering in the neighbourhood, completely
armed and disguised ; } deserted for the time by the
Kirk ; uncertain as yet of the success of the embassy
of Sir Robert Melvil, whom he had lately sent to
Elizabeth ; and tormented by hourly reports of unde-
fined but urgent dangers and mysterious conspiracies;
the wonder is, that a prince of James 1 indolent and
timid temper should not have sunk under such a state
of things. But the emergency seemed to rouse him ;
and by an unusual exertion of firmness and good sense,
he succeeded in warding oft' the dangers, persuaded the
barons to dismiss their followers, and brought about
a reconciliation between the queen's faction, led by the
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 20th June, 1593.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 19th June, 159.?.
86 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
duke, and their powerful enemy the Chancellor Mait-
land. It had long been evident to the king that, in
the present state of the country, no hand but that of
Maitland could save the government from absolute
wreck and disruption ; and it was agreed, that on the
conclusion of the parliament, which was now on the
eve of meeting, this minister should return to court,
and be reinstated in his high office.*
Scarce, however, was this danger averted than the
city was thrown into a new state of excitement by the
shrieks and lamentations of a troop of miserable women,
who had travelled from the Borders, the victims and
survivors of a recent raid conducted by the Laird of
Johnston. Their purpose was to throw themselves
before the king, and demand justice for the slaughter
of their sons and husbands, whose bloody shirts they
held above their heads, exhibiting them to the people
as they marched through the streets, and imprecating
vengeance upon their murderers. It was a sight which,
in any other country, might well have roused both
pity and indignation ; but though the people mur-
mured, the ghastly procession passed on without fur-
ther notice, and neither kin<j nor noble condescended
O
to interfere."}*
The parliament now assembled ; but its proceedings
were delayed by a quarrel between the higher nobles
for the precedency in bearing the honours. At length
it was arranged that Lennox should carry the crown,
Argyle the sceptre, and Morton the sword ; and that,
in the absence of the Chancellor Maitland, Alexander
Seton, President of the Session, should fill his place,
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, ut supra. Also, ibid., Bowes to Burgh-
ley, 22d June, 1593. Also, ibid., same to same, 28th June, 1593.
f MS. Calderwood, Ayscough, 4738, fol. 1138-39.
1593. JAMES VI. 87
and conduct the proceedings.* Bothwell was then
forfeited, and proclaimed a traitor at the Cross ; and
the queen's jointure, which had been settled at her
marriage, and regarding which some difficulties had
arisen, was confirmed. To conciliate the Kirk, an act
was passed exempting ministers' 1 stipends from taxation ;
another statute was introduced against the Mass ; and
a strict inquisition ordered to be made for all Papists
and seminary priests : but on the great subject for
which it was understood parliament had met, the
prosecution and forfeiture of the Popish earls, the
party of the Kirk were miserably disappointed, or
rather, all their gloomiest expectations were fulfilled.
Huntley, Errol, Angus, and Auchendown, escaped
forfeiture. It had been secretly resolved by the king,
that no extreme proceedings should be adopted against
these noblemen, who had a numerous and powerful
party on their side,f till Sir Robert Melvil, then at
the English court, had brought an answer from Eliza-
beth ; and although the Earl of Argyle, Lord Forbes,
Lord Lindsay, and the Protestant faction, anxiously
urged the most severe measures, James was resolute.
Mr David Makgill, the king's advocate, a man of
extraordinary talent, but who had often opposed the
Kirk, declared that the summonses were informal, the
evidence of traitorous designs and correspondence with
Spain insufficient ; and that it was impossible for any
act of attainder to pass in the present meeting of the
Estates.]:
This for the time settled the matter : but the Kirk
* MS. British Museum. Caligula, D II. 128. Bowes to Burghley, July
IGth, 1593.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 20th June, 1593.
t MS. Letter, British Museum, Caligula, D II., Bowes to Burghley, 8th
July ; also, 10th July, and 14th July, 1593.
88 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
were deeply indignant; and their champion, Mr John
Davison, denounced the proceedings, and attacked the
sovereign in the pulpit on the Sunday which succeeded
their close. " It was a black parliament," he said ;
" for iniquity was seated in the high court of Justice,
and had trodden equity under foot. It was a black
parliament : for the arch-traitors had escaped ; escaped,
did he say ! no : they were absolved ; and now all
good men might prepare themselves for darker days :
trials were at hand : it had ever been seen that the
absolving of the wicked imported the persecution of
the righteous. Let us pray," said he, in conclusion,
" that the king, by some sanctified plagues, may be
turned again to God."*
Such plagues as Davison thus prayed for, were
nearer at hand than many imagined : for Elizabeth,
according to her favourite policy, had more than one
plot now carrying forward in Scotland. Her accredited
ambassador, Sir Robert Bowes, was indeed instructed
to keep up the most friendly assurances, and to pro-
mise the King of Scots her cordial assistance in defeat-
ing Bothwell, and destroying the Roman Catholic
faction : yet at this moment she had sent Mr Henry
Lock into Scotland, who with his brother-in-law, the
notorious Mr John Colvile, and Bothwell himself, met
secretly in Edinburgh, and organized a formidable
confederacy,-}- the object of which was to bring in
Bothwell, take possession of the king^s person, over-
whelm the Chancellor Maitland who was on the eve
of being recalled to power, and render the Kirk tri-
umphant over its enemies. To this plot the Duke of
Lennox, the Earl of Mar, the Earl of A thole, Lord
* MS. Calderwood, Ayscough, 4738, fol. 1139.
t MS. State-paper Office, B.C., John Carey to Burghley, 1st Aug., 1593.
1593. JAMES vi. 89
Ochiltree, and the whole noblemen and barons of the
name and race of Stewart were parties ; and they
chose this meeting of the three Estates, when the king
was surrounded by many of their faction, to carry
their purpose into execution. The parliament was
now about to terminate, when, on the nifjht of the
77 O
twenty-third of July, Bothwell was secretly conveyed
into the house of Lady Gowrie, which adjoined the
palace of Holyrood. This lady's daughter was the
Countess of Athole, to whose courage and ingenuity
the success of the plot was principally owing. Early
in the morning of the twenty-fourth of July, she
smuggled Bothwell and Mr John Colvile, by a back
passage, into the anteroom adjoining the king's bed-
chamber, hid them behind the arras, removed the
weapons of the guard, and locked the door of the
queen's bedchamber, through which the king might
have escaped. The gates of the palace were then
occupied by the Duke and Athole, who placed a guard
upon them. All this time James was asleep ; but he
awoke at nine, and calling for one of the gentlemen
of his bedchamber, got up and threw his nightgown
about him. An alarm now suddenly rose in the next
room ; and the king rushing out with his hose about
his heels, and his under-garments in his hands, con-
fronted Bothwell, who had glided from behind the
hangings, and stood with his drawn sword in his hand,
Colvile being beside him. James shouted " Treason ! "
and ran to the door of the queen's bedroom ; but it
was found locked : and nothing remained but to face
his enemy, which, when driven to it, he did with
unwonted spirit, and his usual voluble eloquence.
" Come on," said he, " Francis : you seek my life,
and I know I am wholly in your power. Take your
90 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND 1593.
king's life : I am ready to die. Better to die with
honour than live in captivity and shame. Nay, kneel
not, man," he continued, (by this time the Duke and
Athole had come in, and Bothwell and Colvile had
thrown themselves on their knees ;) " kneel not, and
add hypocrisy to treason. You protest, forsooth, you
only come to sue for pardon, to submit yourself to
your trial for witchcraft, to be cleansed by your peers
of the foul imputations which lie heavy on you. Does
this violent manner of repair look like a suppliant?
Is it not dishonourable to me, and disgraceful to my
servants who have allowed it ? What do you take
me for? Am I not your anointed king, twenty-seven
years old, and no longer a boy or a minor, when every
faction could make me their property? But you have
plotted my death, and I call upon you now to execute
your purpose : for I will not live a prisoner and dis-
honoured." As he said this, the king sat calmly
down, as if prepared for the worst ; but Bothwell, still
on his knees, loudly disclaimed all such murderous
intentions, and kissing the hilt of his sword, took it
by the point, delivered it to his sovereign, and placing
his head beneath James 1 foot, bared his neck of its
long tresses, (then the fashion of the young gallants
of the day,) and called upon him to strike it off if he
believed that he ever harboured a thought against his
royal person.* The Duke of Lennox, Athole, and
Ochiltree, now vehemently interceded for the earl ;
and James, raising him from the ground, retired into
a window recess to talk apart ; when an uproar arose
below in the streets, and the citizens of Edinburgh,
who had heard a rumour of the enterprise, rushed
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, August, 18, 1593.
MelviTs Memoirs, Bannatyne edition, pp. 414, 415.
1-593. JAMES VI. 91
tumultuously into the palace-yard, headed by their
provost, Alexander Hume, who loudly called to the
king, then standing at the open casement, that, on a
single word from him, they would force the doors and
rid him of the traitors about him. James, however,
who dreaded to be slain, or torn in pieces, if the two
factions came to blows, commanded the citizens to
disperse ; and taking refuge in that dissimulation of
which he was so great a master, pretended to be re-
conciled to Bothwell, fixed a near day for his trial,
and simply stipulated that, till he was acquitted, he
should retire from court. To all this the earl agreed.
Next day his peace was proclaimed by the heralds at
the Cross. The people, of whom he was a great
favourite, crowded round him ; and not only his own
faction, which was very strong, but the ministers of
the Kirk showed themselves highly gratified at his
return.*
Having settled this, Bothwell left the capital ; and
attended only by two servants, rode to Berwick, where
he had an interview with Mr John Carey, the son of
Lord Hunsdon, and governor of that border town ;
showed him the commission under the King of Scots'
hand assuring him of pardon ; professed the utmost
devotion to Elizabeth ; and declared that, within a
brief season, he expected to be made " Lieutenant-ge-
neral of the whole country."^ He then proceeded to
Durham, on his road, as he said, to the English court,
to confer with her majesty " what course it would
please her to direct for his guidance ;" and on reaching
that city, insisted on thrusting himself into the con-
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 25th July, 1593,
Ibid., another letter, same day, same to the same.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., John Carey to Burghley, 1st
August, 1593.
92 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
fidence and becoming the guest of Dr Toby Mathews,
the dean, one of the council of the north ; who vehe-
mently declined his explanations, professed his igno-
rance of " Scottish causes,' 1 and advised him to address
himself to Burghley, Lord Hunsdon, or Sir Robert
Bowes. All was in vain, however. The Scottish earl
settled himself on the venerable dignitary, and " put-
ting him to silence," ran over the story of his whole
courses, and ended with his late seizure of the king.
Mathews, who had no mind to be made a party in such
violent matters, did not permit his eyelids to slumber
till he had written an account of it all to Burghley.
His letter, which is dated at midnight, on the 2d
August, gives us an excellent account of the interview.
" This day," says he, " about three of the clock after-
noon, came hither to my house the Earl Bothwell,
thereunto moved, as he protested, as well by some
good opinion of me conceived, as for that he under-
stands I am one of her majesty's council established
in the north. * * And, albeit, I was very loath
to enter into any speech of the Scottish affairs, espe-
cially of State, wishing him to write thereof to your
lordship, or to the Lord President ; or, if he so thought
good, to negotiate his business with her majesty's
ambassador resident in Scotland : yet could I not
avoid it ; but he would needs acquaint me with some-
what thereof. * * Wherewith, putting me, as
it were, to silence, he began, with exceeding amplifi-
cations, to acknowledge himself most bounden to her
majesty for the permission he hath enjoyed in Nor-
thumberland and thereabouts, notwithstanding the
king's importunity and practice of his enemies to the
contrary ; and to protest, with all solemnity, before
the Majesty of God, that her highness, in regard
1593. JAMES VI. 93
thereof, shall ever have him a loyal and most faithful
Englishman hereafter : albeit, heretofore, he were
thought never in opinion a Papist, yet in affection
and faction a Spaniard. ' Well done once, my lord, 1
quoth I, ' is double well said ; ' which word, although
he took somewhat displeasantly, yet did it occasion
him to affirm and confirm the same, over and over
again, so far as possibly may stand with the amity of
both the princes, and the perpetual conservation of
religion now openly professed both in England and
Scotland.
" Then began he to discourse the manner and means
of his late enterprise, and entrance to the king's pre-
sence ; * * which, to mine understanding, was a
plain surprise of the king in his bedchamber, made by
the earl and another gentleman, in the sight of the
duke, the Earls of Mar and Athole, with others his
friends purposely assembled : his sword in his hand,
drawn ; the king fearfully offering to withdraw him-
self into the queen^s chamber, which before was devis-
ed to be kept shut against him. Howbeit,as upon short
conference between the king and the earl a little apart,
they soon grew to an accord. * * So he confessed
to me, that immediately after this pacification, the
king used all means, rough and smooth, to sound and
pierce him thoroughly : what favours have been done
him ; what sums of money sent him ; what promises
made him ; what advice or direction given him from
her majesty or council, or other English, to get access
in court to possess the king. Whereunto the earl
made answer by utter denial, saving that her highness
had a princely commiseration of his distressed estate,
so far only as to yield him to take the benefit of the
air of her country for preservation of his liberty and
94. HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
life, so narrowly sought by the king ; so directly and
cruelly by his adversaries. * * The king, with
marvellous vehemency, insisted long upon that point,
and eftsoons conjured him, ' by all the faith he bare
him, by all the allegiance he owed him, by all the love
he professed to him, by all the favour he hoped for
ever to find of him, that he should not conceal Eliza-
beth's dealings from him ; being,' as he said, ' a mat-
ter so manifest.' But," continued Dr Toby to Burgh-
ley, " the more violently the king sought to sift him,
the more resolute was the earl, not only peremptorily
to disclaim every particular thereof, but in sort, as he
could, to charge the king with much unkindness and
unthankfulness causelessly to carry such jealousy and
suspicion of her majesty, who had hitherto been so
gracious a lady, yea, a very mother unto him ; and,
under the providence of God, the only supporter of his
estate that ever he found, or is like to find upon earth.
Now hear, O Francis ! ' quoth the king, ' and have
you then so soon forgotten my dear mother's death V
' In good faith,' quoth the earl, as he saith, ' if you,
my liege, have forgiven it so long since, why should
not I forget it so long after ; the time of revenge
being by your own means, and not mine, so far gone
by. A fault can but have amends, which her majesty
hath made you many ways ; and so hath she made
me amends of all amisses, this once for all : to whom,
with your pardon, Sir, I will ascribe not only my lands
and living, but my life, with liberty and honour, which
is most of all, not only as freely bestowed upon my-
self, but extended to all mine and my posterity : so
as it shall never be seen or heard that ever Earl Both-
well, for all the crowns of France, for all the ducats
in Spain, for all the siller and gold in the Indies East
1593. JAMES vi. 95
and West, for all the kingdoms in Europe, Africa,
and Asia, shall utter one word in council, or bear arms
in field, against the amity of the two realms and
princes, and the religion now by them authorized.
And farther, I make God a vow, 1 quoth he to the king,
' that if ye, King Jamie, yourself, shall ever prove
false to your religion and faith to your God, as they
say the French king hath done to his shame and con-
fusion, I shall be one of the first to withdraw from
your majesty, and to adhere to the Queen of England,
the most gracious instrument of God, and the orna-
ment of the Christian world.' From this he proceed-
ed to the deposition of the Chancellor Maitland, upon
whom he bestowed many an ill word and many a bad
name : and answered the objection of subrogating
Stewart in his room (who is not as yet, but is likely
to be ;) undertaking confidently to assure, that what-
soever he had done heretofore, he should henceforth
concur with her highness, as well as himself, in all
things lawfully to be commanded. What party they
are, as well the duke and earls as other lords arid lairds
of most commandment, he saith your lordship shall
from him receive, in a catalogue subscribed with their
own hands, by Mr Lock, whom these two days he hath
looked for and mervaileth not a little at his uncoming.
The earl doth purpose to follow him soon after that
he shall have undergone his trial for the witchcraft,
which is now instant. The considerations whereof are,
as he pretendeth, the only cause of absenting himself
out of Scotland until the very day ; lest, having now
the king in his power, it should hereafter be objected,
that in the proceedings thereof, he had done what
himself listed. His lordship did earnestly require me,
moreover, because Mr Lock was not yet come, to re-
96 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
member your lordship to take order that the union
intended by her majesty between the Popish and Pro-
testant parties in Scotland be not overhastily prose-
cuted, lest the multitude of the one may in time, and
that soon, wreck the other, being fewer in number,
and so become rulers of the king. * * His lord-
ship acknowledged he hath now in Edinburgh and
Holyrood House, of his own pay, a thousand soldiers,
whereof the greater part are good musketeers, besides
fifty horse to attend the king's person. * * * He
maketh no question but by her majesty's assistance,
whereupon he seemeth willing wholly to depend, he
shall be, with his friends and followers, sufficiently
able to manage the estate about the king, to the peace
of both realms, against all the forces and frauds of
Spain. * * *^
" This nobleman," so the Dean concluded his letter
to Burghley, " hath a wonderful wit, and as wonderful
a volubility of tongue as ability and agility of body
on horse and foot ; competently learned in the Latin ;
well languaged in the French and Italian ; much de-
lighted in poetry ; and of a very resolute disposition
both to do and to suffer ; nothing dainty to discover
his humour or any good quality he hath. Now, as
your lordship is like to hear of all these and many
other particulars more at large, as the king's affection
to the Lady Morton's daughter, and a strange letter
written to some such effect, with some good assurance
taken to bring a greater estate there into their asso-
ciation, and unto her majesty's devotion : so, since I
was importuned thus far to lend him mine ear, and to
relate his discourse to your lordship with what fidelity
and celerity I could, I am most humbly to beseech
your lordship, that in case it be not lawful (as in
159S. JAMES VI. 97
mine own poor opinion it is nothing convenient) for
me to have talk with him or any from him, your lord-
ship will vouchsafe so much to signify unto me by
your ' honourable letter,' or otherwise, with expedi-
tion ; lest by him, or some of his, I be driven to this
pressure, in a manner, whether I will or no." *
Immediately after this visit of Bothwell to the Dean,
Mr Lock, the envoy of Elizabeth, who had organized the
conspiracy which had thus placed James in the power
of his enemies, arrived from Scotland ; and by him
Bothwell sent the following letter to the English queen.
"MosT RENOWNED EMPRESS, The gracious usage
of so clement a princess towards me in my greatest
extremity should most justly accuse me of ingratitude,
if (being in the place wherein a little more than be-
fore I might) I should not perform those offices which
then I did promise. So have I directed the bearer
hereof to impart the same unto your majesty with
more certainty than before ; to whom, as I have [pro-
mised,] so did I move my associates in all points to
ratify my speeches ; and, by their oaths in his pre-
sence, confirm the same. So, fearing to offend your
most royal ears, having in this, so in all other things,
imparted my full mind to this bearer, whom I doubt
not your highness will credit, my most humble and
dutiful service being remembered, and your highness
committed in the protection of the Eternal, after most
humble kissing of your most heavenly hands, most
humbly I take my leave." *f*
Having despatched this superlative effusion of
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Dr Tobias Mathevr to Burghley,
2d August, 1593.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Earl of Bothwell to the Queen.
Indorsed in Burghley's hand, Earl Bothwell to the Q. Maj. by Lock, 4th
August, 1593.
VOL. IX. G
98 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
flattery to his renowned empress, Both well addressed
a few lines to the grave Burghley, thanking him for
his " fatherly advices ; " promising all grateful obe-
dience, and signing himself his loving son.* He then
collected from his friends on the Border six couple of
hounds and some excellent horses, as a conciliatory
present to the Scottish king ; ^ and returned to stand
his trial for witchcraft, which had been fixed for the
tenth of August.
Meanwhile, the royal captive had not been idle.
Although surrounded by his enemies and strictly
watched, he contrived to receive messages from Hunt-
ley, who was mustering a large force in the north ;
and secretly communicated with Lord Hume and the
Master of Glammis on the best way of making his
escape. He was assisted in this by three gentlemen
of the house of Erskine, who had been permitted to
remain about his person. They employed two others
of his attendants, named Lesley and Ogilvy ; and it
was resolved that a rescue should be attempted im-
mediately after the trial of Bothwell, when the king
was to pass over the Forth from Holyrood to Falk-
land. A fleet horse was to be ready at the park gate;
James, eluding his guards, was to mount and gallop
to Lochleven ; whilst Hume, with all his forces,
making an onset on the opposite faction, who had been
assembled for the trial in the capital, hoped either to
seize their leaders or put them to death. All these
preparations were managed by the king with such
accomplished dissimulation, that he completely blind-
ed Bothwell and his associates.
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bothwell to Burghley, August, 1593.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., John Carey to Burghley, 1st Aug.,
1593. Also, ibid., B.C., Sir William Reid to Burghley, llth August,1593 ;
and ibid., B.C., Sir John Foster to Burghley, 20th August, 1593.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, llth August, 1593.
1593. JAMES VI. 99
The trial now came on, and lasted from one in the
forenoon till ten at night. In the indictment the
earl was accused, on the evidence of several deposi-
tions made by Richard Graham, who had been burnt
for witchcraft, of three several attempts against the
king's life and estate : one by poison ; another by
fabricating a waxen image in the likeness of the
monarch ; and the last, by enchantments to prevent
his ever returning out of Denmark. The poison was
compounded, according to the declaration of the
wizard, of adders 1 skins, toads 1 skins, and the hippo-
manes in the head of a young foal ; and was to be
placed where it might ooze down upon the king's
head where he usually sat, a single drop being of such
devilish and pestilent strength as to cause instant
death. The defence of the earl was conducted by
Craig the famous feudal lawyer, who contended that
Graham's various depositions were not only inconsis-
tent and contradictory in themselves, but refuted by
the declarations of his miserable sisters in sorcery,
Sampson, Macalzean, and Napier ; whilst he proved,
by unexceptionable evidence, that Graham had been
induced to accuse Bothwell under a promise of pardon
signed by the King's Counsel, and from the terror of
being tortured. The earl also defended himself with
much spirit and eloquence; and the result was, his
triumphant acquittal ; which, considering the strength
of his party at this moment, would probably have
been the issue had he been as guilty as he really ap-
pears to have been innocent.*
All this took place on the tenth. On the eleventh,
the plot laid for the king's escape was to be carried
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Mr John Carey to Burghley, 12th
August, 1593.
100 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
into effect ; and at three in the morning of that day,
everything was in readiness. William Lesley, one
of the gentlemen of the bedchamber, carrying with
him the king's ring and a letter for Lord Hume, was
passing as silently as he could through the court-yard ;
when Bothwell, who slept in the palace, was awakened
by the watch, who suspected some secret practice, and
rushing down seized the messenger, found on his
person the king's letter and signet, and discovered the
whole. The rest of the gentlemen were then arrested
and delivered to the guard ; and the earl, repairing to
the king, who was by this time making ready to take
horse, interdicted the journey, and charged him with
his breach of promise. A stormy interview ensued.
James insisted that he would ride to Falkland. Both-
well assured him that he should not leave the palace
till the country was more settled. " You and your
fellows," said James, "have broken your promises,
imprisoned my servants, and now think to hold me a
captive. Where are the three Erskines? where is
Gilbert Ogilvy ? where the faithful Lesley ? Did ye
not swear that I should return, after the trial, to
Falkland ; and that you, Bothwell, should withdraw
from my company as soon as you were cleared by an
assize?" "And so we shall, 11 replied the earl. "But
first, my liege, we must be relaxed from the horn,
restored to our lands and offices, and see the foul
murder of the Earl of Moray punished. They who
slew him are known ; they, too, who signed the
warrant for the slaughter, the Chancellor Maitland,
Sir George Hume, and Sir Robert Melvil." " Tush,
tush," said the king ; " a better man than you, Both-
well, shall answer for Sir Robert." " I deny that,"
insolently retorted Bothwell ; " unless the man you
1593. JAMES VI. JO]
mean is your majesty himself." This was a home-
thrust, for it had been long suspected that the kino-
was indirectly implicated in the fate of Moray ; and
when the earl proceeded to charge the Erskines with
the conspiracy for escape, nothing could equal James 1
indignation, and all hopes of a reconciliation seemed
at an end.* It was in vain that the ministers of the
Kirk were summoned to promote peace: they prevailed
nothing ; and, as a last resource, Bowes the English
ambassador was called in. With matchless effrontery
he declared his mistress 1 astonishment at the enter-
prise of Bothwell ; regretted the facility with which
so treasonable an invasion had been pardoned ; and
expressed her anxiety for the safety of the king's per-
son, and the preservation of the country from rebellion.
James answered, that it was not for him to answer for
the enterprise of Bothwell. He was no accomplice,
but its victim ; and for the traitors who now kept
him, they had forsworn themselves, and broken every
promise. Was he not prevented from free access to
his own palace of Falkland? Had they not imprisoned
five of his servants, and demanded the trial of the
chancellor, the Master of Glammis, and Sir George
Hume? and when he asked why, insolently answered
that they might be hanged.-f- But let them look to
themselves. He might seem in a helpless state ; but
he was their king : and sooner would he suffer his
hand to be cut from his wrist than sign any letter of
remission at their imperious bidding ; sooner endure
the extremity of death, than consent to live a captive,
and in dishonour. Bowes assured him of his mistress'
sympathy ; advised an amicable settlement ; and at
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, ICth August, 1593.
t Id. ibid.
102 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593
last, after two days' labour, with the assistance of
some mediators selected from the ministers, the judges
of the Session, and the chief magistrates of the city,
succeeded in bringing the parties to an agreement.
During the whole of these conferences, the king
appears to have behaved with such unwonted spirit
and resolution, that it is evident he must have been
assured of a large party, and of near and speedy
succour. He declared, in sharp terms, to the ministers
of the Kirk, that he would either be once more a free
monarch and released from these traitors, or proclaim
himself a captive : and he charged them, on their
allegiance, to let his mind be known to his people ;
to exhort them to procure his delivery by force ; and
to assure them he would hazard his life to attain it.*
When Athole proposed himself to be appointed Lieu-
tenant-governor in the north, with full power against
Huntley, and Bothwell claimed the same high office in
the south, Jarnes, almost with contempt, refused both
the one and the other ; but he consented to pardon
Bothwell and his associates, for all his attempts
against his person ; and agreed that Lord Hume, the
Chancellor Maitland, the Master of Glammis, and
Sir George Hume, should not repair to court till the
conclusion of the parliament, which was to meet
within a month or six weeks at Stirling. -f- Nothing,
however, was farther from the king's intention than
the fulfilment of these promises, which he knew he
could at any future time disregard and pronounce in-
valid, as extorted by force ; and before such time
arrived, he hoped to be able to muster a party which
might defy his enemies, and secure that revenge which
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 16th August, 1593.
+ MS. Letter, State-paper Office. Accord betwixt the King of Scots
and Earl Bothwell, 14th August, 1593.
1593. JAMES VI. 103
was only to prove the deeper, because it was dissembled
and deferred. Meanwhile, with that elasticity, and
levity with which he could cover his gravest purposes,
he resumed his gaiety, partook of a banquet at Both-
welPs house in Leith, appeared wholly bent on his
pastime, and rode to Inchmurrin to hunt fallow-deer.*
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 16th Aug., 1593.
104 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
CHAP. III.
JAMES THE SIXTH.
15931594.
CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.
England.
Elizabeth.
France.
Henry IV.
Germany.
Rudolph II.
Spain.
Philip II.
Portugal.
Philip II.
Tope.
Clement VIII.
IN the late revolution James had exhibited unusual
firmness ; and this last compromise with Bothwell was
almost a victory. Nor was he deceived in his expec-
tations of still farther triumph over this insolent noble,
whom he now justly regarded as the leader of the
English party and of the Kirk. The resolution and
courage which the king had exhibited, convinced his
turbulent barons that he was no longer a minor, or a
puppet, to be tossed about from faction to faction, and
made the helpless and passive instrument of their
ambition. Many of them, therefore, began to attach
themselves to the royal faction, from self-interest
rather than loyalty ; and however fatal to the peace
of the country, the deadly feuds which existed amongst
the nobles, by preventing combination, formed the
strength of the monarch at this moment. It was
evident that Bothwell had either deceived Elizabeth
or himself, when he spoke to Carey and Mathews of
his overwhelming strength, and the facility with which
1593. JAMES vi. 105
he could guide the government of Scotland according
to the wishes of his renowned empress. Already his
ally, the Duke of Lennox, young, capricious, and a
favourite of James, began to waver ; and before the
appointed convention met at Stirling on the ninth of
September, a powerful reaction had taken place, which
no efforts of English intrigue could arrest. It was in
vain that Elizabeth, Burghley, and Sir Robert Cecil
his son, who now acted as a chief counsellor in all
" Scottish causes," exerted themselves to keep up a
faction, and even entered into a secret communication
with Huntley and the Popish party, in the vain hope
of bringing about a coalition between them and Both-
well. The effort to join with the Roman Catholics,
whom they had so often stigmatized as enemies to the
truth, only served to show the fraud and falsehood of
Elizabeth's and Cecil's constantly-repeated assertion,
that they were guided solely by zeal for the glory of
God and the interests of the true religion ; and Bowes
the ambassador assured them, that if the plot for this
unnatural combination went forward, the ministers of
the Kirk, from whom it could not be concealed, would
*' greatly start and wonder hereat." * Besides, how
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 6th Sept., 1593.
As this fact is new, and shows the insincerity of Elizabeth and Burghley,
and the sincerity and honesty of the Kirk, proving, also, that Bothwell's
party was the party of the Kirk, I give the passage from Bowes' letter.
"The party employed to sound Ghanus [HuntleyJ and his compartners,
how they stand affected to proceed in and perform their offers made for
America [England,] letteth me know that he hath spoken with Chanus,
and with such as tendered this offer for him and the rest; and that they
will go forwards agreeable to the motions offered. For the which this party
thus travelling herein hath promised to go forwards in his course with dili-
gence, as all things may he effected with best expedition and secrecy, likeas
it will be made known, I trust, to your Lordship, very shortly. I under-
stand perfectly that Chanus [Huntley] will both impart to Petrea [King of
106 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
was he to reconcile the course now recommended with
his instructions to prosecute the Papistical rebels ?
How could he allow Huntley's uncle, a priest and a
Jesuit, to steal quietly out of Scotland, and yet satisfy
the Kirk and the Protestant leaders, that he (Bowes)
was an enemy to the idolaters ? All this needed to be
reconciled and explained ; and he begged for speedy
directions.*
We have seen how completely Bothwell had been
supported and encouraged in his late audacious and
treasonable enterprises by the English queen. He was
now to feel the fickleness of her favour : and with that
deep hypocrisy which so often marked her political
conduct, she addressed a letter to the King of Scots,
and instructions to Bowes, in which she stigmatized
the Scottish earl as guilty of an abominable fact, which
moved her utmost abhorrence ; and expressed her un-
feigned astonishment, that any subject who had acted
thus insolently, had not only escaped without chastise-
ment, but had received, as it appeared, a remission of
such atrocious conduct. She alluded also, with scorn
and indignation, to his refusal to prosecute those
" notable traitors of the north," Huntley, Errol, and
Angus, " who had conspired among themselves, and
agreed to admit great forces of strangers to enter into
his realm, to the ruin of his estate and the subversion
of religion ;" and she warned him that such sudden
changes as had been brought to her ears, such capri-
ciousness and imbecility of judgment, would end not
only in the loss of his liberty, but might endanger his
greatly start and wonder hereat. Therefore I beseech your Lordship that
this may be well considered." Bowes very naturally goes on to observe,
that this course of friendship with the Catholics is inconsistent with his in-
structions, which commanded him to prosecute the " Papistical rebels."
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, Gth Sept., 1593.
1593. JAMES VI. 107
life.* It did not suit James' policy or circumstances
to tear the veil from these pretences at this moment ;
and, indeed, we are not certain that, however he may
have suspected Elizabeth's double-dealing, he had de-
tected it with anything of the certainty with which we can
now unravel her complicated intrigues. At all events,
he chose to fight her with her own crafty weapons,
and pretended to Bowes that he was fully satisfied
with her late assurances of friendship. When the
appointed convention assembled at Stirling, Bothwell
was commanded to absent himself from court until the
meeting of parliament, which was fixed for the four-
teenth of November; at which time, the king inti-
mated his intention of granting him a full pardon and
restitution to his estates and honours, upon his sub-
mitting himself to the royal mercy. ^ He was then
to leave the realm, but enjoy his revenues in his ban-
ishment ; and his accomplices in his late treasons were
to be pardoned.
Such terms, with which the rebel earl was compelled
to be contented, exhibited a wonderful and rapid change
in the power of the king; and all perceived where
James 1 strength lay, when Lord Hume, with the
Master of Glammis, and Sir George Hume of Prim-
rose Know, entered Stirling during the convention at
the headof a large force. Everything was now changed,
and the king spoke boldly out. He declared his re-
solution to cancel any promises extorted by force,
when he was a captive ; but promised mercy to all
who repented and sued for pardon. He received Hume
and his associates with open arms; sent for the
* MS. State-paper Office, original draft of Her Majesty's Letter to Mr
Bowes, 23d August, 1593.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 10th September,
1593. Same to same, 15th September, 1593.
108 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
Countess of Huntley to court ; permitted the Catholic
earls, Angus and Errol, to visit their friends without
molestation ; and, it was strongly reported, had con-
sented to have a secret interview with Huntley at
Falkland.* This northern earl had recently received
great promises from Spain ; and for the last eight
months had maintained a large force, with which he
had repeatedly ravaged the territories of his enemy
Argyle, and kept the whole of that country in terror
and subjection. This constant exercise in war upon a
larger scale than was commonly practised in Highland
raids, had made him an experienced soldier; and James
felt that, with such leaders as Huntley and Hume, he
need not dread Bothwell, Athole, or their allies. All
this rendered the king formidable ; and, soon after, his
triumph became complete by the arrival of his old and
experienced councillor, the Chancellor Maitland, who,
having been reconciled to the queen, the Master of
Glammis, the Duke of Lennox, and his other enemies,
rode to court, accompanied by young Cessfordand two
hundred horse. ^
Measures now followed rapidly, of such a character
as convinced the friends of England, the ministers of
the Kirk, and the relics of BothwelFs party, that the
king had not forgotten the late insults which had been
offered him, and was preparing to take an ample re-
venge. Hume, a Roman Catholic, was made the
captain of the king's body-guard ; and, in the king's
presence, openly threw out his defiance against Both-
well and the whole race and name of the Stewarts ;
who, he said, dared not take one sillie bee out of the
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 15th September,
1593. Also, ibid., B.C., Mr John Carey to Burghley, l3th Sept., 1593.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 21st Sept., 1593.
Moyse's Memoirs, Bannatyne edition, p. 105.
1593. JAMES vi. 109
moss in his bounds without his will.* In these sallies
he was not only unchecked by the King, but James,
calling for the ministers, insisted that the process of
excommunication, which was then preparing against
this potent baron, should be abandoned, alleging that
he was in the progress of conversion. It was remarked,
too, that the three Catholic earls, although still ex-
cluded from court, carried themselves with unwonted
bravery and confidence. Angus, visiting Morton at
the Newhouse in Fife, assured him that he had better
join them in time, as their increasing strength would
soon compel a union ; and George Ker, the victim of
the Spanish Blanks, who had not been heard of since
his escape from Edinburgh castle, suddenly showed
himself at Melvil, near Dalkeith, with a troop of eighty
horse, and warned the tenants of Lord Ross to cease
from their labour, if they would not have their houses
burned above their heads. It will be remembered that
Ross's men had assisted in the capture of Ker ; and
their master, as was usual in those days, had been
rewarded by a grant of Melvil, and other lands round
Newbottle belonging to the Kers. These were trifling
events ; but noted at the time in the pulpit, when the
watchmen of the Kirk were keenly detecting how the
current of court favour was setting in towards Popery, f"
There is no good ground for suspecting, notwith-
standing the strong asseverations of the ministers to
the contrary, that the King of Scots had ever any
serious intentions of becoming a convert to the Roman
Catholic faith, or even of permitting its public profes-
sion by any one of his subjects ; but he was well aware
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 13th Sept., 1593.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 5th October, 1593.
See supra, p. 66-67.
110 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
of the unprincipled policy of the English queen, which,
from first to last, had been directed to weaken Scot-
land, by creating perpetual divisions amongst its no-
bles ; and he had resolved, now that he was once more
a free prince, and at the head of a strong party, to
extinguish the fires which she had kindled, and restore,
if possible, aristocratic union and general peace to the
country. That such was his present object is evident
from a passage in a letter of Mr Carey the governor
of Berwick, son of Lord Hunsdon, to Lord Burghley ;
and the fervent hope expressed by this English baron,
that the day may never arrive which shall see the Scot-
tish nobles "linked together in peace, 11 is full of
meaning. " For the news in Scotland, 11 says he, " I
know not well what to say ; but this I am sure, the
king doth too much appose* himself to the Papist
faction for our good, I fear. Yet here [he means in
the Border districts] is nothing but peace and seeking
to link all the nobility together, which I hope will
never be. The Papists do only bear sway ; and the
king hath none to put in trust with his own body but
them. What will come of this your lordship's wis-
dom can best discern ; and thus much I know certain,
that it were good your lordship looked well whom you
trust : for the king and the nobility of Scotland have
too good intelligence out of our court of England. 11 ^
In prosecution of this design of a general union
amongst his divided nobility, James opposed himself
to the violent and persecuting measures of the Kirk.
He knew the truth of what Both well had lately stated
to Elizabeth, that the Scottish Catholics^were so strong
* " Appose," (ad-pono, or appono,) place himself beside; assimilate him-
self to the faction.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Mr John Carey to Burghley,
29th September, 1593.
1593. JAMES VI. HI
that, in the event of any attempt to unite them with
the Protestants, they would soon rule all.* Since
then, Huntley and his friends had been daily gaining
complete preeminence in the north ; and to render such
a party furious or desperate by processes of treason
and proscription ; to discharge against them, if they
did not choose at once to renounce their religion and
sign the Presbyterian Confession of Faith, the sharp-
est arrows of civil and ecclesiastical vengeance, would
have been the extremity of intolerance and of folly.
The king wisely declined this, and persevered in his
course ; although the Presbyterian pulpits immedi-
ately opened their fire, and the provincial Assembly
of Fife was convened at St Andrews to consult on the
imminent dangers which surrounded the Kirk.^f-
Of this religious convention Mr James Melvil,
nephew of the well-known Andrew Melvil, was chosen
Moderator ; and Mr John Davison, the sternest and
most zealous amongst his brethren, did not hesitate
to arraign the pastors of the Kirk of coldness, self-
seeking, and negligence. Let them repent, said he,
and betake themselves to their ordinary armour
fasting and prayer. Let the whole Kirk concur in
this needful humiliation. Above all, let the rebel
earls, Huntley, Errol, Angus, Aucheudown, and their
accomplices, whom it were idle to assail with any
lighter censures, be solemnly excommunicated; and
let a grave message of pastors, barons, and burgesses,
carry their resolution to the king, now so deeply
alienated from the good cause : then they might look
for better times. But now their sins called for humili-
* MS. State-paper Office, B.C., Dean Toby Mathews to Lord Burghley,
t MS. Calderwood, Sloan MSS., British Museum, 4738, fol. 1140, 2Cth
September.
112 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
ation ; for they, the shepherds, seemed to have for-
gotten their flocks : they were idle and profane ; nor
would he be far from the truth, if he declared that a
great part of their pastors were at this moment the
merriest and the carelessest men in Scotland. After
much debate, it was resolved that the Roman Catholic
rebels should be excommunicated ; and this upon the
ground that many amongst them had been formerly
students in the university of St Andrews, and must,
therefore, have signed the Confession of Faith. The
terms of this sentence, in which not the whole Pres-
byterian sect, as represented by the General Assembly
of their Kirk, but an isolated provincial Synod took
upon them to excommunicate certain members of the
Catholic Church, were very awful. This little con-
clave declared that, in name and authority of the Lord
Jesus Christ, they cut off the said persons from their
Communion, and delivered them to Satan, to the
destruction of their flesh : it added, that the spirit
might yet be safe, if it pleased God to reclaim them
by repentance ; but pronounced, if unrepentant, their
just and everlasting condemnation.* This sentence
was commanded to be intimated in every Kirk in the
kingdom. All persons, of whatever rank or degree,
were interdicted from concealing or holding communi-
cation with the delinquents thus delivered to the Devil,
under the penalty of being visited by the same ana-
thema ; and the synod concluded by exhorting the
pastors to whom the charge of the flock had been
intrusted, to prepare themselves by abstinence, prayer,
and diligent study of the Word, for that general and
solemn Fast which was judged most needful to be
observed throughout the land. The causes for such
* MS. Calderwood, Ayscough, 4738, fol. 1144.
1593. JAMES vi. 113
universal humiliation and intercession were declared
to be these : *
1. The impunity of idolatry, and cruel murder com-
mitted by the Earl of Huntley and his complices.
2. The impunity of the monstrous, ungodly, and
unnatural treasons of Huntley, Angus, Errol, the
Laird Auchendown, Sir James Chisholin, and their
accomplices.
3. The pride, boldness, malice, blasphemy, and going
forward of these enemies in their most pernicious pur-
pose, arising out of the said impunity, and their suf-
ferance by the king ; so that now they not only have
no doubt, as they speak plainly, to obtain liberty of
conscience, but also brag to make the Kirk fain to
come to their cursed idolatry before they come to the
truth.
4. The land defiled in divers places with the devilish
and blasphemous Mass.
5. The wrath of God broken forth in fiery flame
upon the north and south parts of the land with hor-
rible judgments, both of souls and bodies, threatening
the mid part with the like or heavier, if repentance
prevent not.
6. The king^s slowness in repressing Papistry and
planting of true religion.
7. The defection of so many noblemen, barons,
gentlemen, merchants, and mariners, by the bait of
Spanish gain ; which ernboldeneth the enemies : and
on the other part, the multitude of Atheists, ignorant,
sacrilegious, blood-thirsty, and worldly- out ward pro-
fessors, with whom it is a strange matter that God
should work any good turn ; the consideration where-
of upon the part of man may altogether discourage us<
* MS. Calderwood, Ayscough, 4738, fol. 1142.
VOL. ix. n
IH HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
8. The cruel slaughter of ministers.*
9. The pitiful estate of the Kirk and brethren of
France.
] 0. and Lastly. The hot persecution of discipline
by the tyranny of bishops in our neighbour land.-f*
In addition to these bold proceedings, the leading
ministers of the Kirk determined that Lord Hume
the captain of the King's Guard, should either satisfy
the Kirk by his recantation, or be forthwith excom-
municated. They publicly rebuked the Earl of
Morton for keeping company with Errol and Angus,
men branded by the Kirk as idolaters ; and when he
defended himself by quoting the example of Henry
the Fourth, the French king recently turned Catholic,
they retorted that no Christian could, without error,
associate with such delinquents. J
Meanwhile, Bothwell, instead of accepting the
king's offered pardon and retiring from the realm,
entered into fresh intrigues with England and trifled
with the royal mercy. But James detected these
new combinations ; and marching suddenly in person
with a strong force from Stirling to the Doune of
Menteith, where A thole, Gowrie, and Montrose had
assembled with five hundred horse, attacked their
company, made Gowrie and Montrose prisoners, and
had nearly taken or slain the northern earl, who fled
at his utmost speed with a few attendants into Athole. ||
* Mr James Blyth and Mr John Aikman, ministers, had been slain by
the Mures.
f MS. Calderwood, Ayscough, 4738, fol. 1142.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 15th Sept., 1593.
Also, ibid., Bowes to Burghley, 26th Sept., 1593.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, James Sinclair and James Douglas of
Spot to Bothwell, 1st Oct., 1593. Ibid., Lord Ochiltree to Bothwell, 4th
October, 1593.
I! MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 5th October,
1593.
1593. JAMES VI. 115
The three Catholic earls, Huntley, Errol, and Angus,
now earnestly supplicated the king, that they might
be permitted to stand their trial for that conspiracy
of the "Spanish Blanks, 11 of which they solemnly pro-
tested their innocence. No opportunity, they said,
had hitherto been given them of defending themselves
before a jury. They had been excommunicated by
the Kirk, banished from court, and compelled to lead
the life of fugitives and traitors, without any evidence
except a confession extorted by torture, and the ex-
hibition of some signatures asserted to be theirs, but
which they would prove to be forgeries. Let them
only come to their trial. If found guilty, they were
ready to suffer the penalty of their crimes ; if acquit-
ted, as they trusted to be, then they would either
satisfy the Kirk on the subject of their religion and
conform to the national faith, or would go into volun-
tary banishment.* Not satisfied with these remon-
strances, they suddenly presented themselves to the
king as he rode from Holyrood to Lauder, and, fall-
ing on their knees, implored him to submit their
alleged offences to the judgment of an assize. But
James dismissed them with real or affected wrath ;
threatening that they should be worse handled for
such boldness.^
Had the Catholic earls been sincere in the anxiety
they expressed to have an impartial trial, it would
have been the height of injustice to have refused their
request ; but it was well known that they had secretly
summoned all their friends to assemble in arms on
"their day of law;" and such was their present
strength, that neither judges, jury, nor witnesses,
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 9th Oct., 1593.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 12th Oct., 15SM.
116 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
could have attended with safety. * It is not surpris-
ing that the Kirk should have loudly remonstrated
against such hurried and premature proceedings; and
at an ecclesiastical convention of ministers, barons,
and burghs, held at Edinburgh on the seventeenth
October, for the purpose of considering the imminency
of the threatened danger, they selected six commis-
sioners to repair to the palace and present their advice,
beseeching the king that the trial might be delayed till
the "professors of the gospel should be ripely advised
what was meetest for them to do, since they had re-
solved to be the principal accusers of these noblemen
in their foul treasons." They craved, also, that these
excommunicated and treasonable apostates should,
" according to the loveable laws and customs of
Scotland, be imprisoned till the Estates of parlia-
ment had advised on the manner of their trial ; that
the jury should be nominated not by the accused but
by the accusers ; that as the foresaid traitors were
excommunicated and cut off from the society of Christ's
body (to use the strong and revolting language of the
original,) they should not be admitted to trial, or
have any benefit of the law, till they were again join-
ed unto Christ and reconciled to his Kirk." These,
however, were not all the demands and proceedings
of the Kirk. They resolved, that if their enemies
attended in arms, they should meet them in the
same fashion ; desiring the king's permission that
"the professors of religion may be his majesty's
guard, and be admitted in the most fensible and war-
like manner to be about the royal person, to defend
it from violence, and accuse their enemies to the
uttermost : and this," they added, "we are minded to
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 18th Oct., 1593.
1593. JAMES VI. 117
do, although it should be with the loss of all our lives
in one day : for certainly we are determined that the
country shall not bruik us and them baith, so long
as they are God's professed enemies." * In furtherance
of these preparations, the Kirk directed the Modera-
tor of every Presbytery to advertise each particular
brother in the ministry within their bounds ; to warn
the noblemen, gentlemen, barons, and burgesses, to
muster in warlike arms and array in Perth, on the
twenty-fourth of the month, the expected day of trial;
and appointed twelve ministers as commissioners, to
be resident in the capital till the answer to their de-
mand was returned by the king.^ When the com-
missioners of the Kirk presented their petitions to
James at Jedburgh, he refused to acknowledge any
convention which had been summoned without his
order ; and after an angry interview, passed in mutual
complaint and accusation, peremptorily declined re-
turning any written reply to the Assembly. The
state of matters now became alarming; and Bowes
the English ambassador, who watched it from hour
to hour, wrote thus to Burghley on the eighteenth
October : " Yesterday, at the meeting of the com-
missioners of the Kirk, the barons and burghs con-
vened here together. * * Great preparations are
made for the advancement of the course thus resolved,
and to stop the trial to be given at this time to these
earls, whose friends (as it is told me) have mustered,
and are in readiness to come to Perth at the day
limited : they have already provided that the Water
Gate or Water Street shall be reserved for the earls
* MS. State-paper Office. Certain Petitions and Conclusions considered
upon by the Commissioners for the Kirk, Barons, and Burgesses of Edin-
burgh, 17th Oct., 1593.
t Ibid.
118 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
and their companies. But Athole, Gowrie, and many
of the town, are rather disposed to keep them out.
The convocation and access of people to that place is
looked upon to be so great that thereon bloody troubles
shall arise. 1 '*
A collision appeared now inevitable ; and there were
many causes which promised to make it, when it did oc-
cur, one of a fearful description. The opposite factions,
whose partisans were flocking from all parts towards
Perth, the anticipated scene of the trial, were animated
by the most bitter and revengeful feelings ; their blood
was boiling under the influence of family feuds, reli-
gious persecution, and fanatical hatred. The advocates
for peace were browbeaten, and their voices drowned
in the din of arms and proclamations of mutual de-
fiance ; and all this was exasperated and increased by
the warlike denunciations of the Kirk, which, by its
thousand trumpet-tongues, through the length and
breadth of the land, summoned all who loved the
Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to gird on their
weapons, and, if necessary, die for their faith. Had
things been allowed to continue in this state, and the
muster taken place at Perth, a few days more might
have kindled the flames of civil war in the country,
and deluged it with blood ; Jbut at this crisis James
wisely interdicted the trial from being held at Perth,
and resolved that a solemn inquiry into the conduct of
Huntley, Angus, and Errol, should take place before
commissioners to be selected from the nobility, the
burghs, and the Kirk. To secure tranquillity, public
proclamation was made that none except such as were
especially called for should presume to attend the con-
vention : that the three earls, dismissing their forces,
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 20th October, 1593.
1593. JAMES VI. ]19
should await the king's determination at Perth ; and
that, in the mean season, none should molest them
during the trial or inquiry which was about to take
place. At all this the Kirk stood aghast. They had
insisted on the imprisonment of the three earls. They
had argued that, till they signed the Confession of
Faith and reconciled themselves to the Kirk, they
could not be recognised or permitted to take their
trial ; that they ought to have no counsel to defend
them ; and that the' Kirk, as their accuser, should
nominate the jury. Its ministers now complained,
threatened, and remonstrated;* but when the day
appointed for the convention arrived, they found the
king not only resolved to abide by his own judgment,
but so strongly supported by the nobility whom he
had summoned, that it would be vain to attempt re-
sistance.
James, who had taken time to consider all coolly, on
weighing the whole circumstances, found it necessary
to steer a middle course. The trial was postponed ; as
it was believed that no jury could be found at that mo-
ment " so void of favour and partiality" as to condemn
the earls ; and, on the other hand, if acquitted, no
terms 01 conditions could be imposed on them which
their power would not enable them to despise and in-
fringe."}* As to the accused themselves : on the one
hand, they persisted in asserting their innocence as to
the " Spanish Blanks," which they were accused of
having signed, or of any conspiracy to bring foreign
forces into the realm ; on the other, they confessed
that they had received Jesuits, heard Mass, revolted
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 12th November,
1593. Also, same to same, 17th November, 1593.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 23d Nov., 159&
120 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
from the Presbyterian faith against their public pro-
fession and subscription ; refused to obey their sum-
mons for treason, and committed other acts against
the laws ; for which they were willing, they said, to
put themselves in the king^s mercy. All this was
laid before a committee who represented the three
Estates : nobles, barons, and burghs. The Duke of
Lennox and the Earl of Mar appearing for the earls ;
the Lord Chancellor IVlaitland and Lord Livingston
for the lords, with whom sat all the councillor of
estate ; the barons being represented by four of their
number, the burghs by five burgesses, and the Kirk
by six of the leading ministers ; who, however, ap-
peared only as petitioners, and did not sit or vote as
commissioners. After mature deliberation with this
committee, the king, adopting, as far as he was per-
mitted, a wise mean between the extremity of perse-
cution recommended by the Kirk, and that toleration
which was rather implored and hoped for than claimed
as a right by the Catholics, pronounced his sentence.
He declared that he was firmly resolved that God's
true religion, publicly preached, and by law established,
during the first year of his reign, should alone be pro-
fessed by the whole body of his subjects ; and that all
who had not embraced it, or who had made defection
from it, should, before the first of February next, obey
the laws by professing it, and thus satisfy the Kirk ;
or, if they found this against their conscience, should
depart the realm to such parts beyond seas as he should
direct, there to remain till they embraced the true
religion, and were reconciled to the Kirk ; but he
added, that during this banishment they should enjoy
their lands and living. As to those persons who had
been accused of a treasonable conspiracy with Spain
1593. JAMES VI. ]21
for the overthrow of the true religion William earl
of Angus, George earl of Huntley, Francis earl of
Errol, Sir Patrick Gordon of Auchendown, and Sir
James Chisholm of Cornileys he pronounced them
" free, and unaccusable in all time coming of any such
crimes ;" and annulled all legal proceedings which had
been instituted against them, unless they showed
themselves unworthy of pardon by directly renewing
their intrigues, or threatening, either by word or deed,
any repetition of their treason. If they chose to re-
nounce their Idolatry, to embrace the Presbyterian
opinions, satisfy the Kirk, and remain to enjoy their
estates and honours within their own land, it was in-
timated to them and to all other Catholics, that this
must be done on or before the first day of February
next ; and, on the contrary, if they preferred to retain
their faith and enter into exile, then they were to give
assurance that, during its continuance, they should
refrain from all practices with Jesuits or seminary
priests against their native country. It was lastly
declared, that they should express to the king and the
Kirk their acceptance of one or other of these condi-
tions before the first of February next.*
To our modern and more Christian feelings this
sentence must appear as unwise as unmerciful : for it
disavowed the possibility of toleration, held out a pre-
mium to religious hypocrisy, and punished sincerity
and honesty of opinion with perpetual banishment.
James had hoped that it might pacify the country ;
but it experienced the common fate of middle courses,
and gave satisfaction to no party. The Catholics,
* MS. State-paper Office. Act of the Convention at Holyrood House,
26th November, 1593 ; with Burghley's notes on the margin. It is printed
by Spottiswood, p. 400.
122 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
who had never intermitted their intrigues with Spain,
had lately received assistance and encouragement from
that country ; they commanded almost the whole of
the north ; and were in no temper to resign their re-
ligion, or retain it at the expense of perpetual exile.
They temporized, therefore ; affected a submission
which they did not feel ; and continued to strengthen
themselves both at home and abroad for a new struggle.
But if the Catholics were discontented, the Kirk re-
ceived the Act of Abolition with mingled wrath and
lamentation. It actually seemed to them an insuffi-
cient security, and a trifling punishment, that no man
was to be permitted to remain within the realm, and
enjoy his estate and the protection of the law, unless
he signed the Presbyterian Confession of Faith. The
profanation was, that any man should be at liberty to
retain his belief in the Roman Catholic faith, and his
Scottish estates, if he consented to banish himself from
his native country. The feelings of the leaders of the
Kirk upon this subject are thus described by Bowes,
an eye-witness, in his letter to Burghley.
" This edict, and act of oblivion, is thought to be
very injurious to the Church, and far against the laws
of God and this realm ; whereupon the ministers have
not only openly protested to the king and convention
that they will not agree to the same, but also, in their
sermons, inveigh greatly against it ; alleging that,
albeit it hath a pretence to establish one true religion
in the realm, yet liberty is given to all men to pro-
fess what they list, so they depart out of the realm ;
and thereby they shall enjoy greater privileges and
advantages than any other good subject can do. That
this is very dangerous to the religion, and to all the
professors thereof, that the crimes of these offenders
shall be thus slightly passed over ; and this notwith-
1593. JAMES VI. 123
standing their treasons and faults are so manifest and
odious, as the king once confessed that he had not power
to pardon them, and promised, as he was a Christian
prince, to punish them with all rigour. And the parties
thus offending have now been detected four times, and
escaped punishment for like treasons and conspiracies."*
At this convention the king, who now found him-
self strong enough to disclose his true feelings, ex-
hibited the sustained intensity of his wrath against
Bothwell. It was in vain that the queen, and those
nobles who had attached themselves to her service,
interceded for the delinquent. He was commanded
to leave the realm within fifteen days ; and James re-
fused to listen to any offers, or to hold out the slight-
est hopes of forgiveness till this order had been obeyed.
The friends of the rebel earl were treated with equal
severity. Lords Doune and Spiny, with Mr John
Kussell, an eminent advocate who had pleaded his
cause, were imprisoned ; and it was evident that all
hope of reconciliation must be abandoned.-f-
The act of oblivion proved as distasteful to Eliza-
beth as it was to either the Catholics or the Kirk.
This great princess had recently received intelligence
of the continued intrigues carried on by Jesuits and
seminary priests in Scotland. One of these busy emis-
saries, Thomas Mackquharry, a Scottish Jesuit, who
had been employed by Lady Hume, and had carried
on his secret practices in different parts of England,
had been recently seized by Sir John Carey at Ber-
wick. It was reported that another Scottish Jesuit,
Mr James Gordon, with William Gordon of Strath-
don, a brother of the Earl of Huntley, and four or five
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burgbley, 2d December, 1593.
f Id. ibid.
124 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
other Catholics, had passed overfrom Scotland to Dun-
kirk ;* and Mr James Craig, a gentleman resident at
Bourdeaux, wrote to his brother Mr Thomas Craig,
the celebrated feudal lawyer, then an advocate at the
Scottish bar,-f- that an army and fleet were being
equipt in Spain, which were suspected to be destined
for Scotland. Ireland continued to be the theatre of
perpetual intrigue and commotion ; and the English
queen had taken the adoption of the Catholic faith by
Henry the Fourth greatly to heart. She was, there-
fore, in a highly excited state when she received from
Bowes, her ambassador, the news from Scotland ; and
lost no time in despatching Lord Zouch with a violent
open remonstrance, and a letter of secret rebuke, writ-
ten wholly in her own hand.| This last was in these
nervous and scornful terms :
" MY DEAR BROTHER. To see so much, I rue my
sight that views the evident spectacle of a seduced
king, abusing council, and wry-guided kingdom. My
love to your good and hate of your ruin, breeds my
heedful regard of your surest safety. If I neglected
you, I could wink at your worst, and yet withstand
my enemies 1 drifts. But be you persuaded by sisters.
I will advise you, void of all guile, and will not stick
to tell you, that if you tread the path you chuse, I
will pray for you, but leave you to your harms.
" I doubt whether shame or sorrow have had the
upper hand when I read your last lines to me. Who,
of judgment, that deemed me not simple, could sup-
pose that any answers you have writ me should satisfy,
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 24th November,
1593. Ibid., same to same, 2d December, 1593.
t MS. State-paper Office. The clause in the letter of James Craig at
Bourdeaux, to his brother, Mr Thomas Craig, Advocate in Edinburgh.
Camden, Elizabeth in Kennet, vol. ii.
In the copy in the State-paper Office, " the path you are in."
1593. JAMES VI. 125
nay, enter into the opinion of any one not void of four
senses, leaving out the first.
" Those of whom you have had so evident proof by
their actual rebellion in the field you preserve, whose
offers you knew then so large to foreign Princes. And
now, at last, when, plainest of all, was taken the carrier
himself, confessing all before many commissioners and
divers councillors ; because you slacked the time till
he was escaped, and now must seem deny it, (though
all men knew it :) therefore, forsooth, no jury can be
found for them. May this blind me that knows what
a king's office were to do ? Abuse not yourself so far.
Indeed, when a weak bowing and a slack seat in go-
vernment shall appear, then bold spirits will stir the
stern, and guide the ship to greatest wreck, and will
take heart to supply the failure.
" Assure yourself no greater peril can ever befall
you, nor any king else, than to take for payment evil
accounts ; for they deride such, and make their prey
of their neglect. There is no prince alive, but if he
show fear or yielding but he shall have tutors enough,
though he be out of minority. And when I remem-
ber what sore punishment those so lewd traitors should
have, then I read again, lest at first I mistook your
mind; but when the reviewing granted my lecture
true, Lord ! what wonder grew in me that you should
correct them with benefits who deserve much severer
correction. Could you please them more than save
their lives and make them shun the place they hate,
where they are sure that their just deserved haters
dwell, and yet as much enjoy their honours and liveli-
hoods, as if for sporting travel they were licensed to
visit other countries I Call you this a banishment
to be rid of whom they fear and go to such they love?
126 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593.
Now, when my eyes read more, then smiled I to see
how childish, foolish, and witless an excuse the best
of either three made you, turning their treasons 1 bills
to artificers' 1 reckonings with items for many expenses,
and lacked but one billet which they best deserved, an
item for so much for the cord whose office they best
merited. Is it possible that you can swallow the taste
of so bitter a drug, more meet to purge you of them,
than worthy for your kingly acceptance? I never
heard a more deriding scorn ; and vow that, if but this
alone, were I you, they should learn a short lesson.
" The best that I commend in your letter is, that I
see your judgment too good to affirm a truth of their
speech, but that alone they so say. Howbeit, I muse
how you can want a law to such, as whose denial, if
it were ever, could serve to save their lives, whose
treasons are so plain ; as the messenger who would
for his own sake not devise it, if for truth^s cause he
had it not in his charge : for who should ever be tried
false, if his own denial might save his life ? In princes'
causes many circumstances yield a sufficient plea for
such a king as will have it known : and ministers they
shall lack none, that will not themselves gainsay it.
Leave off such cloaks, therefore, I pray you ; they
will be found too thin to save you from wetting. For
your own sake play the king, and let your subjects
see you respect yourself, and neither to hide or to suffer
danger and dishonour. And that you may know my
opinion, judgment, and advice, I have chosen this
nobleman, whom I know wise, religious, and honest ;
to whom I pray you give full credit, as if myself were
with you ; and bear with all my plainness, whose affec-
tion, if it were not more worthy than so oft not follow-
ed, 1 would not have gone so far. But blame my love
1593-4. JAMES VI. 127
if it exceed any limits. Beseeching God to bless you
from the advices of them that more prize themselves
than care for you, to whom I wish many years of
reign."*
It was not to be expected that a letter like this,
containing so much disagreeable advice and cutting
sarcasm, and which in its involved, but often energetic
and condensed periods, affords so good a specimen of
Elizabeth's private epistolary style, should have been
acceptable to James ; but when Lord Zouch presented
it at his audience on the thirteenth January, -J- the
king dissembled his chagrin and received him with
apparent courtesy. He professed his anxious desire
to live on terms of amity with his good sister : observ-
ed, that as for the Act of Abolition to the Catholic
earls which her majesty disliked so much, it was now
itself abolished by their not accepting it, and he was
entirely free from any agreement. He knew, he said,
in answer to Zouch's remonstrances on his supposed
Spanish predilections, what it was to lose an old friend
and to trust a new. As to the councillors, of whom
she complained, he must confide in his council as she
confided in hers ; but he was the last who would suffer
any ill affected to insinuate themselves amongst his
ministers.^
With these general assurances, Elizabeth's ambas-
sador would not be satisfied. He called on the king
for deeds, not words ; insisted that his royal mistress
* This interesting letter is now printed (for the first time) from the ori-
ginal, in the queen's own hand, preserved in the collections of Sir George
Warrender. There is a contemporary copy in the State-paper Office.
+ MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 15th Jan., 1593-4.
Ibid., Lord Zouch to Burghley. Also, MS. Letter, British Museum, Cali-
gula, D II. 169.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Lord Zouch to Burghley, 15th Jan.,
1593-4. Also, ibid., same to the same, 26th January, 1593-4.
128 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1593-4.
was entitled to have an express written declaration of
the course which the king was determined to follow
with the rebel earls and the Catholic party, still busy
in their plots for the invasion of England and the de-
struction of their common faith;* and lamented, in
his letter to Lord Burghley, that he was utterly unfit
to cope with the difficulties which met him on every
hand. The Lord Chancellor Maitland, whom he was
taught to consider the wisest and most upright of the
king's councillors, plotted, as he suspected, against
him ; and had received, it was said, great sums of
money from the Catholic faction. He was surrounded
by falsehood and suspicion ; distracted by contrary
reports ; and so strictly watched, that none came near
him but those whom the king permitted.
All this, however, did not prevent Zouch from ful-
filling the more secret part of his instructions ; nor,
although he affected to be deeply shocked with the
political profligacy and dissimulation of the Scottish
nobles, was he himself by any means a novice in in-
trigue. Whilst assuring James of Elizabeth's un-
shaken friendship and zeal for his welfare, he opened
a communication with his bitter foe, the fierce and
reckless Bothwell ; and arranged with this earl, John
Colvile brother of the Laird of Wemyss, Henry Lock
an agent of Sir Robert Cecil, and some of the most
violent ministers of the Kirk, a new plot for the sur-
prise of the king. It was resolved that Atholej and
Argyle, with the whole strength of the north, should
advance to Edinburgh ; form a junction with the forces
of Bothwell, Montrose, Ochiltree, and the Laird of
Johnston ; and attacking the Chancellor Maitland,
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 27th January,
1593-4. Also, ibid., B.C., Mr John Carey to Burghley, 25th Jan., 1593-4.
1593-4. JAMES VI. 1-29
Lord Hume, and the friends of the king, at once de-
stroy Huntley and the Roman Catholics, save James
from evil counsellors, and take an ample revenge for
the murder of the Earl of Moray.* These designs
were the more unjustifiable at this moment, as the
monarch had adopted strong measures against the
Roman Catholic earls. He had declared them exclud-
ed from all benefits of the Act of Abolition ; had sum-
moned them, on the penalty of being outlawed, to de-
liver themselves up, and take their trials for treason ;
called a parliament, which was to be held in April ;
appointed a new council of more neutral and well-
aflected nobles and barons ; and had professed to Eliza-
beth, in a written answer to Zouch's instructions, his
continued desire of friendship and good faith. In an
interview, also, which Bowes the resident ambassador
had with James'' great adviser the Chancellor Mait-
land, the Scottish lord assured him that his royal
mistress need not distress herself with suspicions of
his master. He was steadfast, he affirmed, in his re-
ligion, whatever Papists or the Kirk might affirm :
nothing would induce him to embrace the Spanish
courses ; and for an invasion of England, he knew it
would be madness.'f' Yet Zouch continued his plots;
and Elizabeth undoubtedly gave them her secret en-
couragement ; although, with her usual caution and
parsimony, she abstained from any large advances
either in money or troops.
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Lord Zouch to Burghley, 15th Jan.,
1593-4. Also, MS. British Museum, Caligula, D II., 151, Instructions for
Lord Zouch for treating with certain Lords in Scotland.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 8th Jan., 1593-4.
Ibid., same to same, 15th Jan., 1593-4. Also, ibid., same to same, 20tt
Jan., 1 593-4. Also, MS. State-paper Office, " Councillors newly established
by the King of Scots," 17th Jan., 1593-4 ; in Burghley 's handwriting. Also,
ibid., Bowes to Burghley, 20th Jan., 1593-4. Also, British Museum, Cali-
gula, D II., 169, 182.
VOL. IX. I
130 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. . 1594.
In the midst of these intrigues and dangers a joyful
event occurred. The queen brought forth a son, her
first child, in the castle of Stirling, on the nineteenth
February ; and the monarch immediately committed
the charge and government of the infant heir to the
throne, to the Earl of Mar, captain and keeper of the
castle of Stirling ; " whose uncle and goodsire, (it is
stated in the Act of Appointment,) by three descents
together, have had the custody and governance of the
sovereign princes of this realm."* By the nation this
event was hailed with universal joy : an old chronicle
declaring that " the people, in all parts, appeared to
be daft for mirth." -f- But scarcely was the child born
ere he became a mark for treachery ; the conspirators
proposing to Lord Zouch, that when they advanced
on Stirling, they should strengthen their hands by
seizing the infant heir to the crown, and thus extort
better terms from the king. It was a game which had
already been played in the days of James the Third.
The English ambassador, however, protested against
such an outrage, and his associates did not dare to
disobey.
All was now ripe for Bothwell's attempt ; but the
king proved too crafty and strong for his adversaries.
He had received secret information of the plot ; seized
a gentleman of Zouch^s suite, who had communicated
with the traitors ; commanded Lord Hume, Cessford,
and Buccleuch, to concentrate their strength at Kelso,
where it was expected the enemy would cross the
Border ; imprisoned some of the boldest and busiest
ministers of the Kirk ; and addressing the people in
* MS. State-paper Office, 21st February, 1593, Lord of Mar anent the
keeping of the young Prince.
) Moyse's Memoirs, p. 113.
1594. JAMES VI. 131
the High Church of Edinburgh after the sermon, in-
formed them, in stirring terms, of the insolence of,
Bothwell, that audacious rebel, who was at that mo-
ment on his way to attack his lawful prince ; declared
his resolution to lead his whole force in person against
him ; and, raising his hand to heaven, took a solemn
vow to God, that if they, for their part, would instantly
arm and advance with him into the field, he, for his,
would never rest till, in return for such service, he had
utterly suppressed and banished the Catholic lords
from his dominions.* Scarcely had James ended this
appeal, when word was brought that Bothwell, who
had out-manoeuvred Hume and Buccleuch, was at
hand, at Leith, with six hundred horse, awaiting the
junction of Athole and Argyle, whom he expected to
cross the Forth with their northern strength, and
showing intentions of intrenching himself within the
old fortifications on the Links. Without a moment's
delay, the king assembled his troops, and marched
against him. The advance consisted of a thousand
pikemen and five hundred horse ; the rear, of the
infantry of the city of Edinburgh, in number about a
thousand musketeers ; and besides these, there were
three guns covered by a body of two hundred horse.
Despairing of being able to withstand such a force
within the intrenchments, Bothwell retired deliber-
ately, and in good order, in a south-easterly direction,
round the roots of the hill of Arthur Seat, towards
Niddry, where he halted on a neighbouring field, which
offered him an excellent position. James, observing
this movement, now dreaded an attack of his capital
on the south side, where it was undefended ; and
ordering Hume, at the head of the cavalry, to advance
* Historie of James the Sext, p. 304.
132 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 15.94.
to Niddry, countermarched through Edinburgh, and
took up his ground with the remainder of the troops
oil the Borough Muir. Meanwhile, Hume and Glam-
mis had reached a hill beside Niddry, and were hesi-
tating to make the onset, when Bothwell, Lord Ochil-
tree, and the gentlemen with them, " after prayers on
their knees," assailed them with loud shouts of " God
and the Kirk," drove them from their ground, slew
twelve of their troopers, and chased them to within a
short distance of the spot where the king stood. They
then sounded their trumpets, and retired in good order
by Craigmillar without losing a man. In this onset,
Bothwell took Hume^s cornet and trumpet, to whom
he gave his liberty ; and presenting him with two rose
nobles, sent, by him, a challenge to his master.* This
defeat took place on an eminence beside Niddry, called
Edmeston Edge.^ Bothwell now retreated to Kelso;
and aware of the hopelessness of his enterprise, soon
after dispersed his company, and became once more a
refugee in England.
The king, delivered for the present from all appre-
hensions on this quarter, now determined to fulfil his
promise, and deprive the Queen of England and the
ministers of the Kirk of all pretence of opposition, by
adopting the most vigorous proceedings against the
Catholic earls, Huntley, Angus, and Errol. Procla-
* We learn from Henry Lock's letter to Sir Robert, describing the
" raid," and written from Berwick only two days after the action, that
before they charged their adversaries, Bothwell and his companions ex-
claimed, that " that day her Majesty should see proof of their intentions
and faith." MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Henry Lock to Sir R. Cecil,
5th April, 1594. By a letter from Bowes to Burghley of 13th April, 1594,
State- paper Office, and another, of the same date, from Bowes to Sir R.
Cecil, we learn, that the management of Scottish affairs, owing to the in-
creasing infirmities of Lord Burghley, had been intrusted, by the Queen, to
his son Sir Robert Cecil, one of the privy-council.
+ Moyse's Memoirs, p. 115.
1594. JAMES vr. 133
mation was made, that these noblemen should appear
and take their trial before the parliament to be held
in May. The whole force of his realm was summoned
to meet him in arms, to be led against the rebels if
they resisted ; and Oolvile of Easter Wemyss, one of
the best military leaders then in Scotland, with Mr
Edward Bruce, an influential minister of the Kirk,
were despatched on an embassy to Elizabeth. The
general object of their mission was to assure her of
their master's resolute determination to reduce the
Catholic earls, and for ever put an end to the Spanish
intrigues ; but before proceeding to any other point,
they were enjoined to remonstrate, in the strongest
terms, against the support lately given in England to
the king^s avowed rebel, the Earl of Bothwell. We
have seen the bitter and sarcastic letter which Eliza-
beth, three months before, had sent to the king by
the Lord Zouch. It was now his time to reply to it,
and have his revenge ; which he did by the following
private epistle, intrusted to his ambassadors, written
wholly in his own hand, and certainly not inferior,
either in irony or vigour, to the production of his good
sister.
" So many unexpected wonders, madam and dearest
sister, have of late so overshadowed my eyes and mind,
and dazzled so all my senses, as in truth I neither
know what I should say, nor whereat first to begin ;
but thinking it best to take a pattern of yourself, since
I deal with you, I must, repeating the first words of
your last letter, (only the sex changed,) say I rue my
sight that views the evident spectacle of a seduced
queen. For when I enter betwixt two extremities in
judging of you, I had far rathest interpret it to the
least dishonour on your part, which is ignorant error.
134 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Appardon me, madam ; for long approved friendship
requires a round plainness. For when first I consider
what strange effects have of late appeared in your
country ; how my avowed traitor hath not only been
openly reset in your realm, but plainly made his resi-
dence in your proper houses, ever plainliest Jcything*
himself where greatest confluence of people was ; and,
which is most of all, how he hath received English
money in a reasonable quantity ; waged both English
and Scottish men therewith ; proclaimed his pay at
divers parish churches in England ; convened his
forces within England, in the sight of all that Border;
and therefrom contemptuously marched, and camped
within a mile of my principal city and present abode,
all his trumpeters, and divers \vaged men, being Eng-
lish ; and being by myself in person repulsed from
that place, returned back in England with displayed
banners ; and since that time, with sound of trumpet,
making his troops to muster within English ground :
when first, I say, I consider these strange efl'ects, and
then again I call to mind, upon the one part, what
number of solemn promises, not only by your ambas-
sadors but by many letters of your own hand, ye have
both made and reiterated unto me, that he should have
no harbour within your country, yea, rather stirring
me farther up against him, than seeming to pity him
yourself; and upon the other part, weighing my de-
sires towards you, how far being a friend to you I
have ever been an enemy to all your enemies, and the
only point I can be challenged in, that I take not
such form of order, and at such time, with some par-
ticular men of my subjects as peradventure you would,
if you were in my room ; when thus I enter in con-
* Kything himself ; shoiving himself.
1594. JAMES vi. 135
sultation with myself, I cannot surely satisfy myself
with wondering upon these above-mentioned effects :
for to affirm that these things are by your direction or
privity, it is so far against all princely honour, as I
protest I abhor the least thought thereof. And again j ,
that so wise and provident a prince, having so long
and happily governed, should be so fyled and con-
temned by a great number of her own subjects, it is
hardly to be believed : if I knew it not to be a maxim
in the state of princes, that we see and hear all with
the eyes and ears of others, and if these be deceivers,
we cannot shun deceits.
*' Now, madam, I have refuge to you at this time, as
my only pilot to guide me safely betwixt this Charybdis
and Scylla. Solve these doubts, and let it be seen ye
will not be abused by your own subjects, who prefer
the satisfying of their base-minded affections to your
princely honour. That I wrote not the answer of
your last letters with your late ambassador, (Lord
Zouch,) and that I returned not a letter with him,
blame only, I pray you, his own behaviour ; who,
although it pleased you to term him wise, religious,
and honest, had been fitter, in my opinion, to carry
the message of a herald, than any friendly commission
betwixt two neighbour princes : for as no reason could
satisfy him, so scarcely could he have patience even
to hear it offered. But if you gave him a large com-
mission, I dare answer for it he took it as well upon
him : and therefore have I rather chused to send you
my answer by my own messengers. Suffer me not, I
pray you, to be abused with your abusers ; nor grant
no oversight to oversee your own honour. Remember
what you promised by your letter of thanks for the
delivery of CTRorick. I trust ye will not put me in
136 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594.
balance with such a traitorous counterpoise, nor wil-
lingly reject me ; constraining me to say with Virgil
' Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta morebo.'
And to give you a proof of the continuance of my
honest affection, I have directed these two gentlemen
unto you, whom I will heartily pray you to credit as
myself in all they have in charge ; and because the
principal of them goes to France, to return the other
back with a good answer with all convenient speed. 1 "*
This spirited remonstrance had the best effect upon
Elizabeth, who, although she had encouraged Both-
well in his late audacious attempts, never felt much
scruple in discarding an unsuccessful instrument. She
was, accordingly, all smiles to the ambassadors, when,
in their master's name, they invited her to stand god-
mother at the approaching baptism of the infant heir
to the Scottish throne; and although her countenance
changed when they spoke of money and the necessities
of their master, yet even on this point, Bruce, before
his return, received a more favourable answer than he
had expected. She assured him, that she would ex-
tend her liberality the moment the king set out on his
expedition against the Catholic earls, and she saw that
he was in earnest.^ Colvile of Easter Wemyss, his
brother ambassador, now proceeded to the court of
France ; whilst, about the same time, Sir William
Keith was despatched to the United Provinces ; and
Mr Peter Young, the king's almoner, to the court of
* Printed for the first time from the Warrender MSS. The letter is
dated Edinburgh, 13th April, 1594. In an interesting volume, presented
by Adam Anderson, Esq., Solicitor-general for Scotland, (an old and
valued friend of the author,) to the Abbotsford Club, will be found, pp. 6,
7, James' letter of credential to his ambassadors, Bruce and Wemyss, with
a letter from the king to the Earl of Essex, bespeaking his good offices.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Mr Edward Bruce to Lord Burghley,
16th May, 1594.
1594. JAMES VI. 137
Denmark. The object of all these missions was the
same : to carry to the king's faithful and ancient allies
the happy news of the birth of a prince ; to invite
them to send their representatives to the baptism,
which had been fixed for the fifteenth of July ; and
to hint delicately to the United States, but in perfectly
intelligible terms, the necessity of presenting, at that
solemn ceremony, something more substantial than
congratulations . *
Important events now crowded rapidly on each other.
On the thirtieth of May the Estates assembled ; and
as James 1 avowed determination to concentrate his
whole strength against the Catholic earls, had con-
ciliated the Kirk and the English faction, all proceeded
amicably and firmly. Huntley, Angus, and Errol,
the three mighty leaders, who were now in open re-
bellion, were forfeited, stript of their estates, declared
traitors, -f* and a commission given to their avowed
enemy, the young Earl of Argyle, to assemble the
forces of the north, and pursue them with fire and
sword. All persons detected in saying Mass, were
ordered to be punished capitally, and their goods con-
fiscated. It was resolved, for the preservation of the
religion, and to confirm the amity between the two
realms, that there should be a thorough reformation
in the king's council ; and that Elizabeth's advice
should be followed in such matters. The Catholic
Countess of Huntley, whose intercourse with the king
and queen had been a constant thorn in the side of
* Warrender MS. Collections, vol. A., p. 109. MS. Letter, State-paper
Office, Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 13th April, 1594. Also, ibid., same to same,
21st April, 1594. Also, ibid., original draft, Sir R. Cecil to Sir R. Bowes,
17th May, 1594.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office. Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 30th May, 1594.
Ibid., same to same, 9th June, 1594.
138 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594.
the Kirk, was dismissed from court ; Lord Hume
recanted, and signed the Confession of Faith, either
convinced in conscience, or terrified by impending
severities: and the king declared, that immediately
after the baptism, he would march in person, at the
head of the whole strength of his dominions, against
the Catholic insurgents.*
On the evening of the twenty-seventh August, the
Earl of Sussex, a young nobleman of the highest
rank, and connected by blood with his royal mistress,
arrived at the Scottish court. He came from Eliza-
beth to stand her gossip, or representative, at the
baptism of the young prince. He was attended by a
noble retinue, and brought some rich presents from
the Queen of England, with this brief letter of con-
gratulation and counsel :
" I make a note of my happy destiny, my good
brother, in beholding my luck so fortunate as to be
the baptizer of both father and son, so dear unto me ;
and [this] makes me frame my humble orisons to Him
that all may,*f- that He will please bless with all hap-
piness the prosperous continuance of both, in such a
sort as my benedictions bestowed on either may be
perfected through His omnipotent graces; and do
promise a grant to my devotions, springing from a
fountain of such good will. And pray you believe,
that I never counsel or advise you aught whose first
end tends not to your most good ; and do conjure you,
that receiving so assured knowledge of what your lewd
lords [she alludes here to the Catholic earls] mean,
that you neglect not God^s good warning, to cause
you timely shun the worst. All kings have not had
* MS. State-paper Office, Act of Secret Council, 23d July 1594.
J* To Him that can do all things.
1594. JAMES VI. 139
so true espiars of their harm, but have felt it or they
heard it ; but I am best testimony of you to too many
foretellers, in whom you never yet found guile.*
" Thus will I end to trouble you with ragged lines;
saving to request you bear with the youth of this
noble earl, in whom, though his years may not pro-
mise him much, yet I hope his race, and his good
nature, will afford your honourable regard, both for
his parentage, and being of my blood, as coming from
such a prince, of whom you may make surest account,
to be assured such as you could wish, as God can best
witness : to whom I pray you to grant you always
victory of your evil subjects."^
When Sussex delivered his letter and presents, the
king was in the highest bustle and good humour ;
engrossed not only with the many weighty concerns
connected with his approaching " Rode," or military
expedition, but devising sports and pastimes for the
entertainment of his foreign guests the ambassadors,
and planning, with the Lord of Lindores and Mr
David Fowler his masters of the revels, a variety of
princely pageants, with " deep moral meanings ;" one
of which, the interlude of " Neptune," was the fruitful
product of his majesty's own private brain. The ex-
pense incurred in these triumphs and shows, in which
there was an unusual allowance of chariots, mimic
ships, Christian knights, rural deities, Moors, wind-
mills, and amazons, must have been excessive, judging
from the account of a contemporary pamphlet, written
* Obscure. Probably, " But I, in whom you never yet found guile, am
the best amongst many forewarners."
+ MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 27th August,
1 594. Also, Royal Letters, State-paper Office, Copy of her Majesty's Letter
to the King of Scots.
HO HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. ]594.
in the highest style of quaint and courtly composition.*
The baptism itself took place on the thirtieth of
August, in the royal chapel at Stirling castle. The
infant prince was carried by Sussex, Elizabeth's am-
bassador. He was christened by Cunningham bishop
of Aberdeen, by the name of Frederick Henry, Henry
Frederick ; and when the solemn ceremony was con-
cluded, and the king, the ambassadors and nobles,
with the queen and her ladies of honour, retired from
the chapel to the hall of State, " the cannons of the
castle roared, so that therewith the earth trembled ;
and other smaller shot," says one of the city orators
of the time, " made their harmony after their kind."
The infant was then knighted by his royal father,
" touched with the spur " by the Earl of Mar ; and
being crowned with a ducal coronet, richly set with
diamonds, sapphires, and other precious stones, Lion
King of Arms proclaimed his titles, as " The Right
Excellent, High, and Magnanimous Frederick Henry,
Henry Frederick, by the Grace of God, Knight and
Baron of Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, Earl of Carrick,
Duke of Rothesay, Prince and Great Steward of
Scotland."f The pageants succeeded ; but their
details would only fatigue. It is amusing to find
that the king himself did not disdain to take a part,
apparelled at all points as a Christian Knight of
Malta ; whilst a worshipful baron, the Lord of Buc-
cleuch, with Lord Lindores and the abbot of Holyrood,
in women^s attire and gallantly mounted, enacted
* State-paper Office. A rare pamphlet, entitled, " A True Report of the
most Triumphant and Royal Accomplishment of the Baptism of the most
Excellent, Right High and Mighty Prince, Frederick Henry, by the Grace
of God, Prince of Scotland, solemnized 30th August, 15.94." Printed hy
Peter Short, for the Widow Butter. To be sold at her shop under St Aus-
tin's Church.
t Id. ibid.
1594. JAMES VI. 141
three amazons. The ceremony being concluded, and
the voice of revelry hushed in the palace, the Earl of
Sussex, after a few days, took leave, bearing with him
this letter from the king to his royal mistress. It is
wholly written in James 1 hand :
" I could not permit, madam and dearest sister,
now after the ending of this solemn time, the noble-
man bearer hereof to depart without returning with
him unto you my most hearty thanks for the honour-
ing me with so noble a substitute gossip in your place.
And where ye excuse his youth, surely he was the
fitter for a young king and feasting days. But I can-
not aneuch* commend unto you his extreme diligence
in coming, and courteous and mild behaviour here ;
which moves me to request you to cherish so noble a
youth, now after his first employment.
" As for the other part of his commission and your
letter, which concerns the Spanish lords here, ye can
be no earnester now in that matter than I am, who
has now renounced any farther dealing with them
but by extremity; and presently have I vowed myself
only to that errand, and never to take rest until I put
some end thereunto. And suppose ye may justly
accuse (as ever ye do) my deferring so long to put
order unto them ; yet according to an old proverb, it
is better late thrive than never; and surely I will think
my fault the more excusable if the example thereof
make you to eschew the falling in the like error, in
making your assistance not to come as far behind the
time as my prosecution does. But in this I remit
you to your own wisdom ; for you are not ignorant
how occasion is painted. And now I cannot omit to
lay before you some incident griefs of mine ; but lest
* A pencil, Scottish for enough.
142 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594.
I weary you too much with my ragged handwrit, I
remit the particulars hereof to the report of this noble-
man, only touching thus far by the way. I think ye
have not given commission to any of your council to
treat with Bothwell's ambassador, nor yet allow that
his agent, and one guilty of all his treasons, should
use his public devotion in the French Kirk, in presence
of my ambassador ; who, indeed, was better furnished
with patience at the sight thereof than he is likely to
get thanks for at my hands : yet now, madam, none
can brook me and Bothwell both. Examine secretly
your councillors, and suffer them not to behave them-
selves more to your dishonour than my discontentment.
Only honestum utile est, prcecipue regibus; and if James
Forret or any other Bothwellist be at present within
your country, I crave, by these presents, delivery
according to the treaties, your many hand-written
promises, and my good deserts by CTRorick. And
thus not doubting, as it hath been your fortune to be
godmother both to me and my son, so ye will be a
good mother to us both ; I commit you, madam and
dearest sister, to the protection of the Almighty." *
For these suspicions of James there was too much
ground ; as it is certain that Sir Robert Cecil, who,
on account of the increasing infirmities of his father
Lord Burghley, now managed the Scottish affairs, had
secret intelligence with Bothwell. The Catholic earls
were now alluring this audacious man, by Spanish
gold, to make common cause with them against the
Scottish king. Bothwell, on the other hand, with
consummate baseness, had proposed to Cecil to accept
the money and betray their secrets to the Queen of
* MS. State-paper Office, Royal Letters, James to Elizabeth, llth Sep-
tember, 1594, Holyrood. Printed for the first time.
1594-. JAMES VI. 143
England, if she would still stand his friend in his
O 7
present distress and misery. But he was no longer
the proud and powerful partisan whom Elizabeth had
once so highly favoured ; and the moment she discov-
ered that James had detected his intrigues, she threw
him from her with as much indifference as she would a
broken sword ; commanded him to leave her dominions ;
and interdicted her subjects, under the severest pen-
alties, from giving him harbour or assistance. He
was no longer permitted, in the strong language which
the king himself used in his remonstrance to Sussex,
to "tak muster, display cornet or ensign, blaw trum-
pet, strike drum," or even in any way live and breathe
within England.*
Having secured this expulsion of his mortal enemy,
James assembled a convention at Stirling,^ and made
the most active preparations for the attack of the
Catholic earls. On both sides a violent and deter-
mined struggle was anticipated ; as there were many
deep feelings and bitter passions which festered in the
minds of the leaders and their hosts. With the Kirk,
it was a war of religious persecution, or rather exter-
mination. Their avowed object was to depose Anti-
christ, and to compel all Catholics to recant, or at once
give up their lands, their honours, and their country,
for their privilege to adhere to that Church which they
believed to be of divine origin and the only depository
of the truth. But to these feelings were added, as
may be easily imagined, many motives and passions
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Mr John Colvile to Sir R. Cecil, whom
headdresses as "his honourable Lord and Maecenas," 31st July, 1594.
Also, ibid., Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 3d August, 1594. Also, ibid., Royal
Letters, " The Effect of the King of Scots' Speech to the Earl of Sussex,"
1594.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Earl of Sussex to Sir R. Cecil, 8th Sep-
tember, 1594.
144 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594.
of baser alloy : ambition, love of plunder, deep feudal
hatred, long-delayed and fondly-cherished hopes of
revenge ; and all that catalogue of dark and merciless
passions which spring from the right of private war
and the prevalence of family feuds. These all raged
in the bosoms of the opposed leaders and combatants;
and the exacerbation they produced, was shown alike
by the energy of their preparations and the cruelty
with which they fought. Huntley, Angus, Errol, and
Auchendown, since their refusal of the Act of Aboli-
tion, had been gathering their strength, and were now
busily engaged in levying recruits, partly at their own
charges, partly with Spanish gold, of which they had
received repeated supplies. It had been now for many
years the practice of Elizabeth, with the permission of
James, to employ large bodies of Scottish auxiliaries
in her wars in the Low Countries. Scottish troops,
also, often served in Ireland ; and the Highland chiefs
had long driven a lucrative and warlike commerce with
that country, selling their services to the highest
bidder, and carrying over large bodies of pikemen,
bowmen, and even of hagbutteers, to the assistance of
Elizabeth or her enemies, as it best suited their in-
terest. From these causes, there were now in Scot-
land many experienced officers and numerous bands of
mercenaries, ready, like the Italian Condottieri, or the
Swiss bands, to offer their service wherever they heard
the tuck of drum or the clink of gold; and as Huntley
had high reputation as a military leader, lived in al-
most regal splendour in his palace at Strathbogie, and
was young, generous, and brave, the Catholic camp
was in no want of recruits, and soon assumed a formi-
dable appearance. He was now also joined by Both-
well, who, driven to desperation by the mortal hatred
1594. JAMES VI. 145
of the Scottish king ; his recent proscription by the
Queen of England ; his desertion by the Kirk, who
had detected his dealings with the Catholics ; and the
hunting down, torturing, and execution of his poor
vassals, had been unable to resist the bribes held out
to him. The papers still exist which enable us to
trace the last struggles and plots of this desperate
man ; but we can only give them a passing glance.
It was arranged between him and his new associates,
that when Huntley was engaged in the north, Both-
well should make a diversion in the south ; thus dis-
tracting the king and dividing his forces. But this
was not all. He entered into an agreement with his
new friends, in which it was proposed, by a sudden
coup de main, to attack the court, imprison the king,
seize the infant prince, murder Sir George Hume the
king's favourite ; and, as he himself expressed it in
his letter to the ministers of the Kirk, " put in practice
the loveable custom of their progenitors at Lauder" by
completely revolutionizing the government.* It was
asserted, and on good grounds, that the usual " Band,"
or feudal agreement in such conspiracies, was drawn
up and signed by the enterprisers ; but the time for its
execution was not fixed ; and the seizure of some of
the inferior agents, with the course of events in the
north, happily rendered the whole plot abortive.
These events were of a stirring and romantic kind ;
for, on the twenty-first September, Argyle having
received the royal commission to pursue Huntley and
his associates, set out on his expedition at the head of
a force of six thousand men. Of this army, three
thousand only were chosen men, bearing harquebuses,
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bothwell to the Presbytery of Edin-
burgh, 7th September, 1594.
VOL. IX. K
]46 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594.
bows, and pikes ; the rest being more slenderly equipt,
both as to body-armour and weapons. Of cavalry, he
had few or none; but he expected to be joined by Lord
Forbes, with the Laird of Towey, the Dunbars, and
other barons, who, it was hoped, would form a strong
reinforcement, and be mostly mounted.* It had been
the kin^s intention to postpone the attack upon the
insurgent barons till he had assembled the whole force
O
of his realm, and was ready to take the command in
person. But the ministers of the Kirk urged the
danger of delay : some of them even buckled on their
broadswords and rode to the camp ; whilst Argyle
himself, young, (he was only nineteen,) ardent, and
acting under the stimulus of personal revenge, deter-
mined on instant action. He had already, he said,
been twice on the eve of marching, and twice been
countermanded ; but now the slaughter of his brother-
in-law, the Earl of Moray, should be avenged on Hunt-
ley ; to whom lie sent a message that, within three
'days, he meant to sleep at Strathbogie. To this taunt-
ing challenge Huntley replied, that Argyle should be
welcome : he would himself be his porter, and open all
the gates of his palace to his young friend ; but he
must not take it amiss if he rubbed his cloak against
Argyle's plaid ere they parted.^
On advancing to Aberdeen, Argyle ordered Red
Lion, the herald, to proclaim the royal commission by
sound of trumpet in the market-place, and appointed
Sir Lauchlan Maclean of Duart to the chief command
under himself. He was joined by the Macintoshes,
the Grants, the Clan Gregor, the Macgillivrays, with
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 27th September,
1594.
+ MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 28th September,
1594. Historic of James the Sext, p. '639.
1594. JAMES vi. 147
all their friends and dependants, and by the whole
surname of the Campbells ; with many others, whom
either greediness of prey or malice against the Gordons
had thrust into that expedition. These, including the
rabble of camp-followers, or, as Bowes terms them,
" rascals and poke-bearers" formed a body of ten thou-
sand strong. But of this number only six thousand
were fighting men ; and out of these there were not
above fifteen hundred disciplined hagbutteers, chiefly
serving under Maclean ; the rest being promiscuously
armed with dirks, swords, dags, Lochaber axes, two-
handed swords, and bows and arrows. He had neither
cavalry nor artillery; and a large part of his force was
totally regardless of discipline, disdaining command,
composed of chieftains and people distracted by old
feuds and suspicions, marching, as described by an
eye-witness, "at raggle and in plumps, without order."
With this army Argyle proceeded into Badenoch, and
besieged the castle of Ruthven, belonging to Huntley ;
but the place was bravely defended by the Macpher-
sons. He had no means of battering the walls ; and
abandoning the siege, he led his troops through the
hills to Strathbogie. It was his purpose to ravage
this country, which belonged to Huntley, with fire
and sword ; and thence come down into the Lowlands
to form a junction with Lord Forbes, who, with his
own kin and the Frasers, Dunbars, Ogilvies, Leslies,
and others, were at that moment on their way to meet
him. With this object, he arrived on the second of
October at Drimmin in Strathdown, where he en-
camped;* and soon after received news that Huntley
and Errol were in the neighbourhood, and purposed to
attack him, in spite of their great inferiority in force.
* Warrender MSS., vol. B., p. 9.
J48 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594.
The disparity was indeed great ; for the Catholic earls
could not muster above fifteen hundred, or, at most,
two thousand men. But of these the greater part
were resolute and gallant gentlemen, all well mounted
and fully armed : and amongst them some officers of
veteran experience, who had served in the Low Coun-
tries. They had, besides, six pieces of ordnance, which
were placed under the charge of Captain Andrew Gray,
who afterwards commanded the English and Scottish
auxiliaries in Bohemia.*
On the morning of the third of October, Huntley,
who had marched from Strathbogie to Auchendown,
the castle of Sir Patrick Gordon, having received word
by his scouts that Argyle was at no great distance,
sent Captain Thomas Ker, a veteran officer, at the
head of a small body of cavalry, to view the enemy
and report their strength. In executing this, he fell
in with Argyle's " spials," and slew them all except
one, who brought him to the vicinity of their encamp-
ment, which was near Glenlivat, in the mountainous
district of Strathavon. On his return, Captain Ker
concealed the number of their opponents, affirming
that a few resolute men might easily have the advan-
tage ; and Huntley, following his advice, instantly
marched forward. Errol led the advance, supported
by Sir Patrick Gordon of Auchendown, the Lairds of
Gicht, Bonuiton Wood, and Captain Ker and three
hundred gentlemen. Huntley commanded the rear-
ward, having on his right the Laird of Clunie-Gordon,
on his left Gordon of Abergeldie, and the six pieces
of artillery so placed as to be completely masked or
covered by the cavalry, so that they were dragged
* Warrender MSS., vol. B., p. 9, d. ; in -which there is a minute con-
temporary account of the battle of (jlenlivat.
1594. JAMES VI. 149
forward unperceived within range of the enemy's posi-
tion. They then opened their fire ; and on the first
discharge, which was directed at the yellow standard
of Argyle, struck down and slew Macneill, the Laird
of Barra's third son, one of their bravest officers ; and
Campbell of Lochnell, who held the standard. This
successful commencement occasioned extraordinary
confusion amongst the Highlanders, to many of whom
the terrible effects of artillery were even at this late
day unknown ; and a large body of them, yelling and
brandishing their broadswords and axes, made some
ineffectual attempts to reach the horsemen ; but re-
ceiving another fire from the little ordnance-train of
Captain Gray, they took to flight, and in an incre-
dibly short time were out of sight and pursuit. Still,
however, a large body remained ; and Argyle had the
advantage not only of the sun, then shining fiercely
in the eyes of his opponents, glancing on their steel
coats and making the plain appear on fire, but of the
ground : for his army were arrayed on the top of a
steep hill covered with high heather and stones, whilst
the ground at the bottom was soft and mossy, full of
holes, called in that country peat-pots, and danger-
ous for cavalry. But all this did not deter Huntley's
vanguard, under Errol and Auchendown, from advan-
cing resolutely to the attack. Errol, however, dread-
ing the marsh, made an oblique movement by some
firmer ground which lay on one side, and hoped thus
to turn the flank of the enemy ; but Sir Patrick Gor-
don of Auchendown, urged on by his fiery temper,
spurred his horse directly towards the hill, and get-
ting entangled with his men in the mossy ground, was
exposed to a murderous fire from the force under Mac-
lean of Duart. This chieftain was conspicuous from
150 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594.
his great stature and strength ; he was covered with
a shirt of mail, wielded a double-edged Danish battle-
axe, and appears to have been a more experienced
officer than the rest ; as he placed his, men, who were
mostly hagbutteers, in a small copsewood hard by,
from which they could deliver their fire, and be screen-
ed from the attack of cavalry. Auchendown, never-
theless, although his ranks were dreadfully thinned
by this fire of the enemy's infantry, managed to disen-
gage them, and spurring up the hill, received a bullet
in the body, and fell from his horse ; whilst his com-
panions shouted with grief and rage, and made despe-
rate efforts to rescue him. The Highlanders, however,
who knew him well, rushed in upon him, despatched
him with their dirks, and cutting off his head dis-
played it in savage triumph : a sight which so en-
raged the Gordons, that they fought with a fury which
alike disregarded discipline and life. This gave an
advantage to Maclean, who, enclosing the enemy's
vanguard, and pressing it into narrow space between
his own force and Argyle's, would have cut them to
pieces had not Huntley come speedily to their support
and renewed the battle ; attacking both Argyle and
Maclean with desperate energy, and calling loudly to
his friends to revenge Auchendown. It was at this
moment that some of the Gordons caught a sight of
Fraser, the King's herald, who rode beside Argyle,
and was dressed in his tabard, with the Red Lion
embroidered on it, within the double tressure. This
ought to have been his protection ; but it seemed
rather to point him out as a victim : and the horse-
men shouting out, " Have at the Lion," ran him
through with their spears, and slew him on the spot.
The battle was now at its height, and raged for two
1594. JAMES VI. 151
hours with the utmost cruelty. Errol was severely
wounded with a bullet in the arm, and by one of the
sharp-barbed arrows of the Highland bowmen, which
pierced deep into the thigh. He lost his pennon, or
guidon, also ; which was won by Maclean. Gordon
of Gicht was struck with three bullets through the
body, and had two plaits of his steel coat carried into
him ; wounds which next day proved mortal. Hunt-
ley himself was in imminent danger of his life ; for
his horse was shot under him, and the Highlanders
were about to attack him on the ground with their
knives and axes, when he was extricated and horsed
again by Inuermarkie ; after which he again charged
the enemy under Argyle, whose troops wavered, and
at last began to fly in such numbers that only twenty
men were left round him. Upon this the young chief,
overcome with grief and vexation at so disgraceful a
desertion, shed tears of rage, and would have still re-
newed the fight, had not Murray of Tullibardine seized
his bridle and forced him off the field. Seeing the
day lost, Maclean, who had done most, and suffered
least in this cruel fight, withdrew his men from the
wood, and retired in good order ; but seven hundred
Highlanders were slain in the chase, which was con-
tinued till the steepness of the mountains rendered
further pursuit impossible. Such was the celebrated
battle of Glenlivat. The loss on Huntley's side was
mostly of gentlemen, of whom Sir Patrick Gordon of
Auchendown, his uncle, " a wise, valiant, and resolute
knight,' 1 was chiefly lamented. Besides him, twenty
other gentlemen were slain, and some forty or fifty
wounded ; but the victory was complete, and recalled
to memory the bloody fight of Harlaw, in 1411, be-
tween the Earl of Mar and Donald Balloch ; in which,
152 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 15.94.
under somewhat similar circumstances, the superior
armour and discipline of the Lowland knights proved
too strong for the ferocious but irregular efforts of a
much larger force of Highlanders.*
o "
During these transactions, the king, unconscious of
this reverse, had left his palace at Stirling, and ad-
vanced with his army to Dundee, where Argyle, in
person, brought him the news of his own defeat.
James, however, was more enraged than dismayed by
this intelligence. He had left his capital so well de-
fended -f that he dreaded nothing from Bothwell. He
knew that, from the exhausted state of the country,
it would be impossible for Huntley to keep his forces
together; and he swore that the death of a royal
herald, who had been murdered with the king's coat
on, should be avenged on these audacious rebels. Nor
did he fail to keep his promise. In spite of the seve-
rity of the season, he advanced with his army to Aber-
deen, attended by Andrew Melvil and a body of the
ministers of the Kirk, who, with the feeling that this
was a crusade against the infidels, had joined the camp,
and loudly applauded the meditated vengeance of the
monarch. J He thence pushed on to Strathbogie.
This noble residence of Huntley, which had been
fourteen years in building, was blown up with gun-
powder, and levelled in two days ; nothing being left
but the great old tower, whose massive masonry de-
fied the efforts of the pioneers ; whilst its master,
* The above account of the battle of Glenlivat is taken chiefly from the
original letters of Bowes, -who was on the spot.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 3d October.
Ibid., 8th October. Ibid., 12th October, 1594.
I MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Sir B. Cecil, 23d Oct., 1594.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Carey to Sir R. Cecil, 18th No-
vember, 1594. " The castle and palace of Strathbogie clean cast down and
brent." Also, MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Occurrents, 29th Oct., 1594.
1594. JAMES VI. 153
deserted by his oarons and dependants, fled into the
mountainous parts of Caithness.* James had been
much incensed against him by the scornful contents
of an intercepted letter written to Angus, in which
Huntley spoke of the king^s rumoured campaign as
likely to turn out a," gowlcs storm" ~f Slaines in
Buchan, the principal castle of Errol, who still lay
languishing from his wounds; Culsamond in Garioch,
the house of the Laird of Newton-Gordon ; Bagays and
Craig in Angus, the castles of Sir Walter Lindsay
and Sir John Ogilvy, successively shared the fate of
Strathbogie. Indeed, there is little doubt that the
royal severity, whetted by the exhortations of Andrew
Melvil, who bore a pike and joined the soldiers in the
destruction of Strathbogie, would have fallen still
heavier on this devoted district, had not famine, and
the remonstrances of Thirlstane and Glammis, com-
pelled the king to fall back upon Aberdeen. Here,
after the execution of some of Huntley ""s men, he pub-
lished a general pardon to all the Commons who had
been in the field at the battle of Glenlivat, upon their
payment of the fines imposed by the council. He
then appointed the Duke of Lennox to be his lieuten-
ant or representative in the north, assisted by a coun-
cil of barons and ministers. Amongst the civilians
were the Earl Marshal, Lord Forbes, Sir Robert
Melvil, and Sir John Carmichael, with the Lairds of
Dunipace, Findlater, and Balquhan ; whilst of the
ministry, were Mr David Lindsay, Mr James Nicol-
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 29th October,
1594. Ibid., same to same, 29th October, 1594. MS. State-paper Office,
Occurrents, 28th and 29th October.
t" " Gowk " is the Scottish word for the " Cuckoo." An Apdl storm.
J MS. State-paper Office, 3d November, 1594, Occurrents certified from
Aberdeen.
MS. State-paper Office, Occurrents, 3d November, 1594.
154 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594.
son, Mr Peter Blackburn, Mr Alexander Douglas,
and Mr Duncan Davison. A charge was next given
to the barons and gentlemen who resided north of the
river Dee, to apprehend all the rebels within their
boundaries ; and although in the greatest possible dis-
tress for money to pay his troops, the king, who trust-
ed to the solemn promises of Elizabeth, made an effort
to keep them together ; and left behind him a body
of two hundred horse, and one hundred foot, under
the command of Sir John Carmichael. These were
ordered to assist the Duke of Lennox, whose residence
was to be in Aberdeen, Elgin or Inverness, until
Argyle, who had been appointed by James to the
permanent government of the north, should assemble
his friends and relieve him of his charge. Meanwhile,
the Duke was empowered to hold Justice Ayres, or
courts for the punishment of offenders ; and the barons
and gentlemen of the north bound themselves, before
the king's departure, in strict promises of support.*
Having completed these judicious arrangements, the
monarch disbanded his forces, and returned to Stirling
on the fourteenth November.-f-
* MS. Books of the Privy Council of Scotland, 7th November, 1594. MS.
State-paper Office, Occurrents sent from Aberdeen, 8th November, 1594.
t MS. State-paper Office, Abstract of letters from Edinburgh, 16th Nor.,
1594.
15.94. JAMES VI. 155
CHAP. IV.
JAMES THE SIXTH.
15941597.
CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.
England. I France.
Elizabeth. | Henry IV.
Germany. I Spain.
Rudolph II. I Philip II.
Portugal.
Philip II.
Pope.
Clement VIM.
JAMES had now fulfilled all his promises to Elizabeth;
and by the severity with which he had put down the
rebellion of the Catholic earls, had more than fulfilled
the expectations of the Kirk. The castles and houses
which were said to have been polluted by the Mass,
were smoking and in ruins;* the noblemen and gentry,
whose only petition had been, that they should be
permitted to retain their estates, and have their rents
transmitted to them in the banishment which they
had chosen rather than renounce the faith of their
fathers, were fugitives and wanderers, hiding in the
caves and forests, and dreading every hour to be
betrayed into the hands of their enemies.*!* All this
had been accomplished at no little personal risk ; for
the king was surrounded by perpetual plots against
his liberty, and sometimes even against his life.*
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Sir R. Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 28th
September, 1594.
t MS. State-paper Office, Bowes, 29th October, 1594.
J MS. Letter, State- paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 7th Oct., 1594.
Also, ibid., Occurrents, 8th November, 1594, and 16th November, 1594.
J56 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594.
He had cheerfully undergone great privations : had
impoverished his revenue, incurred heavy debts, and
imposed burdens upon his subjects, that he might, by
one great effort, extinguish the Catholic faith, destroy
the hopes and intrigues of Spain, and relieve the
Queen of England from all her fears. He had done
this, trusting to her promises of that pecuniary aid
which was absolutely necessary for the payment of his
troops; and before he set out, had despatched his secre-
tary, Sir Robert Cockburn, to the English court,* with
the perfect confidence that everything which had been
undertaken by " his good sister," would be fulfilled.
In this, however, he was miserably disappointed.
Whilst the king was engaged in burning and razing
the houses of the Catholics, Elizabeth and the now
venerable Burghley were closeted at Greenwich, lay-
ing their heads together to find out some plausible
excuse for stopping the payment of the promised sup-
plies. Cockburn, the ambassador, was artfully de-
tained and delayed from week to week, and month to
month, till the result of the campaign could be guessed
with some certainty. When this was ascertained,
the sum of two thousand pounds, for which an order
had been given, was recalled ;*f and a paper was drawn
up by Lord Burghley, detailing the sums paid by
England to James since the year 1586, and proving,
to the perfect satisfaction of Elizabeth if not of James,
that instead of any money being then due to the King
of Scotland, he had been overpaid to the extent of six
thousand five hundred pounds.]: This, the queen
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Sir R. Cockburn to Sir R. Cecil, ICth
September, 1594.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Sir R. Bowes to Burghley, 23d Oct.,
1594.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Scottish payments, 5th November,
1594. The indorsation is in Burghley's hand.
1594. JAMES vi. 157
added, was at the rate of throe thousand pounds
a-year ; which James could hardly complain of, as it
was the exact allowance given both to her sister Mary
and herself by their father Henry the Eighth : and
yet the Scottish king now pretended that she had
promised an annuity of four thousand pounds ; which
she positively denied.
For this unwise and double conduct in the queen
there could be no defence. She had first excited
James to this northern expedition by flattery and
large promises of support; she now forgot all, and
deserted him without scruple or remorse. Such a
mode of proceeding roused his passion to a pitch of
unusual fury ; and when Sir R. Cockburn returned,
the storm broke pitilessly on his head. The king, at
the same time, expressed, in no moderate terms, his
rage and suspicion against Burghley and Sir Robert
Cecil, by whose advice Elizabeth had acted ; and
some busy courtiers blew the coals, by assuring him
that both father and son were involved in the intrigues
and treasons of Bothwell. Had the queen kept her
promises, (so he said,) had she not thrown to the
winds her solemn assurances made him by her am-
bassadors Lord Burgh and Lord Zouch, the land
would have been utterly purged of the enemies to
God, religion, and both the countries. But now mat-
ters might proceed as they pleased. If the enemy
revived ; if they began again to look confidently for
Spanish money, and Spanish messengers ; if recruits
were raised in the Isles to assist the Catholics and
O'Neill in Ireland; if the rebel earls and Bothwell
had met together as they were reported to have done;
if, in his own council, plots were being carried on in
favour of the Catholics, and his own life were not safa
158 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594.
from the efforts of desperate men, who had conspired
to set up the young prince and pull him from his
royal seat : all these manifold dangers and miseries
were to be ascribed most justly to his desertion by
Elizabeth. He had performed his part, and more
than redeemed all the pledges which he had given.
She had not only failed in all her promises, but now
had the hardihood to disavow them ; and she might
take the consequences. If he was himself compelled
to look to other friendships, and accept of other offers
of assistance contrary to his own wishes ; if the
members of his council, who were inclined to the
Catholic side, had now more to say than before ; if
at the moment when Spanish intrigues were about to
be extinguished for ever, he was arrested in his course;
all was her fault not his.* He must now strengthen
himself as he best could, and place no more implicit
reliance upon English promises.
It was impossible to deny the justice of these com-
plaints ; and although for the moment all was quiet
in the north under the government of the Duke of
Lennox, there were many subjects for anxiety. The
king's debts were enormous, and more money still was
imperiously required to pay his troops and retain the
advantages he had acquired. His late severities to
the Catholic earls, and his alliance with the Kirk, the
ministers of which now lauded as highly as they had
vituperated him, had lost him the friendship of all his
foreign allies, and of the influential body of the Eng-
lish Catholics ; and within his own court and council
there were so many rivalries and jealousies, so much
plotting and intriguing, that, on his return, he found
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Sir R. Cockburn to Sir R. Bowes, 12th
December, 1594.
1594. JAMES VI. 159
the campaign in the north almost less irksome than
the civil battles he had to fight in his own palace.
The great struggle was between the Lord Chancellor
Maitland and the Earl of Mar. Maitland's faction
was strong ; embracing Hamilton, Athole, Hume,
Buccleuch, Oglivy, and many others. Mar, on the
other hand, had the keeping of the prince, commanded
the castles of Stirling and Edinburgh, and enjoyed
the complete confidence of the king, who had become
somewhat suspicious and impatient under the grasping
and increasing power of the chancellor.
But James had another and nearer source of anx-
iety in the queen, who was equally the enemy of Mar
and Maitland. This princess, for a considerable period
after her marriage, appears to have shunned all inter-
ference with party or public affairs ; but she was jeal-
ous of Maitland, who had opposed her marriage, and
was said to have secretly attacked her honour ; and
of Mar, because her son, the young heir to the throne,
had been committed in charge to him rather than to
her. Besides, she and the king, though outwardly liv-
ing on fair and decent terms, were neither loving nor
confidential. James 1 cold temperament and coarse
jokes disgusted the queen, who was not insensible to
admiration ; and she consoled herself, for the deser-
tion of her lord, in the more attractive society of the
young Duke of Lennox, the noblest of the Scottish
courtiers. This, on the other hand, roused the royal
jealousy ; and about the time of the christening, Mr
John Colvile assured Sir Robert Cecil, whom he calls
his most honourable lord and Maecenas, that matters
were on a very miserable footing. He writes as fol-
lows :
" These few lines I thought meet only to put in
160 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. L5.94.
your hands, to go no further but to her majesty, and
your most honourable father my special good lord. It
is certain that the king has conceived a great jealousy
of the queen, which burns the more the more he covers
it. The duke is the principal suspected. The chan-
cellor casts in materials to this fire. The queen is
forewarned ; but with the like cunning will not excuse,
till she be accused. ' Haec sunt incendia malorum* ;
and the end can be no less tragical nor was betwixt his
parents. The President of the Session, called the
Prior of Pluscardine, is by her indirectly stirred up
to counterpoise the chancellor, who she blames of all
these slanders ; and the chancellor is indirectly sup-
ported by the other : both the princes holding the
Wolf by the ears."* We know also, from a letter of
Mr James Murray, a gentleman of the bed-chamber,
that, about this time, a plot had been laid for the
"disgrace of the queen and the Duke of Lennox ; and
to so bitter and mortal an excess had the king's fears
and jealousy proceeded shortly before the baptism, that
he had doubts as to the paternity of prince Henry ."}*
On the thirtieth of July, a month before the baptism,
Col vile wrote thus to Sir II . Cecil : The " king repents
him sore that he has made such convention to this
baptism ; for upon the jealousy mentioned in my last
he begins to doubt of the child. I think he had not
been baptised at this time if so many princes had not
been invited. That matter takes deep root upon both
sides.
Nocte dieque suos gestant in pectore fastus,
Incautos perdet tacita flamma duos."
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Mr John Colvile to Sir R. Cecil, 26th
July, 1594. Also, MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Mr James Murray to
" Faithful Gawane," 16th August, 1594.
+ MS. Letter, State-paper Office, James Murray to his Faithful Gawane,
16th August, 1594 ; and ibid., Mr John Colvile to Sir R. Cecil.
1594. JAMES VI. 161
It is possible that all this may have been much ex-
aggerated by Colvile, and that Bothwell's gossip to
the Dean of Durham, Toby Mathews, of the king's
love for the beautiful daughter of the Earl of Morton,
may have been equally highly coloured ; but there can
be little doubt that James and his royal consort were
not on comfortable terms ; and it seems certain that
the queen about this time, not only placed herself at
the head of a faction which numbered in its ranks some
of the most powerful nobles, but began to have con-
siderable weight both in the court and with the country.
In the north, also, everything was in commotion ;
for although Lennox had, for a brief season, succeeded
in restoring tranquillity, by the vigour with which he
had executed the charge committed to him, all became
again disordered on his retirement from office. The
great cause of these excesses was to be traced to some
extraordinary discoveries made at this time by the
young Earl of Argyle, which showed that treachery,
not cowardice, had been the cause of his defeat at
Glenlivat. It was found out, by the confessions of
some accomplices, that Campbell of Lochnell, the near
relative of the young chief, arid, failing an only brother,
the heir to his estates and honours, had been tamper-
ing with Huntley ; and that the flight of so large a
body of Highlanders was only part of a conspiracy
against the life of Argyle. It was discovered, also, by
evidence which could not be contradicted, that this
foul plot against the young earl was intimately con-
nected with the late murder of the Earl of Moray and
the assassination of the Laird of Calder ; that all were
branches of one great conspiracy, of which a chief con-
triver was Maitland the Chancellor, assisted by
Huntley, Duncan Campbell of Glenurchy, Archibald
VOL. IX. L
162 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594.
Campbell of Lochnell, Sir James Campbell of Ard-
kinglas, Macaulay of Ardincaple, and John Lord
Maxwell. These titled and official ruffians, in the
spirit of the times, which could combine the strictest
legal precision with the utmost familiarity with blood,
had drawn up a band, by which, in the most solemn
manner, they became mutually bound to each other to
achieve the murder of James earl of Moray, Archibald
earl of Argyle, Colin Campbell of Lundy his only
brother, and John Campbell of Calder. The result
was to be, the possession of the earldom of Argyle by
Lochnell, and the appropriation of a large part of its
princely estates by the Chancellor Maitland and the
other conspirators. With the success of one part of
this conspiracy, the cruel murder of the Earl of Moray,
we are already acquainted; and, in the case of the
Laird of Calder, they were also successful : for this
unfortunate gentleman was about this time shot at
night, through the window of his own house, in Lorn,
by an assassin named M'Kellar, who had been furnish-
ed with a hagbut by Ardkinglas, which, to make surer
work, he had loaded with three bullets. So far this
diabolical plot was followed out with success. But at
this crisis, the remorse or interest of Ardkinglas re-
vealed the conspiracy to Argyle; and the apprehen-
sion, torture, and confession of John Oig Campbell
and M'Kellar, who were executed, led, at last, to the
revelation of the " Great Contract," as it was called.
The " Band " itself fell into the hands of Argyle, and
convinced him that the assassination of his unhappy
friends, Moray and Calder, was to have been followed,
on the first good opportunity that should present itself,
by the murder of himself. Of all this the consequences
were dreadful. Argyle hurried to the north, assem-
1594-5. JAMES VI. 163
bled his vassals, and proclaimed a war of extermination
against Huntley, and all who had opposed or deserted
him at Glenlivat.* Huntley, on the other hand, having,
by this time, somewhat recovered his recent losses,
was once more in the field, and threatened to hang up
any retainer of his, high or low, who dared to pay the
fines levied on him, or sought for peace in obedience
to the laws.^f- Mar, a nobleman very powerful in the
north as well as the south, joined with Argyle; whilst
Huntley had many friends at court, who secretly
screened him in his excesses. The ministers of the
Kirk, in the meantime, sounded their terrible trumpet
of warning to all true men, denouncing from the pulpit
the reviving influence of the Catholics ; and large
bodies of soldiers, disbanded for want of pay, roamed
over the country, and committed every sort of robbery
and excess. Ministers of religion were murdered;
fathers slain by. their own sons ; brothers by their
brethren ; married women ravished under their own
roof; houses, with their miserable inmates, burned
amidst savage mirth ; and the land so utterly wasted
by fire, plunder, and the total cessation of agricultural
labour, that famine at last stalked in to complete the
horrid picture, and destroy, by the most terrible of
deaths, those who had escaped the sword. J
Amidst these dreadful excesses, the only support of
the country was in the energy of the king : for his
council was torn by faction, and some of the chief
dignitaries were the offenders. But although deserted
by Elizabeth, and compelled to disband his troops and
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Sir R. Bowes' Advertisements, sent
him from Edinburgh, 5th January, 1594-5. Gregory's History of the West-
ern Highlands and Isles of Scotland, pp. 244, 250, 251, 253.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Advertisements by letters from Edin-
burgh, 15th January, 1594-5.
I MS. Calderwood, British Museum, Ayscough, 4738, p. 1183.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1594-5.
relax his military efforts against the Catholics, James
assembled a convention of his nobles ; and evinced not
only a sympathy for the sufferings of the people, but
his resolution to make the utmost efforts to remove
them.* Finding it impossible to reduce the northern
districts to order without vigorous proceedings against
the chiefs, he committed Athole, Lovat, and M'Kenzie
to ward at Linlithgow ; imprisoned Argyle, Glenurchy,
and others, in Edinburgh castle ; and confined Tully-
bardine, Garntully, and their fierce adherents, in Dum-
barton and Blackness : to remain in this durance till
they had made redress for the horrid excesses com-
mitted by their clansmen and supporters, and had
come under an obligation to restore order to the coun-
try. ) As to the Catholic earls, and Bothwell their
associate, both parties, now nearly desperate of any
ultimate success, and driven by the active pursuit of
the king from one concealment to another, were anxious
to reach the sea-coast and escape to the Continent.
Bothwell especially, that once proud and potent baron,
who had been the correspondent of Elizabeth, the
friend of Burghley, the pillar of the Kirk, the arbiter
of the court, and the idol of the people, was reduced
to the lowest extremity. He had been expelled from
all his castles and houses ; and now the Hermitage,
his last and strongest den, was in the hands of Hume,
his mortal enerny'.j Scott the Laird of Balwearie,
one of his chief friends, who was acquainted with the
secrets of his recent conspiracy with the Catholic earls,
was seized, and purchased his life by a full revelation
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, George Nicolson to Burghley, 29th
January, 1594-5.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, George Nicolson to Sir R. Bowes,
30th January, 1594-5.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Bowes, 24th Oct., 1594.
1594-5. JAMES vi. 165
of the plot. His brother, Hercules Stewart, suffered
on the scaffold ; a.nd the Kirk branded him with ex-
communication. William Hume, the brother of Davy
the Devil, or David Hume of Manderston, whom
Bothwell had slain, was employed to trace the fugitive
from cover to cover ; and executing this service with
a scent sharpened by revenge, he ran him through
Caithness to the sea-coast ; from which, after various
windings and doublings, he escaped to France.*
Meanwhile, Huntley and Errol lingered in Scotland,
with a last hope that assistance in money and in troops
was on the eve of arriving from Spain ; but this pro-
spect was utterly blasted by a disaster which befell
their messenger, Mr John Morton, a Jesuit, brother
to the Laird of Cambo, who had been intrusted with
a secret mission by the King of Spain and the pope.
This person had taken his passage in a Dutch ship,
and was landed at Leith ; but the disguise under
which he travelled had not concealed him from a fel-
low passenger, a son of Erskine of Dun, who hinted
his suspicion to Mr David Lindsay ; and this active
minister of the Kirk instantly pounced upon Father
Morton, as he was called, who, in the struggle with
the officers of justice, tore his secret instructions with
his teeth. f The fragments, however, were picked up,
joined together, their contents deciphered, and the
king, who piqued himself upon his shrewdness in cross-
examination, exerted his powers with much success.
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Sir R. Bowes, 19th Feb.,
1594-5. Same to same, 3d March, 1594-5. Also, ibid., same to same, 21>d
February, 1594-5. Also, ibid., Mr Colvile to Sir R. Cecil, 19th March,
1594-5. Also, ibid, Mr John Colvile, 22d Feb., 1594-5. Historic of James
the Sext, p. 344.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Mr John Colvile to S., 25th March,
1595.
166 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1595
He brought Morton to confess that he was a Jesuit,
O
though he appeared only a Scottish gentleman seeking
his native air for the recovery of his health ; that he
was confessor to the Seminary College in Rome, and
sent into Scotland by the pope, and with special mes-
sages from Cardinal Cajetano and Fathers Crichton
and Tyrie to Mr James Gordon, Huntley's near
relative. The messenger added, that he was directed
to reprove the Catholic lords for their disposal of the
treasure lately sent, which had been given not to
Catholics, but to courtiers who were heretics ; as well
as for their rashness in " delating " the king to be a
Catholic, before the Spanish army destined for Scot-
land was in readiness. Their union with Bothwell,
by which they had greatly exasperated the king, was
also condemned by the pope ; and no hope of further
treasure held out till they had vindicated themselves
before the councillors of the King of Spain in the Low
Countries. On Morton's person was found a small
jewel or tablet, containing an exquisite representation
of the Passion of our Lord, carved minutely in ivory ;
a present, as he said, from Cardinal Cajetano to the
Scottish queen. This James, taking up, asked him
to what use he put it. " To remind me," said Morton,
" when I gaze on it and kiss it, of my Lord's Passion.
Look, my liege," he continued, "how livelily the
Saviour is here seen hanging between the two thieves,
whilst below, the Roman soldier is piercing His sacred
side with the lance. Ah, that I could prevail on my
sovereign but once to kiss it before he lays it down ! "
"No," said James; "the Word of God is enough to
remind me of the crucifixion ; and besides, this carving
of yours is so exceeding small, that I could not kiss
1595. JAMES vi. 167
Christ without kissing both the thieves and the exe-
cutioners." *
The ministers of the Kirk insisted that this un-
happy person should be subjected to the torture of the
boots, as the only means of obtaining a full confession ;
but he was saved from this dreadful suffering by his
simplicity, and the candour with which he disclosed
to the king all the objects of his mission. f-
This last blow fell heavily on the party. It con-
vinced Huntley and Errol, that for the present their
cause was desperate, and that to retire into a tempo-
rary banishment was the only resource which remained.
It was in vain that Father Gordon, Huntley^s uncle,
and a devoted Catholic, implored them to remain ; in
vain that on a solemn occasion, when Mass was said
for the last time in the cathedral church at Elgin,
this zealous priest, descending from the high altar and
mounting the pulpit, exhorted them not to depart, but
remain in their native country and hazard all for the
faith. His discourse fell on deaf ears ; and finding
entreaty fruitless, he resolved to accompany them.
On the seventeenth of March, Errol embarked at
Peterhead ; and <on the nineteenth, two days after,
Huntley, with his uncle and a suite of sixteen persons,
took ship at Aberdeen for Denmark; intending, as he
said, to pass through Poland into Italy.]:
Scarcely had they departed, when intelligence of
Bothwell reached court. To so miserable a state was
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Mr John Colvile to S., 25th March,
1595. Also, ihid., Nicolson to Sir R. Bowes, 25th March, 1595. Also,
ibid., 5th April, 1595. Abstract of Letters sent to Sir R. Bowes.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 5th April, 1595. Letters from Scot-
land to Bowes. Also, ibid., Nicolson to Sir R. Bowes, 3d April, 1595.
Also, ibid.. Mr John Colvile, 1st April, 1595. Also, ibid., 2d April, 1595,
" Deposition of Mr John Morton, Jesuit."
MS. State-paper Office, Extracts from Letters from Scotland, by Sir
R. Bowes, 5th April, 1595.
168 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1595.
he reduced, that he had been seen skulking near Perth
with only two followers, meanly clad, and in utter
destitution. He then disappeared, and none could
tell his fate ; but he reemerged in Orkney, probably,
like his infamous namesake, intending to turn pirate.
He had one ship and a fly-boat ; and his desperate
fortunes were still followed, from attachment or ad-
venture, by some of his old " Camarados" Colonel
Boyd, Captain Foster, and a few other gentlemen.
Apparently he was not successful: for we soon hear
of him at Paris,* in correspondence with his profligate
associate Archibald Douglas.
All apprehensions from Bothwell and the Catholic
earls being at an end, and the king having most ener-
getically fulfilled his promises to the Kirk ; Protes-
tantism being safe and the hopes of Spain destroyed ;
he had leisure to address himself to a more difficult
task than his last : to restore something like order,
justice, and tranquillity to the country. Here all
was out of joint. The court was divided into factions.
The queen, of whose religious orthodoxy great doubts
began now to be entertained, hated Mar, who was still
intrusted with the person and government of the young
prince ; a charge which, she insisted, belonged natu-
rally to her.-f- The king supported Mar against his
great rival the Chancellor Maitland, a man full of
talent, of inordinate ambition, and, as we have already
seen, unscrupulous, intriguing, and familiar with con-
spiracy and blood. Maitland strengthened himself
against his enemies by courting the favour of the
queen, who had at first treated all his advances with
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bothwell to Douglas, J 7th June, 1595.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, George Nicolson to Sir R. Bowes, 22d
June, 1595.
1595. JAMES VI. 1G9
haughty suspicion; but latterly, dreading his strength
or conciliated by his proffered devotion, supported his
faction, which included Buccleuch,Cessford, the Master
of Glammis, and other powerful barons. The potent
house of Hamilton affected neutrality ; whilst the min-
isters of the Kirk also kept themselves aloof, and ex-
erted their whole energies to procure the absolute ruin
of Huntley and his exiled associates, by inducing the
king to forfeit their estates in earnest, and reduce them
to beggary. This James wisely refused. Enough, he
thought, had already been done for the safety of the
Protestant faith ; and to cut up by the roots the
ancient houses of Angus, Huntley, and Errol ; to
punish, by utter ruin and extermination, those who
were already exiles for conscience 1 sake, would have
been cruel and impolitic. To Bothwell, indeed, who
had repeatedly conspired against his life, he showed
no mercy ; and his great estates were divided between
Hume, Cessford, and Buccleuch.* But the Countesses
of Huntley and Errol were permitted to remain in
Scotland, and matters so managed that their unfor-
tunate lords should not be utterly destitute. The
principle of James was to balance the different factions
against each other, keeping all dependent on himself,
and throwing his weight occasionally into the one or
the other scale as he judged best. The probable
restoration, therefore, of such great men as Huutley,
was a useful threat to hold over the heads of their
rivals. But with all his policy, the monarch found
his position dangerous and difficult. The court and
country were full of inflammable materials ; and in
such a state of things, events apparently trifling might
produce a general convulsion. So at least thought
* MS. Calderwood, Ayscough, 4738, p. 1184.
170 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1595.
Nicolson, the English resident at Edinburgh, on the
occurrence of an event which, to feudal ears, sounded
trifling enough. David Forrester, a retainer of Mar,
and bailiff of Stirling, when riding from Edinburgh
to that town, was, on some love-quarrel, waylaid and
murdered by the Laird of Dunipace, assisted by the
Bruces and the Livingstones, who belonged to the
chancellor's faction. Mar instantly accepted this as
a defiance ; assembled a body of six hundred horse ;
vowed a deadly revenge ; and interdicting the body
from being buried, carried it along with him, displaying
before it, on two spears, a ghastly picture of Forrester,
all mangled and bleeding as he had died. In this
way the earl, in his steel jack, and his men armed to
the teeth, carried his murdered vassal in a bravado
through the lands of the Livingstones and Bruces,
which lay near Linlithgow, on the road between Edin-
burgh and Stirling; dividing his little force into three
wards, and expecting a ruffle with Buccleuch and
Cessford, who were reported to be mustering their
friends. But the peremptory remonstrances of the
king prevented an immediate collision ; and a " day
of law," as it was then termed, was appointed for the
trial of Forrester's slaughter.*
James" 1 labour to preserve peace was, indeed, inces-
sant ; and but for his vigour and courage, the various
factions would have torn the country in pieces. The
chancellor had now gained to his side the powerful
assistance of the house of Hamilton ; so that his
strength was almost irresistible. With his strength,
however, increased the odium and unpopularity of his
measures. It was now well known that he had been
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Bowes, 12th July, 1505.
Also, ibid., same to same, 24th June, 1595.
1595. JAMES VI. 171
the chief assistant of Huntley in the murder of Moray.
He was branded as a hypocrite : all smiles and pro-
fessions upon the seat of justice, but deep, bloody,
and unscrupulous when off it ; expressing great love
to the Kirk and the ministers, yet careless of practical
religion ; humble and devoted, as he said, to his sove-
reign, yet really so haughty, that he did not hesitate
to measure his strength with the highest nobles in the
land. It was this which provoked Mar, Argyle, and
the rest of the ancient earls.
On one occasion James, observing Maitland's de-
fiance, took him roundly to task ; reminding him that
he was but his creature, a man of yesterday, a cadet
of a mean house compared with Mar, who had a dozen
vassals for his one ; * and that it ill became him to
enter into proud speeches, or compare himself with
the old nobles, and raise factions with Glamrnis and
the queen against the master to whom he owed all.
Pasquils, too, and biting epigrams, prognosticating
some fatal end, were found pinned to his seat in the
court. -|* But Maitland was naturally courageous, and
believed himself powerful enough to keep head against
the worst. Hamilton, Hume, Fleming, Livingstone,
Buccleuch, Cessford, with the Master of Glammis,
had now joined him against Mar ; and the queen,
finding herself thus supported, renewed her efforts to
obtain possession of the young prince. The king was
inexorable. He had been heard to swear that, were
he on his death-bed and speechless, his last sign should
be, that Mar should have the boy ; and the queen, in
despair, took to bed and pretended a mortal sickness.
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Mr John Colvile to Sir R. Cecil, 2d
August, 1595.
t MS. State-paper Office, Advices from Edinburgh, 20th March, 1594-5.
172 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1595.
James shut his ears when the news was brought him.
and declared it all a trick. At last the lady, between
anger and the agitation incident to her situation, for
she was about to be confined, fell truly sick. The
Mistress of Ochiltree, and a jury of matrons, sat upon
her malady, and pronounced it no counterfeit; and
James, in real alarm, hurried from Falkland. To his
disgust and anger, it was told him that Buccleuch
and Cessford, the two men whom he then most dreaded,
were with her ; but they did not dare abide his coming :
and a reconciliation, half stormy, half affectionate, took
place. She renewed her clamour for the keeping of
the prince : he upbraided her for leaguing with such
desperate men as Buccleuch and Cessford, who, in
truth, at that moment were plotting to restrain his
person, seize the heir of the throne, and arraign his
governor, one of the most faithful of his nobles, of high
O ' ' O
treason. To humour her would have been the ex-
tremity of weakness, and only playing his enemies 1
game, who, he said, should find that, though he loved
her, he could keep his purpose and be master in his own
kingdom.* This resolute temper saved the monarch.
The chancellor controlled Buccleuch, who alleged that
they were throwing away their best opportunity: now
they could seize the king ; next day they themselves
might be in fetters. All was ready : the king, the
prince, the government, by one bold stroke might
be their own. But Maitland's heart failed, or his
loyalty revived. He forbade the enterprise. James
rode back to Falkland ; and when he next visited
Edinburgh, his strength was such that he could defy
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Bowes, 26th July, 159.5.
See, also, ibid., same to same, 24th July, 1595. Also, Mr John Colvile to
Sir R. Cecil, 2d August, 1595. Also, ibid., Nicolson to Bowes, 4th August,
1595.
1595. JAMLS VI. 173
his enemies.* The ministers of the Kirk, scandalized
by the divisions in the royal family, now remonstrated
with the queen, awakened her to a higher sense of her
conjugal duties, and convinced her, that to renounce
all factions, and follow the commands of her royal
husband, was her only safe and Christian course. *f A
letter, written at this time by Nicolson, the English
envoy at the Scottish court, to Sir Robert Bowes, who,
at his own earnest request, had been suffered to resign
his place as resident ambassador, gives us an interest-
ing account of this reconciliation and its effects :
" The king and queen are lovingly together now at
Falkland : the king to go to Stirling to-morrow, and
so to his buck-hunting in Lennox and Clydesdale;
and after to return to the queen to St Johnston's,
there to receive the communion together. The queen
first goeth to Sir R. MelviFs house, the Earl of Bothes',
and other places, before she goes to St Johnston's.
My Lord of Mar and she have spoken, by the king's
means. At the first she was very sharp with Mar,
but in the end gave him good countenance. Mr
Patrick Galloway, in his sermon, was occasioned to
teach of the duties of man and wife each to the other;
and spoke so persuasively for the keeping their duties
therein, as the queen thereon spake and conferred with
him, and gave good ear to his advices, and promiseth
to follow the same ; and hath said that she will have
him with her.
" The king caused Mr David Lindsay to travel with
the queen, to see what he could try out of them ;
whereupon Mr David and the queen had long confer-
ence. And in the end, the queen said, ' Let the king
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Bowes, 27th May, 1595.
t MS. State-paper Office, Colvile, 18th Aug., 1595. Same, '20th August.
174 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1595.
be plain with the queen, and the queen should be plain
with the king ;' which Mr David showed to the king,
causing him to receive the same even then out of the
O
queen's own mouth ; whereupon there was good and
kind countenance and behaviour between them : both
of them agreeing to satisfy each other ; as Mr David
looketh that, ere this, the king knoweth who hath
persuaded the queen to these former courses ; and the
queen who hath moved the king to this strangeness
with the queen ; and that some will be found to have
dealt doubly and dangerously with them both. The
king intendeth, by little and little, to draw the queen
to where Mar is, and there to stay her from these
parts, and the company of Buccleuch, Cessford, and
the rest. Mr David holdeth the chancellor to be very
honest between both parties, and to be for the king ;
but whatsoever he doeth, it is with consent and leave
of the Master of Glammis, Buccleuch, and Cessford ;
who, if the chancellor should do otherwise, and they
know of it, would be the chancellor's greatest enemies,
and most dangerous. * * The Lord Hume hath
promised to follow the king, and is presently with him :
so as it is held that the queen's faction is breaking.
Always some think, that as the king intends by policy
to win the queen, so the queen intends to win the
king for the advantage of that side ; and I pray God
that this prove not too true, that in these fair flowers
there prove not yet sharp pricks. As to the slaughter
of David Forster, my Lord of Mar, I think, shall
give assurance, and keep on fair terms with such of
the Livingstones and Bruces as were not executioners
of David's murder ; which executioners, for this cause,
are to be banished the country by their own friends." *
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Sir R. Bowes, Aug. 15., 1 595.
1595. JAMES VI. 175
While the Court of Holyrood was occupied in gos-
siping upon such scenes of domestic intrigue and
conjugal reconciliation, the Queen of England began
bitterly to repent her neglect of Scotland, and to look
with alarm to a storm which threatened her on the
side of the Isles. She was now trembling for her
empire in Ireland, where Tyrone had risen in formid-
able force, and, assisted with Roman gold and Spanish
promises, threatened to wrest from her hands the
fairest provinces of the kingdom. In these circum-
stances, both Elizabeth and the Irish prince looked for
assistance and recruits to the Scottish Isles. These
nurseries of brave soldiers and hardy seamen were now
able to furnish a formidable force : a circumstance not
unknown to the English queen, as her indefatigable
minister Burghley, whose diplomatic feelers were as
long as they were acute and sensitive, kept up a com-
munication with the Isles. From a paper written in
the end of the year 1593, by one of his northern cor-
respondents,* it appears that the Isles could, on any
emergency, fit out a force of six thousand hardy troops,
inured to danger both by sea and land, and equipt for
war on either element. Of these, two thousand wore
defensive armour, actons, habergeons, and knapsculls;^
the rest were bowmen or pikemen ; but many, adds
the Island statist, had now become harquebuseers.
This force, it is to be observed, was independent of
those left at home to labour the ground ; the whole
of the Isles being different from the rest of feudal
Scotland in one essential respect, " that they who
* MS. State-paper Office, December, 1593. Note of the West Isles of
Scotland, for the Lord Treasurer.
t Acton, a quilted leathern jacket, worn under the armour ; habergeon,
a breast-plate of mail ; knapscull, a steel cap or helmet.
176 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1595.
occupied the ground, were not charged to the wars." *
Of this western archipelago, the principal islands
were Lewis and Skye, lying to the north, Islay and
Mull to the south ; and amongst the chief leaders who
assumed the state and independence of little princes,
were the Earl of Argyle, Lauchlan Maclean of Duart,
Angus Macdonald of Dunyveg, Donald Gorm Mac-
donald o^Sleat, and Roderick Macleod of Harris,
known in traditionary song as Ruari Mor.-f- Of these
chiefs, the Lord of Duart, commonly called Lauchlan
Mor, was by far the most talented and conspicuous ;
and, as Elizabeth well knew, had the power of bridling
or letting loose that formidable body of troops which
Donald Gorm and Ruari Mor were now collecting to
assist her enemies in Ireland. Lauchlan Mor was, in
all respects, a remarkable person ; by no means illiter-
ate, for he had received his nurture in the low country,
and had married a daughter of the Earl of Glencairn.
But in war and personal prowess he had then no equal :
an island Amadis of colossal strength and stature ;
and possessing, by the vigour of his natural talents, a
commanding influence over the rude and fierce isles-
men. It is curious to trace Elizabeth^ connexion with
this man. The Lord of Duart's confidential servant
happened to be a certain shrewd Celt, named John
Achinross ; he, in turn, was connected by marriage
with Master John Cunningham, a worthy citizen and
merchant in Edinburgh. This honest bailie of the
capital, forming the link between savage and civilized
life, corresponded with Sir Robert Bowes ; Bowes
with Burghley or Sir Robert Cecil ; and thus Eliza-
* MS. State-paper Office, December, 1593. Note of the West Isles of
Scotland, for the Lord Treasurer.
t Gregory's History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland,
p. 2(71.
1595. JAMES vi. 177
beth, sitting in her closet at Windsor or Greenwich,
moved the strings which could assemble or disperse
the chivalry of the Isles. This is no ideal picture,
for the letters of the actors remain. As early as
March, 1594-5, Achiuross informed Bowes that Mac-
lean and Argyle were ready, not only to stay the
Clandonnell, who, under Donald Gorm, were then
mustering to assist Tyrone ; but that Maclean him-
self would join the English army in Ireland, if Eliza-
beth would despatch three or four ships to keep his
galleys whilst they attacked the enemy.* As the
summer came on, and the fleet of Donald and his
associates waited only for a fair wind, Cunningham
hurried to the Isles, had a conference with Maclean,
and thence rode post to London, where, in an inter-
view with Sir Robert Cecil, he urged the necessity of
instant action and assistance.^ The bridle which the
Laird of Duart held over the Islesmen was simple
enough ; being a garrison of six hundred mercenaries,
well armed, and ready to be led by him, on a moment's
warning, against any island chief who embarked in
foreign service, and left his lands undefended at home. J
The support of this force, however, required funds :
Elizabeth demurred ; Maclean was obliged to disband
his men ; and the most part of the fleet weighed an-
chor, and bore away for Ireland. It consisted of a
hundred sail, of which fifty were galleys, the rest
smaller craft ; and the number of soldiers and mari-
* MS. State-paper Office, 25th March, 1595, Contents of John Achin-
ross' letter to Robert Bowes.
+ MS. Letter, State-paper Office, John Cunningham to Sir R. Bowes,
25th June, 1595. Also, Maclean of Duart to Sir R. Cecil, 4th July, 1595.
Also, same to Sir R. Bowes, 4th July, 1595. Also, ibid., Nicolson to Bowes,
5th July, 1595.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, John Achinross to George Nicolson,
2d July, 1595.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Bowes, 26th July, 1595.
VOL. IX. M
178 HISTORY OP SCOTLAND. 1595.
ners was estimated at about five thousand.* Nine
hundred men, however, under the Captain of the Clan
Ranald,-}- still remained; and as they passed Mull had
the temerity to land for the night ; running their
" galleys, boats, and birlings," into a little harbour,
where they imagined themselves secure. But Mac-
lean, by what Achinross termed " a bauld onset and
prattie feit of weir," took the whole company prisoners,
threw the chiefs into irons, sent them to his dungeons
in his different castles, appropriated their galleys, and
transported the common men to the mainland. |
Amongst the chief prisoners then taken, were the Cap-
tain of Clanranald and three of his uncles, the Laird
of Knoydart, M'lan of Ardnamurchan, Donald Gorm's
brother, and others ; and an account of the surprise
was immediately transmitted by John Achinross to
Nicolson, the English envoy at the court of James.
We can pardon the enthusiasm and abominable or-
thoepy of this devoted Highland servant when he
exclaims : " My maister is acquentit with thir prattie
onsettis, without respect to number findand vantage :
for divers tymis he plaid this dance heir aganis his
enemies. I assuir you, thir men that ar tane and in
captivity, ar the maist douttit and abil men in the His.
Lat your guid maister and Sir Robert comfort thame
with this gude luke, done be ane vailyeant man of weir,
and ane man of honor, in beginning of her majestie's
service."
Elizabeth was delighted with this exploit of Lauch-
lan Mor, assured him of her gratitude and friendship,
and sent a more substantial proof than words, in a
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Mr George Areskine to Nicolson, Den-
con, 31st July, 1595. { Ibid., same to same.
J MS, Letter, State-paper Office, Achinross to Nicolson, 31st July, 1595.
Ibid., same to same.
1595. JAMES VL 179
present of a thousand crowns : an " honourable token
of her favour,*'' as he called it in a letter to Cecil, in
which he promised all duty and service to the queen.
She wrote, at the same time, to the Earl of Argyle,*
flattered him by some rich token of her regard, and
ordered Nicolson, her resident at the Scottish court,
to deliver it and her letter to him in person, at Dun-
oon in Argyle. All this was successfully accomplish-
ed : and so cordially did Maclean and Argyle cooper-
ate, sowing distrust and division amongst the chiefs
and leaders who had followed the banner of Donald
Gorm and Macleod, that their formidable force only
made the coast of Ireland to meet the English ships,
which were on the watch for them, enter into a friendly
treaty, and disperse to their different ocean nests,
before a single effort of any moment had been made.
This sudden arrival, and as sudden disappearance
of the fleet of the Islesmen, appears to have puzzled
the chroniclers of the times, and even their more acute
modern successor. A black cloud had been seen to
gather over Ireland ; and men waited in stillness for
the growl of the thunder and the sweep of the tempest,
when it melted into air, and all was once more tran-
quillity. This seemed unaccountable, almost miracu-
lous ; but the letters of honest John Cunningham,
and his Celtic relative Achinross, whose epistles
smack so strongly of his Gaelic original, introduce us
behind the scenes, and discover Lauchlan Mor as the
secret agent, the Celtic Prospero, whose wand dis-
persed the galleys, and restored serenity to the ocean.
The reader may be pleased with an extract from a let-
ter of this brave Lord of Duart to Sir R. Bowes, al-
though his style is a little ponderous, and by no means
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Bowes, Jst August, 1595.
180 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1595.
so polished as the Danish steel axe, with which it was
his delight to hew down his enemies : he is alluding
O O
to the future plan of the campaign intended by Tyrone
and O'Donnell against Elizabeth, and the best way to
defeat it.
" The earl is to pursue you on one side, and O'Don-
nell is to pursue your lands presently on the other
side. They think to harm you meikle by this way.
If my opinion were followed out, the earl and O'Don-
nell shall be pursued on both the sides : to wit, by
your force of Ireland on the one side, and by the Earl
of Argyle's force and mine, with my own presence, on
this side. To the which, I would that you moved the
Earl of Argyle to furnish two thousand men : myself
shall furnish other two thousand ; and I would have
six or eight hundred of your spearmen, with their
buttis, [sic] and four hundred pikemen. If I were once
landed in Ireland with this company, having three or
four ships to keep our galleys, I hope in God the
earl should lose that name ere our return. *
In my name your lordship shall have my duty of
humble service remembered to her majesty, and com-
mendations to good Sir Robert Cecil, with whom I
think to be acquainted. Your lordship will do me a
great pleasure if you will let me know of anything in
Scotland that may pleasure Sir Robert. I am so
hamely* with your lordship, that without you let me
know hereof, I will think that your lordship does dis-
simull with me. I am here, in Argyle, at pastime
and hunting with the earl my cousin. I have respect
to other kind of hunting nor this hunting of deer. I
am hamely with your lordship, as ye may perceive.
* Hamely ; familiar.
1595. JAMES VI. 181
At meeting, (for the which I think long, ) God willing,
we shall renew our acquaintance." *
From this island episode we must turn to a different
scene, the deathbed of a great minister. The Chan-
cellor Maitland lord Thirlstaue, had now, for some
years, ruled the court and the country with a firm,
unchallenged, and, as many thought, a haughty supe-
riority. He had given mortal offence to the queen ;
had provoked the hostility of the highest nobles of the
land; and, it was whispered, was more feared than
loved by his royal master. But he had kept his
ground, partly by superiority in practical business
talents to all his competitors ; partly by that deep
political sagacity and foresight which made Burghley
pronounce him the " wisest man in Scotland ; " and
not least of all, by that high personal courage and
somewhat unscrupulous familiarity with conspiracy,
and even with blood, which blotted most men of this
semi-barbarous age. He had, besides, been a pretty
consistent Protestant ; and although in earlier years
he had attacked some of Knox^s political dicta, yet
recently, the strong and decided part he had adopted
against Huntley and the Catholic earls made him a
favourite with the ministers of the Kirk. So resist-
less had he now become, that the queen and her friends
had renounced all opposition, and joined his faction
against Mar the governor of the prince, the favourite
of his royal master, and one of the oldest and most
powerful of the higher nobles. -f- In this his palmy
state, when plotting new schemes of ambition, and
inflaming the king against the queen ; meeting Cess-
ford and Buccleuch, and his other associates, in night
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Lauchlan Maclean of Duart to Sir R.
Bowes, Garvie in Argyle, 22d August, 1595.
f MS. State-paper Office, Nicolson to Bowes, 1st September, 1595.
182 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. ]595.
trysts ; marshalling secretly his whole strength, and
laying a " platt," as it was then called, or conspiracy
against Mar, by which he hoped to hurl him from his
height of power, and rule unchecked over his sove-
reign ; he was suddenly seized with a mortal distem-
per.* At first he struggled fiercely against it, tried
to throw it off, rode restlessly from place to place, and
appeared so active that it was currently said the sick-
ness was only one of his old pretences. But at last
the malady mastered him, threw him on his couch,
and compelled him, in fear and remorse, to send for
the ministers of the Kirk, and implore a visit from
the king. James resisted repeated messages : it was
even said he had whispered in a courtier's ear, that it
would be a small matter if the chancellor were hanged :
and when Robert Bruce, one of the leading ministers,
rode at four in the morning to Thirlstane, he found
the dying statesman full of penitence for neglected
opportunities, imploring the prayers of the Kirk, and
promising to make many discoveries of strange matters
if God granted him time for amendment and reforma-
tion.^ What appeared to weigh heaviest on his con-
science was the part he had acted in sowing dissen-
sion between the king and queen ; and he seemed
much shaken by fears that many dark dealings would
come out on this subject. He expressed sorrow, also,
for his " partial information against John Knox and
other good men ;" and when asked what advice he
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Colvile to Cecil, 10th September, 1595.
Ibid., Nicolson to Bowes, 19th September, 1595. Ibid., Nicolson to Bowes,
22d September, 1595.
t MS. State-paper Office, 10th September, 1595, Advertisements from
Scotland. Ibid., Nicolson to Bowes, 22d September, 1595. Ibid., same
to same, 24th September. Ibid., same to same, 3d October, 1595. " He
[the chancellor] is sore troubled in conscience, and with fear that his deal-
ings between the king and queen should come out."
1595. JAMES V7. 183
\vould leave to the king for the management of his
estate, shook his head, observing, " it was too late
speerd" * as his thoughts were on another world.
Even his enemies, who had quoted against him the
Italian adage, " II periculo passato, il santo gabato"
rejoiced at last to find that the sickness was no coun-
terfeit ; and were little able to restrain their satisfac-
tion when news arrived at court that the chancellor
was no more. He died at Thirlstane on the night of
the third October ; and John Col vile, his bitter enemy,
exultingly wrote to England that his faction or party
were headless, and must fall to pieces : whilst his
royal master publicly lamented and secretly rejoiced ;
inditing to his memory a high poetical panegyric in
the shape of an epitaph, and observing, that he would
weel ken who next should have the Seals, and was re-
solved no more to use great men or chancellors in his
affairs, but such as he could correct and were hang-
able.-J-
All things, however, were thrown loose and into
confusion by his death. The Borders, which had been
for some time in disorder, became the daily scenes of
havoc, theft, and murder ; torn with feuds between
the Maxwells and the Douglases ; ravaged by in-
vasions of the English : J and so reckless of all restraint,
that the personal presence of the king was loudly called
for. At court the competitors for the chancellor's
place were busy, bitter, and clamorous ; in the Kirk
the ministers gave warning that the Catholic earls,
now in banishment, had been plotting their return,
and that the Spaniards were on the eve of invading
* Speer'd ; asked. The question was asked too late,
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 8th Oct., 159d, Nicolson to Bowes.
Ibid., same to same, llth Jan., 1595.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Bowes, 20th Oct., 1595.
184* HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1595.
England and Scotland with a mighty force.* It was
absolutely necessary, they said, that the Kirk should
have authority to convene the people in arms, to resist
the threatened danger ; and that an ambassador should
be sent to England to arrange some plan of common
defence.^ James at once consented to the first pro-
posal, and gave immediate directions for the defence
of the country ; but he refused to send an ambassador
to Elizabeth, who had rejected his suits and broken
her promises, although he had preferred her friendship
and alliance to that of any other prince in Europe.
He was, at this moment, he said, ready to act as her
Lieutenant against the Spaniards, and perish with Eng-
land in defence of the true religion. J Yet still she
withheld her supplies, and treated him with suspicion,
notwithstanding the proofs he was daily giving of his
sincerity in religion, and although she knew him to be
drowned in debt. For this last assertion, the dreadful
embarrassment of his finances, there was too good
ground ; and it had been long apparent that, unless
some thorough reform took place, matters must come
to an extremity. The office of treasurer was held by
the Master of Glammis, a man of great power, and
one of the chief friends of the late chancellor. Sir
Robert Melvil was his depute ; Seton laird of Parbreath,
filled the office of comptroller ; and Douglas, the Pro-
vost of Glenclouden, that of collector. All of them
had been protected by Thirlstane during his supremacy
in the council ; and, it was suspected by the king, had
fattened at the royal expense. This idea was encou-
raged by the queen, who now lived on the most loving
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Bowes, 27th Nov., 1595.
f MS. State-paper Office, Advertisements from Edinburgh, 6th Decem-
ber, 1595.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Bowes, 27th Nov., 1595.
1595-6. JAMES VI. 185
terms with her lord, and omitted no opportunity to
point out the rapid diminution of the crown revenues,
and the contrast between her own command of money,
out of so small a dowry as she enjoyed, and the reduced
and beggarly condition of the household and palaces
of her royal consort. On New Year's Day, coming
playfully to the king, she shook a purse full of gold
in his face, and bade him accept it as her gift. He
asked where she got it. " From my councillors," she
replied, "who have but now given me a thousand pieces
in a purse : when will yours do the like?" " Never,"
said the king ; and calling instantly for his collector
and comptroller, he dismissed them on the spot, and
chose the queen's councillors as his financial advisers.
These were Seton lord Urquhart, President of the
Session; Mr John Lindsay, Mr John Elphinstone, and
Mr Thomas Hamilton ; to whom James committed
the entire management of his revenues and household.
It was soon found that the charge would be too labo-
rious for so small a number, and four others were
added : the Prior of Blantyre, Skene the Clerk-register,
Sir David Carnegie, and Mr Peter Young, Master-
almoner. These new officers sat daily in the Upper
Tolbooth, and from their number were called Octavians.
They acted without salary ; held their commissions
under the king's hand alone ; and by the vigour, good
sense, and orderly arrangements which they adopted,
promised a speedy and thorough reformation of all
financial abuses.*
Elizabeth now deemed it necessary to send Sir
Robert Bowes once more as her ambassador to Scot-
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to B<wes, /th Jan., 1595-6.
John Colvile, Advertisements from Scotland ; from 7th December to 1st
January, 1595-6.
186 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1595-6.
land. He had been recalled from that court, or rather
suffered, at his own earnest entreaty, to return to
England, as far back as October 1594;* and since
O 7
that time to the present, (January 1595-6,) the corre-
spondence with England, and the political interests of
that kingdom, had been intrusted to Mr George Nicol-
son, who had long acted as Bowes 1 secretary ; and who,
from the time that this minister left Edinburgh till
his return to the Scottish court, kept up an almost
daily correspondence with him. Elizabeth instructed
Bowes to assure James of her unalterable friendship,
but of the impossibility of advancing a single shilling,
drained as she was by her assistance to France, with-
out which Henry must have lost his throne ; her war
in Ireland ; and her preparations against Spain, which,
at that instant, had fitted out a more mighty armament
against her than the Armada of 1588. The ambassador
was intrusted not only with a letter from the English
queen to James, but with a letter and message to
Queen Anne, whom he was to greet with every expres-
sion of friendship, and to reproach mildly for her re-
serve in not communicating to Elizabeth the secret
history of the late quarrels between her and her royal
husband, regarding the government and keeping of
the young prince. He was also to touch on a still more
delicate subject the reports which had reached the
court of England of her change of religion ; and to warn
her that, although his mistress utterly disbelieved
such a slander, she could not be too much on her guard
against the crafty men who were in communication
with the pope, and eager to seduce her to their errors. {
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 19th October, 1594.
f- MS. State-paper Office, Answers to Mr Bowes' articles, 14th January,
1595-6. Wholly in Lord Burghley's hand.
1595-6. JAMES VI. 187
Bowes' reception by James was gracious and cordial.
The king declared his satisfaction in hearing that his
good sister was so well prepared against the meditated
invasion of the Spaniard, and his own readiness to
hazard all life, crown, and kingdom, in her defence
and his own ; but he reminded Bowes of Lord Zouch's
arguments and unfulfilled promises ; and whilst he
spoke feelingly of his pecuniary embarrassments, and
the impossibility of raising soldiers without funds, he
hinted significantly, that the pope and the Catholic
earls threw about their gold pieces with an open hand ;
and did not conceal that large offers had been made
to draw him to the side of Spain, although he had no
mind to be so " limed. 11 He then mentioned his in-
tention of sending his servant, Mr David Foulis, to
communicate to Elizabeth the confessions of certain
priests whom he had lately seized, and other discoveries
with, which she ought to be acquainted ; and alluding
to Doleman's book on the Succession to the English
Crown, which had been recently published, observed,
that he took it to be the work of some crafty politician
in England, drawn up with affected modesty and im-
partiality, but real malice against every title except
that of the King of Spain and his daughter. Bowes
assured the king that this famous work, which made
so much noise at the time, was written not in England
but in Spain, by Persons, an English Jesuit and
traitor ; but James retained his scepticism.*
The ambassador next sought the queen, and was
soon on very intimate and confidential terms with this
princess, who expressed herself highly gratified by
Elizabeth's letter. Nothing, she said, could give her
greater delight than to receive such assurances of
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Lord Burghley, Feb. 24, 1595-6.
188 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1595-6.
kindness and affection ; and she would readily follow
her advice, as of one whom she most honoured, loved,
and trusted ; but as to the delicate subject of the late
differences between her and the king, and her wish to
get the prince into her hands, the matter had been so
sudden, and full of peril, that she dared not send either
letter or message to the Queen of England. She
then threw the blame of the whole on the late chancel-
lor ; who had acted, she said, with great baseness,
both towards herself and the king. It was he had
first moved her to get the prince out of Mar's hands ;
it was he who animated the king against her, per-
suading him that such removal would endanger his
crown and person : " and yet," said she, addressing
Bowes with great animation and some bitterness, " it
was this same man who dealt so betwixt the king and
myself, and with the persons interested therein, that
the surprise of the body of the king was plotted, and
would have taken place at his coming to Edinburgh ;
but I discovered the conspiracy, and warned and stayed
him. Had he come, he must have been made captive,
and would have remained in captivity." "These
secrets," said Bowes, in his letter to Elizabeth, " she
desired to be commended by my letters to your ma-
jesty's only hands, view, and secrecy ; and that none
other should know the same." As to her reported
change of religion, the queen frankly admitted that
attempts had been made for her conversion to Rome ;
but all had now passed and failed. She remained a
Protestant ; and would rather not reveal the names
of the practisers. If they again assaulted her religion,
Elizabeth should know who they were, and how she
had answered them.*
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to the Queen, Feb. 24, 1595-6.
1595-6.. JAMES VI. 189
The continuance of the rebellion in Ireland, and
the intrigues of Tyrone with the Western Isles, had
greatly annoyed Elizabeth : and Bowes was ordered
to communicate with the king, and with Maclean of
Duart, on the subject. He found that James had
resolved to adopt speedily some decided measures to
bring the Isles into order ; and hoped to succeed by
employing, in this service, the Earl of Argyle, Mac-
lean and Mackenzie, to whose sister Maclean had
lately married his eldest son. The ambassador had
been, as usual, tutored to spare his mistress' purse,
whilst he sounded Maclean's " mind, power, and re-
solution ;"* and exerted himself to the utmost to drive
a hard bargain. He was alarmed, too, with the din
of warlike preparations then sounding through the
Western archipelago : Donald Gorm was mustering his
men, and repairing his galleys ; Macleod of Harris
had lately landed from Ireland, and was ready to re-
turn with fresh power ; and Angus Maconnel, another
potent chief, was assembling his galleys and soldiers. *f*
Maclean himself was in Tiree, then reckoned ten days 1
journey from Edinburgh ; and Argyle, so intent in
investigating the murder of Campbell of Calder, now
traced to Campbell of Ardkinglas, that Bowes could
have no immediate transactions with either. He set,
however, Cunningham and Achinross, his former
agents, to work ; and when these active emissaries got
amongst the Highlanders, the storm of letters, memo-
rials, contracts, queries, answers, and estimates, soon
poured down on the unhappy head of Bowes ; who
* MS. Letter. State-paper Office, Bowes to Sir R. Cecil. 24th February,
1595-6.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 6th March,
1595-6. Memorial to John Cunningham, 22d Feb., 1595-6. Answers by
Maclean to the Questions proposed by Sir R. Bowes, 30th March, 1596.
190 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1595-6.
implored Cecil, but with small success, to send him
instructions, and some portion of treasure, to satisfy
Elizabeth's Celtic auxiliaries, who clamoured for gold.
Maclean was perfectly ready, as before, to attack
Tyrone; and confident that the plan of the campaign,
which he had already communicated, if carried into
vigorous effect, would reduce the great rebel. But he
made it imperative on the queen to furnish two thou-
sand soldiers, and advance a month's pay to his men.
He himself, he said, had neither spared "gear nor
pains in the service; and yet her majesty's long
promised present of a thousand crowns had not yet
arrived."* These remonstrances produced the effect
desired. Elizabeth was shamed into some settlement
of her promises ; and Maclean, with his island chivalry,
declared himself ready to obey her majesty's orders
with all promptitude and fidelity. -f"
The ambassador speedily discovered that the eighteen
months during which he had been absent, had added
both energy and wisdom to James' character. It
was evident there was more than empty compliment
in Nicolson's observation that, in severity, he began
to rule like a king. There was still, indeed, about
him much that was frivolous, undignified, and capri-
cious ; much favouritism, much extravagance, an
extraordinary love of his pleasures ; and a passion for
display in oratory, poetry, theology, and scholastic
disputation, which was frequently ridiculous ; but
with all this, he was dreaded by his nobles, and com-
pelled respect and obedience. As Elizabeth advanced
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 24th Feb., 1595-6. Ibid., Bowes to
Sir R. Cecil, 6th March, 1595-6. Ibid., Bowes to Cecil, 16tli March,
1595-6. Ibid., Maclean to Bowes, Coll, 18th March, 1595-6. Ibid., Mac-
lean's Answers to Bowes, 30th March, 1596.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 7th April, 1596.
1596. JAMES VI. 191
to old age, his eye became steadily fixed on the Eng-
lish crown, which he considered his undoubted right ;
and the one great engrossing object of his policy was
to secure it. His fairest chance, he thought, to gain
the respect and good wishes of the English people,
when death took from them their own great princess,
was to show that he knew how to rule over his own
unruly subjects. Hence his vigorous determination
to restrain, by every possible means, the power of the
greater nobility ; to recruit his exhausted finances ;
to reduce the Isles, and consolidate his kingdom ; and
to bridle the claims of the Kirk, in all matters of civil
government, or interference with the royal prerogative :
whilst he warmly seconded their efforts for the preser-
vation of the Reformed religion, and resistance to the
efforts of its enemies.
Not long after Bowes 1 arrival, the convention of the
General Assembly met in Edinburgh ; and the king,
then absent on a hunting expedition, broke off his
sport, and returned to Holyrood, that he might
" honour the Kirk (as Bowes observed) with his
presence and his oration." The moderator, Mr
Robert Pont, warmly welcomed the royal party ;
which embraced the Duke of Lennox, Lord Hamilton,
the Earls of Argyle, Mar, and Orkney : and address-
ing the king, thanked him in name of the Assembly
for his presence ; reminding him of the honour
obtained by Constantino, in favouring the ancient
fathers of the Church ; and by David, in dancing
before the ark. In reply, James professed his zeal for
religion since his youth up. He had ever esteemed
it, as he declared, more glory to be a Christian than a
king, whatever slanders to the contrary were spoken
against him. It was this zeal which moved him to
192 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. ]596.
convene the present Assembly : for being aware of the
designs of Spain, their great enemy, against religion
and this isle, he was anxious to meet, not only the
ministry, but the barons and gentlemen ; to receive
their advice, and resolve on measures to resist the
common enemy. Two points he would press on
them ; reformation and preparation ; the reformation
of themselves, clergy, people, and king. For his own
part, he never refused admonition ; he was ever
anxious to be told his faults ; and his chamber door
should never be closed to any minister who reproved
him. All he begged was, that they would first speak
privately before they arraigned him in open pulpit.
He hated the common vice of ambition ; but of one
thing he was really ambitious to have the name of
James the Sixth honoured, as the establisher of reli-
gion, and the provider of livings for the ministry
throughout his whole dominions. And now, as to his
second point, preparation against the common enemy,
one thing was clear: they must have paid troops.
The country must be put to charges. The times were
changed since their forefathers followed each his lord
or his laird to Pinkie field ; a confused multitude, in-
capable of discipline, and an easy prey to regular
soldiers, as the event of that miserable day could
testify. Of how many great names had it been the
wreck and ruin ! Since then the fashion and art of
war had entirely altered ; and he protested it was a
shame that Scotland should be lying in careless secu-
rity, whilst all other countries were up and in arms.*
v This speech gave great satisfaction to the ministers;
* MS. State-paper Office, 25th March, 1596, The King of Scots' Speech
at the Assembly of the Ministry. Ibid., Bowes to Lord Burghlev, 2Gth
March, 1596.
1596. JAMES VI. 193
and their joy was increased by a message brought to
them soon after by Mr John Preston and Mr Edward
Bruce, intimating the king's resolution to have the
whole Kirks in Scotland supplied with ministers, and
endowed with sufficient stipends. He requested the
Kirk to cause their commissioners to meet with those
councillors and officers whom he had appointed for this
purpose, and to fix upon some plan for carrying his
resolution into effect. But he commanded his com-
missioners to represent to the ministers of the Kirk
how much this good work was hindered by themselves.
Why did they teach the people that the king and his
councillors resisted the planting of kirks, and swal-
lowed up the livings of the clergy, when they were
truly most willing that the whole kirks should be
planted, and the rents of the ministers augmented, as
far as could be obtained with consent of the nobility
and the tacksmen of the teinds, whose rights, without
order of law, could not be impaired ?*
The Assembly received such propositions with the
utmost satisfaction ; and whilst they protested their
ignorance that any of their number had given, in their
discourses, any just cause of offence, it would be their
care, (they said,) in future, so wisely to handle their
doctrine, that neither king nor council should be dis-
couraged in the furtherance of their good work.
Meantime, before they separated, they would- humbly
beseech his majesty to examine and remove " certain
griefs which still eat like a canker into the body of
the Kirk. 1 ' Divers Jesuits and excommunicated
Papists were entertained within the country, confirm-
* MS. State-paper Office, Instructions to Mr John Preston and Mr
Edward Bruce. Answers of the General Assembly to the same, 30th March,
15.96.
VOL. IX. N
194 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
ing, in error, those already perverted ; endangering
the unstable, and holding out hopes of the return of
the Papist earls, with the assistance of strangers.
The lands of these forfeited traitors were, to the grief
of all good men, still peaceably enjoyed by them ; their
confederates and friends suffered to go at large ; whilst
the laws, not only against such treasons, but on all
other points, were so partially administered, that a
flood of crime, murders, oppressions, incests, adulteries,
and every species of wrong inundated the land, and
threatened to tear society in pieces.*
To this remonstrance a favourable answer was re-
turned; and nothing but fair weather appeared between
the sovereign and the Kirk. Yet it was whispered
that, beneath this serenity, James had some perilous
projects in his head, and meditated a restoration of
the Catholic earls.*f All, however, was quiet for the
moment ; and the king was looking anxiously for the
return of his envoy Foulis, who had been sent to
Elizabeth, when an event occurred on the Borders
which threatened to throw everything into confusion.
Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, a baron of proud
temper, undaunted courage, and considered one of the
ablest military leaders in Scotland, was at this time
warden of the West Marches ; having for his brother
warden of England, Lord Scrope, also a brave and
experienced officer. Scrope's deputy was a gentleman
of the name of Salkeld ; Buccleuch's, a baron of his
own clan, Robert Scott of Haining : and in the ab-
sence of the principals, it was the duty of these sub-
ordinate officers to hold the Warden Courts for the
* MS. State-paper Office, Instructions to Mr John Preston and Mr
Edward Bruce. Answers of the General Assembly to the same, 30th March,
1596.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 18th May, 1596.
1596. JAMES vi. 195
punishment of outlaws and offenders. Such courts
presented a curious spectacle : for men met in perfect
peace and security, protected by the law of the Borders,
which made it death for any Englishman or Scotsman
to draw weapon upon his greatest foe, from the time
of holding the court till next morning at sunrise. It
was judged that, in this interval, all might return
home ; and it is easy to see that, with such a popula-
tion as that of the Borders, nothing but the most rigid
enforcement of this law could save the country from
perpetual rapine and murder. William Armstrong
of Kinmont, or in the more graphic and endearing
phraseology of the Borders, Kinmont Willie, was at
this time one of the most notorious and gallant thieves
or freebooters in Liddesdale. He was himself a man of
great personal strength and stature; and had four sons,
Jock, Francie, Geordie, and Sandie Armstrong, each of
them a braver and more successful moss-trooper than
the other. Their exploits had made them known and
dreaded over the whole district ; and their father and
they had more " bills filed " against them at the
Warden Courts, more personal quarrels and family
feuds to keep their blood hot and their hands on their
weapons, than any twenty men in Liddesdale. This
Willie of Kinmont, who was a retainer of Buccleuch
and a special favourite of his chief, had been attending
a Warden Court, held by the English and Scottish
depute wardens, at a place named the Dayholm of
Kershope, where a small burn or rivulet divides the
two countries, and was quietly returning home through
Liddesdale, with three or four in company, when he
was suddenly attacked by a body of two hundred
English Borderers, chased for some miles, captured,
tied to a horse, and carried in triumph to Carlisle
196 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
castle ; where Lord Scrope the governor and warden
cast him, heavily ironed, into the common prison.
Such an outrageous violation of Border law was in-
stantly complained of by Buccleuch, who wrote re-
peatedly to Lord Scrope, demanding the release of his
follower ; and receiving no satisfactory reply, swore
that he would bring Kinmont Willie out of Carlisle
castle, quick or dead, with his own hand.* The threat
was esteemed a mere bravado ; for the castle was
strongly garrisoned and well fortified, in the middle
of a populous and hostile city, and under the command
of Lord Scrope, as brave a soldier as in all England.
Yet Buccleuch was not intimidated. Choosing a dark
tempestuous night, (the thirteenth of April,) he assem-
bled two hundred of his bravest men at the Tower of
Morton, a fortalice on " the debateable land," on the
water of Sark, about ten miles from Carlisle. Amongst
these, the leader whom he most relied on was Wat
Scott of Harden ; but along with him were Wat Scott
of Branxholm, Wat Scott of Goldielands, Jock Elliot
of the Copshaw, Sandie Armstrong son to Hobbie the
Laird of Mangerton, Kinmont's four sons Jock,
Francie, Sandie, and Geordie Armstrong, Rob of the
Langholm, and Willie Bell the Redcloak ; all noted
and daring men. They were well mounted, armed at
all points, and carried with them scaling-ladders, be-
sides iron crowbars, sledge-hammers, hand-picks, and
axes. Thus furnished, and favoured by the extreme
darkness of the night, they passed the river Esk; rode
briskly through the Grahames 1 country ; forded the
Eden, then swollen over its banks; and came to the
brook Caday, close by Carlisle, where Buccleuch made
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., The names of such as enforced
the Castle for Kinmont ; dated, in Burghley's hand, 1 3th April.
1596. JAMES vi. 197
his men dismount, and silently led eighty of them,
with the ladders and iron tools, to the foot of the wall
of the base or outer court of the castle. Everything
favoured them : the heavens were as black as pitch,
the rain descended in torrents; and as they raised
their ladders to fix them on the cope-stone, they could
hear the English sentinels challenge as they walked
their rounds. To their rage and disappointment, the
ladders proved too short ; but finding a postern in the
wall, they undermined it, and soon made a breach
enough for a soldier to squeeze through. In this
way a dozen stout fellows passed into the outer court,
(Buccleuch himself being the fifth man who entered,)*
disarmed and bound the watch, wrenched open the
postern from the inside, and thus admitting their
companions, were masters of the place. Twenty-four
troopers now rushed to the castle jail, Buccleuch
meantime keeping the postern; forced the door of the
chamber where Kinmont was confined ; carried him
off in his irons; and sounding their trumpet, the signal
agreed on, were answered by loud shouts and the
trumpet of Buccleuch, whose troopers filled the base
court. All was now terror and confusion, both in
town and castle. The alarum-bell rang, and was
answered by his brazen brethren of the cathedral and
the town-house ; the beacon blazed up on the top of
the great tower ; and its red, uncertain glare on the
black sky and the shadowy forms and glancing armour
of the Borderers, rather increased the horror and their
numbers. None could see their enemy or tell his real
strength. Lord Scrope, believing, as he afterwards
wrote to Burghley, that five hundred Scots were in
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., The names of such as enforced
the Castle for Kinmont.
198 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
possession of the castle, kept himself close within his
chamber. Kinmont Will himself, as he was carried on
his friends 1 shoulders beneath the warden's window,
roared out a lusty "Good night" to his lordship;
and in a wonderfully brief space Buccleuch had effected
his purpose, joined his men on the Caday, remounted
his troopers, forded once more the Esk and the Eden,
and bearing his rescued favourite in the middle of his
little band, regained the Scottish Border before sunrise.
This brilliant exploit, the last and assuredly one of
the bravest feats of Border warfare, was long talked
of; embalmed in an inimitable ballad ; and fondly
dwelt on by tradition, which has preserved some
graphic touches. Kinmont in swimming his horse
through the Eden, which was then flooded, was much
cumbered by the irons round his ancles ; and is said
to have drily observed, that often as he had breasted
it, he never had such heavy spurs. His master, Buc-
cleuch, eager to rid him of these shackles, halted at
the first smith's house they came to within the Scot-
tish Border ; but the door was locked, the family in
bed, and the knight of the hammer so sound a sleeper,
that he was only wakened by the Lord Warden
thrusting his long spear through the window, and
nearly spitting both Vulcan and his lady.*
Jocular, however, as were these circumstances to
the victors, the business was no laughing matter to
Lord Scrope, who came forth from his bedchamber to
find that his castle had been stormed, his garrison
bearded, and his prisoner carried off by only eighty
men. He instantly wrote to the privy-council and
* Contemporary Account in the Warrender MSS. ; and MS. Letter,
State-paper Office, B.C., Lord Scrope to Burghley. Minstrelsy of the Scot-
tish Border, vol. ii. p. 60.
1596. JAMES vi. 199
Lord Burghley, complaining of so audacious an attack
upon one of the queen's castles in time of peace ; and
advising his royal mistress to insist with James on
the delivery of Buccleuch, that he might receive the
punishment which so audacious an outrage, as he
termed it, deserved. But Buccleuch had much to
offer in his defence : he pleaded that Kinmont's seizure
and imprisonment had been a gross violation of the
law ; that it was not until every possible representation
had failed, and till his own sovereign's remonstrance,
addressed to Elizabeth had been treated with con-
tempt, that he took the matter into his own hands ;
and that his Borderers had committed no outrage,
either on life or property, although they might have
made Scrope and his garrison prisoners, and sacked
the city. All this was true ; and the king for a while
resisted compliance with Elizabeth's demand, in which
he was supported by the whole body of his council and
barons, and even by the ministers of the Kirk ; whilst
the people were clamorous in their applause, and de-
clared that no more gallant action had been done even
in Wallace's days.* But at last James' spirit quailed
under the impetuous remonstrance of the queen ; and
the Border chief was first committed to ward' in the
castle of St Andrews,^ and afterwards sent on parole
to England, where he remained till the outrages of
the English Borderers rendered his services as warden
absolutely necessary to preserve the country from
havoc.]: He was then delivered. It is said that,
during his stay in England as a prisoner at large, he
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 3d July, 1596.
Spottiswood, p. 416.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 10th August, 1596.
Ibid., same to same, 12th October, 1596.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to the Queen, 10th Nov., 1596.
200 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
was sent for by Elizabeth, who loved bold actions even
in her enemies. She demanded of him, with one of
those lion-like glances which used to throw her proud-
est nobles on their knees, how he had dared to storm her
castle : to which the Border baron, nothing daunted,
replied " What, Madam, is there that a brave man
may not dare 2 " The rejoinder pleased her ; and
turning to her courtiers, she exclaimed " Give me a
thousand such leaders, and 111 shake any throne in
Europe !"*
This obsequiousness of the Scottish king to the
wishes of the Queen of England was not without a
purpose ; for James had now resolved on the restora-
tion of the Catholic earls, and anticipated the utmost
opposition, not only from the powerful party of the
Kirk, but from Burghley and his royal mistress.
The aged Lord Treasurer, who had long managed the
whole affairs of Scotland, had recently written to his
son, Sir Robert Cecil, now Secretary of State, that
he suspected the " Octavians," the eight councillors
who now ruled the State, to be little else than " hol-
low Papists." It was evident, he added, that the
king was much governed by them, and that his affec-
tion to the " crew" would increase: he advised, there-
fore, that Bowes, the English ambassador, should have
secret conference with the ministers of the Kirk, who
would discover the truth, and devise a remedy.^ This
was written in July ; and there were good reasons for
Burghley "s suspicions. As early as May, Bowes had
detected the incipient movement in favour of the
banished earls, and their resolution to petition the
* Notes on the ballad of Kinmont Willie. Minstrelsy of the Scottish
Border, vol. ii. pp. 49, 50. Rymer's Foedera, vol. xvi. p. 318.
t MS. Letter," State-paper Ofiice, Burghley to Sir Robert Cecil, lOih
July, 1596, addressed, " To ray lovying sou."
1596. JAMES vi. 201
king for their return.* They were to make submis-
sion to the king and the Church, aW to have their
cause espoused by the Duke of Lennox. Not long
after, the Earl of Huntley landed from the Continent
at Eyemouth ; and passing in disguise into Scotland,
encountered, on his road, the Lord St Colm, whose
brother he had slain. Fortunately for the returned
exile, his mean dress concealed him from the vengeance
of his enemy, and he arrived safely amongst his
friends ; who, aware of the court intrigues in his
favour, exerted their utmost efforts to procure his
restoration. But these were met by cries of horror
and warning from the Kirk, which increased to their
loudest note when it was reported that Errol had been
seen with Huntley at his castle the Bog of Gicht, and
that Angus had dared to come secretly into Perth,
from which he was only driven by a peremptory charge
of the magistrates. -f*
Meanwhile the Countess of Huntley, who had much
influence at court, presented some overtures upon the
part of her husband. He had never, he said, held any
traffic with any individuals whatever, against the Re-
formed religion, since his leaving Scotland, and was
ready to abide his trial, if any one dared to accuse
him. He was ready, also, to banish from his company
all seminary priests and known Papists ; and would
willingly hold conference on the subject of religion
with any ministers of the Kirk, by whose arguments
he might possibly be induced to embrace their religion.
He would receive, he added, any Presbyterian pastor
into his house for his better instruction ; would sup-
port him at his own expense ; would assist the Kirk
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 18th May, 1596.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burghley, 20th Oct., 1596.
202 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
with his utmost power in the maintenance of their
discipline ; and only required, in return, that a reason-
able time should be given him to be satisfied in his
conscience ; and that, meanwhile, he should be ab-
solved from the heavy sentence of excommunication
which had been pronounced against him.*
Nothing could be more moderate than such requests ;
but the Kirk fired at the very idea that an excommu-
nicated traitor, as they termed the earl, who had been
guilty of idolatry, a crime punishable by death, and
who, in the face of his sentence of banishment, had
dared, without license, to return, should have the
hardihood to propose any terms whatever. It was
whispered that the Spanish faction was daily gaining
strength ; that the earls would not show themselves
so openly unless they knew their return to be accept-
able to the king ; that the party against the truth and
liberty of the Word was bold and confident of success,
both in England and at home ; and that, if some great
and resolute resistance were not instantly made, the
Kirk, with all its boasted purity and privileges, would
become the prey of Antichrist. To remedy or avert
these evils, a day of humiliation was appointed to be
observed with more than ordinary rigour ; in which
the people and the ministry were called upon to weep,
between the porch and the altar, for a land polluted by
the enemies of God, and threatened with the loss of
his favour. A body of sixteen commissioners was
selected from the ministers, who were to sit monthly
at Edinburgh, under the name of the " Council of the
Church : " their duty was to provide, according to the
ancient phrase, "Ne quid Ecclesia detrimenti caperet;""
* MS. State-paper Office, Offer of the Countess of Himtley, 19th October
15-96. Also, Rymer's Feeders, vol. xvi. p. 305.
1596. JAMES vi. 203
and through them a constant correspondence was kept
up with all parts of the realm.*
These proceedings alarmed the king, who could see
no good grounds for the erection of so formidable a
machinery against what he deemed an imaginary at-
tack, and directed some members of his privy-council
to hold a meeting with the more moderate ministers,
and persuade them of the groundlessness of their ap-
prehensions. If, he said, the three earls were repent-
ant ; if they had already suffered exile and were
solicitous to hear the truth and return to their country
and the bosom of the Church, why should he, their
prince, be precluded from the exercise of mercy, the
brighest jewel in his prerogative ? and why, above all,
should the Church, whose doors ought ever to stand
open to returning penitents, shut them remorselessly
in their faces, and consign them to darkness and de-
spair ?
These sentiments of the king were as politic as they
were merciful ; for in the present state of the king-
dom, considering Elizabeth's advanced age and the
power of the Roman Catholics in England as well as
in his own dominions, nothing could have been more
unfavourable to his title of succession than to have
become a religious persecutor. Indeed, the arguments
of the more violent amongst the ministers were revolt-
ing and absurd. The crime of which the Catholic earls
had been guilty (so they reasoned) was of that atrocious
nature which rendered pardon, by the civil power, im-
possible. They were idolaters, and must die the death ;
though, upon repentance, they might be absolved by
the Kirk from the sentence of spiritual death.-f- Such
a merciless mode of reasoning, proceeding, as Spottis-
* Spottiswood, p. 418. f Spottiswood, pp. 418, 419.
204 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
wood has remarked, rather from "passion than any
good zeal," greatly disgusted the king ; who perceived
that, under the alleged necessity of watching over the
purity of the faith, the Kirk were erecting a tribunal
independent alike of the law and the throne. Nor did
James conceal these sentiments ; inveighing bitterly
against the ministers, both in public and private, at
council and table. It was in vain that some of the
brethren (for here, as in all other popular factions, there
was a more moderate party, who were dragged forward
and hustled into excesses by the more violent) en-
treated him to explain the causes of his offence, and
declared their anxiety for an agreement. " As to
agreement,' 1 said the monarch, " never will there be
an agreement as long as the limits of the two jurisdic-
tions, the civil and the ecclesiastical, are so vague and
undistinguishable. The lines must be strongly and
clearly drawn. In your preachings, your license is
intolerable ; you censure both prince. Estate, and
council; you convoke General Assemblies without my
authority ; you pass laws under the allegation that
they are purely ecclesiastical, but which interfere with
my prerogative, and restrict the decisions of my coun-
cil and my judges. To these my allowance or appro-
bation is never required ; and under the general head
of ' Scandal,' your Synods and Presbyteries fulminate
the most bitter personal attacks, and draw within the
sphere of their censure every conceivable grievance.
To think of agreement under such circumstances is
vain ; even if made, it could not last for a moment."*
In the midst of all this, and when the feelings of the
king and the clergy were in a state of high excitement,
Mr David Black, one of the ministers of St Andrews,
* Spoftinvood. p. 419.
1596. JAMES VI. 205
a fierce Puritan, delivered a discourse in which he not
only animadverted on the threatened triumph of idola-
try at home, but raised his voice against the Prelacy
which had established itself in the neighbouring king-
dom. The Queen of England, he said, was an atheist;
the religion professed in that kingdom nothing better
than an empty show, guided by the injunctions of the
bishops ; and not content with this pageant at home,
they were now persuading the king to set it up in
Scotland. As for his highness, none knew better than
he did of the meditated return of these Papist earls ;
and herein he was guilty of manifest treachery. But
what could they look for ? Was not Satan the head
of both court and council ? Were not all kings devil's
bairns? Was not Satan in the court, in the guiders
of the court, in the head of the court ? Were not the
Lords of Session miscreants and bribers, the nobility
cormorants, and the Queen of Scotland a woman whom,
for fashion's sake, they might pray for, but in whose
time it was vain to hope for good ? *
This insolent attack was followed, as might have
been expected, by an indignant complaint of Bowes
the English ambassador ; and the offender was im-
mediately cited to appear before the privy-council.
To obey this summons, however, would have been
construed into an abandonment of the highest privi-
leges of the Kirk ; and Black at once declined the
jurisdiction of the tribunal. His " Declinator " is
an extraordinary paper ; and by the high tone which
it assumed, fully justified all the apprehensions of the
king. " Albeit," said he, addressing the king and
* MS. State-paper Office, Effect of Information against Mr David Black.
Moyse's Memoirs, p. 128. Also, MS. State-paper Office, Process against
Mr David Black, 9th December, 1696
206 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
council, " I am ready, by the assistance of the grace
of God, to give a confession, and to stand to the defence
of every point of the truth of God, uttered by me,
either by opening up of this word, or application there-
of, before your majesty or council ; * * yet, seeing
I am brought at this time to stand before your ma-
jesty and council, as a judge set to cognosce and discern
upon my doctrine, wherethrough my answering to the
said pretended accusation might import with the mani-
fest prejudice of the liberties of the Kirk, and acknow-
ledging also of your majesty's jurisdiction in matters
that are mere spiritual, which might move your ma-
jesty to attempt farther in the spiritual government
of the Kirk of God: * * Therefore (so he con-
tinued) I am constrained, in all humility and submis-
sion of mind, to use a declinature of the judgment, at
least in prima instantia, for the following reasons :
First, the Lord Jesus, the God of order and not of
confusion, as appeared most evidently in all the Kirks
of His saints, (of whom only I have the grace of my
calling, as His ambassador, albeit most unworthy of
that honour to bear His name amongst the saints,)
He has given me His Word, and no law nor tradition
of man, as the only instructions whereby I should rule
the whole actions of my calling in preaching of the
Word, administering of the seals thereof, and exercis-
ing of the discipline : and in discharge of this com-
mission I cannot fall in the reverence of any evil law
of man, but in so far as I shall be found past the com-
pass of my instructions ; which cannot be judged
accordingly to that order established by that God of
order, but [except] by the prophets, whose lips He
hath appointed to be the keepers of His heavenly wis-
dom, and to whom He hath subjected the spirit of the
1596. JAMES vi. 207
prophets. And now, seeing it is the preaching of the
Word whereon I am accused, which is a principal
point of my calling, of necessity the prophets must
first declare whether I have kept the bounds of my
direction, before I come to be judged of your majesty:
which being done, and I found culpable in transgress-
ing any point of that commission which the Lord has
given me, I refuse not to abide your majesty's judg-
ment in the second instance, and to undeiiy whatsoever
punishment it shall be found I have deserved.
" Secondly, because the liberty of the Kirk, and the
whole discipline thereof, according as the same has
been, and is presently exercised within your majesty's
realm, has been confirmed by divers acts of parliament,
and approved in the Confession of Faith, by the sub-
scription and acts of your majesty, and of your ma-
jesty's estate and the whole body of the country, and
peaceably enjoyed by the office-bearers of the Kirk in
all points, and namely in the foresaid point, anent the
judicatory of the preaching of the Word in prima
instantia, as the practice of late examples evidently
will show : therefore, the question concerning my
preaching, ought, first, according to the grounds and
practice aforesaid, to be judged by the ecclesiastical
senate."* * * *
This resolute refusal to submit himself to the judg-
ment of the law, greatly enraged the king, and con-
vinced him that the time was come to make a stand
against the exorbitant claims of the Kirk. It con-
firmed him, also, in his resolution to extend his favour
to the Catholic earls, upon their due submission ; and
at all hazards to put down that spirit of dictation and
* MS. State-paper Office, David Black's Declaration to the King's Ma-
jesty and Council, 22d Nov., 1596. Calderwood, p. 337.
208 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
interference which might have soon made the tyranny
and license of the ministers intolerable. Having un-
derstood, therefore, that a copy of Mr Black's declina-
ture had been sent by the commissioners of the Kirk
to the various presbyteries throughout the kingdom
for their signature, with letters commending the cause
to their assistance and prayers, Jarnes at once con-
strued this into an act of mutiny ; and by a public
proclamation not only discharged the commissioners
from holding any farther meetings, but commanded
them to leave the capital and repair within twenty-four
hours to their flocks.* But this royal order they were
in no temper to obey. They instantly convened, and,
in the phrase used by their own historian, " laid their
letters open before the Lord."-f- The danger, they
declared, was imminent ; and the ministers of the city
must instantly, in their pulpits, deal mightily with
the power of the Word against the charge which com-
manded them to desert their duty. As the spiritual
jurisdiction flowed immediately from Christ, and could
in no way proceed from a king or civil magistrate : so
also the power to convene for the exercise of such
jurisdiction came directly from Christ, and could
neither be impeded nor controlled by any Christian
prince. They declared, therefore, that they would not
obey the proclamation, but remain together to watch
over the safety of Christ's Church, now in extreme
jeopardy ; and sent an angry message to the " Octa-
vians," the eight councillors who then managed the
government, assuring them, that as the Kirk had been
in peace and liberty on their coming to office and was
now plunged into the greatest troubles, they could not
* Calderwood, p. 341. f Ibid.
1596. JAMES vi. 209
but hold them responsible for the late bitter attacks
upon its privileges.
This accusation was indignantly repelled by Seton
the President of the Session ; and from him the com-
missioners of the Kirk repaired to the king ; who as-
sured them, with greater mildness than some had
expected, that if Black would withdraw his " Declina-
tor " all could be well arranged : a proposal which the
more moderate party in the Kirk anxiously advised
to be adopted. " At this moment, 1 ' they said, " the
court stands in some awe of the Kirk ; and our wisest
plan is to make the best conditions we can. If we
measure our strength with the king, we shall be found
too weak, and may lose the ground we have gained."
But others, more fierce and zealous, arraigned such
counsels as Erastian, and worldly-wise. To renounce
the least of their privileges would, they argued, be the
sure way to lose them all : to stand to their ground
the only way to prevail. It was God's cause ; and He
who had the hearts of princes in His hand would
maintain it.*
These counsels prevailed. The monarch, irritated
by the rejection of his ofier, commanded the trial of
Black to proceed. So anxious, however, was he to
avoid extremities, that after the judges had pro-
nounced their opinion that the matters charged against
him amounted, if proved, to treason, and were within
the jurisdiction of the king and council, he deferred
the trial till next day ; and in the interval sent for
some of the ministers, with the hope that, even at this
latest hour, some mutual concessions might lead to
peace. It had been reported to him, he said, that
they were in terror lest their spiritual jurisdiction
* Caldenvood, pp. 340, 341. Spottiswood, p. 4 '23.
VOL. IX. V
210 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
should be invaded ; but nothing could be farther from
his mind than any abridgment of the liberties of the
Kirk ; and he was ready, by a public declaration on
this point, to quiet their minds. " But," he con-
tinued, " this licentious manner of discoursing of
affairs of State in the pulpit cannot be tolerated. My
claim is only to judge in matters of sedition, and other
civil and criminal causes, and of speeches that may
import such crimes, wheresoever they may be uttered
in the pulpit or elsewhere : for surely, if treason
and sedition be crimes, much more are they so if com-
mitted in the pulpit, where the Word of Truth alone
should be taught and heard."
To this some of the ministers replied, that they did
not plead for the privilege of place, but for respect due
to their message, which was received from God, and
far above the control of any civil judicature. " Most
true," said James ; " and would you keep to your
message, there would and could be no strife. But I
trust your message be not to rule Estates, and, when
matters dislike you, to stir the people to sedition,
making both me and my councillors odious by your
railings." " If any dare do so," said the champion of
the Kirk, " and have passed the bounds, it is reason
he be punished with all extremity ; but this question
of his having passed the bounds must be judged by the
Church." " And shall not I," said the king, with
some asperity, " have power to call and punish a min-
ister that breaketh out in treasonable speeches, but
must come to your presbytery and be a complainer ?
I have had good proof already what justice ye will do
me ; and were this a doubtful case, where by any
colour the speeches might be justified, there might be
some excuse for saying the minister should be con-
victed by his brethren; but here, what says Mr Black ?
1596. JAMES VI. 211
All kings are devil's bairns ; the treachery of the
kind's heart is discovered. 1 Who sees not that this
O
man hath passed his bounds ? Who will say he hath
kept to his message V
It was easier to demur to this than to answer it ;
and so convinced were the ministers at the moment
of the reasonableness of the king's desires, that after
much conference and cavilling, they agreed to with-
draw from the contest, till the limits between the civil
and spiritual jurisdictions should be discussed and
decided in a lawful General Assembly. On his side,
also, James relaxed in the rigour of his requisitions.
He was content, he said, that Black should be brought
to his presence ; and on his admission or denial of the
truth of the accusations, be judged by three of his own
brethren, Mr David Lindsay, Mr James Nicolson, and
Mr Thomas Buchanan. Matters were now on the
very eve of an amicable adjustment, when it was un-
fortunately suggested to the king, that by this mode
of settlement he would compromise his dignity, and
that of his consort, unless Mr Black first acknowledged
his offence against the queen. From such a proceed-
ing the indignant minister revolted. He would plead
to no offence, he said ; for he was guilty of none.
The court, before whom he had been tried, had evinced
the most shameless injustice ; had refused the most
unexceptionable witnesses, who would have amply
proved his innocence. Provost, bailies, rectors, deans,
principals, and regents of colleges, had been ready to
testify in his favour ; and the judges had admitted in
their place the evidence of ignorant and partial persons,
whom it was impossible to believe. Come what might,
he would never plead before a Civil tribunal for an
alleged Spiritual delinquency ; but if the monarch
212 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
chose to remit him to his lawful judge, the ecclesias-
tical senate, he would declare the truth ; and, if found
guilty, cheerfully submit to its censure.*
This second declinature enraged the king even more
than the first ; and having summoned his council, he
commanded the trial to proceed ; but no prisoner
appeared. The depositions of the witnesses were then
read ; and Black, in absence, was found guilty of hav-
ing falsely and treasonably slandered the king, the
queen his royal consort, his neighbour princess the
queen of England, and the Lords of Council and Ses-
sion. It was left to the king to name the due punish-
ment for such offences ; but till the royal pleasure were
known, he was sentenced to be confined beyond the
North Water, and within six days to enter his per-
son in ward.-f- Yet although armed by this sentence,
and holding the sword of the civil power over the heads
of the guilty, James arrested its descent, and to the
last showed an anxiety for a compromise. The punish-
ment of Black, he said, should be of the lightest kind ;
and no ministers should be called before the privy-
council till it had been found in a General Assembly
that the king might judge whether they passed the
bounds in doctrine. Meanwhile, the acts of council
so obnoxious to the brethren should be deleted, the
offensive proclamations amended, and every reasonable
safeguard provided against the alleged encroachments
upon the liberties of the Kirk.
These amicable feelings were unfortunately constru-
ed rather into an admission of weakness than a desire
for peace ; and the commissioners of the Kirk, sternly
refusing to abate an atom of their demands, declared
that no punishment could be inflicted on a man who
* Caldenvood, p. 351. Spottiswood, p. 425. f Id. 427.
1596. JAMES VI. 213
had not yet been tried. On the other hand, it was
urged by Seton, President of the Session, and one of
the Octavians, that unless some punishment followed
the sentence pronounced upon Black, the king could
never make that process a good ground for claiming
the jurisdiction over the ministers. The two antagon-
ists therefore, the Kirk and the crown, found them-
selves, after these protracted overtures, more mortally
opposed to each other than before. The Kirk, pro-
testing that every effort had failed to obtain redress
for the wrongs offered to Christ's kingdom, proclaimed
a Fast ; commanded all faithful pastors to betake
themselves to their spiritual armour; caused "the
Doctrine," to use the phrase of these times, " to sound
mightily;" and protested that, whatever might be
the consequences, they were free of his majesty's
blood.*
The king received this announcement with the ut-
most scorn ; commanded the commissioners instantly
to depart the city ; ordered Black to enter into ward ;
and published a Declaration, in which he exposed, in
forcible and indignant terms, the unreasonable de-
mands of the Kirk. Out of an earnest desire, he said,
to keep peace with the ministers, he had agreed to
wave all inquiry into " past causes," till the unhappy
differences between the civil and ecclesiastical tribunal
had been removed by the judgment of a convention
of Estates and a General Assembly of the ministry.
All that he had asked in return was, that his proceed-
ings should not be made a subject of pulpit attack and
bitter ecclesiastical railing : instead of listening to
which request, they had vilified him in their ser-
mons, accused him of persecution, defended Black,
* Calderwood, pp. 350, SCO. Spottiswood, p. 426.
214 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
and falsely held him up to his people as the enemy of
all godliness. In the face of all such slander and
defamation, he now declared to his good subjects, that
as it was his determination on the one hand to main-
tain religion and the discipline of the Church as estab-
lished by law, so, on the other, he was resolved to
enforce upon all his people, ministers of the Kirk as
well as others, that obedience to the laws and rever-
ence for the throne, without which no Christian king-
dom could hold together. For this purpose certain
bonds were in preparation, which the ministers should
be required to subscribe under the penalty of a seques-
tration of their property.*
Meanwhile, the commissioners having retired from
the city, a short breathing time was allowed ; and
Secretary Lindsay, trusting that the ministers of
Edinburgh might now be more tractable than their
brethren, prevailed on the king to send for them. As
a preliminary to all accommodation, they insisted that
the commissioners should be recalled ; and the king,
relaxing in his rigour, appeared on the point of ac-
ceding to their wishes, when some of the " Cubiculars"
as the lords of the bedchamber and gentlemen of the
household were called, interposed their ill offices to
prevent an agreement. These ambitious and intrigu-
ing men had long envied and hated the Octavians,
and had hoped, under colour of the recent dissensions
in the Church, to procure their disgrace and dismissal.
Nothing could be more unfavourable to such a plot
than peace between the king and the Kirk : nothing
more essential to its success than to fan the flame and
stir the elements of discord. This they now set about
with diabolical ingenuity. They laboured to make
* Spottiswood, p. 426.
1596. JAMES VI. 215
the Octavians odious to the party of the Protestant
barons and the ministers. They assured them, that
all the hot persecution of Mr Black arose from this
hydra-headed crew, of whom they knew the leaders to
be Papists. They insinuated to the Octavians that
the animosity of their enemies in the Kirk was so
implacable as to throw their lives into jeopardy ; and
they abused the king's ear, to whom their office gave
them unlimited access, by tales against the citizens of
Edinburgh ; who mounted guard every night, as they
affirmed, over the houses of their ministers, lest their
lives should fall a sacrifice to the unmitigable rage of
their sovereign.
By these abominable artifices, the single end of
which was to destroy the government of the Octa-
vians, the hopes of peace were entirely blasted ; and
the little lull which had succeeded the retirement of
the commissioners was followed by a more terrific
tempest than had yet occurred. The king, incensed
at the conduct of the citizens and the suspicion which
it implied, commanded twenty- four of the most zealous
burgesses to leave the capital within six hours ; ja pro-
ceeding which enraged the ministers, whose indigna-
tion blazed to the highest pitch when they received an
anonymous letter, assuring them that Huntley had
been that night closeted with James. The information
was false, and turned out to be an artifice of the
"Cubiculars ;" but it had the effect intended, for all
was now terror in the Kirk. Balcanquel flew to the
pulpit ; and after a general discourse on some text of
the Canticles, plunged into the present troubles of the
Kirk, arraigned the " treacherous forms " of which
they had been made the victims ; and turning to the
noblemen and barons who were his auditors, reminded
216 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
them, in glowing language, of the deeds of their ances-
tors in defence of the Truth : exhorting them not to
disgrace their fathers, but to meet the ministers forth-
O 7
with in the Little Church. To this quarter so great
a crowd now rushed, that the clergy could not make
their entrance ; but Mr Robert Bruce, pressing for-
ward, at last reached the table where the Protestant
barons were seated, and warning them of the immi-
nent perils which hung over their heads, the return
of the Papist earls, the persecution of Black, the
banishment of the commissioners and the citizens,
conjured them to bestir themselves and intercede with
the king.*
For this purpose, Lords Lindsay and Forbes, with
the Lairds of Barganie and Balquhan, and the two
ministers, Bruce and Watson, sought the royal pre-
sence, then not far off; for the king was at that mo-
ment sitting in the Upper Tolbooth with some of his
privy-council, while the Judges of the Session were
assembled in the Lower House. On being admitted
with the rest, Bruce informed the monarch that they
were sent by the noblemen and barons then convened,
to bemoan and avert the dangers threatened to religion.
"What dangers?" said James. "I see none; and
who dares convene, contrary to my proclamation?"
" Dares ! " retorted the fierce Lord Lindsay. " We
dare more than that ; and shall not suffer the Truth
to be overthrown, and stand tamely by." As he said
this the clamour increased ; numbers were thronging
unmannerly into the presence-chamber, and the king,
starting up in alarm, and without giving any answer,
retreated down stairs to the Lower House, where the
judges were assembled, and commanded the doors to
* Spottiswood, p. 427.
1596 JAMES vi. 217
be shut. The Protestant lords and ministers upon
this returned to the Little Kirk, where the multitude
had been addressed, during their absence, by Mr
Michael Cranston, who had read to them the history
of Haman and Mordecai. This story had worked
them up to a point that prepared them for any mis-
chief; and when they heard that the king had turned
his back upon their messengers, they became furious
with rage and disappointment. Some, dreading the
worst, desired to separate; but Lindsay's lion voice
was heard above the clamour, forbidding them to dis-
perse. Shouts now arose, to force the doors and bring
out the wicked Haman ; others cried out " The sword
of the Lord and of Gideon ; " and in the midst of the
confusion, an agent of the courtiers, or, as Calderwood
terms him, " a messenger of Satan sent by the Cubi-
culars," vociferated " Armour, armour ! save your-
selves. Fy, fy ! bills and axes !" The people now
rose in arms ; some rushing one way, some another.
Some, thinking the king was laid hands on, ran to the
Tolbooth ; some, believing that their ministers were
being butchered, flew to the Kirk ; others thundered
with their axes and weapons on the Tolbooth doors ;
calling for President Seton, Mr Elphinstone, and Mr
Thomas Hamilton, to be given up to them, that they
might take order with them as abusers of the king
and the Kirk. At this moment, had not a brave
deacon of the craftsmen, named Wat, with a small
guard, beat them back, the gate would have been
forced, and none could have answered for the conse-
quences. But at last the provost, Sir Alexander
Hume, whom the shouts of the uproar had reached as
he lay on a sick bed, seizing his sword, rushed in, all
218 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
haggard and pale, amongst the citizens, and with diffi-
culty appeased them into a temporary calm.
James, who was greatly alarmed, now sent the Earl
of Mar to remonstrate with the ministers, whom he
found pacing up and down, disconsolately, behind the
church, lamenting the tumult, and excusing their own
part. On being remonstrated with by Mar, all that
they required, they said, was the abolition of the acts
done in prejudice of the Kirk during the last four
weeks ; that the president, comptroller, and advocate,
men suspected in religion, and enemies to the truth,
should have no voice in ecclesiastical matters ; and
that the good citizens who had been banished should
be recalled. These demands being reported, the mon-
arch promised to lay them, when put into proper form,
before his council ; and seizing the moment of tran-
quillity, ventured to open the doors of the Lower
Tolbooth, and accompanied by the provost, bailies,
and Octavians, slipt quietly into the street, and pro-
ceeded to his palace at Holyrood.
Here at last there was safety ; and his courage
reviving, James expressed himself with the utmost
indignation against the ministers and leaders of the
late tumult ; vowing that they, the town, the barons,
and every living soul connected with the recent dis-
graceful scenes, should bitterly repent them. These
sentiments were encouraged by the councillors ; and
next morning the king and his whole court, at an
early hour, left the city for Linlithgow. Scarcely had
they departed, when a herald appearing at the Cross,
read a proclamation which struck dismay into the
hearts of the people. It described the treasonable
uproar of the preceding day, which had been raised
by the factious ministers of Edinburgh, who, it stated,
1596. JAMES vi. 219
after having uttered most seditious speeches in pulpit,
had assembled with the noblemen, barons, and others ;
had sent an irreverent messa.ge to their sovereign,
persuaded the citizens to take arms, and put his ma-
jesty's life in jeopardy. Such treasonable conduct, it
declared, had convinced the king that the capital was
no longer a fit place for his own residence, or for the
ministration of justice; he had therefore himself left
it with his court, and now commanded the Lords of
Session, sheriffs, and all other officers of justice, to
remove themselves forth of the town of Edinburgh,
and be ready to repair to such other place as should
be appointed. At the same time he ordered all noble-
men and barons to depart instantly to their own houses,
and to forbear any further assembly till they had re-
ceived the royal permission.*
This proclamation had an immediate effect, and
caused a great alteration. Men looked sadly and de-
spondingly on each other. The craftsmen and burgesses
foretold the utter decay of their town and trade. All
seemed in despair : but nothing could intimidate the
Kirkmen ; and Mr Robert Bruce, one of their prin-ci-
pal leaders, ascending the pulpit, upbraided them with
their pusillanimity. " A day," said he, " a day of trial
and terror is at hand. The hypocrisy of many, the
flagrant iniquity of others, will clearly appear. The
trial shall go through all men : from king and queen
to council and nobility, from session to barons, from
barons to burgesses, from burgesses to the meanest
craftsmen, all will be sifted ; and sorry am I that I
should see such weakness in so many, that ye dare not
utter so much as one word for God's glory and the
good cause. It is not we that are parties in this cause.
* Spottiswood, p. 429-430.
220 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. ] 596.
No : the quarrel is betwixt a greater Prince and us.
We are but silly men and unworthy creatures. But
it hath pleased Him who ruleth all things, to set us
in this office, and to make us His own mouth, that we
should oppose the manifest usurpation intended against
His spiritual kingdom ; and sorry am I that our cause
should be obscured by this late tumult, and that the
enemies should be thereby emboldened to pull the
crown off Christ's head."*
After this stirring address, Lord Hamilton was se-
cretly invited to place himself at the head of the godly
barons and other gentlemen, who had embraced the
cause of the Kirk ; and a proposal was made for the
excommunication of Seton the President of the Ses-
sion, and Hamilton the Lord Advocate ; but in the
end it was deemed advisable to defer this awful process
to the General Assembly, when these offenders might,
with greater solemnity, be delivered over to Satan.
Meanwhile, a Fast was proclaimed ; and Mr John
Wjelsh, one of the ministers, thundered from one of
the city pulpits an extraordinary philippic against the
king ; taking for his general subject the epistle sent
to the angel of the Church at Ephesus. His majesty,
he said, had been possessed with a devil ; and one devil
having been put out, seven worse spirits were entered
in his place. He was, in fact, in a state of frenzy ;
and it was lawful for the subjects to rise against him,
and take the sword out of his hand ; just as a father
of a family, if visited with insanity, might be seized
by his children and servants and tied hand and foot.
An execrable doctrine, justly observes Spottiswood,
which was yet received by many of the hearers as a
sound application.
* CaWerwood, p. 36C.
1596. JAMES VI. 221
This insolent attack was scarcely made, when Lord
Hamilton, who had at first received the messenger of
the Kirk with courtesy, suddenly rode to Linlithgow,
and put into the king's hands the letter addressed him
by the ministers. It was construed into a direct in-
citement to rebellion : and certainly its terms went
far that way. Addressing themselves to this noble-
man, the brethren presumed, they said, that his lord-
ship was aware of the long conference between his
majesty and them ; many concurrings, and as many
breaks, in which, at last, the malice of some councillors
had come to this, that their stipends were discharged ;
the commissioners of the General Assembly banished ;
Mr David Black convicted of treason, and warded ;
themselves appointed to suffer the like ; and now, at
last, a great number of their flock, who had stood in
their defence, expelled from the town. They proceeded
to state that the people, in this crisis, animated, no
doubt, by the Word of God's spirit, took arms ; and,
unless restrained by their ministers, would, in their
fury, have lighted upon many of the councillors, who
were threatening destruction, as they believed, to re-
ligion and government. The letter stated that the
godly barons, with other gentlemen who were in the
town, had convened themselves ; they had taken upon
them the patronicy of the Kirk and her cause ; but
they lacked a head, and specially a nobleman to coun-
tenance the matter, and with one consent had made
choice of Lord Hamilton. " And seeing, 1 ' so the min-
isters concluded their inflammatory epistle, " God has
given your lordship this honour, we could do no less
than to follow His calling, and make it known to you,
that with all convenient diligence you might come
222 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596.
here, utter your affection to the good cause, and receive
the honour which is offered you." *
This letter was subscribed by the leading ministers
of the Kirk ; Bruce, Balcanquel, Rollock, Balfour, and
Watson : but the great nobleman to whom it was ad-
dressed, resisted the dangerous preeminence, and highly
offended the Kirk by now placing it in the king's hands,
who was not slow to take advantage of the discovery.
In truth, the tumult recently committed by the citizens,
and the part which had been acted in it by the clergy,
was a prodigious advantage given to the monarch; who
quickly perceived it. He was well aware of the diffi-
culty of dealing with the ministers, as long as they
confined themselves to their political attacks in the
pulpit, and pleaded an independent jurisdiction ; but
the citizens and bailies were unquestionably amenable
to the authority of the crown and the laws. They
were, with scarcely a single exception, Protestants ;
warmly attached to the Kirk, and a principal element
in its power. All this the king knew ; and when he
saw that he had them within his grasp, he determined
they should feel the full weight of his resentment. It
was in vain that the citizens sought to appease the
royal wrath, and despatched the humblest messages to
implore its removal, and invite their sovereign back
to his capital. The envoys were refused access ; the
provost was commanded to imprison the ministers,
who were accused of having instigated a tumult which
had endangered the life of their prince ; the outrage
was declared treason by an act of council ; the capital
was pronounced unsafe ; the nobility and gentry in-
terdicted from resorting thither ; the inferior judi-
catories and the Supreme Court removed ; and the
* Warrender MSS., vol. B., p. 246.
1596. JAMES VI. 223
ominous answer returned by the king to the citizens,
that he meant ere long to come to Edinburgh, in per-
son, and let them know that he was their sovereign.
To enforce this, James summoned his Highland no-
bles with their fierce attendants, and his Border barons
with their lawless followers. Dark surmises ran
through the court, and soon reached the startled ears
O 7
of the townsmen, that their city was doomed to indis-
criminate pillage ; it was to be sacked, perhaps razed,
and sown with salt. Will of Kinmont, it was said,
was to be let loose upon it ; and his name, always for-
midable, and now more notorious from his recent escape,
struck terror into the hearts of the burghers. It was
in vain that the ministers attempted to rally the cou-
rage of their flocks, spoke of excommunicating their
enemies in the council, and drew up a bond for the
defence of religion. The magistrates refused to sub-
scribe it ; the craftsmen, torn between their love of
gain and their devotion to sound doctrine, began to
look coldly and doubtfully upon their pastors ; and
the four clergymen, who had taken the most active
part in the tumult, dreading an arrest, fled by night
to Newcastle.* But these were not the days when
the artisans and merchants of a feudal capital were
subjects of easy plunder. All had arms, and knew
well how to use them ; and the shops, booths, and
warehouses, were soon emptied of their goods, which
were stowed away in the strongest houses of the town.
The sturdy proprietors then took to their weapons,
mounted guard over their stores, and determined that
neither Catherans nor Borderers should spoil them
without a bloody struggle.^-
On the first January, the dreaded entry of the
* Spottiswood, p. 43.\ f Birrel's Diary.
224 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596-7
monarch took place. The streets and gates had, early
in the morning, been occupied by the various chiefs
and clans appointed for the purpose. The provost and
magistrates delivered the keys of the city on their
knees to the king; professed their deep sorrow for
the late tumult, of which, they declared, they were
individually guiltless ; and solicited the strictest scru-
tiny into the whole. As to the inflammatory sermons,
and the conduct of their ministers who had been re-
cently outlawed, they should, they said, never be re-
admitted to their charge without the permission of
the king ; and at the next election of the civic authori-
ties, such persons only should be chosen as had pre-
viously been approved of by the crown.* James then
proceeded to the High Church, heard a sermon from
Mr David Lindsay, and made an oration to the people,
in which he justified himself, cleared his councillors,
and deeply blamed the ministers.*^ He spoke of his
own early education in the Reformed religion ; his
solemn determination to maintain it ; to extirpate from
his realm all unrepentant idolators, and to provide for
the preaching of God's Word, which had been silent
in the capital since the flight of those unworthy pastors
who had profaned the pulpits by their seditious ha-
rangues. Having thus somewhat reassured the tremb-
ling citizens, he deemed that he had gone far enough
for the present ; and not only declined accepting their
offers of submission, but at a succeeding convention of
Estates, held at Holyrood, anew declared the tumult
to be treason, intimated his resolution to prosecute
the town criminally, and commanded the provost and
bailies to enter their persons in ward, within the town
* Maitland, vol. ii. p. 1278.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Cecil, 4th January, 1596.
1596-7. JAMES vi. 225
of Perth, before the first of February ; to remain there
in durance till acquitted, or found guilty of the uproar.*
The sword was thus kept suspended over the heads of
the unhappy magistrates and their capital ; and it was
quite apparent that the king, having become convinced
of his own strength, was determined to defer the mo-
ment of mercy till he had accomplished some great
purpose which now filled his mind.
This was nothing less than the establishment of
Episcopacy. The recent excesses of the more violent
ministers had made the deepest impression upon the
monarch ; and it was evident to him, that if the prin-
ciples of independent jurisdiction which they had not
hesitated to adopt, were preached and acted upon,
there must ensue a perpetual collision between the
ecclesiastical and civil authorities. He longed, there-
fore, to use the words of Spottiswood, to see "a decent
order established in the Kirk, which should be consis-
tent with the Word of God, the custom of primitive
times, and the laws of the realm;" and he believed
that no fitter moment could occur to carry this great
object than the present. His first step was to summon
a General Assembly of the Church to meet at Perth
on the last of February. His next was an act of con-
ciliation. The eight councillors who, under the name
of Octavians, had, for the last eighteen months,
managed the financial department of the State, and
indirectly controlled every part of the government,
had been especially obnoxious to the Protestant clergy,
and to a section of the courtiers and bedchamber lords.
They were hated by the ministers, who suspected
them to be mostly concealed Roman Catholics; by
the Cubiculars, as the courtiers were called, because
* Spottiswood, p. 433.
VOL. IX. P
226 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596-7
they had curtailed their perquisites, and introduced a
strict economy; and the king, by accepting their
resignations, believed that he would popularize his
intended ecclesiastical innovations.* These changes
he now prefaced by drawing up and circulating
amongst the different synods and presbyteries, no
less than fifty-five questions, involving the most im-
portant points in dispute between himself and his
clergy ; not, as he solemnly declared, for the purpose
of troubling the peace of the Kirk by thorny disputes,
but to have its polity cleared, its corruptions eradicated,
and a pleasant harmony established between himself
and its ministers .-f- The spirit and tendency of these
questions gave great alarm to the brethren. The king
inquired whether matters of external ecclesiastical
regimen might not be disputed, salvdfide et religione ;
whether the prince by himself, or the pastors by them-
selves, or both conjunctly, should establish the acts
concerning the government of the Kirk ; whether the
consent of a majority of the flock, and also of the
patron, was necessary in the election of pastors ;
whether there could be a lawful minister without
impositio manuum ; whether pastors should be permit-
ted to allude by name to councillors and magistrates
in the pulpit, or to describe them so minutely as to
leave no doubt whom they meant, although the parties
so attacked were guiltless of notorious vices, and had
not been previously admonished ; whether the pastor
should be confined to the doctrine directly flowing
from his text, or might preach all things on all texts ;
whether the General Assembly of the Kirk might be
convoked without consent of the prince, he being pius
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Burgbley, 13th Jan., 1596-7.
t Spottljwood, p. 434.
1596-7. JAMES vi. 227
et Christianus Magistrates ; whether it were lawful to
excommunicate such Papists as had never professed
the Reformed faith ; whether a Christian prince had
power to annul a notoriously-unjust sentence of ex-
communication, and to amend such disorders as might
occur either by pastors failing in their duties, or by
one jurisdiction usurping the province of another;
whether Fasts for general causes might be proclaimed
without the command of the prince ; whether any
causes infringing upon the civil jurisdiction, or inter-
fering with vested private rights, might be disputed
and ruled in the ecclesiastical courts ; and whether the
civil magistrate had not a full right to stay all such
proceedings ? *
These searching interrogatories were received with
no inconsiderable dismay by the clergy. They took
great offence that their forms of ecclesiastical polity,
which they considered irreversibly fixed by act of
parliament, and founded, as they contended, on the
Word of God, which had been so highly eulogized also
by the king in 1592, should be called in question.
They saw how acutely the questions had been drawn
up ; how deeply they touched the independence of the
Kirk ; what a total revolution and alienation the late
excesses of the ministers had occasioned in the mind
of the sovereign, and how earnest and determined he
seemed in the whole matter.
All this demanded instant vigilance and resistance.
Many private conferences were held ; and in the end
of February the brethren of the Synod of Fife con-
vened at St Andrews ; where, after " tossing of the
king's questions for sundry days," they drew up their
replies, which, as was to be expected, ruled everything
* Spottiswood, pp. 435, 436.
228 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596-7.
in favour of the Kirk, and resisted every claim on the
part of the king. Some of these answers are remark-
able, and seem to show that the principles then laid
down were incompatible with the existence of civil
government. Thus, the first question, Whether mat-
ters concerning the external government of the Kirk
might not be debated salvd fide et religione ? was met
by a peremptory negative ; on the second, they were
equally positive that the king had no voice in the
discussion or establishment of any acts relating to
Church government. All the acts of the Kirk (so was
their response worded) ought to be established by the
Word of God. Of this Word the ordinary inter-
preters were the pastors and doctors of the Kirk ; the
extraordinary expounders, such as were called for in
times of corruption, were the prophets, or such men
as were endowed by God with extraordinary gifts ;
and kings and princes had nothing to do but to ratify
and vindicate, by their civil sanctions, that which
these pastors and prophets had authoritatively de-
clared.* As to the indecent and scurrilous practice
of inveighing against particular men and councillors
by name in the pulpit, they defended its adoption by
what they termed apostolic authority. " The canon,"
said they, " of the Apostle is clear : ' They that siii
publicly, rebuke publicly, that the rest may fear ; ' '
and so much the more if the public sin be in a public
person. On other points they were equally clear and
decided in favour of their own practices and preten-
sions. All things, they contended, might be spoken
on all texts ; and if the minister travelled from his
subject, he was only following the express directions of
Paul to Timothy. The General Assembly might be
* Calderwood, pp. 382, 383.
1596-7. JAMES vi. 229
convened without the authority of the king, because
the officers of the Kirk received their place and war-
rant directly from Christ, and not from any temporal
prince ; and the acts passed in that Assembly were
undoubtedly valid, although carried against the royal
will. On this question their reasoning was extraor-
dinary : " The king (they contended) should consent
to, and give a legal sanction to all acts passed in the
Assembly ; and why ? Because the acts of the Assem-
bly have sufficient authority from Christ ; who has
promised, that whatever shall be agreed upon on
earth by two or three convened in his name, shall be
ratified in heaven ; a warrant to which no temporal
king or prince can lay claim : and so," it continues,
" the acts and constitutions of the Kirk are of higher
authority than those of any earthly king ; yea, they
should command and overrule kings, whose greatest
honour should be to be members, nursing fathers and
servants to this king Christ Jesus, and his house and
queen the Kirk." * To pursue the answers is unneces-
sary, enough having been given to show their general
tendency. But the courage of the synod of Fife, by
whom these stout replies were drawn up, did not per-
vade the whole body of the Kirk ; and the king, who
managed the affair with his usual acuteness and dex-
terity, succeeded in procuring a majority in the General
Assembly, and ultimately carrying his own views.
This James appears to have effected by holding out
hopes of preferment to those who were wavering, and
packing the General Assembly with a large majority
of north-country ministers, who were generally esteem-
ed more lukewarm Presbyterians and more devoted
courtiers than their lowland brethren. Sir Patrick
* Calderwood, p. 386.
230 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1596-7.
Murray, a gentleman of the bedchamber, had been
sent for this purpose into the north ; and was so suc-
cessful in his mission, that when the Assembly met
at Perth, the king found them in a more placable and
conciliatory mood than could have been anticipated.
It was declared, after some sharp discussion, a lawful
Assembly ; having power not only to debate, but to
conclude such questions as should be brought before
them. The royal commissioners, Sir John Cockburn,
Sir John Preston, and Mr Edward Bruce, then pre-
sented thirteen Articles, which embraced the principal
points of dispute already included by the king in his
original Queries ; and a Committee of the Assembly
having been chosen to consider them, they gave in,
next morning, a series of answers, which James pro-
nounced unsatisfactory, and requested the members
of Assembly to meet the Estates for the purpose of a
more full discussion. When they appeared, he ob-
served that they must be well aware of the object for
which he had desired their attendance. " My pur-
pose," said he, " in calling you together is to amend
such things as are amiss, and to take away the ques-
tions that may move trouble afterwards. If you, for
your parts, be willing to have matters righted, things
may yet go well. I claim nothing but what is due to
every Christian king ; that is, to be Gustos et Vindex
Disciplince. Corruptions are crept in, and more are
daily growing, by this liberty that preachers take in
the application of their doctrine, and censuring every-
thing that is not to their mind. This I must have
amended ; for such discourses serve only to move se-
dition, and raise tumults. Let the Truth of God be
taught in the Chair of Truth, and wickedness be re-
probated; but in such sort as the offender may be
1596-7. JAMES vi. 231
bettered, and vice made more odious. To rail against
men in pulpit, and express their names, as we know
was done of late, there being no just cause; and to
make the Word of God, which is ordained to guide
men in the way of salvation;, an instrument of sedi-
tion ; is a sin, I am sure, beyond all other that can
be committed on earth. Hold you within your limits,
and I will never blame you, nor suffer others to work
you any vexation. The civil government is commit-
ted to me. It is not your subject; nor are ye to
meddle with it."*
This peremptory mode of address overawed the As-
sembly ; and after protesting that they had convened
in that place only to evince their obedience to the
sovereign, and in no wise consenting to submit mat-
ters ecclesiastical to a civil judicatory, they withdrew
to their ordinary place of meeting, and prepared their
amended answers ; with which the king declared him-
self satisfied for the present. And he had good reason
to be so ; for he had already gained some principal
points. It was agreed that the monarch, either by
himself or his commissioners, might propose to the
General Assembly any reformation or amendment in
ecclesiastical matters connected with the external
government of the Kirk ; that no unusual conven-
tions should be held amongst pastors without the royal
consent ; that the acts of the privy-council, or the
laws passed by the three Estates, should not be at-
tacked or discussed in the pulpit, without remedy
having been first sought from the king ; that in the
principal towns of the realm no minister should be
chosen without consent of the king, and of the flock ;
and that no man should be by name rebuked in the
* Spottis-wood, p. 440.
232 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1597.
pulpit, unless he had fled from justice, or were under
sentence of excommunication.*
James' next step was to reconcile the Catholic lords
to the Kirk; and he was here equally successful.
He had already written a peremptory letter to Hunt-
ley, informing him that the time was come when he
must either embrace the Protestant faith, remain in
Scotland, and be restored to his honours and his
estates ; or leave his country for ever, if, as the king
expressed it in his letter, his conscience were so
" kittle " -J* as to refuse these conditions ; in which case,
James added, " Look never to be a Scotsman again ! "
The letter concluded with these solemn words :
" Deceive not yourself, to think that by lingering
of time, your wife and your allies shall ever get you
better conditions. I must love myself and my own
estate better than all the world ; and think not that
I will suffer any professing a contrary religion to dwell
in this land.":}:
The conditions presented to Huntley, Angus, and
Errol, were, that after conference with the Presbyte-
rian ministers, who should be careful to instruct them
in the Truth, they should acknowledge the Kirk of
Scotland to be a true Church, become members of it,
hear the Word, receive the sacraments, and be obe-
dient to its discipline ; and that they should banish
all Jesuits and seminary priests from their company
and estates, and subscribe the Confession of Faith.
On the meeting of the General Assembly at Dundee,
(tenth May, 1597,) the brethren who had been ap-
pointed for this purpose, reported that the earls had
* Spottiswood, p. 441.
"\ i. e., So ticklish or tender.
J Original in the king's hand, Warren der MS S., vol. A., p. 169. Printed
by Spottiswood, with some words and sentences omitted.
1597. JAMES vi. 233
recanted their errors, subscribed the Confession of
Faith, and so completely fulfilled all the conditions
required of them, that nothing more remained, than
the pleasing duty of receiving them once more into
communion with the Kirk. But, at the very moment
of reconciliation, it was found that Mr James Gordon,
a Jesuit, had glided in disguise into the country of
Huntley, and was busy in shaking his resolution ;
whilst a daring Catholic baron, named Barclay of Lady-
land, seized and fortified Ailsa, a small island in the
shape of a huge, rugged rock, off the coast of Ayr,
with the design of delivering it to the Spaniards, who
had promised to make a descent in that quarter. This
desperate enterprise was defeated by Mr Andrew Knox,
minister of Paisley, whose prowess had been shown
some five years before this, in seizing George Ker with
the Spanish Blanks.* With like success, this de-
voted member of the Kirk having discovered Barclay's
plot, girded on his sword ; and taking boat, with a
few daring assistants, attacked the traitor on his rock,
and reduced him to such extremity, that rather than
be taken alive he rushed into the sea, and in one mo-
ment choked both himself and his treason.-f-
This reverse confirmed the Catholic lords in their
convictions ; and the ceremony of their reconciliation
to the Kirk, and restoration to their estates and hon-
ours, took place at Aberdeen in the end of June. As
it was an event particularly acceptable to the king,
and considered a great triumph by the Kirk, the
proceedings were conducted with much solemnity.
After a strict Fast, held on Saturday the twenty-fifth
of June, on which day the three earls, Huntley, Angus,
* Supra, p. 66-67.
t Spottiswood, p. 445. MS. State-paper Office, -without date.
234 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1597.
ind Errol, made trp all deadly quarrels, and shook
hands with their enemies, mutually imploring and re-
ceiving forgiveness ; the congregation assembled on
Sunday the twenty-sixth in the old Kirk at Aberdeen,
which was crowded with the noblemen, barons, and
common people. In the main aisle was a table for the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper ; and immediately
before the sermon, the three earls rose from their
places, and subscribed the Confession of Faith. The
sermon followed, preached by Mr John Gledstanes ;
after which the earls rose, and with a loud voice made
open confession of their late defection and apostacy,
professing their present conviction of the truth of the
Presbyterian faith, and their resolution to remain
steadfast in the same. Huntley then declared before
God, his majesty, and the Kirk, his deep penitence
for the murder of the Earl of Moray ; after which
the three noble delinquents were absolved from the
sentence of excommunication, and received by the min-
isters, the royal commissioner, and the provost and
magistrates, into the bosom of the Kirk. A person
in the dress of a penitent now threw himself on his
knees before the pulpit : it was the Laird of Gicht,
who implored pardon for his supporting Bothwell, and
entreated to be released from his sentence of excom-
munication. All this was granted. The repentant
earls then received the sacrament after the Presbyte-
rian form ; solemnly swore to keep good order in their
wide and wild territories, executing justice, destroying
" bangsters," and showing themselves, in all respects,
"good justiciars ; " and, on the succeeding day, March-
mont Herald proclaimed their reconciliation by sound of
trumpet at the Cross, which was hung with tapestry,
1597. JAMES VI. 235
and surrounded by multitudes, who shouted their joy,
drank their healths, and tossed their glasses in the air.*
This success gave strength to the king's govern-
ment, and encouraged James to go forward with his
great ecclesiastical project ; but he proceeded with
caution, and took care not to alarm the Kirk by pre-
maturely disclosing the full extent of his reforms.
He had now secured in his interest a large party of
the ministers ; but the elements of democracy, and
the hatred of anything approaching to a hierarchy,
were still deeply rooted in the General Assembly, and
in the hearts of the people. Mr Andrew Melvil,
Principal of the College of St Andrews, a man singu-
larly learn ed> ready in debate, sarcastic, audacious,
and overbearing, led the popular party, with his
nephew, James Melvil, who was warmly attached to
the same principles, but of a gentler spirit. Many
others assisted them ; and the king, anxious to get
rid of their opposition, proposed that, instead of the
whole Assembly continuing its proceedings, a general
commission should be granted to some of the wisest
amongst the brethren, who might consult and cooper-
ate with the monarch upon various matters of weight
which concerned " not only particular flocks, but the
whole estate and body of the Kirk."*f* This was
agreed to. Fourteen ministers were chosen, most of
o 7
whom were known to be favourable to the views of
the court ; and these, whom Calderwood the popular
historian of the Kirk stigmatizes as the " king's led
horse" convened soon after at Falkland, where they
summoned before them the presbytery of St Andrews,
* Thomas Mollison to Mr Robert Paip, Aberdeen, 28th June, 1597.
Analeeta Scotica, p. 299.
t Calderwood, p. 409.
236 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1597.
and gave a specimen of their new power, by reversing
a judgment pronounced by the presbytery of St An-
drews, and removing from their charge two ministers
named Wallace and Black, who had profaned their
pulpits by personal attack and vituperation. This
was followed by a strict and searching visitation of
the university of St Andrews, the stronghold of its
rector, Mr Andrew Melvil ; who in his office of Prin-
cipal had, as the king conceived, been too busy in
disseminating amongst the students his favourite
principles of ministerial parity and popular power.
A new rector was elected ; a certain mode of teaching
prescribed to the several professors ; and a more strict
economy introduced into the disposal of the rents of
the university, by the appointment of a financial
council.
During the summer and autumn, James was busily
occupied with the trial of witches, and an expedition
to the Borders ; in which last he acted with great
energy. Fourteen of the most notorious offenders
were taken and hanged ; thirty-six of the principal
barons, Avho had encouraged their outrages, seized and
brought prisoners to the capital ; and Lord Ochiltree
left as lieutenant and warden over the disturbed dis-
tricts. Parliament now assembled, and opened with
some proceedings on the part of the king, which showed
an alienation from England. In an oration to his
nobility, he dwelt on the wrongs he had received in
the execution of his mother ; the interruption in
the payment of his gratuity ; the scornful answers
returned to his temperate remonstrance ; the unjust
imputations of Elizabeth, who accused him of excit-
ing Poland and Denmark against her, and fostering
rebellion in Ireland. But what had most deeply
1597. JAMES vi. 237
offended him, was the attempt made recently in the
English parliament to defeat his title to the throne
of that kingdom ; a subject upon which, owing to the
daily reports of the shattered health of the queen,
he had become more keenly sensitive than ever.*
Against all this it was evident he now resolved to be
O
timely on his guard ; but, in the meantime, his mind
was full of that great plan which had so long occupied
it : the establishment of the order of bishops. For
this all was now ripe ; and when the commissioners
of the Kirk laid their petition before parliament, one
of its requisitions was found to be as follows : " That
the ministers, as representing the Church and third
estate of the kingdom, might be admitted to have a
voice in parliament."
It was at once seen that under this application,
which had been so artfully managed to come not from
the king but the Kirk, the first step was made for
restoring the order of bishops. The monarch, indeed,
did not now deny it. He knew that he had a majority
in the Assembly, and looked for an easy victory ; but
something of the ancient courage and fervour of Pres-
byterianism remained. Ferguson, now venerable from
his age and experience, lifted up his testimony against
the project for bringing his brethren into parliament.
It was, he affirmed, a court stratagem ; and if they
suffered it to succeed, would be as fatal, from what it
carried within its bowels, as the horse to the unhappy
Trojans. Let the words, said he, of the Dardan pro-
phetess ring in your ears, " Equo ne credite Teiicri!"
Andrew Melvil, whom the court party had in vain
attempted to exclude, argued against the petition in
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, George Nicolson to Sir R. Cecil, loth*
December, 1597.
238 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1597-8.
his wonted rapid and powerful style ; and John Da-
vison, tearing away from the king's speech, and the
arguments of his adherents, the thin veil with which
their ultimate design was covered, pointed, in a strain
of witty and biting irony, to the future bench of bishops,
and their primate at their head. " Busk him, busk
him, 1 ' said he, " as bonnilie as ye can, and fetch him
in as fairly as ye will we ken him weel eneuch ; we
see the horns of his mitre."* But these were insu-
lated efforts ; and had so little effect, that the king,
without difficulty, procured an act to be passed, which
declared, " That such pastors and ministers as the
crown provided to the place and dignity of a bishop,
abbot, or other prelate, should have voice in parlia-
ment as freely as any other ecclesiastical prelate had
in any former age." {
A General Assembly was soon after convened, in
which the subject was solemnly argued in the king's
presence, first by a committee of brethren, and after-
wards by the whole Church. J As a preparation for
this, James had tried every method of conciliation.
He had extended his forgiveness to the ministers of
Edinburgh for their part in the late tumult : he had
restored their privileges, and the comfort of his royal
presence and pardon, to the magistrates and the citi-
zens of the capital ; not, however, without having first
imposed on them a heavy fine. To those stern and
courageous supporters of the Presbyterian establish-
ment, whose presence he dreaded, other methods were
used. Mr Andrew Melvil, who pleaded a right to be
present in the Assembly, as he had a " doctoral charge
* Calderwood, p. 415. Busk, dress ; bonnilie, prettily ; ken, know ;
eneuch, enough.
t Spottiswood, p. 450. J 7th March, 1597-8.
1 597-8. JAMES VI. 2.39
in the Kirk, 1 ' was commanded, under pain of treason,
to leave the city ; others, whose subserviency was
doubtful, were wearied out and induced to retire by
lengthened preliminary discussions ; and at last the
king opened his great project in a studied harangue.
He dwelt on his constant care to adorn and favour the
Kirk, to remove controversies, restore discipline, and
increase its patrimony. All, he said, was in a fair
road to success ; but in order to ensure it and perfect
the reform, it was absolutely requisite that ministers
should have a vote in parliament : without which, the
Kirk could not be saved from falling into poverty and
contempt. " I mean not," said he, emphatically, " to
bring in Papistical or Anglican bishops, but only that
the best and wisest of the ministry should be selected
by your Assembly to have a place in council and par-
liament, to sit upon their own affairs, and not to stand
always at the door like poor supplicants, utterly de-
spised and disregarded." * A keen argument followed.
Mr James Melvil, Davison, Bruce, Carmichael, and
Aird, all devoted and talented ministers, spoke against
the project, and denounced it in the strongest lan-
guage. On the other side the brunt of the battle, in
its defence, fell on Gledstanes, and the king himself,
no mean adept in ecclesiastical polemics ; but, if we
may believe Calderwood, the main element of success
was the presence of the northern brethren ; whom this
historian describes as a sad, subservient rabble, led
by Mr Gilbert Bodie, " a drunken Orkney ass," whose
name described their character : all being for the body,
with small regard to the spirit, -f- In the end the
question was carried by a majority of ten : the Assem-
bly finding that it was expedient for the good of the
* Calderwood, p. 4l& f Id. p. 419.
240 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1597-8.
Kirk that the ministers, as the third estate of the
realm, should have a vote in parliament; that the
same number, being fifty- one or thereby, should be
chosen, as were wont of old in time of the Papistical
Kirk, to be bishops, abbots, and priors ; and that
their election should belong partly to the king and
partly to the Kirk.*
This resolution was adopted in March 1597-8 ; but
the final establishment of Episcopacy did not take place
till more than a twelvemonth after this, in a General
Assembly convoked at Montrose on the twenty-eighth
March, 1 600. On that occasion, it was decided that
the king should choose each bishop, for every place that
was to be filled, out of a leet or body of six, selected by
the Kirk. Various caveats, or conditions, were added,
to secure the Kirk against any abuse of their powers by
these new dignitaries. They were to propound nothing
in parliament, in name of the Kirk, without its special
warrant and direction. They were, at every General
Assembly, to give an account of the manner in which
they had executed their commission ; they were to be
contented with such part of their benefices as the king
had assigned for their living ; to eschew dilapidation ;
to attend faithfully on their individual flocks ; to
claim no higher power than the rest of their brethren
in matters of discipline, visitation, and other points of
ecclesiastical government ; and lastly, to be as obe-
dient to authority, and amenable to censure in all
presbyteries and provincial or General Assemblies,
as the humblest minister of the Kirk.^ As to the
names of these new dignitaries, the word bishop was
apparently so odious and repugnant to the people, that
the king did not deem it prudent to insist on its adop-
* Calderwood, pp. 420, 421. f Ibid., p. 441.
1597-8. JAMES vi. 241
tion ; and the brethren unanimously advised that they
should not be called bishops, but commissioners.
James was too well satisfied with the reality of his
success in carrying his great scheme to so prosperous
an issue, to cavil at this shadow of opposition ; and
the subject was handed over to the next General As-
sembly. The feelings with which this triumph of pre-
latical principles was regarded by the sincere and stern
adherents of Puritanism and parity, will be best under-
stood by this brief extract from the work of one of its
ablest advocates, the historian Calderwood : " Thus,"
says he, " the Trojan horse, the Episcopacy, was
brought in, covered with caveats, that the danger
might not be seen ; which, notwithstanding, was seen
of many, and opponed unto ; considering it to be bet-
ter to hold thieves at the door, than to have an eye
unto them in the house, that they steal not : and, in-
deed, the event declared that their fear was not with-
out just cause : for those commissioners voters in par-
liament, afterwards bishops, did violate their caveats
as easily as Sampson did the cords wherewith he was
bound." *
* Caldenvoocl, p. 441.
VOL, IX. Q
242
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
15.97-8.
CHAP. V.-
JAMES THE SIXTH.
1597-81600.
CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.
Etviland.
Elizabeth.
France.
Henry IV.
Germany.
Rudolph II.
Spain.
Philip II.
Philip III.
Portugal.
Philip II.
Philip III.
Pope.
Clement VIII.
HAVING thus continuously traced the establishment
in Scotland of this limited Episcopacy, we must look
back for a moment on the civil history of the country.
This was not marked by any great or striking events.
There was no external war, and no internal rebellion
or commotion ; and the success which had attended
all the late measures of the king produced a tranquil-
lity in the country, which had the best effects on its
general prosperity. James had triumphed over the
extreme license and democratic movements of the
Kirk ; had restrained the personal attacks of its pul-
pit ; defined, with something of precision, the limits
between the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions ;
evinced an anxiety to raise the character and useful-
ness of the clergy, by granting them a fixed provision ;
and added consideration and dignity to the Presbyte-
rian polity, by giving it a representation in the great
council of the country. He had, on the other hand,
shown equal wisdom and determination in his conduct
1597-8. JAMES vi. 243
to the Roman Catholic earls. None could say that
he had acted a lukewarm part to religion. These
nobles remained in the country, and had been restored
to their estates and honours solely because they were
reconciled to the Church. According to the better
principles of our own times, he had acted with extra-
ordinary severity and intolerance ; but even the high-
est and hottest Puritan of these unhappy days could
not justly accuse him of indifference. He had, more-
over, strengthened his aristocracy by healing its
wounds, removing or binding up the feuds which tore
it, and restoring to it three of its greatest members,
Huntley, Angus, and Errol. He had punished, with
exemplary severity, the tumult which had been ex-
cited in his capital, and read a lesson of obedience to
the magistrates and middle orders, which they were
not likely to forget. Lastly, he had, in a personal
expedition, reduced his Borders to tranquillity ; and
in his intercourse with England, had shown that,
whilst he was determined to preserve peace, he was
equally resolved to maintain his independence, and to
check that spirit of restless intrigue and interference in
which the English ambassadors at the Scottish court
had, for so many years, indulged with blameable im-
punity. Sir Robert Bowes, who had long filled that
difficult and dangerous office, had recently died at
Berwick, a victim apparently to its anxieties ; and
having undergone, during his devoted services, the
same trials of penury and neglect which, with scarcely
one exception, seem to have been the portion of his royal
mistress 1 ambassadors and diplomatic agents.* On
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Sir Robert Bowes to Sir R. Cecil,
llth May, 1597.
In the last letter but one -which Sir Robert Bowes addressed to Cecil
from Edinburgh, there is this pathetic passage: " Her majesty's gracious
244 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1597-8.
the eleventh of May he had written to his sovereign,
imploring his recall, and lamenting that his decay in
health, and weakness in body and estate, unfitted
him for farther labour ; but his remonstrance was in-
effectual : and it was not till nearly six months after,
that an order arrived, permitting him to retire, and
naming Sir William Bowes as his successor. The
release, however, came too late. He was then unable
to stand from weakness ; and he only reached Ber-
wick to expire.* The duties of his office, in the
meantime, devolved upon Mr George Nicolson, his
secretary, a man of ability, whose letters contain
much that is valuable in the history of the times.
On the arrival of Sir William Bowes at the Scot-
tish court, he found the kijig^ mind entirely occupied
by one great subject his title to the English throne
after the death of the queen. On this point the tran-
quillity from other cares now gave James full leisure
for thought ; and he evinced an extreme sensitiveness
in everything connected with it. Reports of speeches
against his right of succession in the English parlia-
ment ; books written in favour of the claim of the
Infanta; intrigues of pretenders at home; the jealousy
with which the Catholics regarded his reconciliation
with the Kirk ; the suspicion with which the Kirk
observed his favour to the Catholics : all these thorny
compassion taken of me, and of my weakness, is great comfort unto me in
my present distress, wherein I now lie, at the seat of God's mercy, and at
the point of life, death, sickness, or recovery ; in which, as I shall fare, you
shall be shortly advertised. For albeit I had intended this day to have en-
tered my journey towards Berwick ; yet, by the advice of my friends, and
in respect of my weakness disabling me to stand without help, I have
agreed to defer this journey until to-morrow." MS. Letter, State-paper
Office, Sir R. Bowes to Sir R. Cecil, 31st October, 1597.
* His last letter is written from Berwick to Sir R. Cecil on the 6th of
November, 1597. He died on the 16th of the same month. In the State-
paper Office is preserved a fly-leaf, with a printed epitaph on Sir R. Bowes,
by Mr William Fowler, secretary to Queen Anne of Denmark.
1597-8. JAMES VI. 245
matters perpetually haunted and harassed him. From
his observations, the ambassador dreaded that the
royal mind was beginning to be alienated from Eng-
land ; and in his first interview James certainly ex-
pressed himself with some bitterness against Elizabeth.
The expostulations addressed to him by his good
sister, he said, were unnecessarily sharp. She accused
him of diminished friendliness, of foreign predilections,
of credulity and forwardness; but he must retort these
epithets, for he had found herself too ready to believe
what was untrue, and to condemn him unheard. It
was true that, when he saw other competitors for the
crown of England endeavouring, in every way, to
advance their own titles, and even making personal
applications to the queen, he had begun to think it
time to look to his just claim, and to interest his
friends in his behalf. It was with this view he had
required assistance from his people to furnish ambas-
sadors to various foreign powers. This, surely, he
was entitled to do ; but anything which had been re-
ported of him beyond this was false : and his desire to
entertain all kindly offices with his good sister of Eng-
land continued as strong as it had been during his
whole life.* Elizabeth, however, was not satisfied :
she still suspected that the Scottish court was inimical
to England ; and these suspicions were increased by
the letters of Nicolson her agent. James was said to
be much guided by the opinions of Elphinstone, Se-
cretary of State, who was little attached to English
interests. There was the warmest friendship between
the Scottish queen, Anne of Denmark, and the Coun-
tess of Huntley, a devoted Catholic. They often slept
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Sir William Bowes to SirR. Cecil, 1st
February, 1597-8.
246 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1597-8.
in the same bed ; and this favoured lady, as Nicolson
quaintly expressed it, had the "plurality of her majes-
ty's kisses."* The two young princesses were in-
trusted to Lady Livingstone, a Catholic ; many
things, in short, concurred to show, that although
appearances were preserved that the king might not
forfeit his English " gratuity," cordiality was at end.
At this moment a strange circumstance occurred,
which exasperated the feelings of both monarchs. A
miscreant, named Valentine Thomas, accused James
of employing him in a plot against the life of Eliza-
beth ; and it was at first whispered, and afterwards
more plainly asserted at the Scottish court, that the
queen, though she did not choose to speak openly,
believed the accusation. Some dark expressions which
she used in a letter to the king seemed to countenance
this idea ; and it was certain that she had employed Sir
Edward Coke, Sir Francis Bacon, and other judges,
in the investigation. James resented this, and in-
sisted on explanations. It was needless in him, he
said, to disclaim "such vile intended murder;" but
he demanded the fullest investigation, and the severest
punishment of the wretch who had so foully slandered
him. He would proclaim it as false to all the world
by sound of trumpet, by open challenge, in any num-
ber ; yea of a king to a king ! When his late ambas-
sador to England attempted to pacify him, he struck
him on the breast, and said he was sure there was a
chain of Elizabeth's under his doublet. It was in
vain that, to appease him, the Queen of England
wrote a letter with her own hand, in which she as-
sured him, that she was not " of so viperous a nature"
as to harbour a thought against him ; and that the
* MS. State-paper Office, Occurrences, 2d February, 1597-8.
1598. JAMES vi. 247
deviser of such abominable slander should have his
deserts.* Even this was not enough. The accusa-
tion had been public ; the depositions of the villain
remained uncancelled ; who could say what use might
not be made of them against his future rights, and to
prejudice him in the hearts of the English people ?
Here was the sore point ; and James did not cease to
remonstrate till he had extorted from the queen a
solemn and formal refutation of the whole story.
The subject of his title, indeed, had kept the mon-
arch, for the last three years, in a state of perpetual
and irritable activity. He encouraged authors to
write upon the question ; and jurisconsults, heralds,
and genealogists, made their harvest of his anxiety.
Monsieur Jessb, a French literary adventurer, who in
1596 visited the Scottish court, was made Historio-
graphe au Hoi d'Escosse, and commanded to "blaw
abroad " Secretary Elphinstone's discourse on his
majesty's title. Walter Quin, an Irish poet and
scholar, drew up a work in Latin on the same subject.
Monsieur Damon, another Frenchman, corrected it ;
and the king sent the manuscript to Waldegrave, his
printer, who, in an agony, declared to Nicolson, that
he must either print it, and irrecoverably offend his
gracious sovereign Queen Elizabeth, or refuse, at the
peril of his life. Nor was this all ; James was sud-
denly seized with the most sensitive feelings on the
subject of his royal mother's memory. His claims
came through her ; and slander on the Queen of Scots
might taint the transmitted title. Spenser, as it was
asserted, had glanced at her under, the character of
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, llth May, 1598, Nicolson to Burghley.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Royal Letters, Scotland, Elizabeth to James,
1st July, 1598.
248 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1598.
Duessa in his Fairy Queen ; and the Scottish Secre-
tary of State insisted that Edward Spenser, (the
diplomatist did not even know the immortal poet's
name.) should be severely punished. Quin, too, came
to the rescue, and wrote an answer to Spenser; whilst
" Dickson," an English pedagogue, who taught the
Art of Memory, forsook his ferula, and found in Scot-
land a more profitable employment in answering the
famous Treatise of Doleman, or rather Father Persons,
from materials furnished by the king himself.*
These constant cares were only interrupted by the
alarming increase of witches and sorcerers, who were
said to be swarming in thousands in the kingdom ; and
for a moment all other cares were forgotten in the
intensity with which the monarch threw himself once
more into his favourite subject. But a shocking dis-
covery put an end to this dreadful inquisition. An
unhappy creature, named Aitken, was seized on sus-
picion, put to torture, and in her agony confessed
herself guilty, named some associates, and offered to
purge the country of the whole crew, if she were pro-
mised her life. It was granted her ; and she declared
that she knew witches at once by a secret mark in
their eyes, which could not possibly be mistaken. The
tale was swallowed. She was carried for months from
town to town throughout the country, and in this
diabolical circuit accused many innocent women, who,
on little more than the evidence of a look, were tried
and burnt. At last suspicion was roused. A woman,
whom she had convicted of having the devil's eye-
mark, was disguised, and, after an interval, again
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 25th Feb., 1597-8.
MS. Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, Balcarres Papers, vol. vii. pp. 26, 29,
The king to the secretary
15i'S. JAMES VI. 249
brought before her ; she acquitted her. The experi-
ment was repeated with like success ; and the miser-
able creature, falling on her knees, confessed that
torture had made her a liar, both against herself and
others. This, as it well might, brought the royal
inquisitionist of sorcery, and his civil and ecclesiastical
assistants, to their senses. The Commission of Inquiry
was recalled, and all proceedings against the witches
discharged till the parliament should have determined
the form and evidence to be adopted in their trial.*
Everything was now tranquil in the southern part
of the kingdom ; and the whole Estate, to use Nicol-
son"s expression to Cecil, so "marvellous quiet," -f- that
the king had leisure to attend to an important and long-
neglected subject : the condition of the Highlands and
Isles. It had, for some time, been James 1 intention
to visit these remote districts in person, and, as usual,
to overawe them by the terror of the royal name,
backed by an army and a fleet ; but year after year
had passed, and nothing was done. His impoverished
finances, his quarrel with the Kirk, his entanglements
with the Papist earls, his embassies to foreign courts
on the subject of his title, all these engrossed his
attention ; and the fragments of leisure which remained
were filled up by the witches, and a visit made to Scot-
land by the Duke of Holstein, the brother of his queen,
which seems to have thrown the court into a perpetual
whirl of pageantry, intoxication, and masquerade. The
people, according to Nicolson, groaned at the expense ;
and his majesty was much distempered both in his
privy purse and his digestion. But these revels and
* Spottiswood, p. 448. MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Cecil,
15th August, 1597. Same to same, 5th September, 1597.
+ MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 20th Nov., 1598.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 9th June, 1598.
250 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1598.
potations had at last an end. The joyous Dane took
leave ; and the royal mind, relapsing into sobriety,
turned to the Isles and Donald Gorm Macdonald.
This potent Highland chieftain had recently made
advances to Elizabeth ; and it is not uninteresting to
remark the stateliness with which a prince amongst
the northern viklngr approached the English Semira-
mis. He styled himself Lord of the Isles of Scotland,
and Chief of the Clandonnel Irishmen ; and after a
proud enumeration of the petty island princes and
chiefs who were ready to follow him in all his enter-
prises, he offered, upon certain " reasonable motives and
considerations" to embrace the service of the Queen of
England, and persuade the Isles to throw off all alle-
giance to the Scottish crown. He and his associates
were ready, they declared, on a brief warning, to stir
up rebellion throughout all the bounds of the main-
land, to " fasche" 1 ' '* 'his majesty, and weary the whole
Estates ; to create a necessity for new taxation, and
thus disgust all classes of his subjects. To induce
Elizabeth to embrace these proposals, Donald informed
the queen,- that he knew the secret history of the Scot-
tish king^s intercourse with her arch-rebel Tyrone,
and could lay before her the whole intrigues of the
Catholic earls lately reconciled to the Kirk, but " mean-
ing nothing less in their hearts than that which they
showed outwardly to the world." He would disclose,
also, he said, the secret history of the Spanish practices
in Scotland ; and prove with what activity the north-
ern Jesuits and seminary priests had been weaving
their meshes, and pushing forward " their diabolical,
pestiferous, and antichristian courses;" which he,
Donald Gorm Macdonald, protested before God and
* Trouble.
1598. JAMES VI. 251
his angels he detested with his whole soul. All this
he was ready to do, upon " good deservings and honest
courtesies," to be offered him by the Queen of Eng-
land ; to whose presence he promised to repair upon a
moment's warning.*
What answer was given by the English queen to
these generous and disinterested proposals does not
appear; although the letter of Donald Gorm, who
made it, is marked in many places by Burghley with
the trembling hand of sickness and old age. It is pro-
bable, that under the term " honest courtesies" more
substantial rewards were found to be meant than Eliza-
beth was willing to bestow ; and that the perpetual
feuds, massacres, and conspiracies which occurred
amongst these Highland chiefs and their followers,
disgusted this princess, and shook her confidence in
any treaties or alliances proposed by such savage aux-
iliaries. It was in one of these barbarous plots that
Maclean of Duart, a firm friend of Elizabeth, with
whose warlike exploits we are already acquainted, met
his death ; [ being treacherously slain in Isla, by his
nephew, Sir James Macdonald, who persuaded him to
visit the island ; alleging, as a pretext, his desire to
make an amicable settlement of their differences. So
little did the brave Lord of Duart suspect any foul
play, that he came to the meeting without armour, in
a silk dress, and with only a rapier at his side. Along
with him were his second son, and the best of his kin,
in their holiday garb, and with little other arms than
their hunting-knives and boar-spears : but although
set upon by an ambush of nearly seven hundred men,
* MS. State-paper Office, indorsed by Burghley " Donald Gorm Mac-
donald," March, 1598.
+ MS. Letter, State- paper Office, Nicolson to Sir R. Cecil, 10th August,
1598. Supra, pp. 150, 178.
252 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1598.
they made a desperate defence. Maclean, a man of
herculean strength, slew three of the Macdonalds at
the first onset. When he saw there was no hope, he
commanded his son, who fought beside him, to fly,
and live to avenge him; * but the chief himself, and a
little knot of his clansmen, stood, shoulder to shoulder,
and were not cut down till after fifty of their assailants
had fallen.
The death of this great chief was little resented by
the king : for James had long been jealous of his deal-
ings with Elizabeth, and his bitter hostility to Hunt-
ley; whilst, at this moment, Sir James Macdonald of
Dunluce, his murderer, was in high favour at the Scot-
tish court. -f- This Macdonald, known in Irish history
as James Macsorlie, had been long a thorn in the side
of England, stirring up rebellion in Ireland, and offer-
ing his services to James as an active partisan both in
Spanish and Scottish affairs. Macsorlie seems to have
been a perfect specimen of those Scoto-Hebridean
barons who so often concealed the ferocity of the High-
land freebooter under the polished exterior which they
had acquired by an occasional residence in the low
country. It was his pleasure sometimes to join the
court at Falkland or Holyrood, mingle in its festivities,
give rich presents to the queen and her ladies, out-
shine the gayest, and fascinate all observers by the
splendour of his tastes and the elegance of his man-
ners; J but suddenly would come a message from some
Highland ally, and Macsorlie flew back to his native
islands, where, the moment his foot touched the
* The present Earl Compton, eldest son of the Marquess Northampton,
is descended, through his mother, the late amiable and accomplished Lady
Compton, from this second son.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 10th Aug., 1598.
J Analecta Scotica, p. 105, Sir John Skene to the Lord Secretary.
159S. JAMES VI. 253
heather, the gay courtier became a rampant and blood-
bolstered savage. Macsorlie had, for years, been the
ally of Tyrone, and the soul of the resistance in Ire-
land ; and Elizabeth resented the favour shown him
by James; who replied, " That if his convicted traitors,
Bothwell and Col vile, walked the streets of her capital,
he was as free to entertain an island chief who owed
her no allegiance, and whose assistance was useful to
him in reducing the remote Highland districts which
had insolently assumed independence."*
So dreadful, indeed, was now the state of those por-
tions of his dominions, that, to prevent an utter dis-
severing from the Scottish crown, something must be
done ; and many were the projects suggested. At
one time the king resolved to proceed to the disturbed
districts in person, and fix his head-quarters in Ken-
tire ; at another, a deputy was to be sent, armed with
regal powers ; and twice the Duke of Lennox was
nominated to this arduous office. *f The old plan, too,
night have been repeated, of granting a royal Com-
mission to one or other of the northern Reguli, who
were ever prepared, under the plea of loyalty, to
strengthen their own hands, and exterminate their
brethren ; but this, as had been often felt before, was
to abandon the country to utter devastation ; and a
more pacific and singular policy was now adopted.
An association of Lowland barons, chiefly from Fife,
took a lease from the crown of the Isle of Lewis, for
which they agreed, after seven years' possession, to
give the king an annual-rent of one hundred and forty
chalders of victual; and came under an obligation to
conquer their farm at their own charges. Another
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 16th August, 1598.
f- Gregory's History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland,
pp. 267, 283.
254 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1598.
company of noblemen and gentlemen in Lothian offered,
under a similar agreement, to subdue Skye. And this
kind of feudal joint-stock company actually commenced
their operations with a force of six hundred soldiers,
and a motley multitude of farmers, ploughmen, artifi-
cers, and pedlers. But the Celtic population and their
haughty chiefs, could not consent to be handed over,
in this wholesale fashion, to the tender mercies and
agricultural lectures of a set of Saxon adventurers.
The Lowland barons arrived, only to be attacked with
the utmost fury, and to have the leases of their farms,
in the old Douglas phrase, written on their own skins
with steel pens and bloody ink. For a time, however,
they continued the struggle ; and having entered into
alliance with some of the native chiefs, fought the
Celts with their own weapons, and more than their
own ferocity. Instead of agricultural or pastoral pro-
duce, importations of wool, or samples of grain, from
the infant colony, there was sent to the Scottish court
a ghastly cargo of twelve human heads in sacks ; and
it was hoped that, after such an example of severity,
matters might succeed better. But the settlers were
deceived. After a feeble and protracted struggle of a
few years, sickness and famine, perils by land, and
perils by water, incessant war, and frequent assassina-
tions, destroyed the colony; and the three great
northern chiefs, Macdonald of Sleat, Macleod of Har-
ris, and Mackenzie of Kintail, enjoyed the delight of
seeing the principal gentlemen adventurers made
captive by Tormod Macleod; who, after extorting
from them a renunciation of their titles, and an oath
never to return to the Lewis, dismissed them to carry
to the Scottish court the melancholy reflection, that
a Celtic population, and the islands over which it was
1598. JAMES VI. 255
scattered, were not yet the materials or the field for
the operations of the economists of Fife and Mid-
Lothian.*
The king^s recent triumph over the ministers ; the
vigour with which he had brought the bishops into
parliament, and compelled his nobles to renounce their
blood-feuds ; seem to have persuaded him that his will
and prerogative were to bear down all before him ; but
a slight circumstance now occurred which, had he been
O '
accustomed to watch such political indications, might
have been full of warning and instruction. The magis-
trates of Edinburgh had arrested an offender: he was
rescued by one of the servants of the king. The magis-
trates prosecuted the rescuer, and compelled him to
give assurance that he would deliver the original cul-
prit ; but the courtier failed in his promise, and the
civic authorities seized him and sent him to prison.
An outcry arose. It was deemed disgraceful that an
officer of the royal household, a gentleman responsible
solely to the king, should be clapt up in jail by a set
of burghers and bailies. James interfered, and com-
manded his servant to be set free ; but the bailies re-
fused. The monarch sent a more angry message ; it
was met by a still firmer reply: the provost and magis-
trates declared that they were ready to resign their
offices into the king^s hands; as long, however, as they
kept them, they would do their duty. James was
much enraged, but cooled, and digested the affront.-f
Within a fortnight after, however, arose a more
serious dispute between the crown and the Court of
Session, the supreme court of judicature, in which
* Gregory's History of the Western Highlands and Isles of Scotland,
p. 290-299. MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 1st July,
15.98.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, '2"th Feb., 1598-9.
256 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1598.
its president, Sir Alexander Seton, and the majority
of the judges, exhibited a spirit of independence which
is well worthy of being recorded. The subject of quar-
rel was a judgment pronounced by the court in favour
of the celebrated minister of the Kirk, Mr Robert
Bruce, who had been deprived of his stipend by the
king. Bruce sued the crown before the Session, and
obtained a decision in his favour. The monarch ap-
pealed; came to the court in person; pleaded his own
cause with the utmost violence, and commanded the
judges to give their vote against Mr Robert. The
President Seton then rose : " My liege, 11 said he, " it
is my part to speak first in this court, of which your
highness has made me head. You are our king ; we,
your subjects, bound and ready to obey you from the
heart, and, with all devotion, to serve you with our
lives and substance : but this is a matter of law, in
which we are sworn to do justice according to our con-
science and the statutes of the realm. Your majesty
may, indeed, command us to the contrary ; in which
case I and every honest man on this bench, will either
vote according to conscience, or resign and not vote at
all." Another of the judges, Lord Newbattle, then
rose, and observed, " That it had been spoken in the
city, to his majesty's great slander, and theirs who
were his judges, that they dared not do justice to all
classes, but were compelled to vote as the king com-
manded : a foul imputation, to which the lie that day
should be given ; for they would now deliver a unani-
mous opinion against the crown." For this brave and
dignified conduct James was unprepared ; and he pro-
ceeded to reason long and earnestly with the recusants:
but persuasions, arguments, taunts, and threats, were
unavailing. The judges, with only two dissentient
1598-9. JAMES vi. 25 7
votes, pronounced their decision in favour of Mr
Robert Bruce ; and the mortified monarch flung out
of court, as a letter of the day informs us, muttering
revenge, and raging marvellously.* When the sub-
servient temper of these times is considered, and we
remember that Seton the president was a Roman
Catholic, whilst Bruce, in whose favour he and his
brethren decided, was a chief leader of the Presbyte-
rian ministers, it would be unjust to withhold our
admiration from a judge and a court which had the
courage thus fearlessly to assert the supremacy of the
law.
It was during the course of this year, that the
Queen of England lost Lord Burghley, who died on
the fourth of August, 1598, in his seventy- eighth
year; a long tried and affectionate servant to his
royal mistress ; but of whom, however high his char-
acter as an English statesman, no Scottish historian
can speak without censure. He had been, for nearly
forty years, the almost exclusive adviser of the English
queen in her Scottish affairs. It was chiefly his
advice and exertions that brought the unhappy Mary
to the scaffold ; and in his policy towards Scotland,
he seems almost invariably to have acted upon the
principle, that to foster civil dissension in that king-
dom, was to give additional strength and security to
England. Happily, the time has come when we may
pronounce this maxim as unsound as it is dishonest ;
but, in those days, craft was mistaken for political
wisdom : and Sir Robert Cecil, Lord Burghley's
second son, who now succeeded to his father's power,
had been educated in the same narrow school.
This able man, who filled the office of Secretary of
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 16th March, 1598-9.
VOL. IX. E
258 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1599.
State to Elizabeth, had, as we have seen, for some
years taken the chief management of Scottish affairs;
and, soon after his father's death, he became deeply
alarmed for the orthodoxy of James and his queen ;
suspecting them, as appears by a paper in his own
hand, of growing every day more devoted in their
affection to the pope.* That these were ideal terrors
of the English secretary, the result plainly showed :
but the true key to this apparent Papal predilection,
was James 1 extreme poverty ; the rigid economy of
Elizabeth, who refused to supply his wants ; and a
hope entertained by the Scottish king, that if he ex-
hibited a disposition to relax in the rigidity of his
Protestant principles, and to maintain an amicable
intercourse with the Catholics, his exhausted ex-
chequer might be recruited by a supply of Roman
and Spanish gold. But Cecil, although he allowed
some weight to this, thought it too slight a cause to
account for the strong symptoms of declension from
the Reformed opinions exhibited both by the king and
his councillors, and advised his royal mistress instantly
to despatch Sir William Bowes into Scotland, whose
veteran experience in Scottish politics might, he
hoped, bring about a reaction. Want of money might,
as Cecil contended, explain somewhat of James 1 late
coldness ; but there must be deeper agencies and con-
victions producing the strange appearances now ex-
hibited by a country which had, within these few
years, stood in the van of Protestant kingdoms ; which
had been the stronghold of Presbyterian purity. It
was noted too by Cecil, that Elphinstone, James 1
principal Secretary of State, was a Catholic; that
* MS. State-paper Office, Memorial of the present state of Scotland, 1598.
Id. ibid., Nicolson to Cecil, 14th April, 1599.
1599 JAMES VI. 259
Seton, the President of the Session, was a Catholic ;
that Lord Livingstone, the governor of the young
princesses, was a Catholic ; and that Huntlej, who,
notwithstanding his recent recantation, was strongly
suspected of a secret attachment to his ancient faith,
possessed the highest influence over the king.* Then,
James' late embassies to Catholic princes ; the favour
shown to Gordon the Jesuit ; his secret encourage-
ment of Tyrone, the great enemy of England ; a late
mission of Colonel Semple to Spain ; his animosity to
the ministers of the Kirk; his introduction of bishops ;
his correspondence with the Duchess of Feria, and
other Catholics ; and even his speeches in the open
convention of his three Estates, were all quoted, and
not without good reason, as strong proofs of his defec-
tion.
The necessities to which the king had reduced him-
self by his too lavish gifts to his favourites, and the
thoughtless extravagance of his household, were indeed
deplorable, and produced repeated remonstrances from
his treasurer, comptroller, and other financial officers.
Money, they said, in a homely and passionate memo-
rial, was required for the " entertainment of the king's
bairns, gotten and to be begotten ; " for the renewing
of his majesty's whole moveables and silver work, all
worn and consumed ; for the repair and fortification
of his castles of Edinburgh, Dumbarton, and Black-
ness ; for the keeping up of his palaces, of which Holy-
rood and Linlithgow were in shameful decay, and in
some parts wholly ruinous. Money was required in
all departments of the service of the State, and in all
districts ; without the kingdom and within it ; in the
south and in the north. There were no funds to pay
* MS. State-paper Office, Memorial of the present state of Scotland.
260 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1599.
the resident in England ; no funds to procure secret
intelligence ; none to support the public officers at
home ; none to furnish the wardens of the West
Marches ; none to fit out a lieutenant for the expedi-
tion against the Western Isles, where the rebels had
taken Duny veg, and were in great strength.* It was
in vain for James to look to England. Elizabeth re-
plied by sending him a list of her gratuities, which
proved that, from 1592 to 1599, she had given him
twenty-six thousand pounds.^ At court, the want
of money produced strange scenes ; and the high offices
of State, instead of being sought after as objects of
ambition, were shunned as thankless and ruinous to
their possessors. The great office of Lord High Trea-
surer was going a-begging. Blantyre declared he
could hold it no longer. Cassillis, a young nobleman
who had recently married the rich widow of the Chan-
cellor Maitland, a lady who might have been his
mother, was prevailed on to accept it ; and had taken
the oaths, when the gossip of the court brought to his
ears an ominous speech of the king, who had been
heard to say, that Lady Cassillis 1 purse should now
be opened for her rose nobles. This alarmed the in-
cipient treasurer into a prompt resignation ; but
James stormed, ordered his arrest, seized his and his
wife's houses, and compelled him to purchase his par-
don by a heavy fine. J In the end the dangerous gift
was accepted by the Master of Elphinstone, brother
of the Secretary of State, "a wise, stout man," as Nicol-
son characterizes him ; yet all his wisdom and firm-
* MS. State-paper Office, The King's extraordinary Charges.
} MS. State-paper Office, Her Majesty's Gratuities to the King of Scots.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nieolson to Cecil, 10th April, 15!)9.
Id. ibid., same to same, 14th April, 1599. Id. ibid., same to same, 9th
June, 1599. Spottiswood, p. 454.
1599. JAMES VI. Ct
ness were unequal to the task of recruiting the public
purse : and so utterly impoverished did he find it,
that the expenses of the baptism of the young Prin-
cess Margaret, which took place at this time, were de-
frayed out of the private pockets of the Lords of the
Bedchamber.*
On Sir William Bowes' arrival in Edinburgh, early
in May 1599, he found the ministers of the Kirk in
high wrath against the king, and full of the most
gloomy views as to the state of the country. James
had been recently employing his leisure hours in writ-
ing his celebrated Treatise on Government, the Eas-
ilicon Doron, which he had addressed to his son the
Prince of Wales ; and having employed Sir James
Sempil, one of his gentlemen, to make a transcript,
the work was imprudently shown by him to Andrew
Melvil ; who took offence at some passages, made
copies of them, and laying them, without mentioning
any names, before the presbytery of St Andrews,
accused the anonymous author of having bitterly de-
famed the Kirk. What the exact passages were which
Melvil had transcribed does not appear ; but it is cer-
tain that the book contained an attack upon the Pres-
byterian form of Church government, and that the
prince was instructed to hold none for his friends but
such as had been faithful to the late Queen of Scots.
It was very clear, (so the ministers argued,) that no
person entertaining such sentiments as were openly
expressed in this work, could endure for any long time
the wholesome discipline of the Kirk ; and that the
severe and sweeping censure pronounced upon the Scot-
tish Reformation as the offspring of popular tumult
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 20th April, 1599.
Id. ibid., same to same, 10th April, 1599.
262 HISTORY OP SCOTLAND. 1599.
and rebellion, very plainly indicated the author's lean-
ing to Prelacy and Popery. What was to be expect-
ed, said they, from a writer who described the leaders
of that glorious work as " fiery and seditious spirits,
who delighted to rule as Tribuni plebis"; and having
found the gust of government sweet, had brought
about the wreck of two queens ; and during a long
minority had invariably placed themselves at the head
of every faction which weakened and distracted the
country ? What was to be hoped for if those men,
who had been ever the champions of the Truth, were
to be held up to scorn and avoidance in terms like the
following : " Take heed, therefore, my son, to such
Puritans, very pests in the church and commonweal,
whom no deserts can oblige, neither oaths nor pro-
mises bind ; breathing nothing but sedition and ca-
lumnies, aspiring without measure, railing without
reason ; and making their own imaginations (without
any warrant of the Word) the square of their con-
science. I protest before the Great God, and since I
am here as upon my testament, it is no place for me
to lie in, that ye shall never find with any Highland
or Border thieves greater ingratitude, and more lies,
and vile perjuries, than with these fanatic spirits."
When the royal commissioners, Sir Patrick Murray
and Sir James Sandilands, attempted to discover the
means \>j which these obnoxious sentences had been
presented to the synod of St Andrews, they were
utterly foiled in the attempt ; but the offence was at
last traced to an obscure minister at Anstruther,
named Dykes ; who fled, and was denounced rebel.
The rumour had now flown through the country that
James was the author of the passages, and had given
instructions to the prince, which showed an inveterate
1599. JAMES vr. 263
enmity to the Kirk; and it was thought that the
publication of the whole work would be the likeliest
means to silence the clamour. The book accordingly
made its appearance ; and in Archbishop Spottiswood's
opinion,* did more for James' title, by the admiration
it raised in England for the piety and wisdom of the
royal author, than all the Discourses on the Succes-
sion which were published at this time. In Scotland
the effect, if we believe Sir William Bowes, was the
very opposite. It was received by the ministers with
a paroxysm of indignation ; and soon after the arrival
of the English ambassador, the whole Kirk agreed to
proclaim a general Fast, to avert, by prayer and humi-
liation, the judgments so likely to fall on an apostate
king and a miserable country. For two entire days
the Fast was rigidly observed ; and Bowes declared, in
his letter to Cecil, that in all his life he had never
been witness to a more holy or powerful practice of
religion. -^ From the pulpit the ministers proclaimed
to the people the chief causes for their call to mourn-
ing. A general coldness in God's service had seized,
they said, on all ranks. The enemies of the Gospel,
who in purer days had been driven into banishment,
were now everywhere returning; and almost a third of
the realm was deprived of every means for the teaching
of the people. The king himself had become the de-
famer of the Kirk ; his children were brought up by
an excommunicated Papist ; and the young nobility,
the hopes of the country, went abroad meanly in-
structed, and returned either Atheists or Catholics. J
A singular event occurred at this time, which led
* Spottiswood, p. 456.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Cecil, 25th June, 1599.
Id. ibid.
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1599.
to the recall of Bowes the English ambassador, and
gave high umbrage to the Scottish king. An English
gentleman, named Ashfield, * had lately come from
Berwick, on a visit to the Scottish court, who, as
there is strong reason to believe, was one of those
confidential agents whom James had employed in
England to give him secret advice and information
on the subject of his succession to the English throne,
after the death of the queen. Lord Wylloughby, the
governor of Berwick, had himself recommended Ash-
h'eld to James 1 notice ; but he had scarcely taken his
leave, when Wylloughby discovered that he was a sus-
picious character, and might do much mischief in
Scotland. His alarm became still greater, when he
found the attention shown to Ashfield by James ; his
intimacy with the Catholic party at court, then in
great favour with the king ; and the strong suspicion
of Bowes the ambassador, that some treachery against
England was contemplated. It was determined to
destroy it in the bud, by kidnapping the principal
party ; and John Guevara, deputy-warden of the
East Marches, Wylloughby "a cousin, undertook the
commission. Repairing, with only three assistants,
to Edinburgh, it was concerted with Bowes, that the
ambassador's coach should be waiting on Leith sands,
and that Ashfield, under pretence of taking a pleasure
drive, should be inveigled into it, and carried off. All
succeeded to a wish. Ashfield, as he took his exer-
cise on the sands with some gentlemen, amongst whom
were young Fernyhirst, Sir Robert Melvil, and Bowes,
was met by Guevara and his companions, and easily
persuaded, " under colour of old friendship and good
* Afterwards Sir Edmund Ashfield,
1599. JAMES VI. 265
fellowship, 1 '* to join in a wine party ; at which, be-
coming somewhat merry and confused, he readily fell
into the trap, entered the coach, and instead of being
driven back to Edinburgh, found himself, to his utter
confusion, conveyed rapidly to Berwick, and placed
under sudden restraint by Lord Wylloughby. Next
morning, Wainman, another of the governor's ser-
vants, arrived with Ashfield's papers, which he and
Bowes had seized, and brought intelligence that the
Scottish king was in the greatest rage at the indignity
offered him ; and that the people had surrounded Sir
William Bowes 1 lodging, and threatened his life. It
had been discovered that the gentlemen who kidnapped
Ashfield were in Wylloughby's service, that the coach
belonged to the English ambassador, and that some
intoxicating potion had been put in his wine. James
wrote a severe and dignified remonstrance to Wyl-
loughby, in which he demanded to know whether this
outrage had been committed under any warrant or
order from the English queen ; j- assuring him that it
was a matter which, without speedy reparation, he
would not pass over. To this Wylloughby boldly
replied, that what had been done was not in conse-
quence of any warrant from the queen, but in the
discharge of his own public duty ;| whilst Sir Wil-
liam Bowes, who had concerted the whole, when chal-
lenged on the subject, made no scruple of asserting,
that he had not only no hand in the business, but was
utterly ignorant of all about it. So true was Sir
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Lord Wylloughby to Cecil, 15th
June, 1599. See, also, B.C., Wylloughby to Cecil, 13th June, 1599.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., James VI. to Lord Wylloughbv,
14th June, 1599.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Lord Wylloughby to James, origi-
nal draft, 15th June, 1599.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Wylloughby to Cecil, 15th June,
266 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1599.
Henry WottoiTs well known pun on the character of
ambassadors of these days. James" 1 dissatisfaction,
however, was so great, and the coldness and distance
with which he treated Bowes made his place so irk-
some, that Elizabeth soon afterwards recalled him.*
The arrival of a French ambassador at this crisis,
increased the dissatisfaction of the English queen and
the ministers of the Kirk ; who suspected that his
mission, although kept secret, was connected with
James'' intrigues with the Catholics abroad. He was a
gentleman of the house of Bethune, a younger brother
of the great Sully, and much caressed at the Scottish
court : but what especially alarmed the Kirk, was his
having brought a Jesuit along with him, who was
frequently closeted with the king; whilst the openness
with which Sully was allowed the exercise of his re-
ligion, caused the brethren to sigh over the contrast
of the present cold and liberal times, with the happy
days when it was death to set up the Mass in Scotland.
Scarcely had these feelings subsided, and the ministers
begun to congratulate themselves on the prospect of
the speedy departure of Bethune, when their wrath
was rekindled by the arrival of Fletcher and Martin,
with their company of comedians ; whom James, who
delighted in the theatre, had sent for from England.
To the strict notions of these divines, profane plays,
and the licentious mummeries of the stage, were al-
1599. Also, MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Bowes to Cecil, 16th June,
1599. Bowes' activity and connivance is completely proved by Lord Wyl-
loughby's letter of the 15th June, to Cecil. He there says : " I sent some
to Edinburgh, with instructions for his reducing. They made divers over-
tures to my Lord Ambassador, [this was Bowes.] It pleased him to ac-
cept of one, which was to draw him to Leith ; there, under colour of a
dissolute kindness and good fellowship, to make him merry with wine ;
then to persuade him to ride home in a coach, sent out of purpose therein
to surprise him, and bring him away ; which, as it pleased God, had very
good success." The coach was Bowes'.
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Bowes to Cecil, 9th July, 1599.
1599. JAMES vi. 267
most as detestable as the Mass itself. The one was
idolatry the worship of Baal, or the golden calf; the
other was profanity the dancing of Herodias 1 daugh-
ter: and as this had led to Herod's rash oath, and
the decapitation of the Baptist, so did these English
buffoons recall to their mind the miserable times of
the Guisean domination, when the court was full of
revelry and masquerade, and the blood of the saints
was shed like water. It was no wonder that, with
such feelings, the arrival of this gay troop of players
was received with a storm of ecclesiastical wrath, for
which the gentlemen of the buskin were little pre-
pared; and their case appeared desperate, when the
magistrates of the capital, acting under the influence
of the Kirk, prohibited the inhabitants, by a public
act, from haunting the theatre. But James was not
so easily defeated. Fletcher had been an old favour-
ite ; nor was this his first visit to Scotland. He had
been there before, in 1 594 ; and, on his return to
England, had suffered some persecution from his popu-
larity with James ; who now called the provost and
his councillors before him, compelled them to rescind
their act, and proclaimed, by sound of trumpet, not
only that the comedians should continue their enter-
tainments, but insisted that, next Sunday, the min-
isters should inform their flocks that no restraint or
censure should be incurred by any of his good sub-
jects who chose to recreate themselves by " the said
comedies and plays." " Considering," so runs the
royal act, " that we are not of purpose, nor intention,
to authorize or command anything quhilk* is profane,
or may carry any offence."^
* Quhilk ; -which.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 12th November, 1599, Nicolsonto Cecil.
268 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1599.
The king^s mind had long run intently on the sub-
ject of the succession ; and he now adopted a measure
which, so far as Elizabeth was concerned, was calcu-
lated rather to injure than advance his title. A
general band or contract was drawn up, " purporting
to be made by the good subjects of the king^s majesty,
for the preservation of his person and the pursuit of
his undoubted right to the crown of England and
Ireland." * The whole matter, during its preparation,
was kept secret, and James trusted that no whisper
would reach the ears of his good sister Elizabeth.
But he was disappointed; for Nicolson, on the twenty-
seventh November, 1599, thus mentioned it to Cecil.
" I hear, which I beseech your honour to keep close,
that there is a general band, subscribed by many, and
to be subscribed by all earls, lords, and barons; binding
them, by solemn vow and oath, to serve the king with
their lives, friends, heritages, goods, and gear ; and to
be ready, in warlike furniture, for the same on all
occasions, but especially for his claim to England." -f-
The English envoy then mentioned, that on the tenth
of the succeeding month of December, there was to be
held a full convention of the Estates, in which some
solid course was to be adopted to supply the king with
money, and provide for the arming of his subjects, to
be ready when he might need them. But when the
Estates assembled, the result did not justify expecta-
tions. The convention, indeed, was fully attended,
and sufficiently loyal in its general feeling ; yet when
the monarch explained his wants, and sought their
advice and assistance, they heard him coldly, and
delayed their answer till the next meeting of the
* MS. State-paper Office, A general Band, voluntarily made by the good
subjects of the king's majesty, &c.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 27th November, 1599, Nicolson to Cecil.
1599. JAMES vi. 269
Estates. In his harangue, James declared his dislike
to any offensive scheme of taxation ; proposing, in its
place, that a certain sum should be levied on every
head of cattle and sheep throughout the country ;
but this was utterly refused. He forbore, therefore,
to press the point, and contented himself with an
appeal to them for that support which all good subjects
should give their prince for the vindication of his law-
ful claims. He was not certain, he said, how soon
he should have occasion to use arms ; but whenever
it should be, he knew his right, and would venture
crown and all for it. Let them take care, therefore,
that the country be furnished with armour according
to the acts made two years before.* This was cheer-
fully agreed to ; and meanwhile the king, whose
financial ingenuity seems to have been whetted by
the gloomy prospect of an empty exchequer at the
time money was becoming every day more needed,
drew up another scheme which was submitted to his
Estates with as little success as the former. Its ob-
ject was excellent : being to remove the burden of
supplies from the poor commons and labourers of the
ground ; for which purpose, he proposed, that the
whole country should be " disposed, as it were, into
one thousand persons, and each person to pay a parti-
cular sum ; " which, all being joined, would make up
a total equal to his majesty's necessities.
Against this plan, which had, at least, the merit
of simplicity, a formal protest was presented by the
barons and burghs. The Laird of Wemyss in the
name of the barons, and John Robertson for the
burghs, insisted that they should be specially excepted
from any commission given to the sheriffs, for the
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 15th December, 1599, Nicqlson to Cecil.
270 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1599.
levying such a sum, and should continue to " stint
[tax] themselves in auld manner ; " but as the pro-
posal was hypothetical, and came before the Estates
merely as an overture, it was judged enough to meet
it by delay ; and so anxious was the king to spare
his people, and fall in with the wishes of all, that
he not only agreed to except the barons and burghs,
but to drop the whole scheme if any better should be
proposed at the next convention, which was fixed to
be held at Edinburgh on the twentieth of June.* It
was happy that all ended so amicably ; for at the
beginning of the convention he had exerted himself to
carry his purpose by means which were violent and
unconstitutional. " To effect this," said Nicolson, in
writing to Cecil, " the king drew in the whole Borders,
the officers of Estate, Sir Robert Ker, Sir Robert
Melvil, and others, contrary to the order there ap-
pointed, of six only of every Estate to have voted for
the rest."
It was during this convention held at Edinburgh
in December, that the king, with advice of his Se-
cret Council, passed an important act, appointing, in
all time coming, the " first day of the year to begin
upon the first of January ; " and this statute, it was
added, should take effect upon the first day of January
next to come, which shall be the first day of January,
1600.-f- Previous to this time the Scottish year had
begun on the twenty -fifth of March ; and it is worthy
of observation, that this still continued the mode of
reckoning in England. +
* MS. State-paper Office, Copy of the Act of the Convention at St
Johnston.
f* MS. State-paper Office, Act for the year of God to begin the 1st of
January, yearly.
J Sir H. Nicolas's excellent work on the Chronology of History, p. 41.
1600. JAMES VI. 271
CHAP. VL ,
JAMES THE SIXTH.
1600.
CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS.
England.
Elizabeth.
France.
Henry IV.
Germany.
Rudolph II.
Spain. I Portugal.
Philip III. I Philip HI.
Pope.
Clement VIII.
IN the course of these labours we are now arrived at
an extraordinary plot, of which the history, after all
the light shed upon it by recent research, is still, in
some points, obscure and contradictory. This is the
Gowrie conspiracy. Its author, or, as some have not
scrupled to assert, its victim, was the grandson of that
Patrick lord Ruthven, who, as we have seen, acted
a chief part in the atrocious murder of Riccio, and died
in exile soon after that event.* It was the second son
of this nobleman, William, fourth Lord Ruthven, who,
after sharing the guilt and banishment of his father
for his accession to the same plot, was restored by the
Regent Morton, and returned to Scotland to engage
in new conspiracies. It was his threats, and the
menaces of the fierce Lindsay, that were said to have
extorted from the miserable captive of Lochleven the
demission of her crown. His services were rewarded
by an earldom ; and from the fertile brain and un-
scrupulous principles of the new earl proceeded the
* Supra, vol. vii. p. 29.
272 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
plot for the seizure of the king, known by the name
of the Raid of Ruthven. He was pardoned ; became
again suspected ; threw himself into another enterprise
against the government, with Mar and Angus ; was
detected, found guilty, and suffered on the scaffold.
Of his treason there was no doubt ; but his conviction,
as we have seen,* was procured by a disgraceful ex-
pedient, which roused the utmost indignation of his
friends. This happened in 1584 ; and, for two years
after, the imperious government of Arran directed, or
rather compelled, the royal wrath into the severest
measures against the house of Ruthven. But the
destruction of Arran's power permitted the king's
temper, generally gentle and forgiving, to have influ-
ence; and, in 1586, the earldom was restored to James,
the eldest son of the house, who, dying soon after,
transmitted it to John, the third earl, the author of
the Gowrie conspiracy.
Young Gowrie, at the time of his father's execution,
could have been scarcely eight years old;-f- and in the
wreck of his house, he, his unhappy mother, and her
other children, received an asylum in the north. Here,
amidst the savage solitudes of Athole, the country of
her son-iii-law,:}: the widowed countess brought up her
children, brooded over her wrongs, and taught her
sons the story of their father's murder, as his execution
was accounted by his party. From such lessons, they
seem early to have drunk in that deep passion for re-
venge, which, in those dark days, was so universally
felt, that it may be regarded almost as the pulse of
* Supra, vol. viii. p. 170-171.
t MS. State-paper Office, List of the Scottish Nobility, 1592. In 1592
Gowrie was fifteen years old.
J The Earl of Athole had married the sister of Gowrie, MS. State-paper
Office.
1600. JAMES VI. 273
feudal life ; a passion which, sometimes at a quicker,
sometimes at a slower pace, but yet with strong and
abiding force, carried on its victims to the consumma-
O 3
tion of their purpose. Meanwhile the royal pity had
awoke : the family was restored to its honours ; and
the young earl, having been committed to the care of
Rollock the learned Principal of the University of
Edinburgh, received an excellent education. But the
O 7
return for all this, on the part both of his mother and
himself, was ingratitude and new intrigues. When,
in 1593, Bothwell at Holyrood audaciously broke in
upon his sovereign, and for a short season obtained
possession of his person, it was the Countesses of
Gowrie and Athole, the mother and sister of Gowrie,
who were his most active assistants; and in 1594,
when the same desperate baron, in conjunction with
Athole, Ochiltree, and the Kirk, organized a second
plot, the name of the young Earl of Gowrie appeared
in the ''Band' 1 '' which united the conspirators.* He
was thus early bred up in intrigue ; but the king
either did not, or would not, discover his guilt : and
Gowrie, having received the royal license to complete
his education abroad,^ passed through England into
Italy, studied for five years at the university of
Padua, and there is said to have so highly distin-
guished himself, that he became rector of that famous
seminary.^ The young earl was now only one-and-
twenty ; of an athletic person and noble presence ;
* See above, p. 89, and State-paper Office MS., Scott. Com, April,
1594. Band for Protection of Religion, MS.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Sir R. Bowes to Burghley, 22d Aug.,
1594.
J Calderwood, MS. History, British Museum, Ayscough, 4739, p. 1386,
states this positively: hut I have not found his authority.
MS. State-paper Office, drawn up for Cecil in 1592. State of the
Scottish nobility.
VOL. IX. 8
274 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. J 600.
excellent in all his exercises ; an accomplished swords-
man ; and so ripe a scholar, that there was scarcely any
art or faculty which he had not mastered. Amongst
his studies, Necromancy, or Natural Magic, was a
favourite pursuit ; and his tutor, Rhynd, detected
him, when at Padua, wearing cabalistic characters
concealed upon his person, which were then sometimes
used as spells against diabolic, or recipients of angelic
influence.* He was an enthusiastic chemist ; and, in
common with many eminent men of that age, a dabbler
in judicial astrology, and a believer in the great
arcanum. It is curious that this propensity to magic
and visionary pursuits was hereditary in the Ruthven
family. His grandfather, the murderer of Riccio, had
given Queen Mary a magic ring, as a preservative
against poison. His father, the leader in the Raid of
Ruthven, when in Italy, had his fortunes foretold by
a wizard ; and the son, when some of his friends had
killed an adder in the braes of Strathbran, lamented
their haste, and told them he would have diverted them
by making it dance to the tune of some cabalistic words
which he had learnt in Italy from a great necromancer
and divine.
During his residence at Padua, Gowrie addressed
to the king a letter full of gratitude and affection. -f- He
kept up, also, a correspondence with his old tutor
Rollock ; and, in 1595, sent a long epistle to Malcolm,
the minister of the kirk at Perth, expressing the most
devoted attachment to Presbyterian principles, and
written in that strange, pedantic, puritanic style which
then characterized the correspondence of the most
* Rhynd's Declaration in Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. ii. pp. 219,
220.
J- Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. ii. p. 330.
1600. JAMES vi. 275
zealous of that party.* The young earl described in
this letter, with high exultation and approval, an in-
sane attack made by a fanatical English Protestant
upon a Catholic procession, in which he seized the
sacred Host, and trampled it under foot ; and con-
cluded by expressions of deep regret that his absence
from Scotland did not permit him to set forth God's
glory in his native country ; trusting, as he added, to
make up for all this on his return.
This return took place in 1599, through Switzer-
land ; and on arriving at Geneva, he became an inmate
for three months in the house of the famous reformer
Beza, who cherished him as the son of a father whom
his party regarded as a martyr to the Protestant faith.
From Geneva he travelled to Paris, where he was re-
ceived with high distinction at the French court, and
by Elizabeth's ambassador, Sir Henry Nevil ; who
admitted him into his confidence, held private con-
ferences with him " on the alterations feared in Scot-
land, (to use Nevil's own words,) found him to be ex-
ceedingly well affected to the cause of religion, devoted
to Elizabeth's service, and, in short, a nobleman of
whom, for his good judgment, zeal, and ability, ex-
ceeding good use might be made on his return."-f-
Bothwell, his old friend and associate, was also at this
time in Paris. On leaving France, Gowrie, carrying
warm letters of recommendation from Nevil, pro-
ceeded to the English court ; where Elizabeth received
him with flattering distinction, and kept him for two
months ; admitting him to her confidence, holding with
* It has been printed by Mr Pitcairn, in the second volume of his valuable
work, the Criminal Trials, pp. 330, 331.
f* Sir Henry Nevil to Secretary Cecil, 27th February, 1599. Win-wood's
Memorial's, vol. i. p. 156.
276 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
him great conference* on the state of Scotland, which
was then threatening and alarming ; and it is said by
one author, appointing a guard to watch over his
safety. It was then no unfrequent occurrence for the
incipient intriguer, or conspirator, to be seized or kid-
napped by the stratagem of his opponents ; and, if
true, this circumstance certainly shows how highly
the English queen regarded his safety, and what value
she set upon his future services. During this stay in
England he became familiar with Sir Robert Cecil, at
this moment the most confidential minister of Eliza-
beth ; with the great Lord Wylloughby, one of the
honestest and ablest servants of the queen ;} and with
many others of the leading men about court.
At the time of Cowrie's arrival in England, (third
April, 1600,) Elizabeth was deeply incensed with the
proceedings of the Scottish king, and his reported in-
trigues with the Catholics of her own kingdom, and
with the courts of Spain and Home, on the subject of
his title. He had resolved, and made no secret of his
resolution, to vindicate his right to the crown of Eng-
land by arms, if it were necessary ; and he had roused
the resentment and alarm of the party of the Kirk to
the highest pitch, by the court which he paid to the
Catholics, both at home and on the Continent. A letter
written to Cecil by Colvile, about six months before
this, described these intrigues and preparations in
strong terms.
Colvile, it must be remembered, was the confidant
of the notorious Bothwell, and an old friend and fellow-
conspirator of Cowrie's father. It was certain, so said
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Sir John Carey to Cecil, 29th May,
1600.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, James Hudson to Cecil, 3d April, 1600.
Also, ibid., B.C., Wylloughby to Cecil, llth August, 1600.
1600. JAMES VI.
Colvile in this letter, that two envoys had come to the
Scottish king from the pope. They had brought high
offers : a promise of a hundred thousand crowns at
present, and an engagement to pay down two millions
the moment he published liberty of conscience, and
declared war with England. Twenty thousand Catho-
lics were said to be ready to join the king the moment
he crossed the Border. There was not one Catholic
prince in Europe who would not support his claim ;
and his Holiness not only regarded him as the most
learned and religious prince of his time, but would
willingly follow his advice in restoring to the universal
church its purity and discipline.* In another letter,
written some time before this, and dated seventeenth
August, 1599, Colvile speaks to Cecil of the ominous
tranquillity of the Scottish court ; which, he says, he
had often remarked to be never so quiet as when some
"snake-stone was hatching"; adding, "QuandleMe-
chant dort, le Diable le berche." He assured Cecil, that
the king was highly enraged and excited against the
party of the Kirk. The ministers were led by Bruce
and Andrew Melvil ; their ranks included Cassillis,
Lindsay, Morton, and Blantyre ; and he added, with
a significaucy which this statesman could be at no loss
to understand, that if they received any secret encou-
ragement from England, they were devising to send
for Gowrie and Argyle, both of whom were then
abroad. ]
This letter was written towards the end of August,
1599, when Gowrie was probably on his route to Eng-
land ; and in the interval between this and his arrival
* MS. State-paper Office, Advertisements from Scotland, 18th August,
1599, enclosed in a letter from Colvile, dated 21st August, 1599.
t MS. State-paper Office. Advertisements from Scotland, 1 8th August,
1599, enclosed in a letter from Colvile, dated 21st August, 1599.
278 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. ] 600.
at the court of Elizabeth, the estrangement between
the Queen of England and the King of Scots had be-
come more embittered. Nicolson, the English envoy
at the Scottish court, was full of alarm at James 1 *
almost open hostility. In one of his letters to Cecil,
written in the end of April, 1600, when Gowrie was
at the English court, and, as we have just seen, ad-
mitted to the confidence of this minister and his royal
mistress, he described the king as indulging in expres-
sions of the utmost discontent and anger on the sub-
ject of the intended peace between England and Spain.
Elizabeth (such were James 1 words) had long resisted
every amicable application made to her on the point
of his title ; and now he heard one day she was about
to marry the Lady Arabella to the brother of the
Emperor Mathias; the next, that she had sent for
young Beauchamp to court ; the next, that in con-
sequence of her peace with Spain, a priest had openly
addressed the Infanta, as the destined restorer of the
Catholics in England.* Of all this, James added, the
queen refused him any explanation. She treated him
with coldness and suspicion ; and it became him to
look to his just rights, and provide for the future.
Such things were said even openly by the King of
Scots ; but in the secrecy of his cabinet, James used
far stronger language. He there insisted, that before
Elizabeth's death, which, considering her advanced age
and broken health, could not be far distant, he must
be ready armed, his exchequer well supplied, and the
friends on whom he could place reliance, assembled on
the spot with their full strength. To compass all this,
he had spared no exertion. England swarmed with
his spies ; and the " daily creeping in of Englishmen"
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 24th Dec., 1599.
1600. JAMES VI. 279
to the Scottish court, was a matter which perpetually
roused the suspicions of Cecil, and cut his royal mis-
tress to the quick. At this very moment, when Gowrie
was in such confidential intercourse with that princess
and her ministers, the Scottish king had received in-
formation which made him stand especially on his
guard. It was reported that a plot was then being
organized by the faction in the interest of England,
to compel the king into a more pacific policy, and
arrest his warlike preparations against that realm ; *
that Colvile, Archibald Douglas, and Douglas the
Laird of Spot, all of them old employes of Cecil, were
the chief conspirators in England ; and that they were
casting about to draw home the Earl of Gowrie, then
at the court of Elizabeth, and on whom they reckoned
as a great accession to their strength. -|- Bothwell,
too, the arch-traitor, whom of all men the king hated
and dreaded most, had been at Paris at the same time
with Gowrie : their former intimacy rendered it almost
impossible they should not have met ; and it was now
strongly reported, that this desperate man had stolen
into Scotland, and had been thrice seen recently in
Liddesdale.J
Such was the state of parties ; such the mutual
heart-burning, jealousy, intrigues, and preparations
between the two sovereigns, when Gowrie, after two
months 1 residence in England, left the court of Eliza-
beth and returned to his native country. The facts
hitherto given are all capable of proof: their effects
upon the character of Gowrie, and how far they in-
fluenced or serve to explain his subsequent extraor-
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 20th April, 1600.
t Id. ibid.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Guevara to Lord Wylloughby,
23d April, 1600.
280 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
dinary proceedings, can only be conjectural. Yet it
appears that they go far to explain something of the
mystery which hitherto has surrounded the origin of
this plot ; and that here we have one of those cases
where, from the elements on which we form our opinion,
conjecture may come indefinitely near to certainty.
Gowrie was young : and on youth what must have
been worked by the flattery of a queen, and so great
a queen as Elizabeth ? He was ambitious and proud;
and when he found that his friends were anxious to
place him at the head of the English faction, and in
opposition to the hostile projects of the king, was it
likely he should decline that preeminence ? He was
a devoted and enthusiastic Puritan, and hated prelacy.
Was such a mind likely to refuse the opportunity
that now offered, to reestablish the Presbyterian
ascendancy, to reinstate his old friends, the ministers,
on the ground from which they had been driven ; and
to destroy, if possible, that Catholic faith, which, in his
judgment, was idolatrous and damnable? He was
animated by a keen desire to revenge his father's death
on the monarch who had brought him to the scaffold;
and was it probable that when, in the secret confer-
ences which took place with Nevil, Cecil, and Eliza-
beth, the hostile plans and dangerous, intrigues of the
King of Scotland were discussed, the Raid of Ruthven
should have been forgotten ; or that the nefarious
project, so repeatedly hazarded, so often crowned with
success, to seize the king^s person, and administer the
government under his pretended sanction, would not
present itself? To grasp the supreme power, and
have his revenge into the bargain : were such offers
unlikely to be held out by so unscrupulous a minister
as Cecil? Was it probable that, if held out, they
1600. JAMES VI. 281
would be refused by Gowrie ? But leaving such specu-
lations, let us proceed.
The young earl arrived in Scotland, after his long
absence, about the twentieth of May; and some little
circumstances accompanied his return, which, after his
miserable fate, were remembered and much dwelt on.
He entered the capital surrounded by an unusually
brilliant cavalcade of noblemen and gentlemen, the
friends and dependents of his house, and amid the
shouts of immense crowds who welcomed his return.
On hearing of it, the king shook his head, and observed,
that as many shouted when his father lost his head at
Stirling. Whether this was said in the presence of
the young earl, is not added by Calderwood, who gives
the anecdote ; but it was noticed, and we may be
pretty sure would reach his ear. When he kissed
hands, and took his place in the court circle, his fine
presence, handsome countenance, and graceful man-
ners, struck every one. He soon became a special
favourite of the queen and her ladies, one of whom
was his sister, Lady Beatrix Ruthven ; and to the
king, his learning and scholarship made him equally
acceptable. He had lived in the society of the most
eminent foreign scholars, philosophers, and divines ;
but he was equally accomplished in all knightly sports,
and could discuss the merits of a hawk or hound as
enthusiastically as any subject in the circle of the
sciences. This was much to James" 1 content ; and as
the monarch sat at breakfast, he would often keep
Gowrie leaning on the back of his chair, and talk to
him with that voluble, undignified familiarity which
marked the royal conversation. He rallied the young
nobleman, also, on his long stay at the English court ;
and, as Sir John Carey wrote to Cecil, assailed him
282 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
with many " fleytes * and pretty taunts," on the high
honours paid him by Elizabeth, his frequent great
conferences with the queen, her offer to bribe him with
gold, and the sumptuousness of his reception and en-
tertainment. He marvelled, too, with good-humoured
irony, that his old friends, the ministers of the Kirk,
had not ridden out to meet him and form part of his
triumphant cavalcade ; -f* and, half between joke and
earnest, contrived to show him that he had watched
all his movements, and was perfectly aware of his con-
fidential intercourse with Nevil, Cecil, and Elizabeth
herself.
All this Gowrie took, or seemed to take, in good
part.J He had certainly, he said, been .honourably
entertained, and very graciously received by the queen
of England ; but this, he believed, was for the king his
master's sake ; and so he had accepted it. As for
gold, he had been offered none : nor did he need it.
He had enough of his own. It was in one of those
familiar conversations on a strange subject, that an
allusion escaped the king, which was afterwards re-
membered. Queen Anne w r as at this time great with
child, and probably did not take sufficient care of her-
self; but be this as it may, James consulted Gowrie,
who had studied at Padua, then the highest medical
school in Europe, on the most common causes of mis-
carriage. He mentioned several, but insisted on
fright or sudden terror as the most dangerous ; upon
which the king, bursting into a fit of loud and scorn-
ful laughter, exclaimed, " Had that been true, my
* Fleytes ; scolds.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Sir John Carey to Cecil, 29th
May, 1600.
I MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 2d May, 1600.
MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Sir John Carey to Sir R. Cecil,
29th May, 1600.
1600. JAMES vi. 283
lord, I should never have been sitting here to ask
the question. Remember the slaughter of Seignor
Davie, wherein thy grandsire was the chief actor : "
a reckless, cruel thrust, which the young nobleman
must have felt like an adder's sting : for not only his
grandfather but his father were present at that bloody
deed.*
On another occasion, soon after his arrival, a ruffle
was nearly taking place in the long gallery at Holy-
rood, between the servants of Colonel William Stewart
and some of the gentlemen of Gowrie's suite. It was
this Stewart who had seized his father at Dundee, and
dragged him to his trial and death ; and all dreaded
a bloody encounter. But Gowrie, to their surprise,
beat down the weapons of his followers ; and giving
place with a contemptuous gesture to Stewart, permit-
ted him to walk first into the presence-chamber. On
being remonstrated with, his brief and proud reply
was a Latin proverb, " Aquila non captat muscas^ It
is the remark of an old chronicler, that he here
covertly alluded to his intended revenge against the
king.-)- It is certain, at least, that it betrayed a de-
termination on Gowrie's part, to fly at the highest
quarry.
On his first arrival at court, about the middle of
May, 1600, he found the king's mind still concentrated
upon that one subject which had so long filled his
thoughts, and which he had determined to bring
shortly before a convention of his nobility, barons, and
burghs. This was the necessity of making prepara-
tion for an event now currently talked of: the death
* Calderwood, MS. History, British Museum, Sloan, 4739, fol. 1389.
+ Anonymous MS. History of Scotland, quoted in Pitcairn's Criminal
Trials, vol. ii., p. 297.
284
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
3600.
of Elizabeth. To this end James had summoned a
convention of the three Estates to meet on the twen-
tieth of June. He had resolved to levy a tax upon
the country, to pay his ambassadors to foreign parts ;
and to have such a force in readiness as should over-
awe his enemies, and give confidence to his supporters.
On these proposed measures parties were so divided,
and such violent storms were apprehended, that the
wisest, as Nicolson wrote to Cecil, wished themselves
out of the country ; and Gowrie, by the advice of his
friends, after a brief stay at court, retired to his own
estates, " to be a beholder of the issue of these many
suspicions."* Soon after this, a violent interview
took place between the king and the English resident,
Nicolson, in which James complained that Elizabeth
had treated him with the utmost haughtiness and
want of confidence on the subject of the Spanish peace.
She blamed him, he said, for matters of which he was
wholly innocent, and showed more kindness to a
foreign duke and the Infanta than to him. It was
openly bragged by one of her subjects, that Bothwell
was to be let loose, to come in again and brave it.
She had seized a parcel of muskets, which he had de-
clared upon his honour had been purchased for the
use of his household, as if she dreaded they should be
turned against herself. ] All this, which was daily
reported to Elizabeth and Cecil, increased the un-
friendly feelings between the two courts, and convinced
the English minister that something decided must be
done, to check that bold, and almost hostile attitude
in which James seemed now determined to insist upon
his rights to the English throne.
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 27th May, 1GOO.
f MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 29th May, 1600.
1600. JAMES VI. 285
At last the important day of the convention of the
three Estates arrived. The nobility, including Gowrie
amongst the rest, assembled ; the barons and burghs
attended ; and the king, after having, in many private
interviews, endeavoured to gain over the leading men
to his own views, brought his proposals before the
public meeting of the three Estates, in a studied har-
angue. To his extreme indignation and astonishment,
he failed to convince them of the necessity of taxing
themselves to raise the sum he required. The major-
ity of the nobility and the prelates, who had been pri-
vately canvassed by James, and talked over by the
Earl of Mar, were compliant enough ; but the barons
and the burghs stoutly resisted. The king adjourned
the convention from Monday till Tuesday, employing
the interval in threats, entreaties, and remonstrances ;
but on this day they were as stubborn as before. An-
other and longer adjournment, and another meeting
took place. It not only found them in the same in-
domitable humour, but some of the higher barons
began to waver. The Lord President Seton, in reply
to the assertion of the royal claimant, that he must
have an army ready on the queen's death, to maintain
his title, argued against the utter folly of attempting
to seize that ancient crown by conquest. For such
a purpose, he observed, who could say what exact sum
might be required ? and if the sum were named, who
was so insane as to expect that Scotland could raise
it ? If about to build a palace, they might have a
plan and an estimate ; if to raise an army of so many
thousand men, some certainty might be had of the
funds required: but who would venture to fix the
sum necessary for the conquest of England ? and if
fixed, who could be so mad as to believe that the poor
286 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600
country of Scotland could raise it, when it was noto-
rious that sundry towns in England and the Low
Countries could advance more money than all Scot-
land together ? * Mr Edward Bruce argued for the
king's views ; and insisted that every true Scotsman,
if he regarded the honour of his prince and country,
ought to contribute to the sum now required. Let
them not imagine, said he, that a refusal would be
unaccompanied with danger. Whoever usurped Eng-
land after Elizabeth's death would have an eye to
Scotland ; and if they now suffered their king to be
defeated of his right, they might chance to find them-
selves defeated of their country.
This argument somewhat softened James, who had
started up in a violent passion and accused the Presi-
dent Seton of perverting his meaning. But nothing
could move the barons and burghs. They reiterated
their plea of poverty ; declared, that when the time
came, they would furnish their monarch as fair an
army as ever good subjects levied for their prince ;
and in the meanwhile, instead of forty thousand
crowns, would give him forty thousand pounds Scots,
on the condition that they should never again be
taxed in his time ; and that what they did give should
go to his own wants, and not to his hungry courtiers.
The king spurned at this diminished and conditional
offer, and insisted that it should be put to the vote
whether it had not been agreed in a former convention
at St Johnston, that a hundred thousand crowns
should be advanced him by a thousand persons.
On this new question the young Earl of Gowrie
now spoke for the first time ; and heading the oppo-
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 22d June, 1600.
Ibid., same to same, 29th June, 1SOD.
1600. JAMES vi. 287
sition of the barons and the burghs, exposed the king
to the disgrace of a second defeat.* He had, he said,
been long absent from the country, and had no per-
sonal knowledge of what had taken place at St John-
ston ; but he contended that the present offer of the
burghs and barons, to give forty thousand pounds to
the king, and their promise to raise money for an
army when it was required, was quite as good, nay,
almost a better proposal, than that so strongly insisted
on by James. Why, then, should his majesty take
such deep umbrage at it? Surely, he continued, it
must be evident, that this demand of the king will
bring dishonour upon all parties : it is dishonourable
for a prince to ask more than his subjects have to
give, and suffer the ignominy of a refusal ; it is dis-
honourable for a people that their poverty should be
laid bare to the world, and that all men should see
and know they could give so little to their prince.*!*
This speech of Gowrie, and the daring way in which
so young a man threw himself into the ranks of the
faction opposed to the king, astonished the assembly.
"Alas!" said Sir David Murray, a courtier, who
stood near, " yonder is an unhappy man : his enemies
are but seeking an occasion for his death ; and now
he has given it." J But if others wondered, the king,
to use an expression of Nicolabn's to Cecil, absolutely
raged, and dismissed the assembly with a tumultuous
burst of fierce and undignified invective ; mingling
his abuse of the barons and burghs with praises of his
nobility, whom he assured of his friendship and favour
in all their affairs. " As for you, my masters," he
exclaimed, turning with flashing eyes to the burghers,
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 29th June, 1600.
t Ibid. J MS. Calderwood, Ayscough, 4739, fol. 1389.
288 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
" your matters, too, may chance to corne in my way ;
and, be assured, I shall remember this day, and be
even with you. It was I who gave you a vote in
parliament ; I who made you a fourth estate : and it
will be well for such as you to remember, that I can
summon a parliament at my pleasure, and pull you
down as easily as I have built you up."* This in-
sulting speech roused one of the oldest of the barons,
the Laird of Easter Wemyss, who boldly told the
king that he misconstrued their meaning ; and forgot
how much he owed them, and what great sums they
had given him in his necessities. "We have done
your majesty, 1 ' said he, " as good offices for our estate;
and we, your majesty's burghs and barons, are as
worthy your thanks as the proudest earl, or lord, or
prelate here. Our callings may be inferior, but our
devotedness is as great ; and so your majesty will find
it when the proper time arrives. As for our places in
parliament and convention, we have bought our seats ;
we have paid your majesty for them ; and we cannot,
with justice, be deprived of them. But the throne is
surrounded by flatterers, who propagate falsehoods
against us : let us be confronted with our accusers,
and we engage to prove them liars ."j*
With this haughty defence on the part of the lesser
barons and burghs, and with the deepest feelings of
displeasure against them and Gowrie, on the part of
the king, the convention separated ; and James had
to digest, not only the disgrace of a refusal, but the
universal satisfaction which, if we may believe Nicol-
son, it occasioned in the country. He was not diverted
from his purpose, however ; for, not ten days after,
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 29th June, 1600.
flbid.
1600. JAMES VI. 289
Sir Kobert Cecil, who was familiar with all that had
taken place at the convention, was informed by one of
his correspondents, that James' preparations against
England continued, and that he intended not to tarry
till Elizabeth's death. This news was written partly
in cipher, on a slip of paper sent to Cecil, indorsed
with the caution, " To read and burn? It contained
this passage : " Nicolson tells me he understands, by
one who never abused him, that the king is, by all
means, seeking a party, and hath a party in England ;
and by party or faction, if he can have commodity by
either, * * intends not to tarry upon her ma-
jesty's death, but take time so soon as without peril
he can." *
It is probably from this moment that we may date
the actual rise of the Gowrie conspiracy. Elizabeth
and James were, as we have just seen, on the very
worst terms with each other. Gowrie, by every feel-
ing of education, interest, and revenge, was attached
to England and its queen ; and his conduct in the
convention had now thrown him into mortal opposition
with the King of Scots. James was intriguing with
the queen's subjects in England. It was suspected he
had fomented the rebellion in Ireland ; and all this at
a moment when the queen was most likely to resent
it deeply ; for she had lately been roused and irritated
by the insane projects of Essex. Although aged,
Elizabeth was still unbroken in health; yet James
must be watching for her death, and openly admonish-
ing his subjects to make preparations for taking pos-
session of her crown. This Gowrie knew; and he
reckoned on the support of England in anything he
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, 9th July, 1600. Secret information
sent in the letter, indorsed, To read and burn.
VOL. IX. T
290 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
undertook against the king. He could build, too,
with certainty on the favourable opinion of the lesser
barons, and the influential body of the burghs. They
had already made their stand against the king ; in the
convention Gowrie had joined them ; and they under-
stood each other. On the Kirk he could rely with
still more certainty : he was the darling hope of the
Presbyterian party, the son of their martyr : the
youthful Daniel, who had kept his first faith entire in
the bosom of idolatry, and in the very head-quarters of
Antichrist. Could he doubt that, in any attempt to
stay the headlong haste with which their unhappy
king seemed to be throwing himself into the arms of
the Catholic party, he would fail to have the whole
force of the Kirk upon his side ? All this was encou-
raging : and when, in addition to these inducements,
he contemplated the rich reward awaiting his success,
if he made himself master of the king's person ; the
gratification of his ambition, power, place, fame, above
all, revenge ; was it likely that a man of Gowrie's
temperament would resist them all I Besides, he had
enemies : his death and ruin, if we may believe one
who must have had good cause of knowledge, were
already resolved on ; * and if he did not become the
assailant, it was a narrow chance but he might prove
the victim. If, on the other hand, he could but
strike the blow, his popularity and high connexions
promised him many friends, on whose concurrence he
could safely reckon.
But how was the blow to be struck ? Here was the
whole difficulty and danger; and here, young as he
was, Gowrie appears to have devised a plot unlike any
hitherto known in his country's history, although fer-
* So p. 287.
1600 JAMES VI. 291
tile in conspiracies : more Italian than Scottish; crafty,
rather than openly courageous ; and, from its very
originality, not, perhaps, unlikely to have succeeded,
had the parts assigned to the conspirators been differ-
ently cast. His design appears to have been to decoy
the king, by some plausible tale, into his castle of
Gowrie, on the Tay ; to separate him from his suite,
and compel him, by threats of instant death, to suffer
himself to be carried aboard a boat which should be
waiting on the river for the purpose. This was the
first act in the projected plot: in the second, the
vessel was to push instantly out to sea ; and the royal
prisoner was to be conveyed, in a few hours, to an
impregnable little fortalice which overhung the Ger-
man Ocean, and where, if well victualled, a garrison
of twenty men could, for months, have defied a royal
army. To communicate with England, and admin-
ister the government in the royal name, but under
the dictation of Gowrie and his faction, would then
be easy. It had been repeatedly done before in the
history of the country, and very recently in the Raid
of Ruthven ; why then should it not be done again ?
In all this projected scheme there was some rash-
ness ; something smacking of youth, audacity, and
revenge ; but there was also some sagacity. Since
the days of the conspiracy against Riccio, down to
the Raid of Ruthven, most of the plots which chequer
and stain the history of the country had failed, from
admitting too many into their secret. A band or
covenant had been drawn up; a correspondence opened
with England ; the envoy at the Scottish court had
been admitted to the secret ; the Kirk consulted ; the
pulse of the burghs and barons felt ; and so many
points presented for suspicion to work on, and trea-
292 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
ehery to be rewarded, that success was unlikely, and
discovery almost inevitable. That Gowrie had ob-
served this, and had deeply studied the subject of
"Conspiracies against Princes" under Machiavel, the
most acute of masters, we know from a curious anec-
dote preserved by Spottiswood. A short time before
his unhappy death, a friend found him in the library,
with a volume of the great Florentine in his hand.
On inquiring the subject of his studies : showing him
the book, he observed, that it was a collection of the
most famous conspiracies against princes. " A perilous
subject,' 1 ' 1 was the reply. " Yes," said the young con-
spirator ; " perilous : because most of such plots have
been foolishly contrived, and have embraced too many
in the secret. He who goes about such a business,
should beware of putting any man on his counsel." *
Under this idea, Gowrie admitted to his secret as
few associates as possible ; and his accomplices were
men on whom he had the most implicit reliance.
They appear to have been only four in number : his
brother, Alexander Ruthven, commonly called the
Master of Ruthven, who held an office in the king^s
chamber ; Robert Logan of Restalrig, a Border baron,
distantly connected with the Gowrie family ; a third
person of rank and consequence, but whose name is
still a mystery ; and, lastly, an old ruffian follower of
LoganX called Laird Bower. Logan was a man al-
ready known to Sir Robert Cecil ; who, on making
some inquiries regarding him in 1599, received from
the celebrated Lord Wylloughby, then governor of
Berwick, this brief character of the Scottish Border
baron: "There is such a Laird of Lesterligg, as
* Spottiswood, History, p. 460. Hailes' Notes on the Gowrie Con-
spiracy.
1600. JAMES vi. 293
you write of : a main loose man ; a great favourer of
thieves reputed ; yet a man of a good clan, as they
here term it; and a good fellow."* The character
here given of Logan was far too favourable : for there
is no doubt that he was a desperate, reckless, and
unprincipled villain, although a person of a good
house, and true to his friends, according to the prin-
ciples of that Border code under which he had been
bred. He had run through a large estate in every
kind of dissipation and excess, was a mocker at reli-
gion, had been a constant follower of the notorious
Bothwell, and was now drowned in debt ; yet, bad as
he was, Laird Bower, his brother conspirator, his
chamberlain, or household man, as he termed him,
appears to have been a shade blacker. It was to this
old Borderer that the perilous task was committed, of
carrying the letters which passed between Logan and
Gowrie. Bower had received his nurture and educa-
tion in the service of David Hume of Manderston,
commonly called " Davie the Devil; 11 and in this
Satanic school had become a more debauched and
daring ruffian than his master ; who described him,
in writing to Gowrie, as a worthy fellow, who would
not spare to ride to HelFs yett to pleasure him.^ Of
the character of the other unknown conspirator, no-
thing can be said, as his name remains yet a shadow.
But if we may trust to popular report, Alexander, the
Master of Ruthven, was a young man of the highest
promise ; amiable, accomplished, gentle almost to a
fault, and a universal favourite at court ; yet, strange
as it may appear, the execution of that part of the
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Lord Wylloughby to Cecil, 1st
January, 1598-9. The name is sometimes written Lestelrig, sometimes
Restalrig.
f Logan to Gowrie, in Pitcairc's Criminal Trials, vol. ii. p. 285.
294 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
plot requiring the utmost sternness, promptitude, and
decision, was committed to this youth. He it was on
whom his brother laid the task of decoying the king
into Gowrie House, and forcing him into the boat ;
whilst Gowrie himself undertook to amuse or intimi-
date the suite ; and Logan was to have his house of
Fastcastle ready to receive the royal prisoner.
Both these mansions, Gowrie House and Fastcastle,
were, from their construction and situation, singularly-
well calculated for the attempt against the king. The
first was a large baronial mansion, of quadrangular
shape, built in the town of Perth, and on the border of
the Tay, the river washing the garden ; and fortified
by a wall which ran along the bank, and was flanked
by two strong towers. Its apartments were numerous ;
arranged, as was usual in those times, en suite, and so
as to communicate with each other ; and amongst
them was a long gallery, which extended along one
side of the square, and communicated, by a door at
the end, with a chamber which, in its turn, led to a
small circular room constructed in the interior of a
turret. This gallery, and the other apartments, were
accessible by a broad oaken staircase ; but the turret,
or round room, could be reached also by a back spiral
turnpike : so that a person who had entered it through
the gallery, might escape, or could be conveyed away
without again traversing the principal staircase.
Fastcastle, the residence or den of Logan, was the
very opposite of Gowrie House ; being a single square
and massive feudal tower, standing on the brink of a
steep and almost perpendicular black rock, which rose
to the height of two hundred feet above the German
Ocean. From the sea, it was completely inaccessible,
unless to those who knew the secret of its steps cut in
1600. JAMES VI. 295
the rock, and could unlock the iron bolts and doors
which defended them ; and on the land side, the isth-
mus on which it stood was connected with the main-
land by so narrow a neck, that any attempt to force
its little drawbridge was hopeless. The distance from
Gowrie House to Fastcastle, by sea, was about seventy
miles ; from Fastcastle to the English Border, about
twenty-five miles.
It is now time to introduce the reader to the most
interesting part of this strange story : the letters of
the conspirators themselves. It appears from these
documents, which were not discovered until many
years after the deep tragedy in which the conspiracy
concluded, that early in the month of July 1600,
Gowrie wrote to Logan appointing a secret meeting,
to confer " on the purpose he knew of" This letter is
not now in existence ; but it was brief, alluding to
what had passed before between them, and stating that
Logan's absence in Lothian had prevented Gowrie
from coming to see him at Fastcastle.* On the
eighteenth July, 1600, Logan addressed a letter, which
still remains, to the unknown conspirator already men-
tioned. It was in these terms :
" RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR, My duty with service
remembered. Please you understand, my Lord of Go.
and some others, his lordship's friends and weil-willers,
who tender his lordship's better preferment, are upon
the resolution you know, for the revenge of that cause ;
and his lordship has written to me anent that purpose;
whereto I will accord, in case you will stand to and
bear a part : and before ye resolve, meet me and Mr
A. R. [Alexander Ruthven] in the Canongate on
* Examinations of George Sprot, printed in Pitcairn's Criminal Trials.
T O*7O
vol. 11. p. HI.
296 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
Tuesday the next week ; and be as wary as ye can.
Indeed, M. A. R. spoke with me four or five days
since ; and I have promised his lordship an answer
within ten days at farthest.
" As for the purpose, how M. A. R. [Mr Alexander
Ruthven] and I have set down the course, it will be
ane very easy done turn, and not far by* that form,
with the like stratagem, whereof we had conference in
Cap.h. But in case you and M. A. R. forgather, -f*
because he is somewhat consety,\ for God's sake be
very wary with his reckless toys of Padua: for he told
me one of the strangest tales of a nobleman of Padua
that ever I heard in my life, resembling the like pur-
pose." * * * After assuring him that he might
place implicit faith in Laird Bower, the bearer of the
letter, Logan again thus alluded to the plot :
" Always to our purpose, I think it best for our
plat that we meet all at my house of Fastcastle : for
I have concluded with M. A. R.. how I think it shall
be meetest to be convoyed quietest in a boat by sea ;
at which time, upon sure advertisement, I shall have
the place very quiet and well provided.
" And as I receive your answer, I will post this
bearer to my lord. And therefore I pray you, as you
love your own life, as it is not a matter of mowise,||
be circumspect in all things, and take no fear but all
shall be well/' * * * *
Logan then went on to warn his friend not to re-
veal anything of the plot either to Gowrie's old tutor,
Mr William Rhynd, or to his brother Lord Home,
before " the turn were done." He thus concluded :
" When you have read, send this letter back again
* By ; different from. + Forgather ; meet. Consety; flighty.
Plat ; plot, scheme. H Mowise ; mows mummery.
1600. JAMES vi. 297
with the bearer, that I may see it burnt myself; for
so is the fashion in such errands; and, if you please,
write your answer on the back hereof, in case ye will
take my word for the credit of the bearer. And use
all expedition; for the turn wald not* be long delayed.
Ye know the king's hunting will be shortly ; and then
shall be the best time, as M. A. JR. has assured me
that my lord has resolved to enterprise that matter ."-f-
This letter of Logan's was dated from Fastcastle,
eighteenth July ; and on the same day he sent the
following letter, connected with the conspiracy, to
Laird Bower, from his house in the Canongate of
Edinburgh, informing him of a second letter " concern-
ing the purpose which he had received from Gowrie."
" LAIRD BOWER, I pray you hast you fast to me
about the errand I told you, and we shall confer at
length of all things. I have received a new letter
from my Lord of Go., concerning the purpose that
M. A., his lordship's brother, spake to me before; and
I perceive I may have advantage of Dirlton in case
his other matter take effect, as we hope it shall. Al-
ways, I beseech you, be at me the morn j at even; for
I have assured his lordship's servant that I shall send
you over the water within three days, with a full re-
solution of all my will anent all purposes. As I
shall indeed recommend you and your trustiness to
his lordship, as ye shall find an honest recompense for
your pains in the end. I care not for all the land I
have in this kingdom, in case I get a grip || at Dirlton:
for I esteem it the pleasantest dvwelling in Scotland.
For God's cause, keep all things very secret, that my
* Wald not ; cannot.
t Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, vol. ii. pp. 282, 283.
J The morn ; to-morrow. Anent ; touching. jj Grip ; hold.
298 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
lord, my brother, get no knowledge of our purposes ;
for I [wald] rather be eirdit* quick." }
Between the eighteenth of July, the date of both
these letters, and the twenty-seventh of the same
month, the conspirators appear to have met ; and the
manner in which the attempt was to be made was
arranged. It only remained to fix the precise day.
This appears from the following letter of Logan, sent
to the unknown conspirator, from his house in the
Canongate, on the twenty-seventh of July :
" RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR, All my hartly duty
with humble service remembered. Since I have taken
on hand to enterprise with my Lo. of Go., [Lord of
Gowrie,] your special and only best beloved, as we
have set down the plat already, I will request you
that ye will be very circumspect and wise, that no
man get an advantage of us. I doubt not but ye
know the peril to be both life, land, and honour, in
case the matter be not wisely used. And, for my own
part, I shall have a special respect to my promise that
I have made to his Lo., and M. A., his Lo. brother,
although the scaffold were set up. If I cannot win
to Falkland the first night, I shall be timely in St
Johnston on the morn. Indeed, I lippened J for my
Lo. himself, or else M. A. his Lo. brother, at my
house of Fastcastle, as I wrote to them both. Al-
ways I repose on your advertisement of the precise
day with credit to the bearer ; for howbeit he be but
a silly, auld, gleid J carle, I will answer for him that
he shall be very true.
" I pray you, Sir, read, and either burn or send
* Eirdit quick ; buried alive.
+ Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. ii. p. 283.
J Looked for, expected. Gleid ; squinting.
1600. JAMES VI. 299
again with the bearer ; for I dare hazard my life, and
all I have else in the world, on his message, I have
such proof of his constant truth. So commits you to
Christ's holy protection."" *
Two days after this, on the twenty-ninth July,
and only a week before the attempt and fatal catastro-
phe, Logan sent Laird Bower with the following letter
to Gowrie. I give it all, as every word of its contents
is of importance.
" MY Lo.,~ My most humble duty, &c. At the
receipt of your Lo. letter I am so comforted, especially
at your Lo. purpose communicated to me therein, that
I can neither utter my joy, nor find myself able how
to encounter your Lo. with due thanks. Indeed, my
Lord, at my being last in the town, M. A., your Lo.
brother, imparted somewhat of your lordship's inten-
tion anent that matter unto me; and if I had not
been busied about some turns of my own, I thought
to have come over to S. Jo.^ and spoken with your
Lo. Yet always, my Lo., I beseech your Lo., both
for the safety of your honour, credit, and, more than
that, your life, my life, and the lives of many others,
who may, perhaps, innocently smart for that turn
afterwards, in case it be revealed by any ; and, like-
wise, the utter wrecking of our lands and houses, and
extirpating of our names ; look that we be all as sure
as your Lo. ; and I myself shall be for my own part ;
and then I doubt not, but, with God's grace, we shall
bring our matter to a fine,J which shall bring con-
tentment to us all that ever wished for the revenge of
the Maschevalent massacring of our dearest friends.
" I doubt not but M. A., your Lo. brother, has in-
* Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 284. -\- St Johnston, or Perth.
+ End. Machiavelian.
300 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
formed your Lo. what course I laid down to bring all
your Lo. associates to my house of Fastcastle by sea,
where I should have all materials in readiness for their
safe receiving a-land, and into my house, making, as
it were, but a matter of pastime in a boat on the sea,
in this fair summer tide ; and none other strangers to
haunt my house while* we had concluded on the
laying of our platt, which is already devised by Mr
Alexander and me. And I would wish that your
lordship would either come or send M. A. to me ;
and thereafter I should meet your Lo. in Leith, or
quietly in Restalrig, where we should have prepared a
fine Jtattit Mt^ with sugar, confits, and wine, and
thereafter confer on matters : and the sooner we
brought our purpose to pass, it were the better, before
harvest. Let not M. W. R. [Mr Wm. Rhynd,]
your old pedagogue, ken J of your coming ; but rather
would I, if I dare be so bold to entreat your Lo. once
to come and see my own house, where I have kept my
Lo. Bo. [Lord Both well] in his greatest extremities,
say the K. and his Council what they would. And
in case God grant us a happy success in this errand,
I hope both to have your Lo. and his Lo., with many
others of your lovers and his, at a good dinner before
I die. Always, I hope that the king^s buck-hunting
at Falkland this year shall prepare some dainty cheer
for us against that dinner the next year. Hoc jocose y
to animate your Lo. at this time ; but afterwards we
shall have better occasion to make merry.
" I protest, my Lo., before God, I wish nothing
with a better heart, nor to achieve to that which
* While ; until.
f A Scottish dish, composed of coagulated milk, and eaten with rich
cream and sugar. Know. Nor ; than.
1 600. JAMES VI. 301
your Lo. would fain attain unto : and my continual
prayer shall tend to that effect ; and with the large
spending of my lands, goods, yea the hazard of my
life shall not affright me from that, although the
scaffold were already set up, before I should falsify my
promise to your Lo. ; and persuade your Lo. thereof.
I trow your Lo. has a proof of my constancy ere now.
"But, my Lo., whereas your Lo. desires, in my
letter, that I crave my Lo., my brother's mind, anent
this matter ; I alluterly * dissent from that, that he
should ever be a councillor thereto : for, in good faith,
he will never help his friend, nor harm his foe. Your
Lo. may confide more in this old man, the bearer
hereof, my man Laird Bower, nor in my brother; for
I lippen -f- my life, and all I have else, in his hands :
and I trow he would not spare to ride to Hell's yett*
to pleasure me ; and he is not beguiled of my part to
him. Always, my Lo., when your Lo. has read my
letter, deliver it to the bearer again, that I may see it
burnt with my ain een ; as I have sent your Lo. letter
to your Lo. again : for so is the fashion, I grant. And
I pray your Lo., rest fully persuaded of me, and of
all that I have promised ; for I am resolved, howbeit
I were to die the morn, J| I man IF entreat your Lo. to
exspede ** Bower and give him strait direction, on
pain of his life, that he take never a wink of sleep
until he see me again, or else he will utterly undo us.
I have already sent another letter to the gentleman
your Lo. kens,-f-f as the bearer will inform your Lo. of
his answer and forwardness with your Lo. ; and I
shall show your Lo. farther, at meeting, when and
* Alluterly ; entirely. f Lippen; trust. t Hell's gate.
O\vn eyes. || Although I were to die to-morrow.
t Must. ** Hasten. ft Knows.
302 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
where your Lo. shall think meetest. To which time,
and ever, commits your Lo. to the protection of Al-
mighty God. From Gunnisgreen, the 29th of July,
1600/
" Your Lo. own sworn and bound man
to obey and serve, with efald* and ever
ready service, to his utter power, to his
life's end. RESTALRIG.
" Prays your Lo. hold me excused for my unseemly
letter, quilk is not so well written as mister^ were ;
for I durst not let onyj of my writers ken of it, but
took two sundry idle days to it myself.
" I will never forget the good sport that M. A.,
your Lo. brother, told me of a nobleman of Padua; it
comes so oft to my memory ; and, indeed, it is a paras
teur to this purpose we have in hand." ||
Two days after the date of this letter to Gowrie, on
the thirty-first of July, Logan, being still at his house
of Gun's Green, wrote the following letter to the un-
known conspirator:
" RIGHT HONOURABLE SIR, My hartly duty re-
membered. Ye know I told you, at our last meeting
in the Canongate, that M. A. R., my Lord of Gowrie's
brother, had spoken with me anent the matter of our
conclusion ; and, for my own part, I shall not be
hindmost. And sensynell I gat a letter fra his lord-
ship's self for that same purpose ; and upon the receipt
thereof, understanding his lordship's frankness and
forwardness in it, God kens ** if my heart was not
lifted ten stegess."f"f I posted this same bearer till
his lordship, to whom you may concredit all your
* True. + Need were. J Any. Apropos, in point.
|| Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. ii. pp, 284, 286.
If Since then. ** Knows. )) Stages, degrees.
1600. JAMES VI. 303
heart in that as well as I ; for an * it were my very
soul, I durst make him messenger thereof, I have sic -j-
experience of his truth in many other things. He is
a silly, auld, gleid J carle, but wondrous honest. And
as he has reported to me his lordship's answer, I think
all matters shall be concluded at my house of Fast-
castle ; for I, and M. A. R., concluded that you
should come with him and his lordship, and only ane
other man with you, being but only four in company,
intil || one of the great fishing-boats by sea, to my
house ; where ye shall land as safely as on Leith shore.
And the house, aganell his lordship's coming, to be
quiet : and when you are about half a mile from shore,
to gar set forth a waff.** But, for God's sake, let
neither any knowledge come to my lord my brother's
ears, nor yet to M. W. II. , my lordship's auld peda-
gog; for my brother is ' kittle to shoe behind,' ff and
dare not enterprise for fear : and the other will dis-
suade us from our purpose with reasons of religion ;
which I can never abide.
" I think there is none of a noble heart, or carries
a stomach worth a penny, but they would be glad to
see a contented revenge of Grey Steil's death. J| And
the sooner the better, or else we may be marred and
frustrated; and, therefore, pray his lordship be quick.
And bid M. A. remember the sport he told me of
Padua ; for I think with myself that the cogitation
on that should stimulate his lordship. And for God's
cause, use all your courses cum discrecione. Fail not,
* If. + Such. J Old, squinting.
Carle, a man past 50 years of age. || In,
jj Agane. The house to be kept quiet, awaiting his lordship's coming.
** To cause set forth a signal.
H* Difficult to shoe behind ; not to be trusted.
JJ Grey Steil, a popular name of Growrie's father, taken from an old
romance called " Grey-Steil."
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
1600.
Sir, to send back again this letter : for M. A. learnit
me that fashion, that I may see it destroyed myself.
So, till your coming, and ever, commits you heartily
to Chrises holy protection. From Gunnisgreen, the
last of July, 1600."
These letters explain themselves. Their import
cannot be mistaken ; their authenticity has never been
questioned ; they still exist ;* and although they do
not open up all the particulars of the intended attempt,
they establish the reality of the Gowrie conspiracy
beyond the possibility of a doubt. The first proves
that the Master of Ruthven and Logan had set down
O
the course or plot for the preferment of Gowrie and
the revenge of his father's death ; that the conspirators
were to meet at Fastcastle ; and that they had fixed
' the king's hunting " as the most favourable time for
their attempt. Logan, it is seen from the same letter,
did not think his brother, Lord Home, or Gowrie's
old tutor, Mr William Rhynd, by any means safe
persons to be intrusted with the secret of the conspi-
racy. In the second letter to Bower, we have a glance
at the rich bribe by which Gowrie had secured the
assistance of Logan, the estate of Dirlton ; and in the
third, his resolution to keep his promise " although
the scaffold were set up," with his expectation to have
speedy intimation sent him of the precise day when
the attempt was to be made, and his presence required
at St Johnston. Logan's letter to Gowrie is still more
minute. It contains the determination to revenge the
Machiavelian massacre of their dearest friends ; the in-
tended rendezvous of the associates at Fastcastle, who,
under the mask of a pleasure party by sea, were to be
conveyed into that stronghold; the previous secret
* In the General Register-House, Edinburgh.
1600. JAMES vi. 305
conference to be held at Restalrig over their " kattit kit
and wine ;" the good cheer and happy success which
the king's buck-hunting was to bring them ; the so-
lemn and earnest injunctions of secrecy, life and
lands, name and fame, hanging on the issue ; the al-
lusion to the strange tale of Padua, so similar to their
present purpose, that it seems to have haunted the
" consety" or high-wrought imagination of Mr Alex-
ander Ruthven ; the necessity of destroying their
letters : all this is contained in Logan's letter to
Gowrie himself; and in his last letter to the unknown
conspirator, we have the direction how the signal is to
be given at sea to those who were to be on the look-
out from Fastcastle ; the exultation and joy at
Cowrie's frankness and forwardness ; the last consul-
tation appointed to be at Fastcastle ; Logan's candid
character of himself, as utterly unable to abide all
arguments from religion ; his exhortations to be speedy,
and his anticipation of a glorious revenge for the death
of " Grey Steil," the affectionate sobriquet or nick-
name of the late Earl of Gowrie. All this is so clear-
ly established by the correspondence, and so com-
pletely proves the existence of Gowrie's plot for the
surprise of the king, and the meeting of the conspira-
tors at Fastcastle, that he who doubts must be too
desperate in his scepticism to be reached by any evi-
dence whatever. But we must proceed.
This last letter of Logan's was written on Thurs-
day, the thirty-first July ; and all that passed in the
secret conclave of the conspirators, during the three
succeeding days, till the night of Monday the fourth
of August, is a blank. On that night Gowrie called
his chamberlain, Andrew Henderson, into his bed-
chamber, and commanded him to be ready to ride on
VOL. IX. U
306
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
1600.
the morrow early with his brother, the Master, to
Falkland, and to bring back with speed any letter, or
message, which he might receive from him.*
The morning of Tuesday, the fifth of August, found
the king and his nobles in the great park at Falkland,
ready to mount on horseback, and proceed to their
sport. It was still early, between six and seven
o'clock : all was bustle and preparation ; and the king
stood beside the stables surrounded by his hounds
and huntsmen, when Alexander Ruthven, Gowrie's
younger brother, came up, and, with a low courtesy,
kneeling and uncovering, craved a moment's private
audience on matter of the utmost moment. His ex-
pression was perturbed, his manner hurried ; and the
king, expecting a communication of importance, walked
aside with him. Ruthven then declared, that he, the
evening before, had met a suspicious-looking fellow
without the walls of St Johnston, with his face muffled
in a cloak ; and, perceiving him to be terrified and
astonished when questioned, he had seized him; and,
on searching, had found a large pot-full of gold pieces
under his cloak. This treasure, with the man who
carried it, he had secured, he said, in a small chamber
in Gowrie House ; and he now begged the king to ride
with him to Perth on the instant, and make sure of
it for himself, as he had not even revealed the dis-
covery to his brother the earl. James at first dis-
claimed having any right to money thus found ; but
when the Master, to one of his questions, stated that
it seemed foreign gold, the vision of crowns of the sun
and Spanish priests rose to the royal suspicion ; and
he was about to despatch some servant of his own, to
ride instantly with a warrant to the provost, and seize
* Henderson's Declaration, Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. ii. p. 175.
1600. JAMES VI. 307
the treasure, when Ruthven strongly protested against
it : declaring that if either the magistrates or Gowrie
got their nngers on the gold, it might chance that very
few pieces would ever come into his majesty's purse ;
and that all that he implored, in recompense for his
fidelity, was that the king would ride with him to
Perth, see the treasure, and judge with his own eyes.
The Court was now on horseback ; the morning
wearing on ; the baying of the hounds, and cheering
of the huntsmen, told that the game was found ; and
the king, impatiently putting an end to the interview,
promised Ruthven an answer after he had killed the
buck. James then galloped off; but the story haunted
him ; and on the first check, he sent for Ruthven,
who lingered near at hand, and whispered to him that
he had resolved, the moment the chase was over, to
accompany him to Perth. The young man instantly
despatched Andrew Henderson, the chamberlain, who,
in obedience to Gowrie'fl orders the night before, had,
with Andrew Ruthven, accompanied him to Falkland;
bidding him gallop to Perth, and tell Gowrie that the
king would be there within a brief space, and slenderly
attended.
When the chase was ended, which lasted till near
eleven, the king surprised his courtiers by telling them
he meant to ride immediately to St Johnston, to speak
with the Earl of Gowrie ; and without giving himself
or his nobles time to send for fresh horses, or waiting,
as was usual, for the " curry of the deer, 11 * he rode off
with Ruthven at so furious a pace, that he was some
miles on the road before Lennox, or any of his suite,
overtook him. All this time Ruthven had been
agitated and restless ; now pressing the king to finish
* French, curer; to cleanse ; the ripping up and cleansing the deer.
308 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
the chase ; now urging him not to wait for fresh
horses ; now insisting that neither Lennox, Mar, nor
any number of his nobles should follow him, as it
might spoil all ; and this to such a degree that James,
as he pushed on, began to suspect and hesitate, and
calling Lennox aside, told him the strange errand he
was riding on ; asking him if Ruthven, his brother-
in-law, had ever shown any symptoms of derangement.
The duke pronounced the story utterly improbable ;
but affirmed he had never seen anything like madness
in Ruthven. " At all events," said James, " do not
you, Lennox, fail to follow me into the room where
this fellow and his treasure is. 1 ' This private confer-
ence was not unobserved by Ruthven. He had a
short time before despatched his other servant, Andrew
Ruthven, to ride forward with a second message to
Perth, and now coming up close to the king, implored
him to make none living acquainted with their purpose,
till he had himself seen the fellow and the treasure.
It seems to have been at this moment that Sir Thomas
Erskine, who had overtaken the king on the road,
privately asked Lennox how it 'came that Ruthven
had got the king's ear, and carried off his majesty
from his sport ; to which Lennox jocularly answered,
"Peace man; we shall all be turned into gold."*
The whole party then rode forward ; and on coming
within a mile of Perth, Ruthven, telling the king he
must give warning to his brother, galloped on before.
We must now for a moment turn to Gowrie, whom
Henderson, on his arrival at Gowrie House, found, with
two friends, in his chamber. He instantly left them,
and inquired, secretly and earnestly, what word he
had brought from his brother : had he sent a letter ;
* Lloyd's Worthies, p. 783.
1600. JAMES vi. 309
how had the king taken with the Master ; who were
with his majesty at the hunting, many or few ; what
noblemen, what names ? To these hurried questions
Henderson answered by giving the message sent by
young lluthven : that the king would be with him
incontinent, and he must prepare dinner. He added,
that James had received the Master kindly, and laid
his hand on his shoulder when he did his courtesy :
that his majesty had sundry of his own suite with
him, and some Englishmen ; and that the only noble-
man he noticed was my Lord Duke. This was at ten
o'clock.* Henderson then went to his own house,
pulled off his boots, and returned to Gowrie House
about eleven, when the earl commanded him to put
on his "secret,^ and plate sleeves," as he would require
his assistance to seize a Highlandman in the Shoe
Gate. At half-past twelve Gowrie took his dinner,
having, as his guests, three friends of the neighbour-
hood ; and as they sat at table, Andrew Ruthven, the
Master's second messenger, entered the room, and
whispered to the earl. Soon after came the Master
himself, upon which Gowrie and his friends rose ; and
now for the first time openly alluding to the royal
visit, he assembled his servants, and walked to the
Inch or meadow near the town, where he met the king.
James 1 train did not exceed twelve or fifteen per-
sons, including Lennox, Mar, Sir Thomas Erskine,
John Ramsay his page, Dr Hugh Herries, Lords
Lindores and Inchaffray, with a few others. They
wore their green hunting-dresses, and were wholly
without armour; a horn slung over their shoulder, and
a sword or deer-knife at their girdle, being all they
* Henderson's Declaration, Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. ii. p. 176.
t A secret shirt of mail worn under the clothes.
310 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
carried. Cowrie's servants and followers amounted
nearly to fourscore ; but many of these must have
been townsmen and lookers-on. On coming to Gowrie
House the king called for a drink, and was somewhat
annoyed at having to wait long for his welcome cup,
and more than an hour for his dinner. During this
interval, Alexander Ruthven sent for the key of the
long room, called the Gallery Chamber, which imme-
diately adjoined the cabinet where the king dined.
At the end of this gallery was another apartment,
which opened into a circular room, formed in the in-
terior of a turret ; and this room, it is important to
observe, could be entered, not only by the door at the
end of the gallery, but by another door communicat-
ing with a back-stair or turnpike, called the Black
Turnpike. Soon after the king had sat down to din-
ner, Gowrie, who waited upon him, sent for Hender-
son, and taking him aside secretly, bade him go to his
brother in the gallery. He obeyed ; found Mr Alex-
ander there, and almost instantly after was joined by
the earl himself, who commanded him to remain
where he was, and obey the Master's orders.* Hen-
derson was now fully armed, all except the head : he
had noted that the tale about seizing a Highland
thief in the Shoe Gate was a false pretence ; and be-
ginning to suspect some treason, asked, in an agitated
tone, what they were about to do with him ?
The only reply of Gowrie and the Master was to
point to the little chamber, make him enter the door,
and lock him up.
All this occupied but a few minutes, and Gowrie
then returned to the king, who was sitting at his des-
sert ; whilst the duke and the rest of his suite were
* Henderson's Declaration, Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 177.
1600. JAMES VI. 311
dining in the next room. They had nearly finished
their repast, when James, in a bantering manner, ac-
cused Gowrie of having been so long in foreign parts
as to have forgotten his Scottish courtesies. *' Where-
fore, my lord," said he, " since ye have neglected to
drink either to me or my nobles, who are your guests,
I must drink to you my own welcome. Take this
cup, and pledge them the king's scoll * in my name. 1 '
Gowrie, accordingly, calling for wine, joined the duke
and his fellows, who were getting up from table ; and
at this instant Alexander Huthven seizing the mo-
ment when the king was alone, whispered him that
now was the time to go. James, rising up, bade him
call Sir Thomas Erskine ; but he evaded the message,
and Erskine never received it. Lennox, too, remem-
bering the king's injunctions, spoke of following his
majesty ; but Gowrie prevented him, saying, his high-
ness had retired on a quiet errand, and would not be
disturbed ; -J- after which, he opened the door leading
to his pleasure-ground, and with Lennox, Lindores,
and some others, passed into the garden. Thus really
cut off from assistance, but believing that he would be
followed by Lennox or Erskine, James now followed
Ruthven up a stair, and through a suite of various
chambers, all of them opening into each other, the
Master locking every door as they passed ; and ob-
serving, with a smile, that now they had the fellow
sure enough. At last they entered the small round
room already mentioned. On the wall hung a picture
with a curtain before it ; beside it stood a man in ar-
mour; and as the king started back in alarm, Ruthven
locked the door, put on his hat, drew the dagger from
* The king's scoll ; the king's health.
f Lennox's Declaration, Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 172.
312
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
1600.
the side of the armed man, and tearing the curtain
from the picture, showed the well-known features of
the late Earl of Gowrie, his father. " Whose face is
that ?" said he, advancing the dagger with one hand
to the king's breast, and pointing with the other to
the picture. "Who murdered my father? Is not
thy conscience burdened by his innocent blood ? Thou
art now my prisoner, and must be content to follow
our will, and to be used as we list. Seek not to es-
cape ; utter but a cry, (James was now looking at the
window, and beginning to speak ;) make but a motion
to open the window, and this dagger is in thy heart."
The king, although alarmed by this fierce address, and
the suddenness of the danger, did not lose his presence
of mind : and as Henderson was evidently no willing
accomplice, he took courage to remonstrate with the
Master ; reminded him of the dear friendship he had
borne him ; and " as for your father's death," said he,
" I had no hand in it : it was my council's doing ;
and should ye now take my life, what preferment will
it bring you ? Have I not both sons and daughters ?
You can never be king of Scotland ; and I have many
good subjects who will revenge my death." Ruthven
seemed struck with this, and swore he neither wanted
his blood nor his life. " What racks * it then," said
the king, " that you should not take off your hat in
your prince's presence ?" Upon this Ruthven unco-
vered, and James resumed. " What crave ye, an ye
seek not my life?" " But a promise, Sir," was the
reply. " What promise?" " Sir," said Ruthven,
" my brother will tell you." " Go, fetch him, then,"
rejoined the king ; and to induce him to obey, he
gave his oath, that till his return he would neither
* What racks ; what forbids.
]600. JAMES VI. 313
cry out nor open the window. Ruthven consented ;
commanded Henderson to keep the king at his peril ;
and left the room, locking the door behind him.
James now, for a moment, had time to breathe; and
turning to Henderson, he asked him how he came
there. The unhappy man declared he had been shut
in like a dog. Would Gowrie do him any mischief ?
Henderson answered he should die first. " Open the
window, then, 1 ' said James ; and scarce had this been
done, or rather when it was being done, Ruthven broke
into the room again, and swearing there was no remedy,
ran in upon the king, seized him by the wrists, and
attempted to bind him with a garter or silk cord which
he had in his hands. James, by a strong effort, threw
himself loose, exclaiming, he was a free prince, and
would never be bound ; and Henderson at this moment
wrenching away the cord, the king " leapt free," and
had almost reached the window, when Ruthven again
seized him by the throat with one hand, and thrust
the other into his mouth to prevent him giving the
alarm. But James now rendered desperate, and ex-
erting his utmost strength, dragged his assailant to
the window, and throwing his head half out, though
Ruthven's hand was still on his throat, cried out,
"Treason! help! Earl of Mar, I am murdered!"
Ruthven then dragged him back into the chamber,
upbraiding Henderson as a cowardly villain, who
would bring death upon them all, and attempted to
draw his sword, which James prevented by grasping
his right hand.* Henderson during this unlocked
the door of the room, and then stood trembling and
panic-struck, whilst a desperate wrestle continued be-
tween the king and Ruthven.
* Henderson's Declaration in Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 178.
314
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
1600.
Leaving James in this struggle for life, we must
turn for an instant to Gowrie, who had led Lennox
and the other courtiers into the garden. Whilst there,
Cranston, one of his attendants, ran up, and informed
them that the king had left the castle by the back
way, and was riding over the Inch, upon which Gowrie
called to horse ; and he, Lennox, and the rest, hurry-
ing down the great staircase, and shouting for their
horses, some one asked the porter in the court-yard,
if the king had passed. He declared he had not ; and
insisted in his denial, although his master abused him
as a lying varlet. Gowrie, upon this, ran back into
the house, observing to Mar, he would ascertain the
truth ; and returning within a few minutes, assured
them that the king had really gone forth, and must
now have reached the South Inch. Scarcely, however,
was this falsehood uttered, when it was confuted ; for
at this moment James 1 loud cry of treason and murder
was heard ; and, looking up, they saw the king^s face
at the window of the turret, the features red and
flushed with exertion, and a hand on his throat.*
All was now horror and confusion. Sir Thomas
Erskine collared Gowrie, exclaiming, " Traitor, thou
shalt die ! This is thy work ! n but was felled to the
ground by Andrew Ruthven, whilst Gowrie asserted
his innocence. Lennox^ first impulse was to save
the king; and he, Mar, and some others, rushed up
the great staircase to the hall ; but finding the door
locked, began to batter it with a ladder which lay
hard by.*f John Ramsay, one of the royal suite, was
more fortunate. He remembered the back entry ; and
* Lennox's Declaration, Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 173. Christie's Declaration,
ibid., p. 187.
f Id. ibid., Lindores' Declaration, Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 181.
1600. JAMES VI. 315
running swiftly up the turnpike stair to the top,
dashed open the door of the round chamber with his
foot, and' found himself in the presence of the king and
Ruthven, who were wrestling in the middle of the
chamber. James, with Ruthveu 1 s head under his
arm, had thrown him down almost on his knees,
whilst the Master still grasped the king's throat.*
Ramsay was hampered by a hawk, a favourite bird of
James" 1 , which he held on his wrist ; but throwing her
off, and drawing his whinger, (* he made an ineffectual
blow at Ruthven ; the king calling out to strike low,
as the traitor had on a pyne doublet. J Ramsay then
stabbed him twice in the lower part of the body. The
king making a strong effort, pushed him backwards
through the door, down the stairs ; and at this mo-
ment Sir Thomas Erskine and Dr Herries rushing
up the turnpike, and encountering the unhappy youth,
bleeding, and staggering upon the steps, despatched
him with their swords. As he lay in his last agony,
he turned his face to them, and said, feebly, " Alas !
I had not the wyte o't.'^
All this passed so rapidly, that Ramsay had only
time to catch a glance of a figure in armour, standing
near the king, but motionless. When he next looked,
it had disappeared. This seeming apparition was
Henderson, still trembling, and in amazement, from
the scene he had witnessed ; but who, seeing the door
open, glided down the turnpike, and, as it turned out,
fled instantly from the house ; passing, in his flight,
over the Master's dead body. || At this moment, as
* Ramsay's Declaration, Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 183.
) Whinger ; a hunting knife.
J Pyne doublet ; a concealed shirt of mail worn under the clothes.
I had not the blame of it.
|| Henderson's Declaration, Ramsay's Declaration, and Sir Thomas
Erskine's Declaration, all printed in Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 175-184 inclusive.
316
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
1600.
Erskine and Ramsay were congratulating the king, a
new tumult was heard at the end of the gallery ; and
they had scarcely time to hurry James into the ad-
joining chamber, when Gowrie himself, furious from
passion, and armed with a rapier in each hand, rushed
along the gallery, followed by seven of his servants,
with drawn swords. His vengeance had been roused
to the utmost pitch, by his having stumbled over the
bleeding body of his brother ; and swearing a dreadful
oath that the traitors who had murdered him should
die, he threw himself desperately upon Erskine and
his companions, who were all wounded in the first on-
set, and fought at great odds, there being eight to
four.* Yet the victory was not long doubtful ; for,
some one calling out that the king was slain, Gowrie,
as if paralysed with horror, dropt the points of his
weapons, and Ramsay, throwing himself within his
guard, passed his sword through his body, and slew
him on the spot. The servants, seeing their master
fall, gave way, and were driven out of the gallery ;
and Lennox, Mar, and the rest, who were still thun-
dering with their hammers on the outside of the great
door, having made themselves known to the king and
his friends within, were joyfully admitted. So effec-
tually, however, had Ruthven secured this door, that
it was only by passing a hammer through one of the
shattered boards, and with it forcibly wrenching off
the lock, that their entrance was effected. The first
thing that met their eyes was the dead body of Gowrie
lying on the floor, and the king standing unharmed
boside it, although still breathless from the recent
* Thomas Robertson's Declaration, Pitcairn, vol. ii. p. 196 ; also, ibid.,
p. 197; Ramsay's Declaration, ibid., pp. 183, 184; and Sir Thomas Erskine's
Declaration, ibid., p. 182 ; William Robertson's Declaration, ibid., p. 197.
1600. JAMES VI. 317
struggle, and disordered in his dress. At this mo-
ment, Grahame of Balgone, one of the gentlemen who
had accompanied the king from Falkland, found a silk
garter lying amongst the bent, or rough grass with
which the floor of the round chamber was covered ;
and James immediately recognised it as the same with
which Ruthven had attempted to bind his hands.*
The king then knelt down, and, surrounded by his
nobles, who were all on their knees, devoutly thanked
God for his deliverance ; arid prayed that the life
which had been thus signally preserved, might be de-
voted to the welfare of his people.
Scarcely, however, had they risen from their act of
gratitude, when a new danger began to threaten them.
The city bell was heard ringing, mingled with shouts
and cries of vengeance, from an immense mob who
beset the outside of Gowrie House, and threatened to
blow it up, and bury them in the ruins. Andrew
Ruthven and Violet Ruthven, two near relatives of
the family of Gowrie, had been busy in rousing the
citizens ; and, running wildly through the streets,
vented curses and maledictions on " the bloody but-
chers'" who had murdered their young provost and his
brother. Nor did many spare to threaten the king
himself; crying out, "Come down, come down, thou
son of Seignor Davie ! thou hast slain a better man
than thyself. Come down, green coats, thieves and
traitors ! limmers that have slain these innocents.
May God let never nane o' you have such plants of
your ain ! "f Amid this hubbub, and storm of lamen-
* Grahame's Declaration, Pitcairn's Criminal Tiials. vol. ii. p. 184 :
also, p. 217.
f Ibid., vol. ii. pp. 197, 193, 190.
318
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
1600.
tation and vengeance, James ordered the magistrates
to be admitted into the house ; and having informed
them of all that had happened, commanded them to
silence the alarum-bell, and quiet the people on their
peril ; which they at last with difficulty effected. He
then ordered them to take care of the dead bodies; and
on searching Gowrie^s person, there was found in the
pocket of his doublet, a little parchment bag full of
" magical characters and words of enchantment, 11 which
his tutor, EJiynd, recognised as the same he had dis-
covered him wearing at Padua.* A belief in sorcery
was, as is well known, universal in these days ; and
such superstitious credit did both king and people give
to the little bag of cabalistic words, that they insisted
that no blood had issued from the wound till the spell
was removed from the body, after which it gushed out
profusely.
James now took horse, and although it was already
eight in the evening, rode to Falkland amid crowds of
his subjects, who poured in from all quarters to testify
their joy at his escape. Next day, the news having
been brought to Edinburgh, nothing could exceed the
enthusiastic demonstrations of the city ; and the same
scene was repeated, with still louder and more affec-
tionate welcome, when the king, after a brief retire-
ment at Falkland, passed over the Forth, and entered
his capital. The Cross was hung with tapestry ; the
whole city, led by the judges and magistrates, met
him on the sands at Leith ; and from thence he rode
in triumph, and amid an immense congregation of all
classes of his people, to the Cross, where Mr Patrick
* Declaration of Rhynd, Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. ii. pp. 218, 219,
220.
3600. JAMES vi. 319
Galloway preached to the multitude, gave the story
of the treason, and described the miraculous escape of
the monarch. His sermon still remains, an extra-
ordinary specimen of the pulpit eloquence of the
times *
* Pitcairn's Criminal Trials, vol. ii. p. 248.
S20 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
CHAP. VII.
JAMES THE SIXTH.
16001603.
CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS
England.
Elizabeth.
France.
Henry IV.
Germany.
Rudolph II.
Spain.
Philip III.
Portugal.
Philip III.
Pope.
Clement VIII.
THE general gratulation manifested at the escape of
the king from the treason of Gowrie, was not without
its alloy. Though almost all believed in the reality
of the conspiracy, a section of the Kirk demurred and
doubted ; and as the death of both the brothers had
involved the particulars of the plot in extreme obscurity,
the ministers not only declared it questionable that
any treason had been intended, but, after a while,
started the extravagant theory that the plot was a
conspiracy of the king against Gowrie, not of Gowrie
against the king. To examine or refute this hypo-
thesis, after the facts which have been given, would be
worse than idle ; and we are not to be surprised that
the incredulity of the Kirk should have incensed the
king. But James adopted an unwise mode of refuta-
tion. Instead of simply insisting on the great features
of the story, on the leading facts which were indis-
putably proved by the evidence of Lennox, Mar,
Erskine, and Ramsay, and throwing aside all minor
matters and apparent contradictions, which, consider-
1600. JAMES vi. 32 1
ing the rapidity, terror, and tumult accompanying the
event, confirmed rather than weakened the proof; he
forgot his dignity ; held repeated conferences with the
recusant ministers; argued, cavilled, remonstrated,
and attempted in vain to explain and reconcile every
minute particular. The effect of all this was precisely
what might have been anticipated : Mr Robert Bruce,
and his little sceptical conclave of brethren, were quite
as ingenious in their special pleading as the king ; and
not only obstinately refused to accuse Gowrie in their
pulpits of any plot against the royal person, but in-
solently insinuated that their two favourites had been
murdered. James, finding them immoveable, banished
them from the capital ; and interdicted them, under
pain of death, from preaching in any part of Scotland.
This severity brought four of the recusants, Bal-
canquel, Watson, Hall, and Balfour, to reason ; and
they declared themselves thoroughly satisfied of the
truth of Gowrie's treason. But Bruce was inexorable.
He considered that the question involved not only the
truth of the conspiracy, but the spiritual independence
of the Kirk ; peremptorily refused to exculpate the
king, or believe in his report ; and was banished to
France.* Extreme measures were then adopted against
the family of Ruthven ; and in a parliament which
assembled in the succeeding month of November, the
revolting spectacle was exhibited of the trial for trea-
son of the livid corpses of these unhappy brothers ;
which, after the doom of forfeiture had been pro-
nounced, were hauled to the gibbet, hanged and
quartered. Their quarters were then exposed in the
most conspicuous places of Perth, Stirling, and Dun-
dee, and their heads fixed on the top of the prison in
* Spottiswood, p. 461.
VOL. IX. X
322 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
Edinburgh. Nor was the ignominy heaped upon the
dead greater than the severity against the living. An
attempt was made, on the very night of the catastro-
phe, to seize the two younger brothers of the house,
who, at the time, were living with their unhappy
mother at Dunkeld; but a vague .report of danger had
reached her, and they had escaped in disguise, accom-
panied by their tutor, who brought them in safety to
Berwick.* On the king's return to Falkland, on the
night of the fifth of August, the sister of Gowrie, Mrs
Beatrix Ruthven, who was maid of honour to the
queen, was dismissed and banished. from court. By
an act of the same parliament which inflicted the for-
feiture, the very name of Ruthven was abolished; and
the brethren and posterity of the house of Gowrie
declared to be for ever incapable of enjoying inheri-
tance, place, or dignity, in Scotland. Such was the
avidity with which the favourites of the court sought,
for their own profit, to hunt down this ill-fated family,
and fulfil the stern wishes of the king, that but for the
generous protection of England, not a male of the
house of Ruthven would have been left.
The relations between Elizabeth and James, pre-
vious to the conspiracy, had been, we have seen, far
from friendly ; and this connivance of the queen at
the concealment of the young Ruthvens, with other
suspicious reports which arose immediately after the
catastrophe, created a strong impression in the mind
of the king that the plot had been fostered in England.
It was remembered mat Gowrie had been admitted,
immediately previous to the attempt, into the most
intimate confidence of the English queen ; it was ob-
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Serope to Sir R. Cecil, llth
August, 1600. Ibid., same to the same, 15th August, IC'OO.
1600. JAMES vi. 323
served that Rhynd, Gowrie's tutor, had been found
destroying letters at the moment he was apprehended ;
it was reported that Nicolson, the English resident at
Edinburgh, had been seen waiting, early on the morn-
ing of the sixth of August, on the shore at Leith, and
had whispered to a friend, who had betrayed his secret,
that he was expecting strange news from the other side
of the water. The Earl of Mar accused Lord Wyl-
loughby, the governor of Berwick, to the king, as being
privy to the plot ; but his only evidence seems to have
been Wylloughby's intimacy with Gowrie at the court
of England ; and this high-minded and brave soldier
deeming his character far above such suspicion, did
not condescend to confute the charge.* All these
things, however, made an impression. When Nicolson
assured the king of his devout thankfulness for his
escape, the only answer he received, was an incredulous
smile from James ; and many of the highest rank in
Scotland, and best entitled to credit, persisted in tra-
cing the whole conspiracy to England. Many, on the
other hand, insisted on the total want of all direct
evidence of Gowrie's guilt ; and as the letters of Logan
of Restalrig had not then come to light, it was difficult
to confute such sceptics. Cranston, Craigengelt, and
Baron, all of them servants of Gowrie, who were exe-
cuted for their participation in the enterprise, had been
examined by torture ; and both in the agony of the
" boots, 11 and afterwards on the scaffold, confessed no-
thing which could implicate their unhappy master or
themselves ; and the letters of Nicolson, Lord Scrope,
and Sir William Bowes, made little scruple of throw-
ing the chief guilt upon the king.
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 6th August, 1600.
Id. ibid., llth August, 1600. Id. ibid., B.C., Lord Wylloughby to Cecil.
324 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
Amid all this obscurity, recrimination, and conjec-
ture, James despatched Captain Preston to carry an
account of his escape to Elizabeth ; and she, in her
turn, sent down Sir Harry Brunker with a singular
letter, written wholly in her own hand, which began
with congratulations, and concluded in a tone of
mingled menace and reproach. Her anger had been
raised on a subject which never failed to produce in
her mind unusual excitement James 1 intrigues as to
the succession ; and after a few lines on her joy at
his escape, she attacked him in the following bitter
terms on his impatience for her death, and the inde-
cent haste of his preparations :
"And though a king I be, yet hath my funerals been
prepared, as I hear, long ere, I suppose, their labour
shall be needful ; and do hear too much of that daily,
as I may have a good memorial that I am mortal :
and withall so be they, too, that make such prepara-
tion aforehand ; whereat I smile, supposing that such
facts may make them readier for it than I.
" Think not but how wilily soever things be carried,
they are so well known that they may do more harm
to others than to me. Of this my pen hath run farther
than at first I meant, when the memory of a prince's
end made me call to mind such usage, which too many
countries talks of, and I cannot stop my ears from.
If you will needs know what I mean, I have been
pleased to impart to this my servant some part thereof;
to whom I will refer me ; and will pray God to give
you grace to know what best becomes you.
" Your loving Sister and Cousin."*
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Royal Letters, Scotland. Copy of her
Majesty's letter to the King of Scots, written with her own hand, and sent
by Sir Henry Brunker, 21st August, 1600.
1600. JAMES VI. 325
What Elizabeth here alluded to by the memory of
a prince's end is somewhat obscure ; and her ambas-
sador's explanation, to which she referred him, does
not appear : but the subjects which had especially
excited her wrath, were James 1 correspondence with
the Earl of Essex, and his recent reception of Sir
Edmund Ashfield, the same knight who had been
so unceremoniously kidnapped by Bowes and Guevara,
and Lord Wylloughby. It was mortifying enough
to a princess clinging, as still she did, to the last
remnant of life and glory, to know that her subjects
(as she bitterly said) "were looking to the rising sun ;"
but to find them in the very act of worship, chafed
her to the quick : and perhaps nothing weighed
heavier against Essex, than his suspected favour for
James. There is a remarkable paper preserved, in
which Ashfield gave his opinion to the Scottish king
on the best mode of accomplishing his great object ;
and although no letters between James and Essex
have been discovered, there seems to be little doubt
that this unfortunate nobleman, now a prisoner in the
Tower, had engaged to support the claim of the Scot-
tish monarch with the whole weight of his influence.
In his advices, Ashfield complimented James on the
wisdom and judgment which had distinguished his
policy towards the State and people of England. It
was a great matter, he observed, that none feared his
future government, or had taken offence at his person.
He instructed him to employ every effort to gain the
common lawyers, who possessed the " gainfullest "
offices ; were rich and politic men ; more feared than
beloved by the people, yet very powerful in the State.
He ought next, he said, to secure the clergy, who pos-
sessed the greatest influence in the universities; were
326 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
rich ; and had most of the people, and many of the
nobility and gentry at their devotion. He should
assure them that he had no intention of altering the
state of religion, or their livings ; which, according
to the then computation of the parishes in England,
amounted to nine thousand seven hundred and twenty-
seven. And if (Ashfield added) the king declared his
inclination to exempt them from the heavy taxes which
they now paid, it would go far to bring over the whole
body to his service. He also advised the king to have
letters ready, at the time of Elizabeth's death, to some
one or two of the chiefest " men of command" in every
shire and corporation, and promised to procure him a
list, not only of the names of such, but also of the
collectors and tellers of the crown rents in England,
to whom he might give speedy and special directions,
by gracious letters, and win them to his service. His
last remark related to the " citizens of London," a
body of men whom he described as rich, strong, and
well governed ; who would stand firm to the preserva-
tion of their wealth, and keep themselves neutral till
they saw which of the competitors was likely to prove
the strongest, and how the game would go.*
Immediately after the meeting of that parliament,
in November, in which the forfeiture of the Gowries
took place, some unhappy differences broke out between
the king and his queen ; this princess having shown a
deeper commiseration for the Ruthven family than
James approved of. Amongst the innumerable re-
ports which had arisen, after the catastrophe, it had
been whispered that jealousy had lent its sting to the
royal wrath. But although Anne of Denmark was
sufficiently gay and thoughtless to give some ground
* MS. British Museum, Julius, F. vi. 133.
1600. JAMES VI. 327
for the imputation, the common story of her passion
for the Master of Ruthven seems to rest on nothing
more than the merest rumour. She imprudently had
given her countenance to that party at court which
opposed the extreme severity of the king. It was re-
ported that she had secretly sent for Beatrix Ruthven,
and favoured her witha midnight interview in the palace.
She suspected that intrigues were carrying on against
her ; and, on one occasion, if we may believe Nicolson
the envoy of Elizabeth, was so far overcome by passion,
that she openly upbraided James with a plot for her
imprisonment; and warned him that he would not
find her so easy a prey as an Earl of Gowrie. The
probability, however, is, that all this was much exag-
gerated by the gossiping propensities of Nicolson:
for the royal couple, whom he represented as on very
evil terms on the thirty-first of October, had been
described in a letter, written only two days before, as
exceedingly loving, and almost ultra-uxorious.* In
the midst of this alternate matrimonial shade and
sunshine, Anne gave birth to a prince, afterwards the
unfortunate Charles the First; whose baptism was
held, with great state and pageantry, on the thirtieth
of December.-f-
Captain Preston, James'' ambassador, now returned
from the court of England, and brought a more ami-
cable letter from the queen than her former ironical
epistle. In speaking of Gowrie's treason, she declared
her fervent wishes, that " the bottom of such a cankered
malady should be fathomed to the uttermost ;" and in
alluding to the sorceries of the earl, and the familiar
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 28th October, 1600.
Also, ibid., same to same, 31st October, 1600.
f MS. Latter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 30th Dec., 1600.
S'28 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600.
spirits who were said to wait on his will, expressed
her conviction, that " none were left in Hell," so de-
testable was the treason ; but this, she concluded,
ought to increase his gratitude to that Almighty
Power under whose wings no infernal assaults could
reach him, as it gave greater fervency to the Amen
with which she accompanied her thanksgiving.* How-
ever involved or pedantic, there was no such obscurity
in this letter as in the former ; no dark hints or
menaces : and its conciliatory tone was met by James
with every friendly and grateful offer of assistance
against her enemies. He revealed to her all the secret
intelligence he had received from Spain, and promised
his utmost efforts to raise a force of two thousand
Highland soldiers, to act as auxiliaries with the Eng-
lish army in Ireland.*^ When this proposal, however,
afterwards came before the convention of the three
Estates, many of the Highlanders and Islesmen sternly
refused to bear arms against the Irish ; a race to whom
they were linked, they said, by common descent, and
a common language ; whilst the Saxons, or English,
whose battles they were to fight, had long been the
bitter enemies, both of themselves and their Irish
ancestors. What impression English gold might have
made on these patriotic scruples is not certain ; for,
before the muster could be made, a signal victory of
the deputy, Lord Mountjoy, over the united forces of
Tyrone and the Spaniards, rendered all foreign assis-
tance unnecessary.!
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Royal Letters. Draft copy of her Ma-
jesty's letter to the King of Scots, sent by his ambassador, Mr Preston, 14th
September, 1600.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 4th July, 1602.
I MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 3d January, 1601-2.
Ibid., same to the same, 6th February, 1601-2.
1600-1. JAMES VI. 329
The fate of Essex, who now lay a condemned prisoner
in the Tower, was a subject of deep interest to James.
What negotiations had passed between this unfortu-
nate nobleman and the King of Scots, it is extremely
difficult to discover. No letters from Essex to James,
or from the king to Essex, have been preserved ; at
least none have been discovered : and the assertion of
Rapin, which has been more or less copied by all suc-
ceeding English historians, that James was actually
a fellow-conspirator with him in his insane project for
the seizure of the queen's person, and that it was a
part of their plot to dethrone Elizabeth and crown
James, is utterly improbable, and supported by no
evidence whatever. That the king, in common with
all who knew him best, esteemed and admired Essex,
and that Essex had written to James after his return
from Ireland, is, however, certain ; nor is it at all im-
probable that the English earl had laboured to estrange
the Scottish monarch from Cecil, and to persuade him
that the secretary was an enemy to his claim, and
favoured the title of the Infanta. There undoubtedly
was a time, as we learn from James 1 secret instructions
to Burlie,* (whom he despatched in 1601 to the Grand
Duke of Tuscany,) when the Scottish king hesitated
whether it would be best to secure the aid of the party
of Essex or of Cecil in his secret negotiations with
England; but the defeat and imprisonment of this
unfortunate nobleman convinced him that his case
was desperate ; and there is an expression in one of
James 1 memoranda, from which we may infer, that to
conciliate Elizabeth he had meanly sent her one of
Essex's letters to himself.
However this may be, the Scottish king, some time
* Hailes' Cecil Correspondence, p. 112.
330 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1600-1.
before the trial of Essex, had determined to communi-
cate with Elizabeth, on some points wherein he found
himself aggrieved ; and he now, with the view of in-
terceding for his gallant and unfortunate friend, de-
spatched to London two ambassadors, the Earl of Mar,
one of his highest and most trusted nobles, and Mr
Edward Bruce abbot of Kinloss, a person of great
judgment and experience. They set off towards the
middle of February 1 601,* with a gallant suite of more
than forty persons ; and on their arrival at Berwick,
were received by the governor, Lord Wylloughby ;
who gathered from them, in the course of their brief
intercourse, that the chief object of their mission was
to congratulate the English queen on her escape from
the treason of Essex, and to remonstrate against the
reception and relief of Gowrie's brothers in England.-J-
In their conversations with this nobleman, they appear
to have avoided any allusion to the probable fate of
Essex ; yet that James had directed them to intercede
for his friend cannot be doubted. His compassion,
however, came too late ; for Essex was beheaded before
the ambassadors reached London. The original in-
structions for their mission have not been preserved ;
but a letter of their royal master to Mar and Kinloss,
written soon after their arrival, opens up to us much
of its secret history. The real purpose for which they
went, was to feel the pulse of the English nobility and
people on the great subject of the-Tsuccession ; to se-
cure friends ; to discover and undermine opponents ;
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 15th Feb., 1600-1.
Written on the day Nicolson communicated to James the intelligence of
the determination to execute Essex. Certain news of his death were brought
on 4th March, 1600-1.
t MS. Letter, State-paper Office, B.C., Lord Wylloughby to Cecil, 22d
Feb., 1601, following the Scottish computation : 1600 the English.
1601. JAMES VI. 331
to conciliate the queen, and, if possible, procure from
her a more distinct recognition of James 1 title to the
throne : above all, to gain Secretary Cecil, who was
now at the head of the English government, and on
whose friendly disposition James had long believed
that everything depended. Many others had been
forward in offering their assistance ; and to all he pru-
dently gave a cordial reception ; but to Cecil alone he
looked as the man who had the game in his hand, and
whom he described in his letter of instructions as
" king there in effect."*
On the first audience of Mar and Kinloss, however,
all seemed likely to miscarry. From the coldness
and jealousy of Elizabeth, she appeared to resent some
expressions in the king's sealed letter, written wholly
in his own hand, and expostulating with her, in very
decided terms, against her too easy belief of the unjust
imputations so generally circulated against him. He
declared that he was impelled by their long friendship
and her own example, to unbosom his griefs, and not
to suffer any misconstrued thoughts against her actions
to take harbour in his heart ; for which purpose, hav-
ing already experienced the mischief which both had
suffered from the* employment of inferior diplomatic
agents, he had now sent one of his highest nobles, the
Earl of Mar, and one of his wisest councillors, the
Abbot of Kinloss ; both of them men of known and
constant affection to the continuance of the amity
between the two nations and their sovereigns ; and
whom he had fully instructed to deal with all " that
* Secret Correspondence of Sir R. Cecil, by Lord Hailes, p. 12. From
a MS. Letter, State-paper Office, James Hudson to Cecil, 7th March, 1600- 1 ,
it appears the ambassadors arrived in London early in March. Their audi-
ence seems to have been on the 22d of March. MS. Letter, State-paper
Office, Hudson to Cecil, 21st March, 1600-1.
332 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. ] 601.
honest plainness which was the undisseverable com-
panion of true friendship."*
Their plainness, however, seems to have been rather
too much for the temper of Elizabeth, which, at no
time very amiable, was now fretted and broken by her
increasing infirmities. " Her majesty, 11 said Cecil to
Nicolson, " gave the Earl of Mar nothing but negative
answers ; the matters being of so sour a nature to the
queen, who loves neither importunity nor expostula-
tion." When the ambassadors explained the great
pecuniary embarrassments of their royal master, and
his hopes that, having done so much to assist her
against their common enemies, he now expected some
return in current coin, she met the proposal with a
haughty denial. She would give, she said, no ready
money ; but, if he continued to deserve it, his pension
should be augmented ; and in the meantime, it would
be well if he, who boasted of his services against the
common enemy, would cease all traffic with Spain, and
receive less frequent messages from Rome. As to
Lady Lennoxes lands, which he claimed so confidently,
he should not receive a fraction of their rents ; his
title to them, she thought, was still in nubibus ; and
till he made it out more clearly, the estates were in
safe hands. For the other matters on which they
had shown themselves so importunate, they were of
too delicate and important a nature to be suddenly
handled ; and she wondered, she. said, at the boldness
and perseverance with which they had pressed upon
her, and dared to broach to her council, so forbidding
a subject.^ This, of course, alluded to the succession ;
* State-paper Office, Royal Letters, Scotland, James to Elizabeth, wholly
in the king's own hand, 10th February, 1601.
t MS. Letter, British Museum, Titus, C. vii. f. 124, Elizabeth to James,
llth May, 1601. ,
1601. JAMES vi. 333
which, reminding her of the probability of her near
dissolution, proved unpalatable in the extreme ; so
that the ambassadors wrote to the king in the lowest
spirits, and strongly remonstrated with Secretary
Cecil on their strange reception. Nothing in the
world, they said, in addressing this minister, but their
uncomfortable experience, could have persuaded them
that his royal mistress would have treated the offers
which regarded her own safety, and the welfare of her
people, with so little regard ; whilst, on the other hand,
she gave so ready an ear to the enemies of their mas-
ter, and the vile slanders which had been circulated
against him. They must make bold to tell him, that
there was a great difference between vigilancy and cre-
dulity ; and that it formed no part of wisdom, "ponere
rumores ante salutem? *
It is interesting to attend to the directions which
this unpromising state of things drew from the Scot-
tish king. The ambassadors, it would appear, had
sought his instructions as to the terms in which they
ought to leave the English queen, if she continued in
this unpropitious and distant temper. " As to your
doubt," said he, "in what sort to leave there,^ it must
be according to the answer you receive to the former
demands : for if ye be well satisfied therein, then must
ye have a sweet and kind parting ; but if ye get no-
thing but a flat and obstinate denial, which I do surely
look for, then are ye, in both the parts of your com-
mission, to behave yourself thus :
" First, ye must be the more careful, since ye come
so little speed in your public employment with the
* MS. Letter, British Museum, Caligula, D. ii. f. 470, Earl of Mar and
Mr Bruce abbot of Kinloss to Secretary Cecil, 29th April, 160L
+ To leave there, i. e., in what terms you take your leave.
334 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1601.
queen, to set forward so much the more your private
negotiation with the country ; and if ye see that the
people be not in the highest point of discontentment,
(whereof I already spake,) then must ye, by your
labours with them, make your voyage at least not all
utterly unprofitable ; which doth consist in these
points : First, to obtain all the certainty ye can of
the town of London, that in due time they will favour
the right ; Next, to renew and confirm your acquain-
tance with the Lieutenant of the Tower ; Thirdly, to
obtain as great a certainty as ye can of the fleet, by
the means of Lord Henry Howard's nephew, and of
some sea-ports ; Fourthly, to secure the hearts of as
many noblemen and knights as ye can get dealing with,
and to be resolved what every one of their parts shall
be at the great day; Fifthly, to foresee anent* armour
for every shire, that against that day my enemies
have not the whole commandment of the armour, and
my friends only be unarmed ; Sixthly, that, as ye
have written, ye may distribute good seminaries -f-
through every shire, that may never leave working in
the harvest until the day of reaping come ; and gener-
ally to leave all things in such certainty and order,
as the enemies be not able, in the meantime, to lay
such bars in my way as shall make- things remediless,
when the time shall come.
" Now, as to the terms ye shall leave in with the
queen, in case of the foresaid flat denial, let your be-
haviour ever be with all honour, respect, and love to
her person ; but, at your parting, ye shall plainly de-
clare unto her, that she cannot use me so hardly as it
shall be able to make me forget any part of that love
that I owe to her as to my nearest kinswoman ; and
* i. e., Regarding. f Secret agents.
1601. JAMES vi. 335
that the greatest revenge I shall ever take of her shall
be to pray to God to open her eyes and to let her see
how far she is wronged by such base instruments about
her, as abuse her ears ; and that although I shall
never give her occasion of grief in her time, yet the
day may come when 1 shall crave an account at them
of their presumption, when there will be no bar be-
twixt me and them," *
Nothing could be more manly and judicious than
this advice to his ambassadors ; nothing was more
fitted to raise his character in the eyes of the queen
herself, than a line of conduct at once affectionate and
firm. Nor were his sentiments and instructions less
sound with regard to Secretary Cecil, and those other
powerful nobles whom he, at this time, suspected of
hostility to his claim, and from whom he had expected
better things.
" You shall plainly declare," said he, " to Mr Se-
cretary and his followers, that since now, when they
are in their kingdom, they will thus misknow me,
when the chance shall turn I shall cast a deaf ear to
their requests : and whereas now I would have been
content to have given them, by your means, a pre-as-
surance of my favour, if at this time they had pressed
to deserve the same ; so now they, contemning it,
may be assured never hereafter to be heard, but all
the queen's hard usage of me to be hereafter craved
at their hands."^
This last menace, however, was wholly unnecessary.
Cecil, whose prudence had led him, for some years
past, to keep aloof from the King of Scots, and to con-
ciliate the favour of his royal mistress, by turning a
* Hailes 1 Secret Correspondence of Sir R. Cecil, p. 9.
f Ibid., pp. 8, 9, 10.
336 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1601.
deaf ear to all proposals from that suspected quarter,
was too acute a courtier, and too keenly alive to his
own interest, not to discern the exact moment when
perseverance in this principle would have been visited
with the total ruin of his power. That moment had
now arrived. Elizabeth's health was completely shat-
tered ; and however earnestly she struggled to conceal
the truth from herself, or to assume her usual gaiety
before her people, it was but too evident that after her
long and proud walk of glory and strength, her feet
were beginning to stumble upon the dark mountain;
and that the time could not be very far distant when
the silver cord must be loosed, and the golden bowl be
broken. With this prospect before him, Cecil opened,
with extraordinary caution, and the most solemn in-
junctions and oaths of concealment,* a negotiation
with Mar and Kinloss ; and James, who had hitherto
suspected him, not only welcomed the advances, but
soon gave him his full confidence, and intrusted every-
thing to his management and address. How all this
was effected, what were the steps which led from dis-
trust to reconciliation, and from this to undoubting
and almost exclusive confidence, cannot be ascertained ;
but two facts are certain and full of meaning: the
first, that Cecil, as appears by a paper preserved at
Hatfield, advanced ten thousand pounds out of his
own pocket to James, which was never repaid ; the
second, that this able diplomatist, from being first
minister to Elizabeth, upon the death of his mistress
stepped at once, without question or opposition, into
the same high office under James.
Meanwhile the Scottish ambassadors profited by
* Hailes' Secret Correspondence of Sir R. Cecil, pp. 190, 191 : also,
pp. 202, 203.
1601. JAMES vi. 337
this secret influence; and acting under the instructions
of one who had the deepest insight into the character
of the queen and the state of the country, were able
to follow out their instructions with infinitely greater
success than on their first arrival. After a residence
of three months in England,* they returned to James
in the beginning of June ; and although all had not
succeeded to the extent of his wishes, the assurances
which they brought from Elizabeth were friendly and
encouraging. She expressed her astonishment, indeed,
that the king should have again pressed upon her the
same disagreeable matter, on which she had hoped he
was already satisfied. It was a bold thing, she said,
for any subject of hers to communicate with the King
of Scots on so great a cause, without her privity ; and
he had done well to address her openly : for he might
assure himself that she alone could do him good : all
byways would turn to dust and smoke. As to his
griefs, to which he alluded in his letter, her conscience
acquitted her of every action which should give him
the slightest annoyance ; yet she took it kindly that
he had unbosomed them, and had sent her so " well-
chosen a couple" as Mar and Kinloss. Her letter
concluded with this warning, embodied in her usual
style of mystery and inuendo :
" Let not shades deceive you, which may take away
best substance. * * * An upright demeanour
bears ever more poise than all disguised shows of good
can do. Remember, that a bird of the air, if no other
instrument, to an honest king shall stand instead of
many feigned practices to utter aught that may any
wise touch him. And so leaving my scribbles, with
my best wishes that you scan what works becometh
* From about February 20th till June 2d, 1601.
VOL. ix. y
338 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1601.
best a king, and what in end will best avail him, [I
rest] your loving sister, that longs to see you deal as
kindly as I mean. 1 '*
Elizabeth's last parliament met (October twenty-
seventh ;) and the queen, although utterly unable for
the exertion, insisted on opening it in person, and
with unusual pomp ; but she fainted under the weight
of the royal robes, and would have fallen to the ground,
if some gentlemen at hand had not caught her in their
arms.-f- The Irish war, and the necessity of a large
subsidy to support it, formed the great business for
which parliament had assembled ; and the queen had
determined to avail herself of James' recent offer, to
send her a body of Highland auxiliaries from the Isles.
Lord Mountjoy, the deputy, was still surrounded by
difficulties. He had to hold out, not only against the
native Irish, led by O'Neill, but against a force of four
thousand Spaniards, who had effected a landing at
Kinsale, under Don Juan D'Aguilar. To these dan-
gers threatening England from without, was added the
deep discontent of the people at home ; who were
groaning under that monstrous and oppressive system
of monopolies, which had raised the prices of all the
necessaries of life to an exorbitant amount. By a
monopoly we are to understand a royal patent, which
conveyed to some individual the right of exclusively
selling any particular commodity ; and the power of
granting such, the queen claimed, and justly, as a part
of her royal prerogative. Bat she had now carried
the practice to a grinding and ruinous extent. The
* MS. Letters, State-paper Office, Royal Letters, Scotland. Indorsed,
Copy of Her Majesty's letter to the King of Scots, written with her own
hand. See, also, her public letter under the Privy Seal, delivered to the
ambassadors on their return, MS. British Museum, Titus, C. vii., fol. 124,
dated llth May, 1601.
t Hailes' Secret Correspondence of Sir R. Cecil, p. 26.
1601. JAMES vi. 339
patentee, if he did not exercise the privilege himself,
disposed of it to another ; and, in either case, all infe-
rior venders, whether in wholesale or retail, were com-
pelled to pay him a high yearly premium, which, of
course, fell eventually on the consumer. This abuse
had gone on increasing since the seventeenth year of
the queen's reign ; who had found it a convenient
way of paying a debt, or satisfying an importunate
courtier or creditor, without drawing upon her own
privy purse, or risking her popularity by direct tax-
ation.* It was to the deep and general discontent
occasioned by this, that King James had alluded in
his secret instructions to Mar and Kinloss, when he
advised them to discover whether the impatience and
disgust of the country had increased to such a height
that they were unwilling to keep on terms any longer
with prince or State. In which case, he observed, it
would be a pity not to declare himself openly in their
favour, or to suffer them to be overthrown for lack of
good backing : { a sentence, by the way, which proves
that Elizabeth had good ground for her jealousy of
the intrigues of the Scottish king with her subjects.
But on the arrival of Mar and Kinloss, they soon dis-
covered that the execrations of the people were directed
rather against the minister Cecil and the government,
than against the queen herself ; and when parliament
met, and the subject of the Irish war was brought be-
fore the Commons, it was soon seen that they knew per-
fectly how to make this distinction. The safety of the
country and the honour of the queen demanded that
they should make every sacrifice to bring the Irish
war to a speedy and successful termination ; and for
* Lingard's History of England, vol. viii. p. 380.
J* Hailes' Secret Correspondence, pp. 2, 3.
340 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1601-2.
this purpose they agreed to one of the largest grants
that had been given during this long reign ; voting at
once four subsidies, and eight tenths and fifteenths,
for the expense of the war : * but on the odious griev-
ance of monopolies they were firm. Cecil's coach, in
going to parliament, had been surrounded by an infu-
riated mob, which assailed him with curses, and threat-
ened to tear him to pieces. It was time, therefore, to
take the alarm ; and the queen, who, however obsti-
nate with her ministers, never struggled beyond the
proper point with her people, sent for the speaker of
the Commons, and declared her resolution to abolish
the whole system. -J- This announcement was received
with the utmost joy ; the queen regained her popu-
larity ; and soon after this, the total defeat of Tyrone
and his Spanish auxiliaries, the successful termination
of the war in Ireland, and the destruction of the Span-
ish galleys under Spinola, by a combined squadron of
the English and Dutch, shed a farewell ray of glory
over the last year of her reign. It was now no longer
necessary for Elizabeth to court the assistance of
James, or to keep in pay the hardy mercenaries of the
Scottish isles : her kingdom was at peace ; and re-
suming her progresses and her gaieties, she struggled
to overcome or defy her increasing infirmities ; rode
to the chase ; had country dances in the Privy Cham-
ber ; selected a new favourite, in the young Earl of
Clanricard ; and seemed wholly given up to disport,
at a time when it was apparent to every one that her
hours had been far better spent in retirement from the
world, and preparation for that last scene, which the
* Hailes' Secret Correspondence, p. 25.
t Lingard, vol. viii. pp. 380, 381.
1602. JAMES vi. 341
greatest prince, as well as the meanest subject, must
act alone.*
There had been some expectation in Scotland that
the question of the succession was to have been agi-
tated in the late parliament ; and the arrival of James 1
favourite, the Duke of Lennox, at the court of Eng-
land, at the moment of its being assembled, seems to
have excited the suspicions of the queen ;} but this
nobleman, although certainly sent by the King of
Scots, chiefly to watch over his interests and confirm
those secret friendships with which he was strength-
ening himself, acted with much prudence, paid his
court effectually to the English queen, and lulled all
resentment by his frank offer to lead the Scottish
auxiliaries against the Spaniards and the Irish. New
and alarming reports of the continued preparations of
Philip the Third having recently reached the queen,
she was particularly gratified by the secret informa-
tion which James had transmitted her on the subject,
and by the readiness with which he had permitted
Lennox to volunteer his services. These, however,
she declined ; declaring that she would never consent
to hazard so valuable a life in so perilous an enterprise,
and dismissing him with the most flattering marks of
" O
her approbation.^
During the duke's residence in England, his chief
care seems to have been to conciliate that party in the
State which was opposed to Cecil, and whom this crafty
minister represented as inimical to James. It was led
by the Earl of Northumberland, Sir Walter Raleigh,
* Lord Henry Howard to the Earl of Mar, Sept. 1602, Hailes' Cecil
Correspondence, pp. 231, 233.
t Lord Henry Howard to the Earl of Mar, 22d Nov., 1601, Hailes' Cor-
respondence of Sir R. Cecil, p. 16.
J MS. State-paper Office, Copy of the time, Royal Letters, Scotland,
Elizabeth to James, 2d December, 1601
342 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1602.
and Lord Cobham. Lord Henry Howard, the agent
of Cecil, in his secret correspondence with the King
of Scots, laboured to persuade that monarch that this
faction were little to be trusted, without weight in the
country, and altogether desperate, false, and reckless
men. The great object of Cecil and Howard was to
exalt their own power and services, and to depreciate
every other instrument to whom James might deem
himself indebted ; and never was there a more revolt-
ing picture than that presented by the secret corre-
spondence of these two politicians with their future
sovereign. To the king himself, Lord Henry's flattery
almost borders upon blasphemy.* On all others, ex-
cept Cecil and his confidants, he pours out an unceas-
ing flood of abuse, slander, bitterness, and contempt ;
and to that great princess whom they had idolized in her
palmy days, and whose sun was now sinking in sorrow,
there is not given a single sigh of regret, not a solitary
glance of sympathy. It has been attempted to defend
Cecil from being participant in these intrigues, by as-
serting that the correspondence is not his, and that
he is not responsible for the letters of Lord Henry
Howard ; but the argument will not bear examination.
It is true, indeed, that he neither signed nor indited
the letters ; but he dictated them : he read and ap-
proved of them ; he despatched them ; he was present
when the answers were received ; he opened the 'packet
which contained them ; and King James, when he
replies, either in his own person or through Mr Bruce
* He is the apple of the Eternal eye ; the most "inestimable King James,
whom neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, shall
separate from the affection and vows they have, next to the sovereign pos-
sessor, vowed to him ; the redoubted monarch, of whose matchless mind
Lord Henry thinks, as God's lieutenant on earth, with the same reverence
and awe which he owes to God himself when he is on his knees." Hailes'
Secret Correspondence of Sir Robert Cecil, pp. 154, 168, 170, 194, 233.
1602. JAMES vi. 343
his late ambassador, addresses Howard as the mere
organ of Cecil. To have written in his own person,
or to have given Lord Henry Howard any unlimited
commission which should have made Cecil responsible
for every sentiment uttered by this prince of flatterers,
would have been far too bungling and dangerous an
expedient for so profound a politician, so accomplished
a lover of mystery and intelligence as this statesman.
But every letter in the correspondence shows that a
finer system was adopted, which insured safety to the
minister in the event of detection, and yet interfered
with none of the advantages of success ; by which
Howard, although fully instructed beforehand by
Cecil, expressed himself as if he acted alone, and at
his own risk. It has been said, also, that the real
letters of Cecil to James are preserved at Hatfield,
amongst the archives of his noble descendant, and
contain nothing discreditable to the secretary. But
these, probably, were letters of mere ceremony and
general goodwill, which Cecil despatched by the com-
mon opportunities, and cared not who should intercept
or read : nay, it is quite possible that, in the intricate
spirit of the diplomacy of these times, they were writ-
ten to be intercepted, and for the purpose of lulling
suspicion by the innocence of their contents. At all
events, nothing could be more secretly or adroitly
managed than the whole correspondence between
Howard, Cecil, and the Scottish king. No one had
the least suspicion of the secret understanding that
existed between the trio. In England, the secretary
appeared wholly engrossed with public affairs, and so
exclusively devoted to his royal mistress, that many
wondered at his indifference to James, whilst he was
in truth his sole adviser. When the subject of the
344 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1601-2.
succession was openly canvassed ; when all were look-
ing to Scotland, and Cecil seemed to stand aloof, and,
if the subject were forced upon him, spoke of the King
of Scots with a coldness and indifference which blinded
the most acute : James, on the other hand, acted his
part with admirable dexterity ; praised Cecil for his
fidelity to his royal mistress ; and affected great doubt
whether he would eventually turn out his friend or
his opponent.
On one point, however, Sir Robert and Lord Henry
mistook the character of their royal correspondent.
To enhance their own services and destroy their rivals,
they insisted on the absolute necessity of the king fol-
lowing out the precise plan which they had sketched
out for him, and declining all offers of assistance but
what came through themselves. Northumberland,
Raleigh, Shrewsbury, Cobham, were, according to
their representations, utterly unworthy of credit; and
were secretly engaged in courses which proved them
to be bitterly opposed to his claim. To write to them,
or to encourage any persons whatever who were not
pointed out by his worthy and faithful Cecil, would,
according to Lord Henry's opinion, be the extremity
of folly, and might in a moment overthrow all the fair
fabric of their hopes. Nay, they had the boldness to
proceed farther ; and not only attempted to work on
the fears and suspicions of the Scottish king, by warn-
ing him of his enemies in England, but threw out
dark and mysterious hints of treasonable intrigues in
his own court, and even presumed to tutor him as to
his conduct to his queen. Anne of Denmark, they
hinted, was a worthy princess, yet a woman, and easily
deceived by flatterers, who, for their own ends, were
doing all they could to thwart the only measures which
1601-2. JAMES vi. 345
could guide him, under the pilotage of his worthy
Cecil, to the haven where he would be. James, how-
ever, was not to be so cozened. He detected the self-
ishness of such conduct ; called upon them, if they
really knew of any plots against his life or his rights,
to speak out with the manly openness of truth, and
have done with dark inuendoes. Following his own
judgment, he treated with contempt their prohibition
as to "secret correspondents" ; wrote to Northumber-
land, accepting with warmth and gratitude his offers of
service ; welcomed with courtesy and goodwill all who
made advances to him ; and took care that Lord Henry
Howard should know that he considered the language
used regarding his queen as a personal insult to himself.
The two cunning statesmen, who had outwitted them-
selves in their desire to monopolize power and destroy
their competitors, were astounded ; and Lord Henry's
apology to his inestimable King James, was as abject
as his object had been mean and selfish.
James' greatest difficulty was with the Catholics,
a powerful party in England; yet regarded by the
queen, and the Protestant body of her subjects, with
so much suspicion, that it was almost equally danger-
ous to his hopes to conciliate, or to practise severity.
But, happily for this prince, they were at this moment
weakened by divisions ; and the great question of the
"succession," which had been keenly debated amongst
the English Catholic exiles abroad, had eventually split
them into two parties : the Spanish faction led by the
celebrated Father Persons, the author of the famous
Treatise on the Succession, published, under the ficti-
tious name of Doleman ; and their opponent faction
led by Paget. The first party had espoused the cause
of the Infanta. It was to support her claim, as de-
346 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1601-2.
scended from John of Gaunt, son of Edward the Third,
that the book on the succession had been written : and
as long as this princess continued single, and there was
a chance of her marrying the King of Scots, or some
English nobleman, it was thought not impossible that
the English people might be reconciled to her acces-
sion. Her marriage, however, with the Archduke
Albert, rendered the prospect desperate ; and Persons,
her champion, who had now deserted the court of
Spain, and removed to Rome, abandoned her cause,
and confined his efforts, and those of his party, to the
succession of a Catholic prince.* Who this should be,
he declared, was a matter, to him, of indifference ; but
many of his supporters in England looked to Arabella
Stewart, the cousin-german of James ; and had formed
a visionary project for her conversion to Rome, and
her marriage with the Cardinal Farnese, also a de-
scendant of John of Gaunt.-f* It was, perhaps, to this
wild scheme that the Scottish king alluded, when he
lamented that Arabella had been lately moved, by the
persuasion of Jesuits, to change her religion:^ but
there is no evidence that Persons, who had much in-
fluence with his party in England, ever believed it
practicable ; and the publication of James"* " Basilicon
Doron," appears to have given a new turn to the ideas
of this devoted Catholic, and to have persuaded him,
that a prince who could express himself with so much
catholicity on some points, would, in time, "suffer him-
self to be guided to the truth on all." t There is a re-
markable letter still preserved, in which Persons,
writing from Rome, describes his having read some
* Lingard's History of England, vol. viii., fourth edition, p. 388. Letter,
of Father Persons to the Earl of Angus, 4th January, 16'00.
t Id. ibid., p. 489.
Hailes' Secret Correspondence of Sir Robert Cecil, p. 118.
1601-2. JAMES VI. 347
passages of the "Basilicon" to the pope, who, he says,
could scarcely refrain from shedding tears of joy, in
hearing them. " May Christ Jesus," exclaimed Per-
sons, " make him a Catholic ! for he would be a mirror
to all princes of Christendom." *
All this rendered the Spanish faction far less bitter
than before in their feelings towards the Scottish king ;
whilst their opponents, the English Catholic exiles,
who were led by Paget, having all along contended
that Mary queen of Scots was the rightful heir of the
English crown, considered, as a matter of course, that
her title vested after her death, in her son. To
him, therefore, they professed their readiness, on the
death of Elizabeth, to transfer their allegiance : from
him they looked, in return, for some alleviation of
their sufferings, some toleration of their religion. And
so keen were their feelings against the Spanish faction,
that at the time Persons advocated the cause of the
Infanta, he and his supporters met with no more de-
termined enemies than the English Catholic exiles.-f
So far did they carry this hostility, that they entered
into a secret correspondence with their own govern-
ment, and lowered themselves by becoming spies and
informers against their brethren, f
It was the anxious desire of the King of Scots
in conciliate both these parties. One great argument
in Persons' " Conference on the Succession," which
contended that heresy must be considered an insur-
mountable ground of exclusion, was evidently directed
against him ; and had formerly given rise to a mission
of Pourie Ogilvy, a Catholic baron, whom he sent, in
* MS. British Museum, Julius, F. vi. f. 142. Persons to T. M. from
Rome.
f Lingard's History of England, vol. viii., fourth edition, pp. 390, 391.
Id. ibid.
348 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1602.
1595, into Italy and Spain. At Venice, and at Rome,
this envoy, acting, as he asserted, by the secret in-
structions of the King of Scots, represented his royal
master as ready to be instructed in the Catholic faith,
and to give a favourable and candid hearing to its ex-
pounders. -On proceeding into Spain, Ogilvy's flight
was bolder, and the promises held out more tempting
and decided. The King of Scots, he said, was deter-
mined to revenge the injuries and insults offered him
by the Queen of England, and eagerly desired the
cooperation of Philip. Why then should their ma-
jesties not enter into a treaty ? His master, for his
part, would become Catholic, establish the true faith
in his dominions, and send his son, as a hostage for
his sincerity, to be educated at the court of Spain. In
return, he required from Philip a renunciation of his
claims upon the English crown, an advance of 500,000
ducats, and an auxiliary force of 12,000 men. Philip,
however, looked with suspicion on the ambassador,
who had been observed to haunt with Paget and his
friends in the Low Countries. His veracity, his cre-
dentials, even his religion, were disputed; and although
treated with outward courtesy by the Spanish mon-
arch, he received little encouragement.
But James, who had a strong predilection for these
mysterious missions, was not cast down ; and returned
to the attack. In September 1 596, a second envoy,
named Drummond, who alleged that he was employed
by James, repaired to the Papal court, and carried
with him a letter from the king to Clement the Eighth,
in which he suggested that the residence of a Scottish
minister at the court of Rome would have the best
effects ; and proposed that Drummond bishop of
Vaison, a Scotsman by birth, should be selected for
1602. JAMES vi. 349
that purpose. The ambassador proposed also, in the
king's name, that the young Prince Henry, his eldest
son, should be brought up in the Catholic faith, and
offered to place his castle of Edinburgh in the hands
of the Catholics.* It is extremely difficult to discover
how much, or how little truth there was in these al-
leged intrigues of the Scottish king. Ogilvy, un-
doubtedly, acted not only as an envoy of James, but
a spy of Cecil ; and James, when challenged by Eliza-
beth's ambassador, Sir Henry Drunker, as to his letter
to Clement, declared in the most pointed and solemn
manner, that he never wrote, or transmitted, such a
document to Rome. The letter, however, was subse-
quently produced, and published by Cardinal Bellar-
mine. It undoubtedly bore the king's signature; and,
after a rigid inquiry, Lord Balmerino, the Scottish
Secretary of State, a Catholic, and near relative of the
Bishop of Vaison, confessed that he had smuggled in
the obnoxious epistle amongst a crowd of other papers ;
and that the king, believing it to be a matter of form,
like the rest, had signed it without glancing at its
contents. This story, however, did not itself obtain
belief. It was alleged that Balmerino had consented
to become the scape-goat, that he might shelter his
royal master; and the leniency of his punishment,
for so daring an act, confirmed the suspicion. But,
on whatever side the truth may be, this secret inter-
course produced a favourable feeling in the great body
of the Catholics towards the King of Scots. The im-
pression in his favour was universal amongst all parties
in England ; and Howard assured the Earl of Mar,
in a letter written in the summer of 1602, that all
men spoke as freely and certainly of the succession of
* Hailes' Secret Correspondence of Sir R. Cecil, pp. 157, 158.
850
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
1602.
the King of Scots, as if they were about to take the
oath of allegiance to him in his own capital.*
It remained only for James to take heed that no
storms or commotions at home, should disturb this
fair weather in England. And here, too, his happy
star prevailed; and his efforts to extinguish those
dreadful dissensions amongst his nobility, which, for
many years, had exposed the country to all the horrors
of private war, were at last successful. The Earls of
Argyle and Huntley were reconciled, and their friend-
ship cemented by the betrothment of Argyle's daughter
to Huntley's son.-f- The Duke of Lennox, and the
party of the Scottish queen, were induced to forget
their deadly differences with the Earl of Mar ; and,
last of all, that obstinate and far-ramifying blood-feud
between the great houses of Moray and Huntley,
which had now, for more than forty years, torn and
depopulated some of the fairest portions of the country,
was brought to an end by the firm and judicious arbi-
tration of James. This success, and the extraordinary
calm with which it was accompanied, occasioned the
utmost joy throughout the country ; and Nicolson,
the English resident, informed Cecil that nothing was
now heard at court but the voice of festivity and
gratulation ; the nobility feasting each other, consort-
ing like brethren, and all united in one loving bond
for the surety and service of the king.J
Amid these happy reconcilements, the King of
Spain intimated to James his desire to send him an
ambassador; and Drummond bishop of Vaison soli-
cited permission to visit his native country. The
* Hailes' Secret Correspondence of Sir Robert Cecil, p. 127.
"T MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Cecil, 1st February, 1602.
J MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Nicolson to Sir Robert Cecil, 1st Feb-
ruary, 1602.
1602. JAMES VI. 351
King of France, also, in great secrecy, proposed a
new league with Scotland, with the object of strength-
ening himself against Spain; but as Henry added
nothing as to including England, the Scottish king
seized the opportunity to convince Elizabeth of his
fair dealing. He accordingly despatched Roger Ash-
ton with a full account of all his foreign negotiations ;
made her participant of his secret intelligence from
Spain ; communicated the private offers of Henry the
Fourth; and, expressing his deep gratitude for her
steady friendship, requested her advice regarding the
answers he should send to France and Spain.* The
queen, in reply, cautioned him against putting im-
plicit trust in the promises of the French king, whose
sincerity she doubted. " Let others promise, 1 ' said
she, " and I will do as much with truth as others with
wiles." However, it would do little harm, she ob-
served, to put Henry to the test ; and for her part
she would make one of any league that was proposed.
As to secrecy and taciturnity, he might thoroughly
depend upon her ; her head might fail, but her tongue
never, -f- It was on this proposal of Philip, which
came somewhat suspiciously about the same time as
the Bishop of Vaison's offered visit, that Elizabeth
addressed, in the beginning of January 1602-3, her
last confidential letter to James. It was written en-
tirely with her own hand, now so tremulous from age
as to make the characters almost illegible ; but there
was nothing of weakness or irresolution in the senti-
ments. It is here given entire : dated the fifth Jan-
uary 1603, eleven weeks before her death; which
* MS. Letter, State-paper Office, Royal Letters, Scotland, Elizabeth to
James, 4th July, 1602.
f Elizabeth to James, Royal Letters, State-paper Office, 4th July, 1602.
S52 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1602-3.
makes it probable that it was amongst the last letters
of importance she ever wrote :
" My VERY GOOD BROTHER, It pleaseth me not a
little that my true intents, without glosses or guiles,
are by you so gratefully taken ; for I am nothing of
the vile disposition of such as, while their neighbours'
houses is, or likely to be a-fire, will not only not help,
but not afford them water to quench the same. If
any such you have heard of towards me, God grant
he remember it not too well for them ! For the
Archduke : alas, poor man, he mistaketh everybody
like himself, (except his bonds;) which, without his
brother's help, he will soon repent.
"I suppose, considering whose apert* enemy the
King of Spain is, you will not neglect your own hon-
our so much to the world (though you had no parti-
cular love to me) as to permit his ambassador in your
land, that so causelessly prosecutes such a princess as
never harmed him ; yea, such a one as (if his de-
ceased father had been rightly informed) did better
merit at his hands than any prince on earth ever did
to other. For where hath there been an example that
any one king hath ever denied so fair a present, as the
whole seventeen provinces of the Low Countries ? yea,
who not only would not have denied them, but sent
a dozen gentlemen to warn him of their sliding from
him, with offer of keeping them from the near neigh-
bours 1 hands, and sent treasure to stay the shaking
towns from lapse. Deserved I such a recompense as
many a complot both for my life and kingdom ?
Ought not I to defend and bereave him of such wea-
pons as might invade myself? He will say, I help
Holland and Zealand from his hands. No. If either
* Apert; open.
1603. JAMES vi. 353
his father or himself would observe such oath, as the
Emperor Charles obliged himself, and so in sequel his
son, I would not [have] dealt with others 1 territories ;
but they hold these by such covenants, as not observ-
ing, by their own grants they are no longer bound
unto them. But though all this were not unknown
o
to me, yet I cast such right reasons over my shoulder,
and regarded their good, and have never defended
them in a wicked quarrel; and, had he not mixed
that government, contrary to his own law, with the
rule of Spaniards, all this had not needed.
" Now for the warning the French gave you of
Veson's embassage. To you, methinks, the king
(your good brother) hath given you a caveat, that
being a king he supposes by that measure you would
deny such offers. And since you will have my coun-
sel, I can hardly believe that (being warned) your own
subject shall be suffered to come into your realm, from
such a place to such intent. Such a prelate (if he
came) should be taught a better lesson than play so
presumptuous and bold a part, afore he know your
good liking thereof, which I hope is far from your
intent : so will his coming verify to much good Mr
Sample's asseverations at Home, of which you have
or [ere] now been warned enough.
" Thus you see how to fulfill your trust reposed in
me, which to infringe I never mind. I have sincerely
made patent my sincerity ; and though not fraught
with much wisdom, yet stuffed with great good will.
I hope you will bear with my molesting you too long
with my scrattinge hand, as proceeding from a heart
that shall be ever filled with the sure affection of
" Your loving and friendly sister."*
* MS. Letters, State-paper Office, Royal Letters, Scotland. Indorsed,
Sth January, copy of her Majesty's Letter to the King of Scots, written with
her own hand. It is now printed for the first time.
VOL. IX. Z
354 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1603.
Nothing, certainly, could be more friendly than this
advice; and James, who was convinced that every-
thing was now prepared for his pacific succession, and
that he had no longer anything to dread, either from
aspirants abroad or intrigue and conspiracy at home,
waited quietly for the event which should put him in
possession of his hopes. Nor had he long to wait.
Only ten days after her last letter, Elizabeth caught
a severe cold at Whitehall ; and as she had been
warned by Dr Dee, her astrologer, to beware of that
palace, she exposed herself to a removal to Richmond
in stormy weather, and after a slight amendment
became worse. Up to this time she had struggled
sternly and strongly against every symptom of in-
creasing weakness. It had long been evident to all
about her that, since the death of Essex, her mind
and constitution had been perceptibly shattered. Her
temper was entirely broken ; and, in spite of every
effort to defy it, a deep melancholy, and weariness of
life, had fixed upon her. But although this was ap-
parent to near observers,* to the world she kept up
appearances ; and continued her usual f^tes and diver-
sions, interrupted by sudden fits of silence, abstraction,
and tears. ~f* At last, the effort was too much ; the
bow, bent to its utmost endurance, snapt asunder ;
and her lion heart, and strong energetic frame, sunk
at once into a state of the most pitiable and helpless
weakness. Every effort to rouse her was ineffectual.
She would take neither medicines nor nourishment ;
her sleep entirely forsook her, and a low hectic fever
seemed to be wasting her by inches ; whilst she com-
* Letter of Sir John Harrington, quoted in Dr Lingard's History, vol.
viiL p. 394.
J* Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 505. Harrington's Mugae Antiquse, pp.
817, 318.
1603. JAMES VI. 355
plained of a heavy load upon the heart, which made
her sigh almost incessantly, and seek, in vain, for
relief in a restless change of position. These sad
symptoms increased to such a degree in the beginning
of March, that the physicians pronounced her case
hopeless ; and it was deemed right to send for the
council, who arrived at Richmond on the eighteenth
of March ; and anticipating her speedy dissolution,
took such measures as were thought necessary, in that
event, to secure the public tranquillity. With this
object, it was resolved, that the Lord High-admiral,
Howard earl of Nottingham, the only member of the
council whose presence seemed to give comfort to the
dying queen ; Cecil, the Secretary of State ; and the
Lord Keeper, should remain at Richmond ; whilst the
rest of the council repaired to Whitehall. Orders, at
the same time, were issued to set a guard upon the
Exchequer ; to arrest and transport to Holland all
suspicious characters found lurking in London and
Westminster ; to furnish the court with means of
defence ; and convey to the Tower some gentlemen
who were believed to be desperate from discontent, and
anxious for innovation. Most of these whose hands
it was thus thought wise to manacle, before they could
use them in any sudden mischief, were partisans of
Essex ; and it is remarkable, that in this number we
find Baynham, Catesby, and Tresham, afterwards in-
volved in the Gunpowder Treason.
Whilst these precautions were being taken, the
melancholy object of them, the queen, seemed retired
and sunk within herself; took no interest in anything
that was going on ; and if roused for a moment, de-
clared that she felt no pain, required no remedies, and
was anxious for death. She expressed, however, a
356 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1603.
strong desire to hear prayers in her private chapel,
and all was made ready ; but she found the effort too
much for her, and had cushions spread at the door of
the privy chamber, where she lay and heard service.
Want of food and sleep appear, not long after, to have
brought on a partial delirium : for she now obstinately
insisted on sitting up, dressed, day and night, upon her
cushions ; and when entreated by the Lord Admiral
to go to bed, assured him, with a shudder of terror,
that if he had seen what she saw there, he would
choose any place but that. She then motioned him
to approach her ; and ordering the rest to leave the
room, drew him with a piteous gesture down to her
low seat, and exclaimed, " My Lord, they have bound
me : I am tied with an iron collar about my neck." *
It was in vain he attempted either argument or con-
solation : no power would make her undress or go to
bed ; and in this miserable state she sat for two days
and three nights, her finger pressed upon her lips, as
if afraid of betraying some secret ; her eyes open and
fixed on the ground, and generally silent and immove-
able.-f- Yet, when Cecil her secretary remonstrated
against this, and asked if she had seen spirits, she
smiled contemptuously, and said the question was not
worthy an answer ; but when he told her she must go
to bed, if it were but to satisfy her people, she showed
a flash of her former spirit. " Must !" said ehe; "is
must a word to be addressed to Princes ? Ah, little
man, little man ! thy father, had he been alive, durst
not have used that word ; but thou art presumptuous,
because thou knowest I shall die." To the same min-
* Lingard, vol. viii. p. 397- Camden's Elizabeth, in Kennet, vol. ii. p.
653. Carey's Memoirs, p. 117.
t Turner's History of Elizabeth, pp. 700, 701. Birch's Memoirs, vol. ii.
p. 507.
1603. JAMES vi. 357
ister she repeatedly declared that she was not mad,
and that he must not think to make Queen Joan of
her : alluding, perhaps, to Joanna the deranged queen
of Naples.*
It was now thought right to summon the ministers
of religion; upon which the aged Whitgift archbishop
of Canterbury, and the Bishop of London her almoner,
immediately repaired to Richmond; and being ad-
mitted to her sick chamber, appeared to give her comfort
by their ministrations and prayers. They attempted
to induce her to take some nourishment, and to follow
the prescriptions of her physicians ; but this she
steadily refused, declaring that she had no wish to live.
They then exhorted her to provide for her spiritual
safety : to which she mildly answered, " That I have
done long ago."-f- When the archbishop, who was
affected by the deep despondency and melancholy into
which she had sunk, attempted to rouse and comfort
her by alluding to the services she had conferred on
Europe, and by her glorious defence of the Protestant
faith, she checked him severely, declaring that she had
too long listened to the voice of flattery, and that it
should at least be silent on her death-bed ; but she
held him by the hand, and compelled him to continue
his prayers, till the aged primate's knees were wearied,
and he had almost sunk down at her bed-side. At last
she permitted him to depart, after receiving his bless-
ing. In these devotions she did not join audibly, for
her speech had almost entirely left her for two days
before her death ; but it was apparent to those around
her that she was perfectly sensible ; and they had the
comfort of seeing her lift her eyes to heaven and join
* MS. of Lady Southwell, quoted by Dr Lingard, vol. viii. p. 397.
t Sloan MSS., printed by Ellis, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 194.
358 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1603.
her trembling, emaciated hands in the attitude of
prayer.*
To the latest moment of her life she seemed willing
to keep up the mystery as to her successor, and either
evaded the question, or replied so obscurely, that it
was difficult to divine her wishes. On the night, how-
ever, on which she died, Cecil made a last effort for
the King of Scots ; and accompanied by the Lord
Admiral Howard, and the Lord Keeper, earnestly
requested her to name a successor. Her answer was
proud and brief : " My seat has been the seat of kings,
and none but a king must succeed me." They urged
her to be more explicit, and mentioned the King of
France ; but she was silent. They then ventured on
the King of Scots ; but she vouchsafed no sign. The
Lord Beauchamp, the heir of the house of Suffolk by
his mother Lady Catherine Grey, was then spoken of;
upon which she roused herself and said, with a look
and flash of her former lion spirit, " I will have no
rascal's son in my seat. 1 '^ Here, according to the
account of Lady Southwell, one of her maids of hon-
our, who stood at the moment beside the bed, the im-
portant interview ended ; and the queen never again
spoke. But, on the other hand, it was positively
affirmed by Cecil, and the two lords his companions,
that at a later hour of the same night she clearly
declared by signs that the King of Scots alone ought
to succeed her. When his name was mentioned, it is
said she suddenly started, heaved herself up in the bed,
and held her hands jointly her over head in manner of
a crown. It is probable that this sign given by the
* Carey's Memoirs, pp. 120, 122. It is remarkable that no proposal to
receive the blessed communion was made by the dying queen or the bishops,
f MS. by Lady Southwell, Lingard, vol. viii. p. 397.
1603. JAMES VI. 359
dying princess was one of assent ; yet, it is possible,
also, that they who had seized the awful moment when
her soul was hovering hetween the two worlds to tor-
ture her with questions, may have mistaken a move-
ment of agony for one of approbation.*
Soon after this she sunk into a state of insensibility,
and about midnight fell into a placid sleep, from which
she woke to expire gently and without a struggle.
Cecil and the lords at Richmond, instantly posted to
London ; at six in the morning the council assembled ;
and on that same morning, before ten o'clock, King
James the Sixth was proclaimed heir and successor to
Elizabeth, both by proximity of blood, and, as it was
now positively added, by her own appointment upon
her death-bed. Sir Robert Carey, Lord Hunsdon's
youngest son, a near relative and favourite of the
queen, was at Richmond during her few last miserable
days of suffering ; and Lady Scrope, his sister, one of
her ladies, watched her royal mistress at the moment
of her death. Both were friends and correspondents
of the King of Scots, and it had been concerted
between the brother and sister that the distinction of
being the first to announce the happy news to that
monarch should be theirs. It was difficult, however,
to cheat the vigilancy of Cecil and the council, who
had ordered all the gates of the palace to be closed ;
but Carey was on the alert, ready booted and spurred;
his sister stood beside the bed, watching for her mis-
tress" 1 last sigh ; and the moment it was breathed, she
snatched a ring from her finger, (it had been a gift
from the King of Scots,) glided out of the chamber,
and cast it over the palace window to her brother, who
threw himself on horseback, and rode post into Scot-
* Sloan MSS., printed by Ellis, Second Series, vol. iii. p. 194.
360 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1603.
land. The queen had died at three o'clock on Thurs-
day morning, and Carey reached the palace of Holy-
rood on Saturday night, after the royal expectant had
retired to bed. He was immediately admitted ; and
throwing himself on his knees, saluted James as
monarch of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland.
The king asked for the token ; and Carey, drawing
the ring from his bosom, presented it in his sister's
name. James then gave him his hand to kiss ; and
without evincing any unseemly exultation, bade the
messenger good night, and composed himself to rest.
Next morning, and for the two succeeding days, the
news was not made public, as Carey's message was not
official ; but on the third day, Sir Charles Percy,
brother to the Earl of Northumberland, and Thomas
Somerset, son of Lord Worcester, arrived with a
letter from the privy-council of England, announcing
the death of the queen ; the proclamation of James'
accession to the throne ; and the universal joy and
impatience with which the people of England expected
their new monarch. It assured him that their sorrow
for their recent loss was extinguished by looking for-
ward to the heroical virtues which resided in his per-
son ; laid at his feet the humble offering of their faith
and obedience; and besought him, in his excellent
wisdom, to visit them with all speed, that he might
take possession of his inheritance, and inspire new
life into its languishing body.*
This great event was now communicated to the
people, who received it at first with universal demon-
strations of exultation and delight ; and the king de-
clared his determination to set out speedily for his
new kingdom, leaving the queen and his children to
* Spottiswood, pp. 473, 474.
1603. JAMES vi. 361
follow at a slower pace. He committed the govern-
ment of Scotland to the privy-council ; intrusted his
eldest son, Henry, now Prince of Wales, to the Earl
of Mar; Prince Charles to Sir Alexander Seton
president of the Session ; and the Princess Elizabeth
to the Earl of Linlithgow. On the succeeding Sun-
day, James attended service in the High Church of
St Giles, where a sermon was preached, in which
the minister enumerated the many mercies poured
out upon their prince; and described, as none of
the least, his peaceable accession to that mighty
kingdom which now awaited him. The monarch
himself then rose and delivered a valedictory address
to the congregation, which, we are told, was often
interrupted by the tears of the people. James, who
was himself moved by these expressions of regret and
affection, entreated his subjects not to be too deeply
troubled at his departure ; assured them that they
should find the fruits of his government as well afar
off as when he had resided amongst them ; pleaded
that his increase in greatness did in nowise diminish
his love ; and promised them a personal visit once
every three years ; when the meanest as well as the
greatest, should have access to his person and permis-
sion to pour their complaints into his bosom.*
This farewell oration was delivered on the third of
April, 1603. On the fifth of the same month the
king, surrounded by a large and brilliant cavalcade,
composed not only of Scottish but of English noble-
men and gentlemen, who had hurried to his court
with the proffers of their homage, took his departure
from Edinburgh amid the lamentations of the citizens.
His progress through England, which occupied a
* Calderwood, p. 472. Spottiswood, p. 476.
362 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. ] 603.
month, was one long and brilliant pageant. Triumphs,
speeches, masques, huntings, revels, gifts, all that
wealth could command, and flattery and fancy devise,
awaited him at the different cities and castles which
he visited ; and on the sixth of May, 1603, he entered
London, accompanied by a numerous concourse of his
nobility and councillors, guarded and ushered by the
Lord Mayor and five hundred citizens on horseback,
and welcomed by the deafening shouts of an immense
multitude of his new subjects. It seemed as if the
English people had in this brief period utterly forgot-
ten the mighty princess, whose reign had been so glo-
rious, and over whose bier they had so lately sorrowed.
Not a murmur was heard, not one dissenting voice
was raised to break the unanimity of his welcome ;
and thus, after so many centuries of war and disaster,
the proud sceptre of the Tudors was transferred to
the house of Stewart, with a tranquillity and universal
contentment which, even considering the justice of
the title, was remarkable and unexpected.
In this memorable consummation, it was perhaps
not unallowable, certainly it was not unnatural, that
the lesser kingdom, which now gave a monarch to the
greater, should feel some emotions of national pride :
for Scotland had defended her liberty against innumer-
able assaults ; had been reduced, in the long struggle,
to the very verge of despair ; had been betrayed by
more than one of her kings, and by multitudes of her
nobles ; had been weakened by internal faction, dis-
tracted by fanatic rage ; but had never been overcome,
because never deserted by a brave, though rude and
simple people. Looking back to her still remoter
annals, it could be said, with perfect historical truth,
that this small kingdom had successfully resisted the
1603. JAMES vr. 363
Roman arms, and the terrible invasions of the Danish
sea kings ; had maintained her freedom, within her
mountains, during the ages of the Saxon Heptarchy,
and stemmed the tide of Norman conquest; had
shaken off the chains attempted to be fixed upon her
by the two great Plantagenets, the First and Third
Edwards, and, at a later period, by the tyranny of the
Tudors ; and if now destined, in the legitimate course
of royal succession, to lose her station as a separate and
independent kingdom, she yielded neither to hostile
force nor to fraud, but willingly consented to link her
future destinies with those of her mighty neighbour :
like a bride, who, in the dawning prospect of a happy
union, is contented to resign, but not to forget, the
house and name of her fathers. Yet, however pleased
at this pacific termination of their long struggles, the
feelings with which his ancient people beheld the depar-
ture of their prince, were of a melancholy nature ; and
an event occurred on the same day on which he set out,
that made a deep impression upon a nation naturally
thoughtful and superstitious.
As the monarch passed the house of Seton, near
Musselburgh, he was met by the funeral of Lord Seton,
a nobleman of high rank ; which, with its solemn move-
ment and sable trappings, occupied the road, and
contrasted strangely and gloomily with the brilliant
pageantry of the royal cavalcade. The Setons were
one of the oldest and proudest families of Scotland ;
and that lord, whose mortal remains now passed by,
had been a faithful adherent of the king's mother:
whose banner he had never deserted, and in whose cause
he had suffered exile and proscription. The meeting
was thought ominous by the people. It appeared, to
their excited imaginations, as if the moment had arrived
364 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND. 1603.
when the aristocracy of Scotland was about to merge
in that of Great Britain ; as if the Scottish nobles had
finished their career of national glory, and this last
representative of their race had been arrested on his
road to the grave, to bid farewell to the last of Scot-
land's kings. As the mourners moved slowly onward,
the monarch himself, participating in these melancholy
feelings, sat down by the way-side, on a stone still
pointed out to the historical pilgrim ; nor did he
resume his progress till the gloomy procession had
completely disappeared.*
It is with feelings of gratitude, mingled with regret,
that the Author now closes this work the history of
his country the labour of little less than eighteen
years: gratitude to the Giver of all Good, that life
and health have been spared to complete, however
imperfectly, an arduous undertaking ; regret that the
tranquil pleasures of historical investigation, the happy
hours devoted to the pursuit of truth, are at an end,
and that he must at last bid farewell to an old and
dear companion.
LONDON, ISih October, 1843.
* History of the House of Seyton, Banmityne Club edition, p. 60. History
of Scotland, by Sir Walter Scott, vol. ii. p. 426.
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
PROM
MANUSCRIPTS
IN
HER MAJESTY'S STATE-PAPER OFFICE,
AND OTHER COLLECTIONS,
HITHERTO UNPRINTED.
PKOOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
No. I.
Huntley's Rebellion, with Err ol, Angus, and Bothwell, p. 25.
ON the sixteenth March, 1588-9, Elizabeth sent the following private
letter to James, remonstrating with him against his misplaced lenity
to Huntley and the Catholic faction. It was delivered to the King
by the English resident Ashby, on the twenty-first March, as we learn
by the following passage from that gentleman's letter to Lord Burgh-
ley. (State-paper Office.)
" The 21, early in the morning, I received a letter from your Honour,
with the inclosed of her majesty's ; which I presented to him that
day." * * Ashby afterwards tells us the king liked the queen's
letter, and meant to prosecute the matter against the Catholic lords
with severity. As to the Spaniards, against whose stay in Scotland
Elizabeth so proudly remonstrated, calling them " the spoils of her
wreck," the same gentleman writes Burghley, " that it is thought as
many as a thousand are dispersed over Scotland ; and how they are
to be transported, unless her majesty go to charges, he cannot tell."
This fact is new.
ELIZABETH TO JAMES.*
'* MY DEAR BROTHER, I am driven, through the greatness of my
care for your safe estate, to complain to yourself of yourself ; wonder-
* Warrender MSS., vol. A., p. 196
368 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
ing not a little what injurious planet against my nearest neighbours
reigneth with such blindness, and suffereth them not to see their
changing peril and most imminent danger. Shall I excuse them they
know it not ? I am too true a witness that ignorance cannot excuse,
as having been a most near spy to find out those treacheries. Must
I say they dare not ? Far be it from kingly magnanimity to harbour
within their breast so unseemly a guest. Have I no excuse to serve
them for payment 1 Well, then must I wail that I cannot mend ; and
if there befall them mishap, I am not guilty of such disaster. Yet
can I not desist, though I might be discouraged, to beseech you in
God's name, not to overstep such happy occasions as it hath pleased
God to reveal unto you : for if, when they be at your side, you will
not make yourself a profit of their wreck, how will you catch them
when they are aloof from you ?
" Let too late examples show you for pattern, how dishonourable
it is to prolong to do by right, that [which] after they are driven to
do by extremity ; yea, and perchance as being taught to take heed,
they will shun the place of danger ; and so your danger worse than
the others.
" It had been for honour and surety never to have touched, than
so slightly to keep them in a scorn in durance, to be honoured with
your presence with all kindness, and soon after to be extolled to your
dearest chamber. Good Lord ! what uncouth and never-heard-of
trade is that ? You must pardon my plain dealing : for if my love
were not greater than my cause, as you treat it, I should content
myself to see them wrecked with dishonour that contemn all loving
warning and sister-like counsel. I pray God there be left you time
(you have dealt so untimely) to be able to apprehend and touch, such
as dares boldly, through your sufferance, attempt anything they list,
to bring you and your land to the slavery of such as never yet spared
their own. I know not how gracious they will be to you and your
realm. When they get footing, they will suffer few feet but their
own. Awake, therefore, dear Brother, out of your long slumber !
and deal like a king who will ever reign alone in his own. If they
found you stout, you should not lack that would follow you, and leave
rotten posts.
" I marvel at the store you make of the Spaniards being the spoils
of my wreck. You wrote me word not one should bide with you ;
and now they must attend for more company. I am sorry to see
how small regard you have of so great a cause. I may claim by
treaty that such should not be ; but I hope, without such claim,
(seeing your home practices,) you will quickly rid your realm of
them, with speed j which I do expect for your own sake, and not the
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 869
least for mine ; of whom you may make sure reckoning (if you
abandon not yourself) to be protected by for ever.
" And thus I end with axing a right interpretation of my plain and
sincere meaning ; and wish ever to you as to myself ; as knoweth the
Lord, whom ever I beseech to preserve you with long and happy
days. xvi. Martii, 1588.
" ELIZABETH R."
Indorsed, Copie of a letter from the Queen, 1588.
No. II.
Pp. 43, 44.
It appears by a letter of Mr R. Bowes, the English ambassador
at the Scottish court, to Lord Burghley, dated at Edinburgh, fourth
June, 1590, that on the third June he received the following letter of
Elizabeth to James, and presented it next day (the fourth) to the King
of Scots. " He received," says Bowes, " her majesty's letter very
friendly ; showing himself much pleased and conforted therewith."
The person against whom Elizabeth had remonstrated, deprecating
his being sent on so weighty and confidential a business, was Colonel
Stewart, whom she suspected, on account of his former desertion of
the Protestant party.
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO KING JAMES. MS. State-paper Office, Royal
Letters, 29th May, 1590.
"My conceit, I perceive, my dear Brother, hath no whit swerved
from your good intent : for now I well see Colonel Steward's nego-
tiation was not framed of his own brain, but proceeded from your
earnest affection to so laudable a cause ; and by your last letters, I
find your earnest motion made to the two dukes, together with
their good and loving consent.
" All this moveth me to find you a redevable* prince to a careful
friend ; and [I] do praise my judgment to have chosen so grateful a
king, on whom to spend so many careful thoughts, as since your
peregrination I have felt for your surety and your land's wealth :
and as my thanks are manifold, so shall the memorial bide perpetual.
" And for the Action, at the arrival of such a one as you are send-
ing me, I will at large impart plainly my resolution therein, and
considering it not your least regard of me, that you be heedful to
* "Redevable," Fr., beholden to ; grateful.
VOL. IX. 2 A
370 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
deal no other ways tliaii as may best content me. And [I] do assure
you, that as I will never myself enter into it the first, yet I will ask
nothing that shall not fit a king to demand, nor plead more inno-
cency in all the cause, than my guiltless conscience, well showed by
my actions, shall ever testify. And so you may be assured to get most
honour, and never blot your fame with dealing in an action, when so
great injury shall appear, and no just cause to enforce it.
" That I perceive the governors of Denmark like well that other
princes of Germany should send their good consent, with joining
their message, I must needs say, " the more the better " that desire
such thing as is best for all Christendom ; although I had thought
that you, with the King of Denmark, would have sufficed. Yet if
the rest do make the knot the greater, I must think my bond to them
the more, and trust the pact will be the surer.
" In the choice of such as you mind to send, this I hope you will
chiefly regard : that he be none such as whose own cause or affection
to the adverse part may breed a doubt of performance of the sender's
will ; but be chosen even such a one, as whose honest and wise endeav-
our may much advance the end of so good a beginning.
" My good brother, I write this the plainer that you might clearly
see what one I wish, and that may suffice for all. And for that the
time requireth speed, I doubt not but you will use it.
" And so I leave scribbling, but never end to love you, and assist
you with my friendship, care, and prayer to the living God to send
you all prosperous success, and his Holy Spirit for guide.
" Your most assured faithful Sister and Cousin."
Indorsed, 29th May, 1590. Copy of her Majesty's letter, written
with her own hand to the King of Scots, sent to Mr Bowes.
No. III.
The following letter, written by Elizabeth to Henry the Fourth, at
the time that she sent her favourite Essex with four thousand men to
his assistance, is highly characteristic. It is taken from a contem-
porary copy preserved in the Collection of Royal Letters in the State-
paper Office. See Camden's Elizabeth, in Kennet, vol. ii. pp. 562,
563.
ELIZABETH TO HENRY IV., 27th July, 1591.
"Selon la promesse que toujours je garderay endroit, tres cher frere,
je vous mande 1'aide de 4000 homines, avec un Lieutenant qui comme
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 371
il m'appertient de bien pres, aussy est-il de telle quality et tient tel
lieu chez moy, que de coustume ne se souloit esloigner q'avec nous.
Mais toutes ces raisons j'ay oubli, les proposant toutes a votre occa-
sion, preferant vostre necessity et dsir, a mes particulieres consider-
ations. A laquelle cause je ne doute nullement que vous y respondiez,
avec un honorable et soigneux respect de vostre grandeur, a luy faire
1'accueil et regard que tant d'amitie' merite : TOUS pouvant assurer,
que si (que plus je craigne) la temerite' que sa jeunesse luy donne, ne
se fait trop se precipiter, vous n'aurez jamais cause de doubter de la
hardiesse de son service, car il n'a fait que trop souvent preuve qu'il
ne craint hazard quelque qui soit. Et vous suppliant d'en avoir plus-
tost de respect, qu'il est trop effrone' q'on luy donne la bride.
" Mais, mon Dieu, comment reve-je, pour vous faire si deraisonnable
requeste, que vous voyant tant tarder a vous conserver la vie, je fus
si mal appris de respecter une plus simple creature. Seulement je
vous prononce qu'il aura plus besoin de bride que d'esperon. Et non
obstant j'espere que vous le trouverez assez habile pour conduire ses
troupes a vous faire service tres agreable. Et j'ose promettre, que
nos sujects y sont de s'y bonne dispositions et ont les coeurs si vail-
lants qu'ils vous feront services qui vous ruineront beaucoup le'ennemy
si leur bonne fortune respondra a leurs desirs. Et pour salaire de
toutes ces Compagnies je vous demande ces deux requestes : la pre-
miere, que leur vie et sang vous soyent si a coeur que rien soit omis
pour leur regard ainsi qu'ils soyent cheris comme qui servent, non
comme mercenaires, mais franchement, de bonne affection. Aussi
qu'ils ne portent le faits de trop violents hazards n'y de nre [n'etre]
bien au double accompagnes et secondes. Vous etes si sage Prince,
que m'assure que n'oubliez que nos deux nations n'ont trop souvent
si bien accorded, qu'ils ne se souviennent de vielles descordances, ne
se pensent de meme terre, mais separds d'une profonde fosse'e. Et
pourtant y tiendrez sy bien la main, que nul inconvenient leur arrive.
Ayant de ma part bien instruits nos gens d'assez bonnes Ie9ons, les-
quelles je m'assure qu'ils observeront. Et pour ne vous fatiguer de
longue lettre, je finiray cet adresse, le seul memorial qu'en vous ap-
prochant pres de nos quartiers, vous n'oublier de boucher chemin a
Parma, de toutes parts au il doit entrer. Car je m'assuere, qu'il a
receu commandement d'omettre plustot les pays-bas que la France.
" Vostre tres asseurde bonne soeur et cousine,
E. R."
No. IV.
The following striking and characteristic letter of Elizabeth to the
Scottish king, written with her own hand, was received by Bowes,
372 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
accompanied by two letters of the fourteenth and seventeenth of the
same month, from Lord Burghley. James was then at Dumbarton, in
progress, whither the English ambassador proceeded ; and (as he in-
forms the Lord Treasurer in his letter from Edinburgh, dated twenty-
seventh August,) " delivered her majesty's letter, accompanying the
delivery thereof with report of your lordship's opinion in the weighty
contents flowing suddenly from her majesty's pen in your lordship's
sight." " The king," continues Bowes, " oftentimes perused and
gravely noted the frame and substance of this letter ; and with plea-
sant countenance and signs, well declaring his good acceptance, he
entered into right high commendation of the excellent order, singular
wisdom, and rare friendship that he found therein."
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO THE KING OF SCOTS, 12th August, 1591.
" Many make the argument of their letters of divers subjects.
Some with salutations ; some with admonitions ; others with thanks :
but, my dear brother, few, I suppose, with confession : and that at
this time shall serve the meetest for my part.
" I doubt not but you wonder why it is, that in time so perilous to
your person, so dangerous for your State, so hateful to the hearers,
so strange for the treasons, you find me, that from your birth held
most in regard your surety, should now neglect all, when it most
behoveth to have watchful eyes on a most needy prince. Now hear
thereof my shrift: It is true that my many counsels I have known
oft thanked, but seldom followed. When I wished you reign, you
suffered other rule : if I desired awe, you gave them liberty. My
timely warnings became too late performance. When it required
action, it was all to begin ; which when I gathered, as in a handful
of my memory, I will now try, quoth I, what, at a pinch, he will do
for himself: for nearer than with life may no man be assailed. And
hearing how audacity prevailed in so large measure, as it was made
a question whether a witch for a king's life might serve for a sufficient
proof, and that the price of a king's blood was set at so low a rate,
with many wondering blessings I, in attentive sort, attended the issue
of such an error ; and not seeing any great offence laid to so slight a
case, I fearfully doubted the consequence of such an act ; yea, when
I heard that, qnakingly, men hasted to trial of such guilt, I supposed
the more loved where least it became, and the most neglected to whom
they owed most bond.
" Well [I] was assured, that more addition could never my warn-
ing make ; and to renew what so oft was told, should be but petitio
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 3 73
principll. With safe conscience having discharged my office, I be-
took you to your best actions, and thought for me there was no more
remaining. And now I trust that this may merit an absolution, I
will make you partaker of my joy, that I hear you now begin (which
would to God had sooner been !) to regard your surety, and make
men fear you, and leave adoring false saints. God strengthen your
kingly heart, and make you never fail yourself ; for then who will
stick to you ? You know me so well as no bloody mind ever lodged
in my breast : and hate bear I none to any of yours, God is witness.
But ere your days be shortened, let all yours be. This my charity."
Royal Letters, State-paper Office, 12th August, 1591. Indorsed,
Copy of her Majesty's letter to the K. of Scots. Written
with her H. hand.
No. V.
This indignant and characteristic letter of Elizabeth was written
to express her deep resentment of the manner in which Henry had
treated her auxiliary force sent under the command of Essex. Cam-
den, p. 563.
ELIZABETH TO HENRY IV., 9th November, 1591.
" Ma plume, ne toucha jamais papior, qui se fits sujet a argument
si Estrange, pour monstrer ung nouvel accident d'une mal injurie'e
amitie, par tel a qui le seul appuy, a estre ministre" par la partie la
plus offense'e. De nos ennemis, nous n'attendions que tout malen-
contre : Et si aultant nous prestent les amis, qu'ell difference en
trouvons nous 1 Je m'estonne, qu'il est possible que celuy qui tient
tant de besoing d'aide, paye en si mauvaise monnoye ses plus as-
seure's. Pouvez vous imaginer, que mon sexe m'aridit le courage
pour ne me ressentir d'ung public affront. Le sang royal, si j'en ay,
ne 1'endureroit du plus puissant Prince en la Chretiennete', tel traiste-
ment, qu'en ces trois mois vous m'avez preste. Ne vous desplaisse
que je vous dise rondement, que si ainsi vous traister vos amis, qui
librement de bonne effects vous servent en temps le plus important,
vous en faillerez doresnavant, en vos plus grands besoings. Et j'eusse
presentement revoque" mes troupes n'eust e"te" que votre ruine me
semble se presenter, si par mon exemple les aultres, doubtants de
semblable traitement, vous delaissent. Ce qui me pour quelque peu
de terns [fait] prolonger leur demeure, me rougissant que je suis
374 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
faicts spectacle du monde de Princesse meprise'e, Priant le Createur
vous iuspirer meilleur mode de conserver vos amis.
" Vtre soeur qui plus merite qu'elle n'a,
E. R."
No. VI.
ELIZABETH TO JAMES, 25th November, 1591.
w As my care for your weal, my dear brother, hath been full long
the desire of my endeavours, so though my many letters do not oft
camber your eyes with the reading them, yet my ever-living watch-
full head hath never been neglected ; as by proof, even now, the
errand that this bearer brings you, may make you know ; which
being even that nearly doth touch your surety and state, I conjure
you, even for the worth that you prize yourself at, that you forslowe *
not (after your usual manner) this matter, as you too much, ere now,
have done such like : and ever remember, that the next step to over-
turn a Royal seat, is to make the subject know, that whatever he
doth may be either coloured or neglected ; of which either breeds bold-
ness to shun the pain, whatsoever the offence deserves. Far better
it were, that all pretence of cause be debarred, than threaten, ere
one strike, and so the prey escape. Shun in the handling of my
overture [speaking] of what is meant ; but after wise resolution of
what behoves, let few or, if possible, none know, afore that be ended
which is thought to be done. This is, in short, my advice ; as she
that too plainly sees, that if you defer, you may fortune repent. Yea,
and you trust too much some, that can have many cords to their
bow ; these may, perhaps, overthrow the mark, or you hit the blank.
Excuse my plainness, and let good will plead my pardon. God bless
you.
" Yo r most assured Sister,
" ELIZABETH R.
Royal Letters, State-paper Office. Indorsed, 25th November,
1591. Copie of her Ma tiea Lre to the K. of Scotts, by Mr
Hudson.
No. VII.
A short sentence of the following letter from Elizabeth to James
has been already given in the text, (p. 71 ;) but the whole epistle,
* To forslowe ; to omit, or lose by deferring.
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 375
which is preserved in Sir George Warrender's MSS., and written
wholly in the queen's own hand, is too characteristic to be omitted.
I have, generally, in Queen Elizabeth's letters, modernized the spell-
ing : this, for the reader's amusement, I give in her own peculiar
orthography :
QUEEN ELIZABETH TO KING JAMES VI., 4th December, 1592, p. 71.
" MY DEAR BROTHER, If the misfortune of the messenger had not
protracted so longe the riciate of my lettars, I had sonar receved
the knowlelege of such matter, as wold have cried my sonar answer
to causes of suche importance ; but at length, thoght longe :
" First, I perceave how to the privy snaris of your seeming friends,
yow have so warily cast your yees as that your [mind] hath not
been trapped with the fals shewis of such a kindness ; but have wel
remembred, that proved cares and assured love aught, of mere jus-
tice, tafe [to have] the upperhand of begiling debaits and coulored
treasons.
" Yow forget not, I percaive, how yow should have served ons
[once] for prey to enter the hands of a foreaner's rule, even by the
intisement of him, that offars you that he cannot get ; wiche if he
ever [got], should serve his trofe, not yours, whose land he seakesbut
to thrale both. Hit glads me much, that yow have more larger sight
than the [they] supposed that wold have limed you so. And for my
part, I rendar my many thankis to your selfe for your selfe, as she
that skornis his malice, and eanvies not his intent.
" My enemy can never do himself more skar, that to wil my giltles
wrack, who or now, himself knowes, hath preserved him his cuntryes,
who since hath sought mine. Suche was his reward. God ever shild
you from so crouked a wil as to hazard your own, in hope of saiving
another.
K Yow know right wel, ther is a way to get, that doth precede the
attempt. Whan he hath won the entry, you shal have lest part of
the victory, who sekes to make (as oft hath bin) your subjects theirs.
Suppose, I beseeche you, how easely he wyl present yow the best, and
kepe the worst for him. This matter is so plain, hit nedes smal advis.
" Preserve yourselfe in such state as you have. For others begile
not your selfe, that injuriously you may get. There is more to do in
that than wiles and wiches. Look about with fixed yees, and sure
suche to yow, as sekes not more yours than you. Draw not such as
hange their hopes on other striuges than you may tune. Them that
gold can corrupt, thinke not your gifts can assure. Who ons have
made shipwrack of ther country, let them never injoy hit. Wede out
the wedes, lest the best corn festar. Never arm with powere suche
376 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
whos bettarnis must folowe after you ; nor trust not to ther trust,
that, undar any coular, wyl tral [thrall] their own soile.
" I may not, nor wol conciel, overturs that of late hath ful amply
bene made me, how you may playnly knowe all the combinars aganst
your State ; and how yow may intrap them, and so assure your king-
dom ; but not presenting [permitting] hit a spoile to
st courtsy, one or more of ther owne is this
actor, and therefore [know you] best in whiche he standeth to your*
Wither if this be, he may desarve surty of life, or of land, nor live-
hode ; but suche as may praserve brethe to spend whan best shal
please you.-f* My answer was, whan I se the way how, I wil impart
hit to whom hit most apartanis.
" Now bethink, my deare brother, what furdar yow wyl have me
do. In meanwhile, beware to give the raines into the hands of any,
lest hit be to late to revoke suche actions done. Let no one of the
Spanishe faction in your absence, yea, whan you were present, receave
strengt or countenance. Yow knowe, but for you, al of them to be
alike to me for my particular ; yet I may not deny but I abhorre
suche as sets their country to sale. And thus comitting yow to
God's tuition, I shal remain the faithful holdar of my vowed amitie
without spot or wrinkel.
" Your affectionat Sjstar and Cousin,
" ELIZABETH."
This letter is directed " To our dearest Brother the King of Scots."
It is indorsed in a small hand of the time, * Delivered be Mr Bowes,
4th Decem. 1592." See Historic of James the Sext, p. 261.
No. VIII.
The Present State of the Nobility in Scotland. 1st July, 1592,J p. 76.
Earls, Surnames. Religion. Ages.
Duke of Stewart Prot. Of 20 years. His mother, a French-
Lennox woman. Married the third daughter
of the late Earl of Gowrie. She is
dead. His house, castle of Methven.
Arran Hamilton Prot. Of about 54 years. His mother,
Douglas, daughter to the Earl of
* The original is here torn and illegible.
f This sentence is evidently imperfect ; but so it runs in the original.
J MS. State-paper Office. There is also a copy in British Museum,
Caligula, D. II., 80.
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
377
Earls. Surnames.
Angus Douglas
Huntly
Seton-
Gordon
Arrol
Religion. Ages.
Morton who was earl before James
the Regent. His house, Hamilton ;
and married this Lord Glames' aunt.
Doubtful Of 42 years. His mother, Graham,
daughter to the Laird of Morphy.
Married the eldest daughter of the
Lord Oliphant. His house, Tantal-
1 Ion.
Papist Of 33 years. His mother daughter
to Duke Hamilton. Married the
now Duke of Lennox's sister. His
house, Strabogy.
Of 17 years. His mother, sister to
the Earl Marshall, this Earl's father.
Not yet married. His house, Dy-
noon.
Stewart Prot. Of 32 years. His mother, daughter
to the Lord Fleming. Married this
Earl of Gowrie's sister. His house,
Dunkeld.
Of 10 years. His mother, daughter
to the Earl of Murray, Regent, by
whom this Earl's father (slain by
Huntly) had that Earldom. Not
2 married. His house, Tarnaway.
Papist Of 35 years. His mother, daughter
to the Earl Marshall. Married first
the Lord Drummond's daughter, and
now the Earl of Athol's sister. His
3 house Finhayen.
Papist Of 31 years. His mother, Keith,
daughter to the Earl Marshall.
Married first the Regent Murray's
daughter, next Athol's sister, and
now hath to wife Morton's daughter.
His house, Slanes.
Of 66 years. His mother, Erskine,
daughter of the Lord Erskine. Mar-
ried to the sister of the Earl of
Rothes. His house, Dalkeith.
Prot. Of 38 years. His mother, daughter
to the Earl of Errol. Married this
Argile Campbell Young
Athol
Murray Stewart Young
Crawford Lindsay
Hay
Morton Douglas Prot.
Marshall Keith
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Earls. Surnames. Religion.
Cassillis Kennedy Young
Eglinton Montgom- Young
ery
Glencairn Cunning-
ham
Prot.
Montrose Graham Papist
Menteith Graham Young
Rothes Lesly Prot.
Caithness Sincler Neut.
Sutherland Gordon Neut.
Bothwell Stewart Prot.
Buchau Douglas Young
Ages.
Lord Hume's sister. His house,
Dunotter.
Of 17 years. His mother, Lyon,
aunt to this Lord Glames, and who
now is the Lord John Hamilton's
wife. Not married.
Of 8 years. His mother, Kennedy,
daughter to the Laird of Barganie.
Unmarried.
Of 40 years. His mother, Gordon
of Lochinvar. Married the Laird
of Glenurchy's daughter, Gordon.
His house, Glencairn.
Of 49 years. His mother, daughter
of the Lord Fleming. Married the
Lord Drummond's sister. Auld
Montrose, in Angus.
Of 1 9 years. His mother, daughter
to the old Laird of Drumlanrig.
Married to Glenurchy's daughter.
Kylbride.
Of 65 years. His mother, Somer-
ville. Married first the sister of
Sir James Hamilton, and then the
sister of the Lord Ruthven. Castle
of Lesly.
Of 26 years. His mother, Hepburn,
sister to Bothwell that died in Den-
mark. Married this Huntly's sister.
Tungesbey.
Of 36 years. His mother, sister to
the Regent Earl of Lennox. Mar-
ried the Earl of Huntly's sister,
this earl's aunt. His house, Dun-
robyn.
Of 30 years. His mother, Hepburn,
sister to the late Earl Bothwell.
Married the sister of Archibald Earl
of Angus. He stands now forfeited.
Crighton.
Of 1 1 years. His mother, Stewart,
heretrix of Buchan. Unmarried.
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
379
Earls. Surnames. Religion. Ages.
Mar Erskine Prot. Of 32 years. His mother, Murray,
sister to the Laird of Tullybarden.
A widower. His house, Alloway.
Orkney Stewart Neut. Of ,63 years. Base son of King
James the Fifth. His mother,
Elphingston. Married to the Earl
of Cassillis daughter.
Goury Ruthven Young Of 15 years. His mother, sister to
umqhile Lord Methven. Unmarried.
Ruthven.
Lords. Surnames. Religion.
Lyndsay Lyndsay Prot.
Seaton Seaton Papist
Borthwick Borthwick Prot.
Yester Hay Prot.
Levingston Levingston Papist
Elphinston Elphinston Neut.
Boyd Boyd Prot.
Semple Semple Prot.
Ross Ross Prot.
Of 38 years. His mother, sister to
the Laird of Lochleven. Married
the Earl of Rothes' daughter. His
house, Byers.
Of 40 years. His mother, daughter
to Sir Wm. Hamilton. His wife is
Montgomery, the earl's aunt. His
house, Seaton.
Of 22 years. His mother, daughter
of Buccleugh. His wife, the Lord
Yester's daughter. Borthwick.
Of 28 years. His mother, Car of
Fernyhirst. His wife, daughter of
the L. of Newbottle. Neidpeth.
Of 61 years. His mother, daughter
of umquhile Earl of Morton. His
wife, the Lord Fleming's sister.
Calendar.
Of 63 years. His mother, Erskine.
His wife, the daughter of Sir John
Drummond. Elphinston.
Of 46 years. His mother, Col-
quhoun. His wife, the Sheriff of
Air's daughter. Kilmernok.
Of 29 years. His mother, Preston.
His wife, daughter of the Earl of
Eglinton. Sempell.
Of 30 years. His mother, the
Lord Semplis daughter. His wife,
Gavin Hamilton's daughter.
S80
HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Lords Surnames. Religion.
Uchiltree Stewart Prot.
Cathcart Cathcart Prot.
Maxwell Maxwell Papist
Harris Maxwell Papist
Sanquhar Crichton Papist
Somervill Somervill Prot.
Drummond Drummond Prot.
Oliphant Oliphant Prot.
10
Gray Gray Papist
Glames Lyon Young
11
Ogilvy Ogilvy Papist
Hume Hume Suspect
12
Fleming Fleming Papist
Ages.
Of 32 years. His mother, sister to
the Lord Methven. His wife, Ken-
nedy the daughter of the Laird of
Blawquhen. Uchiltree.
Of 55 years. His mother, Semple.
His wife, Wallace, daughter of the
Laird of Cragy- Wallace. Cathcart.
Of 41 years. His mother, daughter
to the Earl of Morton that preceded
the Regent. His wife, Douglas,
sister to the Earl of Angus.
Of 37 years. His mother, Harris,
by whom he had the lordship. His
wife is the sister of Newbottle. His
house, Terragles.
Of 24 years. His mother, daughter
of Drumlanrig. Unmarried. His
house, Sanquhar.
Of 45 years. His mother, sister to
Sir James Hamilton. His wife, sis-
ter to the Lord Seaton. Carnwath.
Of 40 years. His mother, daughter
to the Lord Ruthven. His wife,
Lyndsay, daughter of the Laird of
Edzell. Drummond.
Of 65 years. His mother, Sandie-
lands. His wife is Errol's sister.
Duppline.
Of 54 years. His mother, the Lord
Ogilvy's daughter. His wife, the
Lord Ruthven's sister. Fowlis.
Of 17 years. His mother, sister to
the Lord Saltoun. Unmarried.
Of 51 years. His mother, Campbell
of Caddell. His wife, the Lord
Forbes' daughter. No castle, but
the B. of Brichen's house.
Of 27 years. His mother, the L.
Gray's daughter. His wife, the
Earl of Morton's daughter. Hume.
Of 25 years. His mother, daughter
of the Master of Ross. His wife,
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
381
Lords. Surnames. Religion.
Innermeith Stewart Prot.
Forbes Forbes Prot.
Salton Abernethy Young
Lovat Fraser Prot.
Sinkler Sinkler Prot.
Torpichen Sandilands Young
Thirlstane Maitland Prot.
the Earl of Montrose's daughter.
Bigger.
Of 30 years. His mother, the Lord
Ogilvy's daughter. His wife, Lynd-
say the Laird of Edzell's daughter.
Redcastle.
Of 75 years. His mother, Lundie.
His wife, Keith.
Of 14 years. His mother, Athol's
sister, this Earl's aunt. Saltoun.
Of 23 years. His mother, Stewart,
aunt to Athol. His wife, the Laird
of M'Kenzie's daughter.
Of 65 years. His mother, Oliphant.
His wife, the Lord Forbes' daughter.
Ravens-Crage.
Of 18 years. His mother, daughter
of the Lord Ross. His house, Cal-
der or Torpichen.
Of 48 years. Married the Lord
Fleming's aunt. A new house in
Lowther or Lethington.
HOUSES DECAYED.
Methven Stewart Decayed by want of heirs ; and coming to
the King's hands, he hath disponed it to the
Duke.
Carlisle Carlisle The male heirs are decayed. There is a
daughter of the Lord Carlisle's married to
James Douglas of the Parkhead, who hath
the living, but not the honours.
LORDS OK BARONS CREATED OF LANDS APPERTAINING TO BISHOPRICKS
AND ABBACIES.
Lords. Surnames. Religion.
Altrie Keith Prot.
Newbottle Ker
Prot.
Of 63 years. His mother, Keith.
His wife, Lauriston. This lordship
is founded on the Abbot of Dere.
Of 39 years. His mother, the Earl
of Rothes' sister. His wife, Max-
382 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
Lords. Surnames. Religion. Ages.
well [sister] to this Lord Harris.
This lordship is founded on the Ab-
bacy of Newbottle. His house,
13 Morphale or Preston-Grange.
Urquhart Seaton Papist Of 35 years. The Lord Seaton's
brother. His wife, the Lord Drum-
mond's daughter. Founded on the
Priory of Pluscardy.
Spinay Lyndsay Prot. Of 28 years. The Earl of Craw-
ford's third brother. His wife,
Lyon, the Lord Glamis' daughter.
This is founded on the Bishoprick
of Murray. His house is Spynay.
But Huntly is heritable constable in
that house.
Indorsed, "Of the Nobility in Scotland." Burghley, who had
studied the paper, and marked the names of the Papists, has added,
in his own hand, " A Catalogue," the date l mo Julii, 1592; the figures
over the Papists' names are also in Burghley's hand.
No. IX.
The following letter is taken from the original in the Warrender
MSS., written entirely in the queen's own hand :
ELIZABETH TO JAMES, [probably 1593.]
** When I consider, right dear Brother, that all the chaos whereof
this world was made, consisted first of confusion, and was after
divided into four principal elements, of which if either do bear too
great a superiority, the whole must quickly perish ; and when I see
that all our beings consist of contrarieties, without the which we may
not breath ; I marvel the less that there do fall in your conceit, an
opinion, that you could accord with a discord. It is true that, in
music, sweet disorders be good rules ; but in trades of lives, which
bide not for moments but for years, it seld is taken for good advice :
the more, I grant, is their bond, that on so dangerous foundation find
a builder to venture his work.
" I will shun to be so wicked, as to turn to scorn that I suppose is
grounded on ignorance ; neither will I misjudge that any derision is
meant, where I hope there reigns no such iniquity : therefore, I will
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 383
have recourse to my best judgment, which consisteth in this thought,
that some that saw my outward show, looked not on the calends of
my years ; and so, through fame of seeming appearance, might delude
your ears, and make suppose far better than you should find. But
as my obligation is so great in your behalf, as it may permit no dis-
guising, no more than in anything else that may concern you will I
abuse you with beguiling persuasions ; and thereon mind to deal with
you as merchants that have no ready money : then they fall to con-
sider of those wares that suits best their countries, and by interchange
of equal utilities, makes traffic to other's best avail; procuring a con-
tinuance of friendly trade, and true intelligence, of fair good will ;
which is the way I choose to walk in, and even in so smooth a path
as my works shall perform my word's errand ; and do promise, on
the faith of a king, if I find correspondence in your actions, my eyes
shall give as narrow a look to what shall be your good, as if it touched
the body that bears them. But if I shall find a double face of one
shoulder, I protest I shall abandon my care, and leave you to your
worst fortune.
" This gentleman, for your allowance and good favour, not for his
good will to me, nor many practices perilous to me, of which, if he
list, he may speak, I admit to my presence ; whom, I assure you, I
find even such as fits the judgment of your place, to esteem with no
temporary honour. You may believe my judgment, that have had
no cause to give him a partial censure. I perceive that God bestowed
his gifts on him with no sparing hand ; but even with his dole was
amply enlarged.* But, above all, I commend his faith to you ; for
-whom, I see, he neglects and loseth his greatest hopes ere now, and
in all your requests rather overcarries it, as though nothing must be
denied your request.
"And for that part of his charge, that toucheth my particular,
though at your commandment he followeth your laws, yet found I
my wants such, as are far short from such an election as your choice
ghould make you, where both youth and beauty should accompany
each other; of which, though either fail, yet let not such defects make
diminution of my friendship's price, which I trust to make of so true
a value, that no touchstone shall try any mixture in that compound,
but such as fears not trial.
" To conclude : this bearer hath well satisfied my expectation, as
one that ought to make some amends for former wrongs, to [whom]
I have bequeathed the trust to lay open unto you my griefs and in-
juries, which, through lewd advice, you have wrought ; though, I
* So in the original ; but I cannot make out the sense.
384 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
trust, coming amends may easily blot out of my memory's books. This
I bequeath to the safe keeping of God ; who give some wisdom to
sever a sincere advice from a fraudulent counsel, and bless you from
betraying snares, who takes the feet oft of the hare !
" Your assured careful Sister and Cousin,
" ELIZABETH R."*
No. X.
ELIZABETH TO JAMES, June 1594, p. 138.
The following letter of Elizabeth to James was sent immediately
previous to the baptism of Prince Henry.
" MY GOOD BROTHER, You have so well repaired the hard lines
of menacing speech, that I like much better the gloss than the text ;
and do assure you that the last far graceth you better, and fitteth
best our two amities. You may make sure account, that what coun-
sel, advice, or mislike, my writing can make you, receiveth ever
ground of what is best for you, though my interest be least in them.
And, therefore, having so good foundation, I hope you will make
your profit of my plainness ; and remember that others may have
many ends in their advices, and I but you for principal of mine.
" I render you many thanks, for bond of firm and constant amity,
with most assurance of never entering with my foes in treaty or good
will, until constraint of my behalf cause the breach. It pleaseth me
well that this addition may assure me a perpetuity ; for never shall
my act deserve so foul an imputation. But I muse what such an
Horace his but should need to me,f whose solid deeds have never
merited such a halfed suspicion. Put out of your breast, therefore,
my sincere heart intreats you, so unfit a thought for a royal mind ;
and set in such place the unfeigned love that my deserts have craved,
and make a great distance betwixt others not tried, and mine so long
approved.
" It gladdeth me much, that you now have falsified such bruits as
forepast deeds have bred you : for tongues of men are never bridled
by kings' greatness, but by their goodness ; nor is it enough to say
they will do well, when present acts gainsay their belief.
* This letter is not dated, and is therefore placed at the end of the corre-
spondence ; but it appears to have been sent at the time when James was
(as Elizabeth thought) acting with inconsistent lenity to Huntley and the
Catholics, probably some time in September, 1593. See page 110.
f So in the original ; but the sense I cannot make out.
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 385
" We princes are set on highest stage, where looks of all beholders
verdict our works ; neither can we easily dance in nets, so thick as
may dim their sight. Such, therefore, our works should be, as may
praise our Maker and grace ourselves. Among the which I trust you
will make one whose facts shall tend to strengthen yourself, whoso
you feeble, and count it best spent time to govern your own and not
be tutored. And since no government lasts, where duly pain and
grace be not inflicted where best they be deserved, I hope no depend-
ing humours of partial respects shall banish from you that right.
And as you have, I may so justly say, almost alone, stood princely to
your own estate, without prizing others' lewdness, that scarcely could
afford a grant to a true request, or an yea to well-tried crimes : so
I beseech you comfort yourself with this laud, that 'so much the more
shineth your clearness thorough the foil of dim clouds, as their spot
will hardly be blotted out, when your glory remains. And by this
dealing, you shall ever so bind me to be your faithful Watch, and
stanch sister, that nothing shall I hope pass my knowledge, that any
way may touch you, but I will both warn and ward in such sort, as
your surety shall be respected, and your state held up, as God, that
best is witness, knoweth ; whom ever I implore to counsel you the
best, and preserve your days.
" Your affectionate Sister and Cousin,
" E. R.
" Such remembrance of my affection as I send, take in good part,
as being, such my affairs as now they be, more than millions sent from
a richer prince, and fraughted with fewer foes ; which I doubt not
but in wisdom you can consider, and as, in some part, I have at length
dilated to this gent."
Royal Letters, State-paper Office, Indorsed, June, 1594, M. of
her Ma* 8 L re vr** her owne hand to the K. of Scotts.
No. XI.
KINMONT WILLIE, p. 198.
Lord Scrope, on the morning after the enterprise, wrote both to
the privy-council of England and to Lord Burghley, entreating them
to move the queen to insist on the instant delivery of Buccleuch, to
be punished for this proud attempt, as he deserved. In his letter to
the privy-council, he thus describes the enterprise : *
* State-paper Office, Border Correspondence, Lord Scrope to the Council,
13th April, 1596.
VOL. IX. 2 B
386 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
" Yesternight, in the dead time thereof, Walter Scott of Hardinge,*
and Walter Scott of Goldylands, the chief men about Buclughe, ac-
companied with 500 horsemen of Buclughe and Kinmont's friends,
did come, armed and appointed with gavlocks and crows of iron,
hand-picks, axes, and scaling-ladders, unto an outward corner of the
base court of this castle, and to the postern-door of the same ; which
they undermined speedily and quickly, and made themselves pos-
sessors of the base court ; brake into the chamber where Will of
Kinmont was, carried him away ; and in their discovery by the watch,
left for dead two of the watchmen ; hurt a servant of mine, one of
Kinmont's keepers ; and were issued again out of the postern, before
they were descried by the watch of the inner ward, and ere resistance
could be made.
" The watch, as it should seem, by reason of the stormy night,
were either on sleep, or gotten under some covert to defend them-
selves from the violence of the weather, by means whereof the Scots
achieved their enterprise with less difficulty. * * If Buclughe
himself have been thereat in person, the captain of this proud attempt,
as some of my servants tell me they heard his name called upon, (the
truth whereof I shall shortly advertise,) then I humbly beseech, that
her majesty may be pleased to send unto the king, to call for, and
effectually to press his delivery, that he may receive punishment as
her majesty shall find that the quality of his offence shall demerit ;
for it will be a dangerous example to leave this high attempt un-
punished. Assuring your lordships, that if her majesty will give me
leave, it shall cost me both life and living, rather than such an indig-
nity to her highness, and contempt to myself, shall be tolerated. In
revenge whereof, I intend that something shall be shortly enterprised
against the principals in this action, for repair thereof, if I be not
countermanded by her majesty."
" These names were taken by the informer at the mouth of one
that was in person at the enforcing of this Castle, the 13th April,
1596.
The Laird of Buclughe.
Walter Scot of Goldielands.
Walter Scot of Hardinge.
Walter Scot of Branxholme.
Scot named Todrigge.
Will. Ellott, Goodman of Gorrombye.
* Walter Scott of Harden, who, tinder Buccleuch himself, seems to have
been the principal leader in this daring and successful enterprise, was the
direct ancestor of the present Lord Poiwarth.
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 387
John Ellott, called of the Copshawe.
The Laird of Mangerton.
The young Laird of Whithaugh, and his sonne.
Three of the Calfhills, Jocke, Bighams, and one Ally, a bastard.
Sandy Armstronge, sonne to Hebbye.
Kinmont's Jocke, Francie, Geordy, and Sandy, all brethren, the
sonnes of Kinmont.
Willie Bell, redcloake, and two of his brethren.
Walter Bell of Godesby.
Three brethren of Twada Armstrong's.
Young John of the Hollace, and one of his brethren.
Christy of Barneglish, and Roby of the Langholm.
The Chingles. ?
Willie Kange, and his brethrene, with their complices.
" The informer saith, that Buclughe was the fifth man which entered
the castle ; and encouraged his company with these words ' Stand
to it ; for I have vowed to God and my prince, that I would fetch
out of England, Kinmont, dead or quick ; and will maintain that
action when it is done, with fire and sword.'"
The date on the back, April 13, is in the hand- writing of Lord
Burghley.*
No. XII.
The following spirited and indignant letter of Elizabeth to James,
was written soon after the release of Kinmont Will by Buccleuch:
ELIZABETH TO JAMES, April 1596, p. 199-f
" I am to speak with what argument my letters should be fraught,
since such themes be given me, as I am loath to find, and am slow to
recite. Yet, since I needs must treat of [them,] and unwillingly re-
ceive, I cannot pretermit to set afore you a too rare example of a
seduced king by evil information.
"Was it ever seen, that a prince from his cradle,'preserved from the
slaughter, held up in royal dignity, conserved from many treasons,
maintained in all sorts of kindness, should remunerate, with so hard
measure, such dear deserts, with doubt to yield in just treaties re-
sponse to a lawful friend's demand 1 Ought it to be put to a question,
* MS. State-paper Office, 13th April, 1596. Border Correspondence,
t MS. Royal Letters, Scotland. State-paper Office.
388 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
whether a king should do another his like, the right ? Or should a
council be demanded their good pleasure what he himself should do ?
Were it in the non-age of a prince, it might have some colour ; hut
in a Father-age, it seemeth strange, and, I daresay, without example.
I am sorry for the cause that constrains this speech, especially in so
apert a matter, whose root grows far, and is of that nature that it (I
fear me) will more harm the wronger than the wronged; for how like
regard soever be held of me, yet I should grieve too much to see you
neglect yourself, whose honour is touched in such degree, as that our
English, whose regard, I doubt not, you have in some esteem, for
other good thoughts of you, will measure your love by your deeds,
not your words in your paper.
" Wherefore, for fine, let this suffice you, that I am as evil treated
by my named friend as I could be by my known foe. Shall any castle
or habytacle of mine be assailed by a night larcin, and shall not my
confederate send the offender to his due punishment ? Shall a friend
stick at that demand that he ought rather to prevent ? The law of
kingly love would have said nay ; and not for persuasion of such as
never can or will stead you, but dishonour you to keep their own
rule, lay behind you such due regard of me, and in it of yourself, who,
as long as you use this trade, will be thought not of yourself ought,
but of conventions what they will. For, commissioners I will never
grant, for an act that he cannot deny that made ; for what so the
cause be made, no cause should have done that. And when you with
a better-weighed judgment shall consider, I am assured my answer
shall be more honourable and just ; which I expect with more speed,
as well for you as for myself.
" For other doubtful and litigious causes in our Border, I will be
ready to point commissioners, if I shall find you needful ; but for this
matter of so villanous a usage, assure you I will never be so answered,
as hearers shall need. In this, and many other matters, I require
your trust to our ambassador, which faithfully will return them to
me. Praying God for your safe keeping,
" Your faithful and loving sister,
E. R."
Indorsed, Copie of Her Maj. Letter to the King of Scots, of her
own hand.
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 389
No. XIII.
After Kinmont Will's Rescue and Deliverance by Buccleuch, 1596,
p. 199.
ELIZABETH TO JAMBS.
" MY DEAR BROTHER, That I see a king more considerate of what
becometh him in the behalf of his like, than councillors, that never
being of such like estate, can hardlier judge what were fittest done,
I marvel no more than I am glad to find yourself as greatest, so
worthier of judgment, than such as, if they were as they ought, you
need not have had the glory of so honourable a fact alone. But you
have made me see that you can prize what were meetest, and deem
how short of that they showed, who have displayed their neglect, in
leaving you destitute of good advice, by their backwardness in that
was their duty. And I hope it will make you look with a broad
sight on such advisers, and will warn you by this example not to
concur with such deceitful counsel, but will cause you either to mind
their custom, or to get you such as be better minded, than to hazard
you the loss of your most affectionate, in following their unseemly
advice.
" For the punishment given to the offender, I render you many
thanks ; though I must confess, that without he be rendered to our-
self, or to our Warden, we have not that we ought. And, therefore,
I beseech you consider the greatness of my dishonour, and measure
his just delivery accordingly. Deal in this case like a king, that will
have all this realm and others adjoining see how justly and kindly
you both will and can use a prince of my quality ; and let not any
dare persuade more for him than you shall think fit, whom it becomes
to be echoes to your actions, no judgers of what beseems you.
" For Border matters, they are so shameful and inhuman as it
would loathe a king's heart to think of them. I have borne for your
quiet, too long, even murders committed by the hands of your own
Wardens ; which if they be true, as I fear they be, I hope they shall
well pay for such demerits, and you will never endure such barbarous
acts to be unrevenged.
" I will not molest you with other particularities ; but will assure
myself that you will not easily be persuaded to overslip such enor-
mities, and will give both favourable ear to our ambassador, and
speedy redress, with due correction for such demeanour. Never
think them meet to rule, that guides without rule.
" Of me make this account, that in your world shall never be found
390 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
a more sincere affection, nor purer from guile, nor fuller fraught with
truer sincerity, than mine ; which will not harbour in my breast a
wicked conceit of you, without such great cause were given, as you
yourself could hardly deny ; of which we may speed,! hope, ad calendas
grcscas.
" I render millions of thanks for such advertisements as this
bearer brought from you ; and see by that, you both weigh me and
yourself in a right balance : for who seeks to supplant one, looks
next for the other. This paper I end with my prayers for your
safety, as desireth
" Your most affectionate Sister,
" ELIZ. R."
Royal Letters, State-paper Office. Indorsed, Copie of her Mat 8 -
Lre to the K. of Scotts, of hir own hand, for Mr Bowes.
No. XIV.
ELIZABETH TO JAMES, 1st July, 1598, p. 247.
On the Subject of Valentine Thomas.
" MY DEAR BROTHER, Suppose not that my silence hath had any
other root, than hating to make an argument of my writing to you,
that should molest you, or trouble me ; being most desirous that no
mention might once be made of so villanous an act, specially that
might but in word touch a sacred person ; but now I see that so
lavishly it hath been used by the author thereof, that I can refrain
no longer to make you partaker thereof sincerely, from the beginning
to this hour, of all that hath proceeded ; and for more speed have
sent charge with Bowes, to utter all, without fraud or guile ; assur-
ing you that few things have displeased me more since our first
amities ; and charge you in God's name to believe, that I am not of
so viperous a nature, to suppose or have thereof a thought against
you, but shall make the deviser have his desert, more for that than
ought else ; referring myself to the true trust of this Gent : to whom
1 beseech you give full affiance in all he shall assure you on my behalf.
And so God I beseech to prosper you with all his graces, as doth
desire,
* Your most affectionate Sister,
E. R."
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 391
Royal Letters, State-paper Office. Indorsed, 1598. Pr^o. July,
Coppie of her Ma*"- Lre to the Kinge of Scots, wt her owne
hande, concerninge Val. Thomas.
No. XV.
The following letter was sent by the Earl of Mar, and the Abbot
of Kinloss :
JAMES TO ELIZABETH, 10th February, 1601, p. 331-332.
" MADAM AND DEAREST SISTER, As the strait bonds of our so-long-
continued amity do oblige me, so your daily example used towards
me in the like case, does invite me, not to suffer any misconstrued
thoughts against any of your actions to take harbour in my heart ;
but by laying open all my griefs before you, to seek from yourself the
right remedy and cure for the same.
" And since that I have oft found by experience, that evil-affected
or unfit instruments employed betwixt us, have often times been the
cause of great misunderstanding amongst us, I have therefore, at this
time, made choice of sending unto you this nobleman, the Earl of
Mar, in respect of his known honesty and constant affection to the
continuance of our amity ; together with his colleague the Abbot of
Kinloss (a gentleman whose uprightness and honesty is well known
unto you ;) that by the labours of such honest and well-affected
ministers, all scruples or griefs may on either side be removed, and
our constant amity more and more be confirmed and made sound.
"Assuring myself, that my ever honest behaviour towards you
shall at least procure that justice at your hands, to try or* ye trust
any unjust imputations spread of me, and not to wrong yourself in
wronging your best friend ; but in respect of the faithfulness of the
bearers, I will remit all particulars to their relation ; who, as they
are directed to deal with you in all honest plainness, (the undissever-
able companion of true friendship,) so do I heartily pray you to hear
and trust them in all things as it were myself, and to give them a
favourable ear and answer, as shall ever be deserved at your hands by
" Your most loving and affectionate Brother and Cousin,
"JAMES R.f
" From Holyrood House, the 10th February, 1601."
* Or; ere. .
t Wholly in James' hand. Royal Letters, State-paper Office, sealed
with the king's signet-ring.
392 HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
No. XVI.
The following letter from the English queen, is an answer to the for-
mer letter of James to Elizabeth, sent by his ambassadors the Earl of
Mar and the Abbot of Kinloss. See this volume, p. 331-332.
ELIZABETH TO JAMES, May 1601, p. 337-338.
" My GOOD BROTHER, At the first reading of your letter, albeit I
wondered much what springs your griefs might have of many of my
actions, who knows myself most clear of any just cause to breed you
any annoy ; yet I was well lightened of my marvel when you dealt
so kindly with me not to let them harbour in your breast, but were
content to send me so well a chosen couple,* that might utter and
receive what you mean, and what I should relate.
" And when my greedy will to know, did stir me at first access to
require an ease, with speed, of such matters, I found by them that
the principal causes, were the self same in part, that the Lord of
Kinloss had, two years past and more, imparted to me : to whom and
to other your ministers I am sure I have given so good satisfaction
in honour and reason, as, if your other greater matters have not made
them forgotten, you yourself will not deny them.
" But not willing in my letter to molest you with that which they
will not fail but tell you, (as I hope,) together with such true and
guileless profession of my sincere affection to you, as you shall never
have just reason to doubt my clearness in your behalf ; yet this I
must tell you that as I marvel much to have such a subject that
would impart so great a cause to you, afore ever making me privy
thereof, so doth my affectionate amity to you, claim at your hands
that my ignorance of subjects' boldness be not augmented by your
silence ; by whom you may be sure you shall never obtain so much
good, as my good dealing can afford you.
" Let not shades deceive you, which may take away best substance
from you, when they can turn but to dust or smoke. An upright
demeanour bears ever more poise than all disguised shows of good
can do. Remember that a bird of the air, if no other instrument,
to an honest king, shall stand in stead of many feigned practices, to
utter aught may any wise touch him. And so leaving my scribbles,
with my best wishes that you scan what works becometh best a king,
and what in end will best avail him.
* The Earl of Mar and the Abbot of Kinloss.
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 393
" Your most loving Sister, that longs to see you deal as kindly as
I mean,
" ELIZABETH R."
Royal Letters, State-paper Office, Indorsed, Copie of her Mat*'
Letter to the King of Scots, written with her own hand.
No. XVII.
The following letter was entirely written in the queen's own hand,
and sent to the king by the Duke of Lennox :
ELIZABETH TO JAMES, 2d December, 1601, p. 341.
" MY DEAR BROTHER, Never was there yet Prince nor meaner
wight, to whose grateful turns I did not correspond, in keeping them
in memory, to their avail and my own honour ; so trust I, that you
will not doubt but that your last letters by Fowles and the Duke are
so acceptably taken, as my thanks can not be lacking for the same,
but yields them you in thankful sort. And albeit I suppose I shall
not need to trouble any of your subjects in my service, yet, accord-
ing to your request, I shall use the liberty of your noble offer, if it
shall be requisite.
" And whereas your faithful and dear duke hath at large discoursed
with me, as of his own knowledge, what faithful affection you bear
me, and hath added the leave he hath received from you, to proffer
himself for the performer of my service in Ireland, with any such as
best may please me under his charge ; I think myself greatly in-
debted to you for your so tender care of my prosperity ; and have
told him that I would be loath to venture his person in so perilous
service, since I see he is such one that you make so great a reckon-
ing of ; but that some of meaner quality, of whom there were less
loss, might in that case be ventured.
" And sure, dear brother, in my judgment, for the short acquain-
tance that I have had with him, you do not prize with better cause
any near unto you : for I protest, without feigning or doubling, I
never gave ears to greater laud, than such as I have heard him pro-
nounce of you, with humble desire that I would banish from my
mind any evil opinion or doubt of your sincerity to me. And because
though I know it was but duty, yet where such show appears in
mindful place, I hold it worthy regard ; and am not so wicked to
conceal it from you, that you may thank your self for such a choice.
And thus much shall suffice for fear to molest your eyes with my
394- HISTORY OF SCOTLAND.
scribbling : committing you to the enjoying of best thoughts, and
good consideration of your careful friend, which I suppose to be,
" Yo r . most aff. Sister,
" ELIZABETH R."
Royal Letters, State-paper Office. Indorsed, 2d December,
1601. Cop. of her Ma te Lre to the King of Scot, by the Duke
of Lennox.
No. XVIII.
ELIZABETH TO JAMES, 4th July, 1602, p. 351.
" MY GOOD BROTHER, Who longest draws the thread of life, and
views the strange accidents that time makes, doth not find out a
rarer gift than thankfulness is, that is most precious and seldomest
foand ; which makes me well gladded, that you methinks begin to
feel how necessary a treasure this is, to be employed where best it is
deserved ; as may appear in those lines that your last letters express,
in which your thanks be great, for the sundry cares, that of your
state and honour, my dear friendship hath afforded you ; being ever
ready to give you ever such subjects for your writing, and think my-
self happy when either my warnings or counsel may in fittest time
avail you.
" Whereas it hath pleased you to impart the offer that the French
king hath made you, with a desire of secrecy : believe, that request
includes a trust that never shall deceive : for though many exceed
me in many things, yet I dare profess that I can ever keep taciturnity
for myself and my friends. My head may fail, but my tongue shall
never; as I will not say but yourself can in yourself, though not to
me, witness. But of that no more : preterlerunt illi dies.
" Now to the French : iu plain dealing, without fraud or guile, if
he will do as he pretends, you shall be more beholden to him than
he is to himself, who within one year hath winked at such injuries
and affronts, as, ere I would have endured that am of the weakest
sex, I should condemn tny judgment : I will not enter into his.
And, therefore, if his terba come ad actionem, I more shall wonder
than do suspect ; but if you will needs have my single advice, try
him if he continue in that mind. And as I know that you would
none of such a League, as myself should not be one, so do I see, by
his overture, that himself doth : or if, for my assistance, yous hould
have need of all help, he would give it : so, as since he hath so good
consideration of me, you will allow him therein, and doubt nothing
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS.
595
but that he will have me willingly for company ; for as I may not
forget how their league with Scotland was reciproke when we had
wars with them, so is it good reason that our friendships should be
mutual.
" Now, to confess my kind taking of all your loving offers, and
vows of most assured oaths, that naught shall be concealed from me,
that either prince or subject shall, to your knowledge, work against
me or my estate ; surely, dear brother, you right me much if so you
do. And this I vow, that without you list, I will not willingly call
you in question for such warnings, if the greatness of the cause may
not compel me thereunto. And do entreat you to think, that if any
accident so befall you, as either secrecy or speed shall be necessary,
suppose yourself to be sure of such a one as shall neglect neither, to
perform so good a work. Let others promise, and I will do as much
with truth as others with wiles. And thus I leave to molest your
eyes with my scribbling ; with my perpetual prayers for your good
estate, as desireth your most
" Loving and affectionate Sister.
" ELIZABETH R.
" As for your good considerations of Border causes, I answer them
by my agent, and infinitely thank you therefor."
Royal Letters, State-paper Office. Indorsed, 4th July, 1602.
Copie of her Ma ties Lre to the King of Scotts, sent by Mr
Roger Ashton.
THE END.
DA
760
T85
1366
v.9
Tytler, Patrick Fraser
The history of Scotland
New ed.
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